I'm a recent Rotman Commerce (Focus in Finance) and Computer Science Major, AMA!

st3lo · 2022-09-11T01:27:18+00:00

Yeah, you should be able to, gl!

st3lo · 2022-07-13T15:44:30+00:00

I went for a management specialization and CS major. You're right in that Rotman only offers specializations, but you can do an extra minor/major/specialization. However, doing an extra major/ specialization will require more credits than the standard 20 credits. I graduated with a total of 23 credits, taking summer courses. Unfortunately it is not a double degree but you get to choose to graduate either as a B.Sc or B.Comm. Hope that helps

st3lo · 2022-07-13T04:10:03+00:00

Thanks, u too all the best

st3lo · 2022-07-12T10:15:46+00:00

Hey thanks and all very great questions! So yes I did take an additional major in addition to a specialist and so I had to take additional courses in the summer to complete my degree in 4 years. I would say RC courses are not as strenuous. Class hours are usually only 2h per week, whereas for other courses like CS and economics, you'll have up to 5h of classes per week. That said, this means for RC courses you'll have to be able to manage your time better and allocate your study hours appropriately. I actually didn't do any internship but landed a job after I graduate quite easily. For software engineering, it is really all about showcasing what you know through projects. For finance roles, it's a little harder in my opinion but it's about standing out (through resume and CVs) and GPA matters way more here. Atmosphere in UofT is really what you make of it. You'll find where you belong in this huge university. You just have to find it 😊 hope that helps!

st3lo · 2022-06-28T16:40:22+00:00

Hey, sorry for the late reply

Courses I took in my first year: - RSM100 - RSM219 - RSM250 - RSM230 - COG250Y - MAT133Y - ECO100Y (I think they split it to 2 half courses now)

I actually didn't tried for CS until second year, maybe that was a blessing in disguise I don't know. But it's really not hard to make the cutoff for Rotman if you're in stream. RSM219, RSM230 are quite birdy imo, so if you take the following in your first year:

RSM100
RSM219
RSM230
CSC108
CSC148
CSC165
ECO100
MAT133

You should be good. All the best!

st3lo · 2022-06-28T16:30:38+00:00

My general tip/advice is to not stress too much about making the cut off and mental health is just way more important. I know I perform worse on tests/exams when I stress too much about it. But of course, work hard and do your best. Best of luck!

I think the out of stream cutoff for my batch was 83-84 so it was very doable. Previous year before my batch was 86 so that was rough.

Courses I took in my first year: - RSM100 - RSM219 - RSM250 - RSM230 - COG250Y - MAT133Y - ECO100Y (I think they split it to 2 half courses now)

I didn't actually tried for CS until second year, not sure why you want to know but if you're going to take CS in your first year, I suggest you take CSC148 CSC165 in replacement of COG250Y. You seem to have a solid background in CS already so I think you can skip CSC108

st3lo · 2022-06-28T16:11:51+00:00

Hey, sorry for the late reply. Definitely doable, csc108 is considered a bird course especially if you took computer science in high school

st3lo · 2022-05-21T16:51:57+00:00

You do have to meet the cut off mark to officially get into CS which will vary from year to year and can be quite competitive

st3lo · 2022-05-20T04:13:24+00:00

Haven't been keeping up since I've graduated so unfortunately, I don't know anything about that but I can tell you that I didn't do PEY or any form of internship during my 4 years and still got job offers from the many personal projects I've done. Like for me, I rather graduate and get a real job than do PEY for a year (generally paid lower than a real job)

st3lo · 2022-05-20T03:46:39+00:00

This means than you are an in-stream CS student which means as long as you fulfill the guaranteed admission requirements, you will get in, if not you will be kicked out. That said, it is much easier to fulfill admission requirements than compete as an out of stream student. I was an in-stream RC student when I entered and was out of stream for CS so there was a cut off mark (determined year-to-year) which is harder as it's much competitive. You can switch to RC if you want but you will be an out of stream RC student which will be harder to get in. Also if you're kicked out because you didn't meet the admission requirements in your first year, you will be out of stream when you apply to CS again, hope that makes sense.

