Congratulations on getting into Integrated Sciences! I look forward to getting to meet you all on campus this fall!
My name is Hannah, and I will be entering the 4th year of my Integrated Sciences degree and my disciplines are medical genetics and disease prevention. I have taken courses from genetics and evolutionary biology to statistics and immunology. I am a worklearn student in the School of Population and Public Health and I volunteer in the Emergency Department at BC Children’s Hospital. If you have any questions about my course selection or opportunities for students in ISCI feel free to reach out at [email protected]! Officially starting your specialization in ISCI can be a bit daunting with trying to find a mentor and writing your degree proposal all while figuring out what courses you want to take in second year. As ISCI students, we have been given the opportunity to design a degree with courses that interest us and are specific to our future goals. Here, I am going to share with you some of the ways that helped me to plan my second year courses and develop a plan for my degree. For many disciplines, the second year courses are similar. If you want to learn more about the specific courses recommended in different disciplines check out our post from last summer here! This post outlines the second year requirements and choosing disciplines that interest you. Tip #1: In planning my proposal, I found it helpful to begin at the 400-level courses and work my way backwards: Example: I want to take MICB 402: Advanced Immunology -> I need to take MICB 302 as the pre-req in 3rd year -> I need to take MICB 202 in second year as the pre-req Example: MEDG 420: Medical Genetics -> Take BIOL 335 in 3rd year-> Take BIOL 234 in second year Selecting your fourth year courses may seem like a task for 2 years in the future, however, having these courses in mind as you plan your second year will help you in writing your curriculum rationale over the next few months. It is helpful to make a list of all of the 400-level courses that you may want to take and look at their 200 and 300-level pre-reqs as many courses will tend to have similar pre-requisites especially in 2nd year. Having a bank of 400-level courses and 300-level courses to choose from will also help in planning as the timing of courses may not always work out in your favour. Tip #2: Use the worklists on your SSC to draft potential timetables. Many upper level courses stay at the same time so this can be a helpful way to keep track of your credits and see the timing of the courses. These worklists are helpful to decide which upper level courses you may want to take each year and can help you plan your courses term by term. Remember, some upper level classes only have one or two sections and will only be offered during a specific term. Tip #3: Write down WHY! Why are you interested in taking MICB 402 or MEDG 420? How will this course fit into your degree. Keeping small notes on these questions will help you in a few months with you proposal. Example: MICB 402: Advanced Immunology will encompass all of the knowledge that I have gained in previous courses and tie together the molecular basis for lymphocyte development that will help me to better understand the complex immunological processes that occur in the human body. This course will also draw from my genetics discipline in the exploration of the relationship between genetics and the immune system. This example is pretty detailed but it can offer some insight into the types of things that you will want to think about when choosing your courses. Tip #4: Try something different! There are so many courses offered at UBC that can be included in your degree proposal. Take a fun elective or try a directed studies if you are interested in research! You have the freedom to design a degree that is unique to you so why not take this opportunity to incorporate your interests or curiosities into your degree! Tip #5: Make time for your degree! Course planning and the degree proposal process can seem like a lot of work to get started on. The earlier you are able to start on this process, the more time you will be able to dedicate to researching courses and opportunities that will enhance your degree. Taking advantage of some of the free time that you have this summer will pay off once the fall term begins. The time and thought that you put into your course planning and rationale will show in your degree proposal. I hope some of these tips were useful for you and that you were able to gain some valuable ideas from this post! Good luck with your course selections and feel free to reach out if you have any questions! - Hannah VP Admin and External
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First, I want to say welcome to all of you second year Integrated Science students! I hope you are all super excited for the upcoming school year, even though classes will be online. My name is Charu, and I will be going into my fifth and final year of integrated sciences and my disciplines are molecular biology and immunology. I am in both the Co-op program and honors so feel free to reach out if you have any questions about these! Lastly, but most importantly, I am your ISSA (Integrated Sciences Student Association) VP Admin for the upcoming school year, so you will probably hear from me in various blog posts and such. Second year ISCI can be such a confusing time. I remember having no idea what courses to take as an incoming ISCI student. I heard the words "degree proposal" had no idea what that was. I was overwhelmed by the number of courses I was interested in. I ended up spending hours looking into possible courses I would want to take in my upper years and looking into their pre-requisites to try to cover every possible angle, just in case I changed my mind. I know most upper year ISCI students went through a similar experience. As an ISCI student, you are given this amazing opportunity to plan your degree. What it also means, is you can literally take any course you want. With the vast number of courses available, this gets to be very confusing! I hope to provide some clarity and to guide you through this confusing mess, as you near course registration. Below is a general guideline for courses needed in second year for specific disciplines. Of course, these are only suggestions and there may be courses I have missed! Ultimately, you can take any course you choose to, and integrate any subject you are passionate about so you should make sure to do your research on what pre-requisites may be required for any upper level courses you are interested in. I only hope to shed some light on a very confusing grey area. Note You also have to make sure you fulfill your general requirements from the Faculty of Science! Check out these links for more details: Shout out to our amazing Marketing Coordinator, Hannah, who made these beautiful visuals!!!
