McMaster University Thread

[Snowy21]

I just felt Mac had been left out since I couldn't find a Mac thread so I had to start one

Anyone else here go to Mac? I'm going into second year in Health Sciences @ Mac

[Lizz__20]

Yeah - I had thought about starting one, but than I forgot to. I go to Mac and I'm going into 3rd years Honours Commerce (with a minor in Poli Sci). Shouldn't we be getting our stickers soon?

[poedua]

I just felt Mac had been left out since I couldn't find a Mac thread so I had to start one

Anyone else here go to Mac? I'm going into second year in Health Sciences @ Mac

Do you live on campus / near school or commute to Mac ( i.e from your parent's place ) ?

My daughter wants to go to Mac and is weighting whether to commute in each day ( from the Oakville area ) ...which means getting a used car, paying for insurance, paying for gas, paying parking at Mac OR taking the Go Bus to Mac ( about $150 a month ) from Oakville ...which I think takes just under 1 hour to get to Mac.

Do you know a lot of students that commute in to Mac ?

[kagome999]

I just graduated from mac and lived in residence. If it is affordable, I would really recommend living in residence at least for the first year because it's a great experience, a chance for her to gain independence, and she will be able to meet many new people. It is also much more convenient...getting to class will take 5 minutes of walking instead of 30+ minutes of driving.

But if she chooses to commute and drive, parking is very expensive on campus. most students park at a friend's driveway and pay them a monthly fee (which is much cheaper). The go bus is pretty convenient because it takes you right to the west end of campus. So it might be cheaper to take the go bus unless your daughter finds a driveway to park at.

[Lizz__20]

Also be careful about buying a car, if it's hers she has to put it on her osap application, and I've heard of people who previously got osap, not getting it after they got a car because osap now says they have enough assets to pay for school.

Also classes can be as early as 8:30am, she's gonna have to get up pretty early to make that. Also she might have a big gap between classes and have to kill a lot of time on campus. Living on campus or at least in Hamilton would be way easier. Once you ad up the cost of a car, gas, insurance, parking, meals bought on campus, residence might not be that much more. (Residence Costs & Meal Plans.) You can feel a little disconeccted from the university when all you do is come to class and than go home. It might be hard to participate in sports/clubs/other events having to leave time to commute. Obviously people do it and some are fine with it - I would definately recomend the Go bus if she does, it will be so much cheaper.

[royal]

good to see a mac thread on here, i am going to mac this year.. it will be my first year in mac's commerce program.. seems like it gonna be a good year..

also lizz you said that you were in 3rd year commerce, just as a true perspective are commerce course really that hard to pass as i heard thier drop out rate is really high.

[Lizz__20]

good to see a mac thread on here, i am going to mac this year.. it will be my first year in mac's commerce program.. seems like it gonna be a good year..

also lizz you said that you were in 3rd year commerce, just as a true perspective are commerce course really that hard to pass as i heard thier drop out rate is really high.

It really depends on your areas of strength and how muchtime you put into it. I don't spend enough time studying cus I work full time so my marks could be higher. I transfered in later in the program so I don't know what all the courses are like. 1st yr economics is pretty easy once you get the basics concepts down as some of the later stuff is based on similar ideas. Make sure you're good at derivatives - you will need them for 2nd year economics. 1st & 2nd year accounting is pretty easy too. I found 2nd yr finance somewhat hard, but I think I just didn't spend enough time on it - I'm working on my CSC and I recognize some of the concepts from that course. The Marketing prof is a little anal. I don't know if you do group work in 1st year, but biggest thing I can tell you for 2nd year marketing is choose your group members wisely or you will get screwed as I did.
Also either search the classifieds or buy your books as soon as the 1st year bookstore sire opens so you can look for good used copies. They'll have a list of required books for you class(bring your timetable cus it will have your section and sometime different profs for the same class require dif books) Just keep your receipt, you can always exchange them if you change sections/classes. I don't know if you're living in rez, if you're not there's a plan where you put money on your student card to buy food which saves you 5%. That's all I can think of for now.
Most courses if you bother to show up and do the reading/assigned problems you'll do ok.

[Necrosis]

Do you live on campus / near school or commute to Mac ( i.e from your parent's place ) ?

My daughter wants to go to Mac and is weighting whether to commute in each day ( from the Oakville area ) ...which means getting a used car, paying for insurance, paying for gas, paying parking at Mac OR taking the Go Bus to Mac ( about $150 a month ) from Oakville ...which I think takes just under 1 hour to get to Mac.

Do you know a lot of students that commute in to Mac ?

I knew of quite a few commuters when I was at Mac. However, for first year I would HIGHLY recommend residence. It's an experience in itself, you meet a lot of people and it's very convenient for when you aren't used to university life. After that, the cheapest option to live near campus is student housing (which can be quite nice) at around $350/month, or of course she could choose to commute at that point.

[azn_dan]

I knew of quite a few commuters when I was at Mac. However, for first year I would HIGHLY recommend residence. It's an experience in itself, you meet a lot of people and it's very convenient for when you aren't used to university life. After that, the cheapest option to live near campus is student housing (which can be quite nice) at around $350/month, or of course she could choose to commute at that point.

+1 to that. Residence is a very good option for first year. Not only will it help her meet people and friends, but she doesn't have to take that 1 hour bus ride. Yes there are lots of people who commute from oakville.

Also the thing about our stickers, i got mine last week, so i guess it should have arrived for some. Though i do live in hamilton, so that could be the case.

[P90Puma]

3rd year comp sci.

[Khrak]

3rd year comp. eng.

+1 for rez first year if possible.

[Lizz__20]

Also the thing about our stickers, i got mine last week, so i guess it should have arrived for some. Though i do live in hamilton, so that could be the case.

I live in Hamilton too. Just checked my program summary and my confirmation letter was printed yesterday, so I should get it soon.

[chriskris_1221]

3rd year economics

[azn_dan]

4th year chemical eng.

[Snowy21]

Heh, I'm going into 2nd year Bachelor of Health Sciences But I actually live at home, mostly because I'm from Hamilton and my parents wouldn't pay for residence....

Personal experiences for living at home... it does take away alot of that university experience thing... I'm not very happy about having had to live at home... but it is practical. It saves alot of money.... I drive to school, and between gas and parking I'd say it comes to ~$1000-1200 (for the 8 months) depending on stuff like what car you drive and such.... parking was a pain since Zone 6 (the undergrad parking lot) is ridiculously far... I mean they have a shuttle bus to campus but it's still annoying. Next year, I'm renting out a driveway.... it's actually MORE expensive, but it's within a half minute/one minute walk of the student centre, so I consider it worth it.

Seems most of the people on here are finance/commerce haha, although it makes sense given the context.