Progressing from first to second year Science at UBC involves a bit of soul searching, and more than a bit of planning.

This guide will help you navigate the timelines, promotion requirements, specialization options, and application processes involved. UBC Science runs a coordinated application process for almost all second-year specializations, which will go live in June. Now is the time to plan.

Plan in May, Check Your Grades in June

Even though registration for winter-session courses occurs in July, now is the time to plan for second year. The evaluation of your first-year record, which takes place from May through June, determines your eligibility for the upcoming winter session. Results are posted to the Student Service Centre. Don’t rely on information that may appear earlier in the SSC about your year-level, eligibility or registration day—check again in June after evaluation. Check in more than once.

If you're eligible to register as a second-year BSc student, you have to select or gain admission to a program specialization before you can register.

Choose a Program Specialization: Be Realistic, Give Yourself Options

Consider your career goals. Are there alternative academic paths to attain them? Having several academic plans gives you flexibility. What do you enjoy studying? Are you going to focus on one area or study across disciplines? You can enter a combined program (like Computer Science and a second area) but most students have one specialization (a Major). Applying for a second Major or a Minor is normally done in second year.

For more insight into choosing your major, read the notes from the "Beyond First Year" workshop.

Have you completed the required courses for the specialization(s) you’re interested in? Have you met the general requirements that all BSc students must meet?

Consider the New Combined Major in Science

The CMS is about big picture science--it offers students a solid foundation in science and valuable transferable skills. If you want to ensure that, when you graduate, you have a firm grasp of several science disciplines, will be able to generate and interpret data comfortably, and will be able to communicate ideas and findings to specialists and the general public, consider the CMS. It features courses specifically designed to ensure that you learn interesting aspects of biology, chemistry, earth science, mathematics or physics without going through long strings of prerequisite courses.

Know Your Requirements: Use the Calendar

The UBC Calendar can be a challenge, we know. But there are a few sections of the Science section that you must understand before making second-year plans:

• Introduction to Degree Options
• General Academic Regulations
• Credit at UBC and Elsewhere
• General Degree Requirements
• Communication Requirement
• Science, Arts, and Breadth Requirements
• Lower-level Requirements
• Upper-level Requirement
• Promotion Requirements
• B.Sc. Specialization-Specific Courses Required for Promotion to Year 3 or Year 4
• Minor Options
• Co-operative Education
• Study Abroad or Student Exchange
• Credit Exclusion Lists

Promotion to second year requires completion of 24 or more credits, of which at least 12 must be credits from the Faculty's Lower-level Requirements or equivalent advance credits.

Determine What Specializations Are Available to You: Prerequisites, Prerequisites, Prerequisites

Your ability to pursue a program specialization depends on how many—and which—courses you earned credit for in winter session.

Science Specializations
www.science.ubc.ca/students/degree/specializations

If you entered first year with advance credit, you can use those credits as prerequisites towards second-year courses. However, if you registered for fewer than 30 credits in the past winter session, you won’t qualify for any Honours option in second year—30 credits in each winter session is required. But you may try to qualify during your second year for a third-year Honours by passing the required minimum credit load (which for some options is more than 30 credits) and getting a competitive average.
Understand how a specialization's prerequisites work. While all the required courses listed in the Calendarfor each year of a program need to be completed, some may be deferred to a later year if no course in the third year of the specialization requires that prerequisite.

» First Year Prerequisites for Each Specialization

Do all of the required first-year courses have to have been completed in the past winter session? Can you complete one or more in summer session? If the specialization has open access, then completing the courses in summer will suffice. If the specialization requires an application in May or June, then you won’t likely qualify unless the course has a recorded grade by the time the adjudication of applicants takes place (mid to late June). Courses completed in summer session can, however, qualify you to register for the follow-on courses in winter session.

How to Apply to a Specialization

UBC Science runs a coordinated admissions process for second-year specializations. All Majors, all Combined Majors, and second-year declarable Honours or Combined Honours specializations can be applied to via the application. The application is now closed.

Open Access Specializations

If you don’t get one of your first three choices of specialization via the UBC Science Second-Year Application, you may still be able to enter one of the following areas of study by selecting the specialization on the Student Service Centre: Astronomy, Earth and Ocean Sciences, Geographical Biogeosciences, Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics. The specialization will expect you to complete the courses listed in the Calendar and to get competitive marks.

Moving to a Degree Program in Another Faculty

If you’ve applied to a degree program in another Faculty, you should learn the decision before your registration date. The Undergraduate Admissions Office handles those applications—check the Student Service Centre for updates.

If you accept an offer from another degree program or from Psychology, let us know. Your slot can be offered to another deserving student.