Bachelor of Arts in Honours Arts - Classical Studies

at University of Waterloo Canada

In this exciting, highly interactive program (formerly Speech Communication), you’ll explore how our everyday forms of communication create meaning and shape our perspective of the world. This degree is unique within Canada for our experience-based study of verbal, non-verbal, visual, and digital communication practices.

You’ll learn to master interviewing skills, become adept at public speaking, and communicate effectively as a leader. You'll also study the dynamics of communication in your personal interactions, your classrooms, workspaces, in your use of online and digital spaces, and more broadly in media and public communication.

Over the course of your degree, you’ll hone your written and oral communication skills while developing expertise in teamwork, research, visual and digital literacy, and critical analysis — just the kind of skills that employers are hungry for. Enrolling in the co-op stream will provide insights into possible careers and paid work experience along the way.

What is co-op?
Co-op lets you explore careers and gain paid work experience while earning your university degree. What could be better than that?! As a co-op student at Waterloo, you’ll normally alternate between four months in school and four months as a full-time employee of the organization you're working for. It's an amazing way to learn to successfully interview for jobs, see how your degree relates to real-life problems, graduate with up to two years of valuable experience – and make money!

Discover how to enhance quality of life by improving physical, social, and mental health. In Recreation and Leisure Studies, you’ll learn how well-designed recreation programs can foster inclusivity and strengthen the cultural fabric of a community.

Recreation and Leisure Studies represents one of the world's largest and fastest growing industries. If you think about it, anything that you are doing outside of work, school and sleeping, is some form of recreation and leisure.

Here at the University of Waterloo you'll learn from world-class professors how you can influence, encourage, and provide programs and services that help people maximize their quality of life. Whether you're into sports marketing, ecotourism, therapeutic recreation, or event management, the opportunities are endless.

What is co-op?
Co-op lets you explore careers and gain paid work experience while earning your university degree. What could be better than that?! As a co-op student at Waterloo, you’ll normally alternate between four months in school and four months as a full-time employee of the organization you're working for. It's an amazing way to learn to successfully interview for jobs, see how your degree relates to real-life problems, graduate with up to two years of valuable experience – and make money!

Study at one of the world’s best schools for computer science, where more than 80 professors are pushing the boundaries of the field.

Computer Science focuses on the study of software, algorithms, programming, and the limits of computation. Using a combination of theory and application, you will learn how to describe problems in a formal, precise way so that machines can solve them. You will also learn about managing large scale programs, and about understanding the power, limitations, and organization of computer software and hardware.

The Bachelor of Mathematics - Major in Computer Science (BMath/CS) will allow you to study computer science with a larger combination of math courses to satisfy your degree. If you are admitted to the BMath program, you will need to declare a major in Computer Science starting in second year. You'll need to speak with an advisor to modify your plan as well as satisfy our requirements.

You can gain two years of paid work experience through our co-op program, the largest of its kind in North America, or fast track your degree by choosing the regular system of study.

What is co-op?
Co-op lets you explore careers and gain paid work experience while earning your university degree. What could be better than that?! As a co-op student at Waterloo, you’ll normally alternate between four months in school and four months as a full-time employee of the organization you're working for. It's an amazing way to learn to successfully interview for jobs, see how your degree relates to real-life problems, graduate with up to two years of valuable experience – and make money!

Earn a Bachelor of Science degree and your Commercial Pilot Licence through the largest aviation program in Canada.

Your core science education will be supplemented with courses that include cartography, climatology, geographic information systems, aerodynamics, and remote sensing. Our curriculum also emphasizes the organizational and communication skills you’ll need to succeed in the working world.

Aviation and aerospace industries demand a new breed of specialists who have well-developed analytical and decision-making skills, along with an understanding of complex aircraft systems.

Waterloo’s Science and Aviation program equips you with that expertise.

Program highlights

• Log 200+ flight hours. You’ll spend lots of time in the air — flight hours that count toward your Commercial Pilot Licence with aviation courses through the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre.
• Build valuable skills. When you graduate, your combination of a university degree and a pilot’s licence will set you up for a wide range of airborne and ground-based careers — and give you a distinctive edge over your competition.

