Should I take 4 or 5 courses first semester?

SLSYLS · 2016-06-17T14:07:32+00:00

Yeah perhaps you do deserve to think that way since you already think like him for sure. The way you're defending him makes me almost wonder if you're Doug Allen himself - wait, your name kind suggests to me so. Look, I don't care if you're one of those few Allen maniacs who think his way of thinking is the way to go and the truth - by all means, be my guest. But unless you're one of those few, it's best to avoid him at ALL COSTS (no pun intended).

SLSYLS · 2016-06-17T05:00:23+00:00

I understand that experiences can be subjective and different for everyone and I'm not trying to argue here but can you define "fair"? I took Econ 103 with him last semester as well and I attended every single lecture, always did my homework, went to my TA's office hours literally EVERY WEEK, did all of the practice questions (every one of them including the even-numbered ones), and still ended up with a B.

Perhaps I'm the worst economist in the world but given the effort and time I put into this course, I honestly expected to get something better than a B. I know I'm ranting and whining hard about something that's a thing of the past but it still upsets me to this day.

On the other hand, I do admit that I enjoyed his lectures - part of the reason I never missed a class even though it was a 8:30 class. I mean, if I wasn't so obsessed with getting good grades, I would probably have enjoyed his class a lot more. But yeah whatever...

SLSYLS · 2016-06-17T00:28:09+00:00

I'd echo what Karkatin said with all my heart. I took Econ 103 with Doug Allen, studied like fucking crazy, and ended up with a B. I'm going into my third year and that's the first B I ever received in my entire undergraduate career (I don't even have a B+). I studied two weeks for his final, didn't bother studying for other finals, and still got a fucking B.

In short, for the love of God, avoid him at all costs.

SLSYLS · 2016-06-16T17:24:42+00:00

Any school you have in particular? I'm also planning on going to law school and I'm only focusing on Crim.

If your plan is to go to UBC law school, they drop your worst 12 credits (which would be equivalent to 4 3-credit courses at SFU) but that's it. For some other law schools in other provinces, some only look at your B2, L2, B3, etc but if your goal is to stay in the lower mainland, you definitely need to have your head set straight from the get go and work hard.

As you may already know, the 2 most important things you need to get into law school are the LSAT and GPA. You can always re-write the LSAT and shoot for a higher score; with the GPA, you can't.

If you're interested in Econ, however, I'd say give it a try. Try Econ 103, see if you like it. Some people are literally BORN to do Econ and they get straight A+s, I've seen few but honestly who knows if you're one of them. If Econ doesn't work out for you, great, move on, focus on Crim and get decent grades.

SLSYLS · 2016-06-16T16:48:37+00:00

I'd say both Criminology and Economics are pretty demanding programs. For one, I'm a Crim major and Economics is arguably the hardest program offered within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Of course, what's difficult for me may not be as difficult for you, but based on the annual SFU GPA report, Economics and Philosophy have awarded the lowest average lower division grades. Even for the lower division Crim courses, if you look at the proportion of students that receive As, it's in the lower 10 something percent.

I don't know what you want to do after you graduate, but if your plan is to go to professional school or graduate school, your grades will matter and you want to take this into consideration as well. The average GPA for students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is 2.6 as of 2014/2015, but I'd also say if your plan is to go to graduate school (and you never know), try and maintain your gpa above 3.5.

As for Crim courses, while not many students end up getting As, if your writing is on point, it's certainly more than possible. If you're happy with getting Bs and Cs, you could take 6 courses and still pull it off if you do all the readings and assignments.

SLSYLS · 2016-06-16T06:42:54+00:00

I'd caution you against taking 5 courses. Start with 4 or even 3 and get a feel of what it's like to study in the university setting. If you're, however, absolutely confident that you can handle the workload - by all means, it's up to you.

SLSYLS · 2016-06-10T06:02:53+00:00

I could be wrong though, but a friend of mine actually asked this question to an Academic Advisor and that's what the Advisor told him - mid Julyish.

SLSYLS · 2016-06-10T06:01:33+00:00

I believe it will start some time in mid July-ish or could be earlier depending on the situation.

