What's New for Life Sciences?

What's new for 2011-2012 for Life Sciences?

Students applying from the common first year of science, from Arts and Science into Life Sciences for second year will be required to apply online through the SOLUS system.  Students with a GPA of 3.3 or higher, and the required first year courses of BIOL 102 and 103 as well as CHEM 112, PHYS 107 and MATH 122 (or their equivalents) and one elective will automatically be accepted into Life Sciences.  Students with a GPA of less than 3.3 and the required courses will be placed on a pending list. 

Our program is capped at 235 students for the BSCH Major and SSP degrees combined.  We will accept students based on GPA ranking from our online pending list until we are full.  Our lower threshold GPA is 2.5.

Please note that first students who have not completed 24 units from first year are not eligible to apply to the BScH Life Science admission.  Students who have not completed BIOL 102 and/or BIOL 103 or MATH 12X or CHEM 11X are strongly advised to complete the missing course over the summer between first year and second year.  Students who have not complted their elective are also strongly recommended to complete the missing course over the summer.  Due to the academic demands imposed by the courses in 2nd, 3rd or 4th year, it is very difficult to complete an additional 6 unit course in any of these years.

Students are not eligible to apply to the BScH in Life Sciences without PHYS 117 or its equivalent.  Students may be able to obtain a PHYS 117 equivalent courses over the summer and apply late.  However, we may already be at capacity by then.  There is no guarantee of late entry into second year of the Life Sciences BSCH plans.

Units rather than credits:
Previously Queen's University courses were defined by half or full credits.  Now a half credit, 0.5, will be a 3.0 unit course and a full credit of 1.0 is now a 6.0 unit course.  A 1.5 credit such as a 499 Project is now a 9.0 unit course. 

SOLUS codes:
With a new computer system, there comes some changes in terminology.  We now list our degrees as plans with distinct codes compatible with the new SOLUS system.  The Major in Life Sciences is now:  BSH-M-LISC.  The SSP degrees are now, BSH-P-LISC.  Biomedical Discovery (formerly Research) is now BMDS.  Biomedical Sciences (formerly Comprehensive) is now BMSS.  Please be aware that although the terminology indicates a Minor - this is in fact a General degree in Life Sciences in combination with an Approved Major.  Not a traditional 15 unit Minor, but rather a 42 unit requirement.

Upper year transfer students:

Arts and Science website link for Program Plan Information for 1st year students
The Faculty of Arts and Science has been working to develop a web application that upper year students may use to request a change of plan.  This web page will be available to students whose plan is not ASC1.  The web page will be available from May 16 to 27, from the Arts and Science web page at www.queensu.ca/artsci  Students who do not wish to make any changes to their plan are not required to access the Change of Plan web page.

Here are the steps a student will go through to access the web application:

1.       Log in using their NetID and password.

2.       The first screen will require the student to enter their current program/plan information.

a.       If the student is registered in a plan that has been discontinued they will receive a warning message informing them that the plan has been discontinued and that they will not be allowed to return to that plan if they choose to leave.

b.      If the student is in a direct entry program (BFAH, BMUS, BPHE, KINE) they will receive a warning message informing them that if they leave that program and then decide to return to that program that they would need to reapply for admission.

3.       Using drop down menus the student will select the program/plan that they wish to request and will be asked to select an alternate program/plan request then press SUBMIT.

4.       The student will be directed to a screen indicating their first and alternate program request and they will also receive an email with this information.

If you require up-to-date information, please contact us at lifesci@queensu.ca so that we can provide the most up-to-date information possible during this transition.