What will you learn?
First-year courses
In your first year, you'll take a mixture of Aviation, Geography, and science courses to give you the foundations for your upper-year classes. After first year, most of your classes will be Aviation and science courses with some Mathematics and Geography courses.

Life Sciences is the study of living organisms, ranging from the very tiny world of microbiology and genetics to the physiology and zoology of the world’s great mammals – with plants, botany, and more in between!

At Waterloo, Life Sciences is a group of related majors. The four Life Sciences majors (Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedical Sciences, and Psychology) bring together disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, and math to help you learn how living systems work and interact. When you apply to Waterloo, you'll select one of the majors and get to do labs and experiments starting right in first year. You can choose the co-op program or the regular system of study 

Biology
Explore all aspects of life and living creatures – from cells and genes to species and diversity.

Some of the greatest scientific discoveries have occurred within the field of biology, including the mapping of the human genome, identifying the structure of DNA, and how photosynthesis works. All of these revelations happened because dedicated scientists looked at the world a little differently.

At Waterloo, you’ll dive into your Biology major right from day one. And with more than 80 biology courses available, you’ve got plenty of options. From microbes and genes to plants and zoology, we've got something for anyone who's passionate about living systems.

You’ll graduate ready for a career in laboratory or field research, environmental assessment, education, health professions, or industry. If you enrol in co-op, you'll also have up to two years of paid work experience to add to your resume.

What is co-op?
Co-op lets you explore careers and gain paid work experience while earning your university degree. What could be better than that?! As a co-op student at Waterloo, you’ll normally alternate between four months in school and four months as a full-time employee of the organization you're working for. It's an amazing way to learn to successfully interview for jobs, see how your degree relates to real-life problems, graduate with up to two years of valuable experience – and make money!

Do you look up at night and dream of distant galaxies? Do you wonder about the origin of the universe? Explore your curiosity with a Physics and Astronomy degree from Waterloo.

Complement your foundational studies in physics and math with courses in astronomy. Interested in research? Waterloo's Centre for Astrophysics hosts aspiring young researchers and students, helping them to unlock the mysteries of the universe. Researchers will collaborate with some of the top astrophysics agencies in the world.

The program’s strong ties to Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing provide additional opportunities to get involved in research. Meanwhile, if you opt for our co-op program, you’ll gain valuable résumé-building experience on your work terms.

What is co-op?
Co-op lets you explore careers and gain paid work experience while earning your university degree. What could be better than that?! As a co-op student at Waterloo, you’ll normally alternate between four months in school and four months as a full-time employee of the organization you're working for. It's an amazing way to learn to successfully interview for jobs, see how your degree relates to real-life problems, graduate with up to two years of valuable experience – and make money!

Love the written word? An English degree at Waterloo gives you all kinds of opportunity to explore that passion, with more than 150 undergraduate courses available in both the regular and co-op streams.

Take rhetoric courses and learn the art of persuasion. Focus on digital media, where you’ll merge the latest technology with enduring principles of effective communication. Or explore the pleasures and insights of English literature, from Beowulf to Virginia Woolf.

At Waterloo, you’ll be learning from the best: the Department of English features internationally recognized scholars. In their classes, you’ll develop all-important skills in communication, critical thinking, analysis, and persuasion.

At the end of first year, you can choose one of three majors within the English program.

• Literature
• Literature and Rhetoric
• Rhetoric, Media, and Professional Communication

The Rhetoric, Media, and Professional Communication program
Rhetoric, Media, and Professional Communication is one of three majors offered by the English Department. RMPC offers both intellectual challenge and practical insight into rhetoric, professional writing and information design, and digital media.

This degree will give you a solid grounding in classical and contemporary rhetoric and allow you to pursue interests in advertising, technical writing, document design, and digital media.

