Bachelor of Science in Physical Sciences - Honours Earth Sciences

at University of Waterloo Canada

If you enjoy biology and physics and want a career in medical technology or health research, Life Physics at Waterloo is for you.
Run by the Department of Physics and Astronomy — one of the largest and most innovative physics departments in Canada — this flexible and interdisciplinary program is based on a solid foundation of physics, chemistry, and biology. Not to mention that students have the opportunity to gain paid work experience through their co-op streams.

You’ll enjoy small classes, hands-on labs, and the opportunity to get involved in research and teaching.

Specializations

• Medical Physics: Prepare for a career in medical physics, working in areas such as cancer diagnosis and treatment, or in diagnostic imaging.
• Biophysics: Learn about cellular and organ biophysics, as well as biophotonics and imaging. Graduate with a strong foundation in subjects such as quantum physics and molecular biology.

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!

Focus on problems where resources need to be allocated effectively in complex, dynamic, and uncertain conditions.

You'll start with a solid foundation in math, including combinatorics, linear optimization, modeling, scheduling, forecasting, decision theory, and computer simulation. On top of that, you’ll add courses in economics, business, and management science, in addition to the ability to gain paid work experience through co-op.

After first year, you'll choose one of two specializations: Operations Research or Business.

When you graduate, you’ll have all kinds of career options. You might enhance scheduling for airline crews and sports games, improve production and distribution efficiency for manufacturing companies, increase service quality and efficiency in healthcare administration, or develop sophisticated tools for finance and investments.

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!

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 

Biomedical Sciences
Study human and animal systems and their functions related to health, disease, and the healing process. Diversify your knowledge by learning about viruses, bacteria, and other microbes, and how these (along with genetic and environmental influences) can impact health. Examine how the body ages, how disease and injury impact it, and what diagnostic tools can identify physiological problems.

You’ll start with foundational courses in biology, chemistry, physics, and math that prepare you to meet the admission requirements of most health-related professional schools. After first year, you’ll focus on human biology, with courses in anatomy, physiology, histology, microbiology, and biochemistry. Add some complementary courses from science and related disciplines, and then round out your degree with electives of your choice.

Combinatorics looks at permutations and combinations. Optimization explores ways to make any operation work more efficiently within given constraints. Together, they provide powerful methods for modelling and solving large management problems, from optimizing flight schedules to making a factory’s layout as efficient as possible.

In Combinatorics and Optimization at Waterloo, you’ll learn concepts such as enumeration, combinatorical designs, graph theory, linear programming, nonlinear optimization, operations research, and combinatorical optimization, and how to use them in real-world applications. Plus, you'll have the opportunity to gain paid work experience through the co-op program.

When you graduate, you can put your skills to work in areas as diverse as cryptography, electronic security, software development, social media, and risk analysis.

In a bilingual country and an ever-more globalized world, knowledge of French as a second language gives you an edge in almost any field.

At Waterloo, you can choose language courses that range from basic to advanced, as well as a wide variety of courses in French linguistics, literature, culture, and civilization. You’ll learn from professors that include Governor General prize-winners and world experts in French.

In one of the most advanced undergraduate finance programs in the world, you’ll focus on the math behind financial markets.

Offered jointly by the Department of Pure Mathematics and the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Mathematical Finance is designed for students with elite mathematical abilities who wish to pursue finance combined with pure mathematics.

Our challenging curriculum includes courses on corporate finance, mathematical finance, asset-liability management, statistics, and forecasting. It also provides a co-op stream where students can gain up to two years of paid work experience.

Get ready to wrestle with important and complex questions: How do you turn a poor country into a rich country? How can we avoid another global financial crisis? What’s the best way for governments to stimulate new industries like biotechnology and green energy?

In first year, you’ll cover the fundamentals of micro- and macro-economics. In upper years, you can analyze how those principles play out in a wide range of sectors, including public policy, labour economics, health economics, finance, sport, and more.

Whether you’re aiming to work in the public sector, the private sector, or academia, your Economics degree from Waterloo will give you the skills and knowledge you need, along with co-op experience to back you up.

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

Literature and Rhetoric
The Literature and Rhetoric degree brings together the dual strengths of the UWaterloo Department of English. It provides a structured course of study to train you in both disciplines and considerable freedom in exploring your own interests. 

In studying literature and literary theory, you will be grounded in the traditions of British, Canadian, American, and Postcolonial literatures. In studying Rhetoric and Professional Writing, you will explore the history and theory of rhetoric, the nature of professional writing and information design, and digital media.

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!

At Waterloo, we offer much more than just German language courses. Explore German culture, film, literature, and linguistics, or add classes in other Slavic languages like Russian and Croatian, all with the additional appeal of work experience through co-op.

The language skills and cultural competence you develop over the course of your degree will serve you well in a variety of careers, including education, business, and government.

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!

In today’s data-driven world, statisticians are in high demand. Get the skills you need to help businesses market new products, researchers evaluate medical treatments, governments shape effective public policy, and more.

In one of the world’s top centres for statistics, you’ll learn to design experiments and surveys, explore and analyze data, simulate complex systems, and extract meaningful information.

You’ll also get experience in statistical computing, forecasting, mathematical modelling, and statistical process control — all skills that will make you highly marketable. Not to mention up to two years of paid work experience if you enrol in co-op.

Where you apply those skills is up to you. Our grads go on to work in a huge range of fields, including biology, business, engineering, environmental science, finance, manufacturing, and the health sciences.