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Is there a difference between a major and a program? Options
dreamer
Posted: Saturday, August 09, 2008 2:13:25 PM

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Posts: 13
Im just a bit confused about this...
ie/ Is there a difference between a chem major and a chem program
ARMY101
Posted: Saturday, August 09, 2008 2:30:50 PM

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Location: Ottawa, ON.
The major is a specific focus in your degree. The program is just your normal program with no specific focus or concentration.

Carleton University Class of 2012, Honours Bachelor of Arts
Kaylya
Posted: Monday, August 11, 2008 11:06:31 AM

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In casual conversation, not really. The answer to the question of "What's your major?" or "What program are you in?" are the same.

In the finest technical definition, a major is taking a certain number of credit hours (possibly including some specific courses) in a subject area as part of a degree that works with majors - typically B.A. and B.Sc. degrees, where your degree winds up being "Bachelor of Science with major in Chemistry". For many other types of degrees, like Engineering, Computer Science (if it's not under a B.Sc. or B.A.), Business, etc. there is no technical concept of a major. And some schools use the terms like "Specialist" or "Specialization" to define something slightly different from a major (usually a bit more specialized, requiring some more courses in the subject area), in which case, again, you wouldn't technically have a major, you might have a "Bachelor of Science with specialization in Organic Chemistry".

So, in some cases, there could be a difference between a chemistry major and a chemistry specialist, or some other circumstances where there's different options available, while both would be chemistry programs, but if someone asked you what your major was you'd probably just say chemistry.

Remember that it often takes just as long to do a search or two on Google to try and find the answer to your question as it takes to type it in a post here, let alone the time waiting for a reply.
If your question is "What mark does it take to get into University X", or "What are the requirements to get into University X", it's on their website and/or electronicinfo.ca (for Ontario schools). Particularly for Ontario schools, those ranges are a pretty good picture of what kind of mark will get you into the program, and if you're more than a couple percent higher it's practically guaranteed unless it requires a supplementary form.
dreamer
Posted: Monday, August 11, 2008 1:56:20 PM

Rank: Frosh
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Joined: 8/1/2008
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Thank you for clearing that up for me! smile
seamoraine
Posted: Monday, August 11, 2008 2:26:24 PM

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Location: waterloo, ontario
Since we're kind of on topic =P
can anyone specify the differences between
diploma
option
minor

(I know the number of credits needed for each, but any other differences?)

Environmental Studies & Resource Management, Earth Science
University of Waterloo '11
Kaylya
Posted: Monday, August 11, 2008 3:33:34 PM

Rank: Student Body President
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Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 1,482
Location: Ottawa
seamoraine wrote:
Since we're kind of on topic =P
can anyone specify the differences between
diploma
option
minor

(I know the number of credits needed for each, but any other differences?)


I'm not sure on the diploma, but I assume that similarly to a certificate it's a shorter program that doesn't result in a degree.

A minor usually refers to a secondary concentration in a possibly completely unrelated subject area to your major. Within a typical BA or B.Sc. program you could generally take the minor from anything in Arts or Science or perhaps some other disciplines as well. The number of credits required is quite a bit less than a major. My understanding at Acadia is that under a B.Sc. it could be as low as 12h (e.g. 4 one semester courses) depending on how many credits you took in your major, while in Arts it was 24h. Some places require minors (or 2nd majors) for B.A. and B.Sc. degrees, at others they are purely optional. So you could do a B.Sc. Chemistry with a minor in Math, for example, where the two are more related, or you could do a B.Sc. Chemistry with a minor in History.

Option generally refers to a specified group of courses (perhaps with some electives) which can either add depth or breadth, but usually within programs like engineering that don't deal with majors/minors, and there would usually be a small number of specified options available whereas you could usually do a minor through pretty much any department in Arts or Sciences. For example, under Engineering there might be an "Engineering Management" option where you take a few business courses which is closer to the typical idea of a minor, or there might be a "Computer Engineering option" under Electrical Engineering for people in EE who decide they'd like to do more Comp.Eng. stuff and directs their upper year electives into one specific area.

Remember that it often takes just as long to do a search or two on Google to try and find the answer to your question as it takes to type it in a post here, let alone the time waiting for a reply.
If your question is "What mark does it take to get into University X", or "What are the requirements to get into University X", it's on their website and/or electronicinfo.ca (for Ontario schools). Particularly for Ontario schools, those ranges are a pretty good picture of what kind of mark will get you into the program, and if you're more than a couple percent higher it's practically guaranteed unless it requires a supplementary form.


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