University of Toronto Graduate Courses

[tina88]

Hi everyone!

I am an incoming MSc student and was having trouble choosing grad courses. Has anyone taken the following courses at U of T and can offer insight on the difficulty or workload of the class?

Thanks for your help!

1) PCL1004Y - Graduate Course in Clinical Pharmacology

2) JCV3062H - Heart Function

3) LMP1510H - Molecular Biology Techniques

4) MSC1040H - PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF DISEASE

5) MSC1081H - STUDIES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

[annie hall]

I was in the Neuroscience Program at UofT, so most of my grad courses were in that area.

I took both seminar courses and "Methods/Techniques" courses. If the courses that you've listed are seminar-type (read the description, email the course coordinator if necessary), then they're similar to any other graduate level course in the sciences. For mine, we had about 20 students (it was through the physiology department): a mix of upper/lower level PhD students and MSc students like myself. The faculty involved (usually there's 5-6) will assign papers in their own area of expertise for students to choose from and then present to the class along with a written critique. This requires good background knowledge of the material that needs to be presented (both conceptual and technical) because they want you to quickly summarize the findings and focus on interpretation of data (i.e. highlight problems/weaknesses of techniques used etc.) along with analysis. You just have to be critical as if you're the reviewer of the paper. After the 20 min presentation there was about 40 min to an hour of question period where the faculty present would question your knowledge of the material presented in front of the class.

I was also working on funding applications at the time, writing up a manuscript, preparing for a conference and I managed to do well in the courses. The workload isn't too bad (and especially not bad if you did undergrad at UofT in the sciences) if you manage your time well and prepare ahead of time (i.e. not read the assigned paper for the first time a couple of days before your presentation).