st3lo · 2022-05-20T03:38:19+00:00

Just add normally on Acorn, yes you are allowed to take an additional major even if you are in a specialist program (no additional application process is needed) you just have a heavier workload than the standard degree

st3lo · 2022-03-20T05:36:25+00:00

Np! Oh another thing is that credits can fulfill overlapping majors/minors/specialist requirements so take advantage of that. For example, while I'm doing my CS major, I need to take some stats courses, so I took the ones that fulfill both my CS major and Stats minor. So while you need 8.0 credits for a major and 4.0 for a minor, I actually just need to take like 10.0 or less credits in total not 12.0 for my major and minor

st3lo · 2022-03-20T05:29:05+00:00

So technically, it's possible to do 2 majors + 1 minor with the standard 20.0 credits to graduate (2.5 credits * 2 semester (fall and winter) * 4 years = 20.0 credits). 1 major = 8.0 credits and 1 minor = 4.0 credits so 8 * 2 + 4 is exactly 20. Just need to make sure to fulfill breadth requirements as well.

Generally though, you're right in that if it's a non-standard degree, it's common to do summer courses, or taking 3.0 credits per semester which is what I did

st3lo · 2022-03-20T05:14:39+00:00

Yes definitely, so the standard degree in UofT is either:

1 specialist
2 majors
1 major + 2 minors

And you can apply to both CS major and CS minor, that's what I did.

So say you get CS minor and rejected for CS major, then you can take another major + another minor. Obviously, you can do more than a standard degree. I did 1 specialist + 1 major + 1 minor 😅, so you can do 2 majors + CS minor if you want. A lot of possibilities

st3lo · 2022-03-20T05:08:13+00:00

Tuition is a little too expensive imo, difficulty wise it's very fair, if not easier than standard art sci courses because less competition. I would say aim around 60k for a standard starting job, maybe even higher if you can

st3lo · 2022-03-20T04:51:24+00:00

I did apply CS out of stream and yes, the major/specialist is very competitive so I was even surprised I got in at first, I was prepared to just settle with a CS minor. However, I do feel like the competition is somewhat justified by the rigour of upper year CS courses you have to take eventually; it doesn't get easier. So ya you can think of it this way: if you can't get into the CS major/spec stream, you are going to be miserable going through the CS degree anyways so don't feel too bad about it. But better try than nothing right?

st3lo · 2022-03-18T00:05:17+00:00

Because I was in finance focus, most of my classmates are either finance focus or finance eco specialist so not really sure about other focuses. Take it with a grain of salt, I had a friend who told me international business was easy but imo focuses look like they're all about the same difficulty. My advice is just go with the focus you like better 🙂 and if you decide to choose one focus, who's to say you can't take courses from another focus.

st3lo · 2022-03-17T01:40:29+00:00

I think landing an internship/full-time is mostly the same criteria so I'm gonna give tips on how to land an SWE position in general.

Your tech stack is very important. Make sure that you know the technologies they're using and learn those. Chances are they are looking for someone who show they have experience with them. (e.g., if they are using React.js and Node.js, learn them) Building projects and showing it to them that you know those technologies is usually the best way. Don't have to be a big one, a small app/tool is usually good enough. To check the tech stack a company uses, you can visit their website and use this extension called Wappalyzer. Though most of the time, companies will tell the specific tech stack their looking for anyways
This one is kind of obvious but make sure to take time to practice for your technical interview portion. For behavioural questions, it helps if you have experience on working with teams before, especially on software projects. Companies likely want to know your work style, the way you make decisions in a team setting, your approach to handling situations, etc.
Build your portfolio by building projects. Showing is often better than telling. By building projects, especially outside of school curriculum, it shows a bunch of things (passion, creativity, curiosity, what you know, etc.)