Note: If your integration involved life sciences, you will be required to take BIOL 200 and BIOL 201 or BIOC 202 Other resources The CMS Package worksheets may be helpful – it has details on their 7 subjects and combinations which may help you in your search for courses. Another good idea is to look at other Majors (Biology, Microbiology, Stats, Biochemistry, …) on the UBC advising website and see what courses are mandatory in second year. In September, we will have events to help you find a Mentor and offer a Peer Mentor program for help with your degree proposals. Right now, just focus on planning out your courses for this upcoming year, and thinking about what courses you will want to take later in your degree. Good luck! And of course, feel free to reach out to those of us here at ISSA, Mary Anne (Program Manager and Advisor) or Science Advising if you need any support with course planning! Cheers, Charu Hello! I hope you all are having a great summer! We know it's been a little quiet around here lately since it's summer, but that will change very soon - especially since school is starting back up in a few weeks! Our executives were elected in March and have since been working hard all summer planning a great year for you all! Now, you're probably wondering, "Man, I wish I could be a part of ISSA somehow, they're just soooo cool. I also really want to get involved more around campus... What can I do?" Well, now here is your chance to join our awesome team! While our executives are planning events, who's going to hear about them? Through the grapevine? That'd be kind of difficult with over 50,000 people attending UBC... Through flyers? While that would help, ISSA is a very environmentally-friendly student organization and killing some trees is not always in our agenda. Maybe if we had an awesome communications/media crew, they could help spread the word about ISSA faster than a BC wildfire (by the way, hope all of you are having a safe summer). We will be looking for 6 to 8 friendly, media-savvy students to make up our ISSA Media team! We are hoping to recruit a couple Videographers/Photographers to attend and capture moments at our events, three to four Writers to help out with our biweekly newsletter columns and blog (which you are reading right now!), and last but definitely not least, two graphic designers to assist in creating aesthetically-appealing graphics for our online platforms and event promo. It's a great opportunity to practice your creativity and be one of the first people to know and share the great events we're planning. You'll also have invites to some of our ISSA meetings and events throughout the year in addition to being a part of an awesome student association! Interested? Please CLICK HERE to fill out a form, enter in all the required fields as listed. Remember to answer as best as you can and be fun with it! More details about the positions HERE. The deadline is 11:59PM, Friday, Sept. 6th, 2014! Selected candidates will be scheduled in for an interview with a few ISSA executives in early September (the 2nd week of classes, the 8th to the 12th). *Writers, don't worry, you won't be writing massive essays. But we would like to see some pieces of your writing (blog, twitter, website, maybe an old assignment, etc.). *Photographers/videographers must have their own equipment, and please provide us with some of your sample work (photography/videos through YouTube, etc.), and a rough idea of your availability throughout first and second term (more details in the link!). *Graphic designers should be familiar with photo-editing programs (Photoshop, InDesign, etc.), please provide us with some of your sample work (graphics, logos, etc.) Thanks and good luck! We hope to meet the media team candidates soon! Sincerely, The Communications Coordinator (on behalf of the ISSA exec team) |
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