What's Your Back-Up Plan?

Having a back-up plan is a very important part of pursuing post-secondary studies. What happens if you’re not offered admission to your program of choice, at your university of choice? What happens if you change your mind about your program once you’ve entered first year? It’s always a sensible idea to apply to more than one university, or more than one program. If you’ve researched your admission requirements and your university choices carefully enough, you may spare yourself a lot of anxiety, time and money!

The Ontario application system allows you to apply to up to 3 programs at the same university, and to as many universities as you want, so there is little reason to limit your options.

What about a Plan B? How easy (or not) is it to change academic streams once you've entered university? If you received and accepted an offer to your second choice of program, can you gain access to your first choice later? The answer often depends on the nature of the program you're in. Broadly speaking there are two types of university program: those which can be quite structured, implying an early commitment to a specific degree path or career choice (some examples might be Engineering, Nursing, Music, many Business programs, where non-related options may be limited, and while “switching” programs is possible, it will likely come with a cost of extra time and money); and programs which by their nature will offer a larger degree of flexibility in course selection, leading to multiple degree choices, and allowing an easy transition from one to another.

At Western, the commitment to a particular program (or an ever-increasing selection of "combined" or "concurrent" degrees) can often be delayed until at least the end of first year. Most universities will offer a large number of "double-majors" or "majors and minors", so that students do not always have to choose one area of interest at the expense of another. A quick look on a university website, or a chat with a university representative will make these options more clear. Students should follow two primary principles when selecting courses and programs: what do I love? (whereis my passion for this subject)? - and what do I need? (If I enter this program, which courses are mandatory, and how many options will I have? Am I required to take specific courses to apply later to Medical School, Law School, Teachers College etc?)

If you do your homework, and make informed choices, you should be able to satisfy both demands! When choosing programs and courses, we could do worse than consider Shakespeare’s advice:

“...no profit grows where is no pleasure taken...study what you most enjoy...”