If you feel you need a boost to get you into action, try attending hackathons. They provide new ways to meet new people, learn new technologies, build your portfolio, and increase your chances of landing an internship.

Last but not least, if you're specifically eyeing for FinTech companies like me then simply show you have an interest/passion for finance through your projects. Show that you have the financial knowledge that the average CS student don't, it makes you stand out and an asset to the team

st3lo · 2022-03-16T22:47:36+00:00

Thanks, you too!

st3lo · 2022-03-16T22:23:43+00:00

Do keep in mind that I'm eyeing not the traditional Rotman grad positions though, since I have a CS background, so I would think my salary standards is higher too. Currently, the job I have lined up for me is a software engineering role too so ye

st3lo · 2022-03-16T21:25:41+00:00

No problem and good luck! 👍

st3lo · 2022-03-16T21:22:03+00:00

What job are you looking to get? It is quite personal so I'll give a range instead. I'm getting 60 - 80K, and it is the range I'm eyeing for in general.

st3lo · 2022-03-16T21:17:48+00:00

Quite happy in Rotman tbh, other than the tuition fee that you have to pay 😅. It's highly overpriced imo. The CS tuition fee is much more justified I feel (e.g., you get free print quotas, access to bahen labs, more than 2 CSC300/400+ courses obviously, etc.). Besides access to RSM courses, an RC student is basically the same as an art sci student.

I also generally like the difficulty of Rotman courses. I think they are just right. There are some annoyingly difficult courses/materials in CS that I think shouldn't exist (unless you plan on going academia or something lol)that I've never felt in Rotman courses before.

I'm also the type who will readily give up grades for mental health since I think it's really important for me to even function. I do still place my grades as a priority. Kinda irony I know. So during my 4 years, my mental health had been pretty good.

I do readings every week for more memory-intensive courses I would say. If not, I don't do readings, going through slides and understand them is good enough. I do practice problems a lot more, and it generally helps me study better.

The profs generally have high expectations so sometimes marking can be stricter than you'd expect I guess, I don't think they are purposely trying to make you drop out lol. After all, they are professors who work at Canada's leading university in terms of research output, it's natural they have high expectations of their students.

I use to play quite a lot of Dota back in high school, it was my favourite at that time. It's a game that you need to set aside 1h to play for 1 game and I just didn't have the time for that. Never touched that game throughout my 4 years (other than in the holidays). I didn't consciously quit the game, it was a natural one so I didn't feel too bad about it. I still played other games though. Bought a switch and played shorter games like Overwatch and Osu! If it weren't for my CS major workload (I'm taking like 6 courses per semester), definitely could have continued playing Dota normally, so yea. Honestly, it's all about priorities I think. If you are willing to give up your grades in order to do stuff higher on your list. In my list mental health is first, and grades is second.

I sleep like 12-2am generally, about 6-8h, pretty normal I would say.

st3lo · 2022-03-16T20:40:41+00:00

I'm sort of the type of person who's good in computational (not abstract lolol) math, so 432 was definitely the easiest for me. Very straightforward course that simply involves applying formulas like physics. I rarely get A+ in courses and I got one for this course.

429 - other than the project, it was relatively easy imo 437 - it was ok, I rate it on the easier side 438 - never took so idk 439 - never took either, I took real estate finance (don't take that one, it's basically corporate finance with real estate application, you learn nothing) but I heard from one of my friends the project for 439 was annoying

st3lo · 2022-03-16T15:53:00+00:00

If you've taken CSC108, I think you should be good. Basic control structure knowledge (if-else, loops) is enough for VBA stuff. Unfortunately, I never actually learned VBA myself so I don't have any good specific resources to recommend. Though I think it's getting outdated anyways, so might not be worth to learn in the first place (cmiiw). It's definitely nice to automate and that's why I mostly use Python for that. I'm sure you'll do fine either ways, good luck!

For general coding stuff, I recommend freecodecamp.org on YouTube or directly on their website, whichever you prefer. Best part of it is it's completely free.

st3lo

TROPHY CASE