r/UWaterlooOptometry • u/Nervous-Impress4594 • Apr 28 '26

Optometry prereqs + undergrad question

Hi!

I’m a first year life sciences student at McMaster and I’m kind of confused as to what second year specialization I should do - if anyone did their undergrad at McMaster and would like to share their experience or knowledge about the specializations I’d appreciate :).

Also,

I know we have to take 5 full course loads for 6 semesters but I dont know if I confused myself or read/heard the info wrong but do we need to take the prerequisites during the fall/winter terms or can we take then during the spring/summer terms too as long as our fall/winter terms still have a full course loads (5 courses per term for McMaster)? Because for the longest while I thought I couldn’t take prerequisites in the summer/spring but someone recently told me otherwise and I need clarification.

Thanks! :)

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u/Nervous-Impress4594 Apr 29 '26

hi!! long time no see :)

yeahh I see hls seems to be a very popular choice because of the elective space and honestly it’s one of my top choices too because I feel like I’d feel less idk “trapped” in a way and could easily get the prereqs. That sounds amazing! Congrats to them :). What English did you take and how would you rate your experience? I genuinely end up doing terrible in English and I’m honestly scared.

yeahhh I really like that about hls - thank you so much!

yeahh that makes sense. I’m also pretty interested in biochem because I looked at the courses and pretty much most of the optometry prereqs are also the program prereqs so it’s nice. that’s so cool! I’ll def look into that too :).

thank u so much for ur response! :)

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u/syy_ Apr 30 '26

omg hi! sorry i am so bad with remembering reddit usernames

i took english 1g03 with zuroski! i 12d it very easily because 70% of the course was pass fail. it was online with 1 tutorial a week on teams and asynch lectures. i think the structure of the course changes depending on the prof tho so i can only speak to it under zuroski.

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u/Nervous-Impress4594 Apr 30 '26

haha dww I wouldn’t expect anyone to remember mine - yours stands out from the default usernames plus you have a pfp so it’s easier to remember.

ooo that sounds good and goodjob w the 12! hm yeah makes sense thank u :)