r/uoguelph

Hi everyone!
I’m starting Applied Human Nutrition at Guelph this fall and I’m getting ready for course selection. This will be my first time at university, so I feel like I have a million questions.
Right now I’m hoping to go into the Dietetics Area of Emphasis and eventually become an RD. I’m also thinking about doing a Psychology minor because it’s something I’ve always been interested in.
I’d love to hear from current or former AHN students (or honestly anyone at Guelph).
A few things I’ve been wondering about:
Is there anything you wish you knew before choosing your first-year courses?
Are there any professors or courses I should look out for (good or bad)?
Which first-year courses take up the most time?
If you’re interested in dietetics, are there electives you recommend taking early?
Does a Psychology minor make sense with AHN, or would you choose something else?
How hard is it to keep a high GPA in first year?
What are some mistakes first-year AHN students usually make?
When should I start thinking about volunteering, research, networking, conferences, or building experience for dietetics? Is first year too early?
Are there clubs or student organizations you’d actually recommend joining?
How supportive is the program? Does it feel collaborative or competitive?
Any study tips or time management advice that helped you?
Any campus resources that you didn’t discover until later but wish you had known about?
Are there any electives you took just because they were interesting and ended up loving?
And honestly, if there’s anything you think an incoming AHN student should know, I’d really appreciate hearing it.
Also, if anyone is in AHN (especially upper years) and doesn’t feel like typing everything here, please don’t hesitate to send me a message! I’d be happy to chat and would really appreciate any advice.
Thanks so much! Looking forward to starting at Guelph this fall 😊

Hey all! Im entering my 4th year of Biochemistry and I want to share my experiences with newer students who might be required or are deciding between restricted electives for some Bio/Chem/Bioc type courses. Feel free to share your experiences with other courses too!

• BIOL 1080: This is one of those first year courses that requires you to be in class, the content is more about human health and some insight into diseases, it all sense as long as you pay attention to lectures and study study study. When I took it, we had a weekly seminar with a presentation at the end of our findings. SUPER easy marks there as long as your group locks in.
• BIOL 1070: This is a really environmental coded course, the content looks surprisngly easy because its all straight forward stuff that you cant mess up. Like differentiate what environment a turtle can live in. Super fun professors and midterms were fair and square
• BIOL 1090: This is really about genetics and getting into the molecular stuff, out of 1080/1070/1090 I would say this is the most content dense just because there is a lot of building on top of grade 12 bio. Midterms were hard but just becuase of memorization
• MATH 1080: This is literally grade 12 calculus, im not even kidding its the exact same stuff. If you havent taken grade 12 calc then dont worry! The professors are very descriptive and usually want you to understand the concepts. Very very easy midterms (if youve taken grade 12 calc)
• MATH 1090: Now, the jump from 1080 to 1090 is insane. I genuenly struggled in 1090. Youd think that Calc I was so light that Calc II cant be that bad. Yes. Yes its that bad. 3 years later, I couldnt tell you wth we were doing in that class. I remember the prof I had would also write out all the lecture notes handwritten on OneNote and it was really bad handwritting and super hard to follow along if you havent attended class. DO NOT take this couse if you dont have to. If you do, just know that you might need to buy textbooks because the class lectures are nowehere near enough.
• PHYS 1080 and PHYS 1070: I found the difficulty very similar, took these in my first year and never taken physics in highschool. But like, its just math word problems if you think about it. There are take home kits and assignments that take a bit of time but I found it easy to find past work on Studocu and websites with examples or "tutorials" of how others did it and was able to do very well on assignments. Quizzes look very intimidating, but yoou need to attend lectures because the prof will give out hints!!
• STAT 2040: DIE DIE DIE. Awful course, first 2 units were okay and then it just went downhill.
• MBG 2040: Big build up on Biol 1090, a lot of content to memorize and pathways to remember. It is very doable though so dont worry!! A lot of it is repetitive from biol 1090 and the seminars help to chew through the hard stuff with your TA!
• CHEM 2480: I Loved this course a lot, many students found it tough because the reality is that youre given like 8 experiements that you need to perform throughout the semester, accuracy of results also really matters, and some experiments will have to be carried over to the next week. But if you can plan it out, you will do really really well. The prof gabrielsky legit gave a practice midterm that was the actual midterm one time. I havent attenended a single lecture past week 1 and that was the best decision to save time.
• CHEM 2880: Very content dense, attend lectures if Lori Jones is your prof. She barely put any information n the sldes, and very hard to follow along by yourself. The midterms were very fair to the content though, know the formulas, know how to apply formulas, and do ALL the practice questions.
• CHEM 2700: Organic chem... some loved it, most hated it. But listen, once you get it, you GET IT. Do all the practice questions on this one, trust me, the hard work and time dedicated WILL pay off here. Attend lectures with Auzenau she gives very very good tid bits for midterms.
• MICR 2420: I do not remember a lot about this course, but it was also building on top of all the MBG 2040 and biol 1090, it wasnt so content heavy and had seminars that helped.
• MICR 2430: I found this course super fun, didnt attend lectures much because the slides were enough tbh, even if the prof said to attend. It was an older asian man and his exams were SO easy, like calc 1 easy, literally copy paste from slides.
• MCB 2050: Avoid at all costs, trust all the people on this subreddit telling you to not take it. The course is AS BAD as it gets. There is actually way too much content to memorize, way too many pathways to memorize. When I took it, there were maybe 30 slides per lecture, 3x a week. 90 slides a week, and about every 5 slides there was a figure or a diagram of a pathway. Thats roughly 18 pathways or concepts A WEEK. If you have to take this course, then just be ready that it will take most of your time for studying. And guess what? theres barely any practice questions because the department probably only has enough questions to stuff you with on the midterms.
• BIOC 2580: My first biochem course as a biochem major in second year haha. Not as bad as it seems tbh. Yeah you need to memorize 20 amino acids and all the abriviations and shapes. Flashcards help with that more than you think. Content overall is intersting in terms of metabolism pathways and ig just think that these stuff are happening to you in daily life.
• HK 2810: Kinda kicked me in the butt on the first midterm, but more from the fact that I didnt know what to expect. Its all short answer questions, and 3 topics they quiz you on on each midterm, and you can pick 3/6 questions to answer. Like you really just need to udnerstand the processes rather than concept. Like how is light percieved through the dark? the light? What happens when you pull down on a lat bar, what happens when you relax your bicep? Just know the back and forth of each process
• BIOC 3560: very repetitive to bioc 2580, mostly because you can only understand so much from a pathway. Less focus on amino acids and more focus on pathways and processes here. Super doable course.
• BIOC 3570: Very cool lab experience here, the biochem labs just take longer than chem labs in my opinion becasue reactions are slow. But you get to learn about cool machines and what they do. Its partener work too so not so hard. Content very straightforward. There were 1 or 2 written assignments here for which you really had to lock in. Like it was basically a reasearch paper with figures and stuff. But a VERY cool experience and similar course structure to MBG 3350.
• CHEM 3750: Orgo2 wasnt as fun as orgo1 tbh, orgo2 has way more theory and quantum stuff, more of the aldehydes/benzils/gooey stuff like that. But its similar to orgo 1 in the context that once you get it, you GET IT. Do not leave the practice questions to the end here. The practice really helps with exam questions in similarity
• BIOM 3200: Took this online in the fall, not worth 1.0 imo. Like yeah theres a lot of content but by now youre good at memorization and studying so its not as hard as it wouldve been before. My midterms were all online so that really made it easier than having to go in person. Do not leave the lectures to the end though, it will bite you back.
• MBG 3350: This course will teach you PATIENCE and accuracy. Some of the 4 hour labs will actually take 4 hours just because you have to wait SO long for reactions to take. My best recomendation is to choose a good partener, ik its bad to say judge a book by its cover, but sometimes you need to follow your gut and sit next to someone who you know will make you 2 a power duo. Lectures arent so mandatory to attend tbh, if there are lecture recordings then thats good enough. Slides are very descriptive