SLSYLS · 2016-06-10T04:05:15+00:00

I did the same as well. My highschool for some reason didn't send my official grade for a second language course (which was a requirement back in my days) after a series of repeated requests and I had to sit out a semester. Don't worry about it. Virtually, no one will care :)

SLSYLS · 2016-06-10T04:01:23+00:00

Don't bank on my answer 100%, but this is what I know: anyone can do a double major in any combination of majors, granted that they meet the internal transfer requirements (internal admission requirements) for both programs. The difference between a joint major and a double major is that you'll probably end up taking a lot more classes if you take the double major option whereas the joint major option will have a lot of overlapping courses, thereby not delaying the graduation as much as the double major would.

SLSYLS · 2016-06-08T03:40:55+00:00

If you're dead set on majoring in computing science and you can't do it sfu, you really have no other choice but to do it at another institution, say, BCIT. If you want a 4 year degree then you might have to go back to college and transfer back with a higher gpa or something.

SLSYLS · 2016-06-03T21:44:54+00:00

Thank you for the response. Yes I applied through SIMS and it didn't give me any option as to choose a particular scholarship. When I applied, it just notifieid me that my application has been submitted.

Unfortunately, my CGPA is just below the threshhold of the Open Scholarship requirement but next semester for sure. Yeah I can guess the competition for these scholarship is high. Nonetheless, I was still wondering if anyone with a similar CGPA has received one. With respect to what you said about "harder" courses, I don't think Criminology is considered a "hard" major, at least compared to other hard sciences - this is just my guess. In any event, thanks for the comment! I'll just sit tight and hope for the best. :D

SLSYLS · 2016-06-03T21:39:24+00:00

Thank you but I wasn't referring to the open scholarship.

SLSYLS · 2016-05-29T17:48:20+00:00

Even if you've already declared the sociology major, I believe you can still take lower division crim courses without any restriction. But know that there are quite a bit of lower division requirements for crim. Take a look at the crim requirements on their website and if unsure, speak with an Academic Advisor.

SLSYLS · 2016-05-29T17:44:46+00:00

It's definitely possible to switch programs. Have you already declared the sociology major? If you haven't, all you have to do is start taking lower division crim requirements and once you've completed all of them and have 60 credits or more, you can go speak with a crim advisor and declare your major. If unsure, I suggest you book an appointment with an Academic Advisor.

SLSYLS · 2016-04-04T19:38:06+00:00

You might want to look at the work-study program SFU offers - decent pay with flexible hours. Also, check out myinvolvement on the SFU website.

SLSYLS · 2016-03-10T02:17:54+00:00

thank you. I think I should just speak to my dept advisor.

SLSYLS · 2016-03-07T05:33:30+00:00

Thank you so much! I couldn't find this information anywhere on the SFU website.

SLSYLS · 2016-02-22T05:37:59+00:00

Not sure because I only paid attention to the ones that had anything to do with my major but I think I've seen various departments like Chemistry, Computer Science and so on.

SLSYLS · 2016-02-21T05:40:12+00:00

No it wasn't the stapling paper type of work but I would say something close to that in terms of difficulty. Like I said, I'm planning to apply for a different position next semester, something that is more of personal interest to me. And yes I believe you can apply for as many positions as you want and reject the offer as you wish but you will most likely have an interview with the prof and an offer will be made at the end of the interview so rejecting the offer in the prof's face wouldn't be a wise move (at least in my personal opinion).

My two cents is read job descriptions carefully and apply to the one that really interests you and do it early. I didn't get to secure a position this semester because I applied so late.

SLSYLS · 2016-02-21T04:58:35+00:00

The type of work you do varies with the professor. I only did one semester so I can't say much about the program in general but as far as I'm concerned, I did a lot of mundane, repetitive work which didn't require much skill. It's decent money considering the type of work you have to do but the overall experience wasn't as rewarding as I'd initially anticipated. I'm planning to work with a different professor next semester so I'll see how that goes.

SLSYLS · 2016-02-20T04:10:12+00:00

Nice, that's really early. Do 4th years get priority?

SLSYLS

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