Background info: I am currently an American high school student but I have citizenship in both US and Canada. I applied to schools in my state but for personal reasons recently decided I want to apply to some schools in BC. Obviously most schools have closed admissions like SFU.
UBC’s admissions period is technically over, but I emailed them and also checked their website, and certain programs at both schools are still accepting admissions. I am looking to go into premed, bio/biochem major. Okanagan has their Bachelor of science and applied science still open, but the only open ones at Vancouver are things like Bachelor of Science in Forestry or Bachelor of Science in Wood Products Processing.
Obviously Vancouver is the better campus and I really want to go there. I don’t really fully understand how the Canadian degree program thing works. Here’s my question: If I applied to one of Vancouver’s open programs, how hard would it be to change my major to bio later? Or should I just suck it up and apply to Okanagan and then transfer later?? I realize this sounds dumb but I’m desperate to go to Vancouver and I just found out about it.
You can do either. It’s up to you. The main thing to keep in mind is that Science at UBC Vancouver is competitive.
At UBC V, as a 1st year, you are admitted to a faculty, but not to a degree program. Look at the course sequence for the degree you want to be in. Make sure you’re taking all the courses listed for 1st year. During the summer after 1st year, you apply for your specialization. Admission to specializations is based on whether or not you have all the necessary pre-req courses, and can be competitive based on demand (especially physiology, pharmacology, microbio). Based on what specialization you get into, you try to sign up for all the courses you need based on the degree requirements list.
If you apply to UBCV and get into the Forestry school, you should try to transfer after 1st year so you can get into the system to pick your specialization. Otherwise, you might be delayed by 1 year in order to get caught up on 2nd year courses that are restricted to students within specific specializations. In particular, biochem and chem have a standardized timetable for 2nd year which is only available to students in those majors. You’ll want to keep your grades high to transfer. A decade ago, biochem required a solid B+ average - it’s probably higher now as grade inflation looks to be on the rise (https://slacknotes.com/).
If you go to UBC O, you can start in biochem and those courses directly translate to the standard timetable courses at UBC V for biochem.
You might find you like UBC O. It’s smaller and my friends who went there had much easier access to research opportunities in professors’ labs.
Either way, the main thing to know about big Canadian schools is that you need to navigate them yourself. Read the Academic Calendar. Know all the rules, deadlines, requirements, fees, processes etc.
@geraniol thanks for the insight! I think I’m just going to apply to UBCO and put UBCV’s forestry/etc down as my second choice, and go from there.
Really regretting not looking at BC schools earlier TT