All Level I students apply to their degree program of choice near the end of first year – including students in Economics I and Health and Society I. You will use an application in Mosaic to rank preferences and apply to your top four program choices. You can specialize in one subject or focus on two subjects equally in a combined Honours degree, such as two Social Sciences subjects or one from Social Sciences and one from another Humanities.

The Undergraduate Academic Calendar is the university’s official repository for degree information, program requirements, academic rules and regulations. It lists every course available at the university. When searching for courses, it is important to choose the most recent year of the calendar. This is a useful tool for planning out courses of interest from now until your final year. Note that this is subject to adjustment based on course availability and scheduling times as the class schedule is released for each academic year.

Here’s how: Go to the Academic Calendar > Most recent year > Course Listings > Search (Filter) by Subject (Prefix) > click on a class to see the prerequisites, then click on the prerequisite classes to see what they require. This will help you to decide which classes are most important to take each year. 

Note that prerequisites can be specific classes, levels, a faculty, or a program within a faculty, specific grades in a class, or your cumulative GPA

Antirequisites are specific classes, levels, a faculty, or a program within a faculty that will prevent you from taking a class

Co-requisites are a class that you need to at least be enrolled in at the same time, if you don’t already have a final passing grade. 

Enrollment for Level I students will dates will be posted here for 2023. Your specific enrollment appointment date will be posted to your Mosaic account in Student Centre on the right-hand side of the page under “Enrollment Date”. Your appointment date will be posted here for 2023.

Your course load should be balanced between the Fall and Winter Terms. A full course load is typically five courses (15 units) per term but since students can move to Level II with a minimum of 24 units, and can make up the remaining units before graduation, you may consider taking a reduced course load of four courses per term (12 units). If you’re unsure if a reduced course load is right for you, contact an Academic Advisor. To maintain full-time student status, you must take at least three courses per term (9 units). 

A pre-requisite is a specific course or subject that you must complete before you can take another course. Anti-requisites are courses that cannot be taken before, after, or at the same time as the desired course. This is because the course content is very similar. You can check pre-requisites and anti-requisites by visiting the Undergraduate Academic Calendar, under the course description in the Course Listings section for the most recent year. 

Note that prerequisites can be specific classes, levels, a faculty, or a program within a faculty, specific grades in a class, or your cumulative GPA.

Antirequisites are specific classes, levels, a faculty, or a program within a faculty that will prevent you from taking a class.

Co-requisites are a class that you need to at least be enrolled in at the same time, if you don’t already have a final passing grade in the class beforehand. 

Electives are any course that is not used as a core required course in a students Advisement Report once they are in Level II or beyond. These may come from the Social Sciences course lists, and/or from other Faculties as long as you meet the pre-requisites. There are often limits on the number of courses in your degree subject that can be used as electives. These will be listed at the top of your “Electives” section in your Advisement Report. 

For Level I the advisement report does not recognize that students can move to Level II with 24 units. There have also been no degree requirements set since that happens once a student moves into a Level II program.

This message means that although seats are available, they are currently only open to certain groups of students (i.e. students majoring in that subject, students in a particular Faculty, or students in a particular Level).

This is typically done to ensure students requiring the course for their program are able to obtain a seat. You may directly contact the department and ask when they will be releasing additional seats or keep checking regularly for open seats. 

If you are interested in Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour or Economics you will need to take some math courses. Be sure to use the Enrollment Planning Worksheet to plan which courses you need to take in Level I to qualify for your desired programs in Level II.

McMaster’s Faculty of Social Sciences offers an education that combines academic study with hands-on experience – we call it Careers & Experiential Education (CEE). Through CEE, you can participate in paid internships, a tuition-free career planning course, academic placements in courses, and career placement job shadowing opportunities.

Three (3) new co-op program options have been introduced:

• Honours Economics Co-op (B.A.)
• Honours Political Science Co-op (B.A.)
• Honours Work and Labour Studies Co-op (B.A.)

These are upper-level programs. Level I students can apply using the online application process during their first year.

Social Sciences students have the exclusive option of earning an additional affiliated certificate from Mohawk College while working on their degree. 

The three certificate options are: 

1. Business Studies 
2. Disability Management
3. Leadership & Management in the Not-for-Profit Sector

Learn more about McMaster’s certificates and diplomas on the Academic Calendar website.

Student Accessibility Services (SAS) provides academic assistance and related supports to students with documented needs at McMaster. Please reach out to them directly at any time.

Social Sciences allows eligible students to spend part or all of their third year studying abroad at an approved university. To participate you must be registered in an Honours program and have completed at least two years of study with at least a B- cumulative average.

Please see the McMaster Important Dates and Deadlines website.

Enrolment tips for out of province/out of country high school students, graduates of colleges of applied arts & technology, McMaster Centre for Continuing Education, university transfers and mature students.
 

Out of Province / Out of Country High School Students 

High school students from outside of Ontario and from outside Canada may require course permission to enrol in a course which requires a high school prerequisite. While the majority of courses you will select as a Social Science I student do not have high school prerequisites, others such as Math, Science and Language courses may require prior preparation. 

For example, the following Level I courses require a Grade 12 or equivalent prerequisite:

Psychology 1XX3 Foundations of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour 

• Prerequisite: Grade 12 Biology U or credit or registration in one of Biology 1A03, 1M03, 1P03. 

Mathematics 1M0M3 Calculus for Business, Humanities and the Social Sciences 

• Prerequisite: One of Grade 12 Calculus and Vectors U, MATH 1F03 or a grade of at least B- in MATH 1K03. 

Please contact Student Advising if you have questions related to your high school prerequisites. If the Faculty determines that a prerequisite has been met, permission will be coded for individual courses, allowing students to include them in their enrolment. This may take several days to complete. We strongly advise that you contact the Faculty as early as possible, as courses fill up quickly.
 

University Transfer Students 

University transfer students are advised to consult the Undergraduate Calendar to confirm what courses are required to complete your McMaster degree. If you are considering a course with a high school prerequisite, you must contact the Office of the Associate Dean, so we may determine if you have the academic background to take the course and add the necessary course permissions.
 

Mature Students

If you have not attended secondary school or college on a full-time basis for at least two years and you have never attended university, you may be admitted as a Mature Student. When selecting your first courses, always make sure you meet the prerequisites and consider your interests. 

Choose courses based on what you think you would enjoy while meeting the requirements of your Level I program. You may want to think ahead to your Level II degree program and select your courses with those in mind.