University of Toronto, Health & Disease, Biology, Aren

Name: Aren

Age: 19

College / University: University of Toronto

Major: Health & Disease, Biology

Country origin: Japan

What did you do in high school to prepare you for this major? Tell us about your extracurricular activities and any honors/awards you received while preparing for university.

For this major, I mainly focused on AP courses in the science field, such as AP Biology and AP Chemistry. Taking these courses before university helped me a lot, since the first-year university curriculum covers many topics from high school.  

As for extracurricular activities, I haven’t done much related to my major. I have been dancing ballet for years, and I also contributed to some school sports teams.

Please tell us your daily life schedule as a student with this major in your university.

I usually wake up around 7 or 8, have breakfast with my roommate, and get ready for my first class, which usually starts around 10 a.m. On average, I have 2 to 4 classes every day, with labs (about 3 hours long) held once every two weeks. The class schedule varies, so some days I finish around 3 p.m., and other days around 8 p.m. (It really depends on the person!)  

Since I usually have 1 to 2 hours of break between classes, I spend that time going to the library to study, meet up with friends, or just relax. It’s the fun free time :)

How do you manage your stress? What's the secret?

Obviously, university classes are a lot harder than high school or junior high, so catching up with coursework while studying for tests is always overwhelming. On the other hand, you also get a lot of free time! You’re not required to stay in school from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. while being monitored by teachers. Meeting up with friends? Going out to eat something good, or going for a walk… it’s all up to you! 

I really enjoy goofing off with my roommate when we’re both really COOKED from studying. 

What advice would you give high school students wanting to study this major?

My major, Life Science, is a massive field with many different branches. Even though I picked a Health & Disease and Biology major for now, it’s possible to change your major in the upper years. So keep an open mind about what you want to do! Similarly, STEM is a very broad field that covers a lot of topics. As you take multiple classes, you might realize that you want to study something else. Just because you started with science or math, it doesn’t mean you have to do that in university ;)

What was the most helpful when applying to college for this major?

There’s not much to say about this from me, but as going through university, I’ve realized that it is very important to do many extracurricular activities such as volunteering! While you’re also required to do these in university, it’s better to have any kind of experience beforehand. Volunteering at a hospital, company, or anywhere can be written in your resume.

Thank you to Aren!

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