Hi everyone! I’m starting my 1st year at Guelph in the fall and I have two distance education classes planned, one for each semester, both of which do not have a time slot yet. Will the time slots be released or are they similar to high school online classes where you work at your own pace sorta deal? I just want to make sure that they do not overlap with my classes on campus if I do have to attend meetings of some sort. Sorry if this is a silly question, TIA! :)

I genuinely can't remember anything I learned in grade 12 physics and I lost my notes so I'm pretty worried about taking physics 1080...especially if its heavily based off of grade 12 physics.

I’m a psych major going into third year and I did not really get out much my first two years. I want to change that staring in my third year and I want some advice for it.

I’m thinking of transferring to Guelph from Trent University for many reasons that would require its’ own post. But I am wondering how the undergrad history program is at Guelph. (Such as professors, lecture quality, assignments etc.) as well as the overall student life at Guelph. Would the transfer be worth it or should I just try to suffer it out at Trent? I was initially accepted into Guelph and have always regretted not choosing it.

hi wondering if I should take Jen Murphy or Dimitri soldatov for chem 1050, any advice is appreciated! tysm!

Hi everyone!!

I’m going into second year of Marine and Freshwater Biology at uofg, and I’ve been thinking about transferring to Dalhousie for Marine Biology.

I know Dal is obviously way more marine-focused, so I’m just wondering if anyone who’s in (or has graduated from) the program at Guelph thinks it’s worth staying. Did you still get good marine opportunities, or did you feel like it was mostly freshwater? If you could do it again, would you stay at Guelph or go somewhere like Dal?

Just trying to figure out if transferring is actually worth it before making a huge decision 😭 I’d love to hear anyone’s experiences.

Thanks!!

hi everyone, my high school backpack is on its last limbs from gr 6. if u guys could pls reccomend backpacks that u found r well equipped for uni. if it helps im going into biomed, so not sure if i need a lot of text book space or just enough for a laptop / iPad. thank u!

Is it because most of them recorded and ur not tryna go to 5 pm class or is it because are only the labs useful.

Debating taking either of these courses, looking for some insight please! I'm a Zoology major

Does anybody know when/if the restriction will be lifted for this course?

I’m going into second year in Bio-Medical science and i’m hoping to go to med school. I heard that BIOM3200 wasn’t too hard for a full credit course but I was wondering if maybe it wasn’t as comprehensive and the HK pathway would be better for the MCAT. Also are there any electives anyone would recommend to me in my situation. Thanks in advance for everyone’s help, I really appreciate it :)

I just learned every business major requires 1.5 credits in libreral education electives, but i don’t know what that means. is that just any course that doesn’t begin with a business course code?

I’m in my first year of university and I’m having a child. I’ve tried calling Guelph University with their registering department about trying to speak to someone about figuring out a schedule just in case one of the classes I picked fill up because I have a child and it’s very difficult for me to make time. I was wondering if there’s anybody I could talk to because every time I try to call that number or get transferred to that department. I just get a message saying their office hours their phone line hours, but no one answers the phone They repeat it twice and then hang up. Is there anything I could even do about this or should am I just sol if a class fills up.

Does anyone have any thoughts/have you taken this course before? The course description seems interesting but I can’t find any info anywhere of people’s experiences and if it’s actually worthwhile/ super difficult etc

Will I make it if I’m like 18th on the waitlist this is some bs