Choose Your Program

                Choosing your program is both a daunting and exciting task, if I could say it myself. I still remember as it were yesterday, the agony of having to read through each program listed in the calendar to figure out which program could actually be the 'one' for me. The task became exciting once I started looking into myself to identify what I would like to study. I figured that studying what I would like to study would not just help me get good grades but feel overall satisfaction in terms of my school and university experiences. I wanted a program that could also directly or indirectly help me with my future career and employment goals.

                 There are multiple strategies one could employ while thinking about their program of study. While one could think about the career of their interest and track their way back to an undergraduate degree, a program could also be picked for a reason as simple as the desire to learn more in depth about a particular field. While it is not true that once a student picks a program they cannot change it, the student needs to be aware about the implications on this change on their anticipated graduating year.  

                 During the quest of choosing a program, there is a high chance that you might come across programs that you don't know a lot about. It might be that you do have a vague idea of what program entails and you feel like a little more information could be useful. In such cases, you are welcome to contact the department in question and explain your dilemma, asking for further information. In my experience departments are happy to answer such questions and some even go a step ahead to book an appointment with you to discuss this further.
         
                 Understanding the difficulty students face while picking their program of study, Academic Advising & Career Centre offers wonderful tipsheets that could further help you choose a program. These tipsheets are available for students both in our center as well as on our website. A couple tipsheets that you might find helpful are:

       a) Choosing Your Program and
       b) Is the Program for Me?

 This by no means is an exhaustive list of tipsheets that might interest you, and feel free to browse through our tipsheets to read through the ones you find relevant to your needs and wants.

             Apart from this, AA&CC also runs a wonderful month-long event in March called 'Choose Your Program Month' wherein program supervisors are invited to speak about their programs and answer questions on a one-on-one basis. Although questions about majors and programs are always welcome at AA&CC, a lot of workshops and events in the month of March are specifically designed to help students pick their program of study. The following tipsheet about Preparing for the Program Information Fair could also help you come up with questions you would want to ask to different program supervisors.

Good Luck picking your program!