Courses
In the English-RMPC program you will be taking courses that span a number of different fields:

• Rhetoric and professional communication courses will give you experience not only in writing in a variety of modes and for a variety of purposes and audiences, but also in exploring a variety of research methods.
• Digital media courses will give you opportunities to both analyze and create a broad variety of digital media texts.
• Linguistics courses will show you the nature and structure of the language through which we express and define ourselves. 
• Literature and criticism courses will allow you to select from a broad range of traditions, including British, Canadian, American, and Postcolonial literatures.
• RMPC electives will give you the opportunity to extend your interests in many directions.
• On graduation, you'll be prepared for graduate studies in several areas including literature, language, communications, and composition studies, or for a career in business, industry, government, teaching, or communications—in any field, in other words, that values a well-educated person capable of analytical, critical, and creative thinking, writing, and speaking.

What is co-op?
Co-op lets you explore careers and gain paid work experience while earning your university degree. What could be better than that?! As a co-op student at Waterloo, you’ll normally alternate between four months in school and four months as a full-time employee of the organization you're working for. It's an amazing way to learn to successfully interview for jobs, see how your degree relates to real-life problems, graduate with up to two years of valuable experience – and make money!

Mathematics is the foundation of commerce, computing, engineering, and science. This program is the most flexible of all programs in the Faculty of Mathematics.

It provides you with a broad mathematics education, including courses in algebra, calculus, combinatorics, computer science, geometry, number theory, and statistics, in addition to the opportunity to gain up to two years of paid work experience through co-op. If you enjoy mathematics and want the opportunity to hone your analytical, technical, and problem-solving skills, but don’t want to narrow your focus on one major only, then this program is for you.

What is co-op?
Co-op lets you explore careers and gain paid work experience while earning your university degree. What could be better than that?! As a co-op student at Waterloo, you’ll normally alternate between four months in school and four months as a full-time employee of the organization you're working for. It's an amazing way to learn to successfully interview for jobs, see how your degree relates to real-life problems, graduate with up to two years of valuable experience – and make money!

Delve into the roots of Western civilization and gain a deep understanding of ancient Greece and Rome — cultures that continue to shape our thinking and our society today.

Discover the enduring ideas of greats like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Master enough ancient Greek and Latin to study classic texts in their original language. Explore the many facets of antiquity: from history, religion, and philosophy to art, science, and technology.

Meanwhile, you’ll have lots of room to round out your education with courses from other departments or faculties and with work experience through co-op. Once you’ve graduated, the broad thinking demanded by the program will serve you well in a range of careers, including law, policy, culture, education, and more.

What is co-op?
Co-op lets you explore careers and gain paid work experience while earning your university degree. What could be better than that?! As a co-op student at Waterloo, you’ll normally alternate between four months in school and four months as a full-time employee of the organization you're working for. It's an amazing way to learn to successfully interview for jobs, see how your degree relates to real-life problems, graduate with up to two years of valuable experience – and make money!

As a Waterloo Health Studies student you'll be working with world-class professors that are making a difference in health in Canada and worldwide.

Health Studies is shifting the focus of traditional health
At the University of Waterloo, you'll study human health in a non-traditional way. Rather than a focus on treatments after diagnosis, we have a larger vision: to find strategies for preventing disease, promoting health, and improving health care services to make them more integrated and responsive.

Be prepared to tackle health challenges and look for the keys to transforming the health of individuals, communities, and health care systems in Canada and around the world.

Health Research Specialization
A specialization provides a secondary area of study in addition to your major. It is an academic plan that offers an area of concentration and provides depth to a student's primary area of study. Specializations are only available to students within their primary department.

Employers need professionals who can understand, generate, and interpret health research to help them make effective decisions. Graduate and professional schools are looking for students who have experience in research design, data management, and analysis.

The Health Research Specialization will provide you with advanced opportunities to generate and interpret health research and evaluation data that is vital to the development of health programs, services, and policies. This specialization will provide you with a strong understanding of research methods, access to advanced seminars, and the opportunity to conduct an honours thesis (research project) under the supervision of a professor.

Experiential learning: co-op or regular
As a Health Studies student, you have two great ways to study - co-op or regular. Regardless of which path you choose, you’ll take the same academic courses, learn in state-of-the-art facilities, and have the support of friendly, helpful staff.