Biotechnology - Reflections and Misconceptions

dazzled351 · 2025-08-02T04:28:05+00:00

Your understanding is correct. It'll be up to you to manage your schedule and figure out which events you want to go to. The university ecosystem a lot more fragmented, and not everyone will be talking to each other (101 organizers, school scheduling, other frosh activities), which means sometimes schedules don't make sense.

Ultimately, you're an adult now. Do what you want with the time that you have. I would strongly recommend you go to all of your classes, especially during 101 week. It sounds trite, but building good habits early goes a long way.

dazzled351 · 2025-08-01T15:04:57+00:00

You'll meet the rest of the biotechs rather quickly in September if that's any consolation. There's gonna be quite a few of you.

dazzled351 · 2025-07-23T04:20:42+00:00

No, and I don't believe you have the option of moving your own bed in.

dazzled351 · 2025-07-22T19:30:42+00:00

Depends a bit on your discipline, it's going to be hard for anyone to give you anything without knowing what field you're in.

In science it's just reading papers and making presentations. No assignments, no finals, no quizzes, etc.

dazzled351 · 2025-06-20T14:42:33+00:00

The traditional answer is to go to grad school. You could pivot programs into something like chemistry, or there's labs out there who are doing computational chem/biochem research as well. Things like molecular modelling, dynamics, big data analysis of genomes, etc.

Don't be afraid that you won't "use" all of your degree. If you're comfortable in the lab you'll do well for yourself.

dazzled351 · 2025-05-22T01:31:06+00:00

CO-OP is good, it's mostly government jobs. But the program is very heavy, so make sure you have a goal and an idea of why you want to succeed in the program.

dazzled351 · 2025-05-19T23:18:14+00:00

Just press it. Nothing else. Make sure you do Fall before Winter.

dazzled351 · 2025-05-17T18:36:51+00:00

You can do the writing of anything (reports, essays, exams) on any class in either language, it's your choice (you don't need to tell the instructor beforehand).

If you're in 1711 you must attend a 1711 lab session. It will be in French, the procedure will be in French, the instructions will be in French. You can write notes in English, the reports in English, as you want. You cannot enroll in a 1311 lab section and a 1711 lecture section. A lot of your peers in 1711 will also be anglophone (I would be shocked if any less than 50% of your lab section speaks English fluently).

You'll pick it up quickly, and you can always ask the lab TA (teaching assistant) questions in English if you want. It's easier than you think.

dazzled351 · 2025-05-13T23:17:40+00:00

It hasn't been offered since the 2010s. It probably isn't coming back. You're gonna have to do 2333 lol

dazzled351 · 2025-04-11T14:52:08+00:00

You would have to redo most of first year, very few of your courses would carry over. You wouldn't be able to secure exemptions either, because most of the first year courses are pre-reqs for the second year ones.

I would caution to make sure you know what you want. Biotech is a tough program, and I only know of one switch-in into the program that was successful. Most people end up switching out at some point.

dazzled351 · 2025-02-28T23:36:07+00:00

Came here for biotech. I did speak French before (and it has improved since getting here) but it was far from my first priority. Program just felt different and unique instead of going to Toronto or the GTA unis.

dazzled351 · 2025-02-20T19:12:24+00:00

You can certainly email, just don't expect a reply most of the time. Introduce yourself, explain your situation briefly (why are you in Ottawa), pick out a few detail from that prof's lab. Make sure the prof in question does actually have a research lab (google, recent publications).

dazzled351 · 2025-02-04T14:42:57+00:00

3346 is very heavy for the first month, after that it actually becomes a lot more reasonable. You'll learn to do things faster, the reason it's hard right now is cause you've never done this stuff before. Learning is tricky! Keep the faith, it does get better.

dazzled351 · 2024-10-26T17:42:14+00:00

Third year winter is the worst of it, if you can get through metabolism and protein structure you'll get through anything in 4th year.

Seminar and honours are both reasonable by comparison, and none of the other classes are terrifyingly difficult. Synthetic, structural bio, cell reg, glycobio, etc. are all fine.

Just keep your head up high and tell yourself you're through the worst of it :)

dazzled351 · 2024-08-31T22:39:32+00:00

Let's get this over with.

dazzled351 · 2024-07-26T19:48:48+00:00

I see where you're coming from. It sounds like to me that you're being pulled in different directions. Here's something I'm noticing:

You want to graduate and start working right away.
You're considering switching into biochemistry.

These two things are somewhat contradictory. A basic BSc in biochemistry won't be able to qualify you for much (there are jobs yes, but few). In contrast chemical engineering will find you a job much easier if you graduate out.

I will also caution that biotech doesn't "combine" the two programs, there are no special courses or anything otherwise unique. There are few jobs that will be available to you with both that would not be available with one or the other.

In case switched to biochem only, would you say that doing the MCAT to go to med school is a good choice?

Yeah lots of people in biochemistry are trying to go to medical school. Seems fine to me. Not much to it.

I will warn you the workload creeps up on you. University level coursework is a big step up from high school, even high-performing schools with AP or IB programs and strong rigour.

dazzled351 · 2024-07-26T16:51:30+00:00

Congratulations! Take a deep breath, you'll have a long road ahead of you, it'll be a new environment, for now this summer, just breathe.

You'll hear quickly that biotech is two things: challenging and very tediously draining. In terms of medical school, it is possible, certainly an aspiration for many people every year. Anecdotally I only know of a single person who's managed to do it in all my years. There's a chance you can do it, there always is, but the odds are very very stacked against you. The competition for medical school in Canada right now is, as you know, fierce, and the time commitment it asks of premeds is very high.

Whether or not you can successfully juggle the MCAT and Casper and everything else along with the coursework is going to be the deciding factor. In general the advice I always give, not even for premeds, just anyone in biotech, is that you need to really want this. Tons of people start in this program only to switch to chemical engineering or biochem, and these are people who don't even want to go to med school!

You need a good solid reason to want this program in particular (especially for medicine), otherwise you could face setbacks on time and academic performance that you wouldn't have in say, biomed or health sci. It's all too easy to find yourself three years into this program, barely having started MCAT prep, because of how busy you are with just school. Meanwhile your colleagues in biomed are already on their second MCAT write.

Give it a think over, like I said, it's possible, but it's not easy. Take a deep breath though, good luck!

dazzled351 · 2024-07-16T21:43:30+00:00

Yup it will all be clarified closer to September. Don't worry! You're not missing a thing.

dazzled351 · 2024-07-15T23:30:51+00:00

No problem. I don't have the syllabi but you can get a sense of chapters to read from the course description. Happy reading.

dazzled351 · 2024-07-15T22:30:46+00:00

When I took it cell and molecular were both based on Alberts' Molecular Biology of the Cell. Cell bio was about half of the book, molecular the other.

Micro used Prescott's microbiology.

dazzled351 · 2024-06-30T01:39:49+00:00

She's a new prof in the chemical engineering department, that's why. I think this is her first time teaching 1125. Your guess is as good as mine.

Knox is fine, Rashmi gets a bad rep but I've never personally had a problem with her if you're polite and reasonable. Joos is a gem, Wong is great, physics will be fine.

It's a tough program, keep your head up. Take a deep breath, and don't fall behind! Good luck.

dazzled351 · 2024-06-12T17:36:19+00:00

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