You're wonderful.

Heya,

Maintaining 80+ should be very achievable if you make good course choices and put in some work. Even if you do financial modeling you will have a lot of electives in your first year, so choose courses you feel you like and are able to do well in.

If you do a double degree, in your second year you have to take 4.0 math courses and Business 2257; I can't comment on the difficulty of second year as I am not done it yet. However, I talked to the department of applied mathematics and was told that Calculus 1501 is as hard as a math course will get. I was able to do well in that course by putting in a bit of work, so I'm optimistic of the future :)

As far "goodness" towards your career: A lot of financial services jobs explicitly state the necessity of a business degree, math degree, or both. Also, since the core of financial services is making predictions though models, a deep understanding of models and the math behind them will help greatly, both in getting into the company and staying there.

Financial modelling is a relatively new program at Western so I'm happy to see so much interest in it; it's like watching my baby grow...except it's not my baby...but it's alright.

Hope that helps!

-Sid

Hey JR24,

As a Western applicant for Political Science, you will be admitted as a "General Social Sciences" student. You apply for the Political Science (or Economics, if you so choose) module next year.

In first year, you will be able to take all the necessary requirements to apply for both the Political Science Module and Economics Module to see which you like best. You would need to take the following courses to apply to Honours Specialization Political Science or Economics module:
- Political Science 1020 (Introduction to Political Science)
- Economics 1021 A/B (Principles of Microeconomics)
- Economics 1022 A/B (Principles of Macroeconomics)
- Calculus 1000 A/B (...Calculus? Lol)
- Math 1600 A/B (Linear Algebra)

The difficulty of either module depends on your personal intelligence and your passion towards either field. I kind of liked both but I definately preferred Political Science over Economics. I'm both a Math/Writing person but I was much more frustrated with the multiple choice exams in Economics (which were generally easy but just not my cup of tea) while the argumentative essay writing that you do in Political Science was much more engaging. Bottom line: Economics/Poli Sci are comparably similar in difficulty in first year (depending on your skills/interests), and I think both scale in difficulty after first year (Economics gets more Math heavy/complicated concepts and Poli Sci demands more of your commitment in readings and argumentative writing & analysis).

At the end it's really up to you, and it doesn't hurt at all to do the courses that enable you to do both modules. In fact, the above set of courses give you an incredibly well-rounded education that, when coupled with Biz1220, can enable you to do many more modules than just Political Science & Economics (like BMOS, Economics, Politics & Philosophy, Math and more).

Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

Best regards,
Artur

is it possible to apply for political science now, get in over the summer, and still maintain my AEO. Or is it possible to change my bachelor's degree in first year? I am asking this because I think it may be difficult to maintain an 80% average in Chemistry and Biochemistry -_-

Are you referring to preserving your offer regarding AEO status or just your general undergrad?

Hey Lucida,

I've heard that the conditional average for BMOS is 85% this year.

- Artur

To be sure, I would contact the admissions office or a faculty counselor. As long as you don't completely bomb in your last semester of grade 12, you should be fine. Also note that you're going to be looking at your acceptance to Western instead. Acceptance into the BMOS program is contingent upon your performance in first year. As a first year, you'll just be enrolled in the general faculty of social science.

Getting into the BMOS module is not greatly dependent on your average...it's just a matter of fulfilling the module requirements really.

For those who are in BMOS:

How did you guys find the program? Did you like it? Was it what you expected? I really like the Ivey program, but I'm not too sure if I'd like to spend my first two years in BMOS. I have AEO status, btw.

1. If you want to do investment banking, do either MOS/Econ. I think the majority of people that go into IB are in MOS, and although there might not be a true cause and effect relationship there, I'd recommend it as well. In first year, I think the only two programs that actually expose you to the nature of financial instruments and a further understanding of markets from an investing level are MOS and Act Sci. Act Sci being much more rigorous and math heavy. Economics well... examines the more economical side of things, but that's not to say it's going to inhibit your chances for investment banking opportunities at all. However, if you really want to be exposed to more business before your peers, your best option is definitely clubs. I won't suggest any particular ones because this is a PBSN thread (the best and most informative club for all AEOs by a significant margin).

2. Comp Sci 1032/1033 are both easy 90 courses. You describe yourself as a math student, so I'd recommend taking any of the maths from: 1000, 1225, 1228, 1229. If you have a good understanding of high school math, they'll be easy 90 courses too. Aside from these courses, you'd have a 1.0 elective that you can do whatever with. I recommend taking Biz 1220 because all the proverbial bad asses do, but you can wimp out and do just fine later if you want.

3. I can't speak for Econ. For MOS, it doesn't matter too much as you can defer your MOS credits past second year and effectively never take them. I think the consensus is either finance/accounting if you want to do IB, though. Finance for obvious reasons, and accounting because it presents a viable fall back. The logic is that if you don't make it into Ivey, you can drop into MOS and because its accounting stream is accredited, you can become a CA.

4. I don't think you can do a double degree between MOS/Econ and Comp Sci while concurrently studying Ivey. If you mean a MOS/Comp Sci or Econ/Comp Sci without Ivey, I'd say that's just fundamentally a bad idea. You'd be missing out on Ivey (which seems to be the main reason you're attracted to Western) and your opportunities aren't really massively expanded. People often go under the delusion that they need to distinguish themselves as a student by entering an unorthodox field. This might work at places like Waterloo or UT where computer science is actually a rigorous and respected program and the top graduates from their program actually do go to IB, but Western's computer science program is nothing to get your jimmies rustled over.