Science 101

Because each student’s situation is unique, please reach out to Claire Wilson at science_recruiter@sfu.ca, if you have any concerns about maintaining your offer of admission to the Faculty of Science.

Courses used as part of your application to SFU must be completed by June 30. If you are taking a course to meet a class prerequisite that is not required for your admission to SFU, it can be completed after June 30. But you would not be able to enroll in any class that has that course as a prerequisite until the final grade is submitted to SFU.

You can request a deferral of admission, and if granted, it may be for up to one full year. Full details on the admission deferral process are here. Applications for deferral open July 1 and close August 15. If your deferral is approved, you do not need to pay tuition fees until you begin your studies.

Deferrals are not granted to students planning to study at another post-secondary institution.

If you are attending high school in BC, your final grades are usually sent directly to SFU through the Student Transcript Service. If you are attending high school outside of BC, or are attending another college/university, check your application To Do List to see if you have any outstanding documents to submit. 

Once you activate your SFU computing ID, you can log into AdvisorLink. This platform displays your advisors and their upcoming appointment availability. You can then book what suits you. Depending on the advisor, you may have options for in-person, Zoom, or phone meetings.

There are also drop-in advising times, in-person and over Zoom, in Sci-Space.

If you have already been declared into one of Science's eight departments, you'll have a departmental advisor.

For general inquiries, switching programs or academic difficulty, Maisie Morsara and Aiden Wickey can help you with general advising resources.

Your advisor is Nadia Williams if you are:

• a Science student interested in the General Science Double Minor degree
• an undecided Science student with over 60 units
• a Surrey campus Science student in any program

Enrollment appointments for Fall 2025 begin on July 6th and continue throughout the month. You should be receiving an email with your enrollment date in mid-to-late June.

You can view the enrollment priority assignment process here.

Your enrollment appointment is the earliest you can begin registering for courses, so enroll as soon as possible. While you can continue enrolling over the summer and up until the first week of classes, courses can fill up quickly. We highly recommend enrolling as close as possible to your assigned date/time.

Yes! Students can use MySchedule to draft course plans as of mid-to-late June. University Prep Step 1 and Step 2 will also cover how to create draft course schedules.

How many courses you take each semester is up to you! Most full-time students take 3-5 courses each semester, with fewer courses allowing for more time for other activities, such as extracurriculars or work. Taking fewer courses per term can mean your degree takes longer than 4 years, but this is very normal. For many full-time students, four courses are considered a manageable course load. For part-time students, this typically means taking 1 or 2 courses per term. For more information on course load considerations, please see this page.

It can be a good idea to take a smaller course load in your first term to make the transition to university easier. SFU operates on a tri-semester system, meaning that it offers courses three terms per year, and you have flexibility on when you take courses.

The maximum allowable course load is 18 credits (approximately 6 classes), and it is not recommended.

We recommend creating a back-up plan with your academic advisor before the enrollment period begins, just in case a course you were planning to take fills up. In the event that a class is full, there is usually an option to add yourself to a waitlist; if a spot becomes available later, students are slotted in from the waitlist. If possible, try waitlisting in tutorial/lab sections with fewer students waiting.

As part of creating a back-up plan, look for classes with multiple sections so you can choose a time that fits your schedule.

Prerequisites are requirements that need to be met before you can enroll in a course. For example, CHEM 121 has a prerequisite of having completed Chemistry 12 with a grade of at least a B (among others).

A corequisite is a requirement that you enroll in more than one course at the same time. For example, PHYS 101 has MATH 154 and BISC 100/101/102 as corequisites.

It’s also possible to complete a corequisite course beforehand (e.g. like a prerequisite!), rather than take it at the same time as the other course.

Yes, absolutely! The vast majority of lower division/first-and-second-year courses at SFU are open to all students who meet the prerequisites, so as long as those are met and there is space available in the course, you can take it.

Writing, Quantitative, and Breadth (WQB for short) is SFU's requirement for all students to graduate with a variety of courses, which you can also think of as electives. There are hundreds of elective classes to choose from. Typically, when folks at SFU are talking about electives, they are referring to the 'Breadth' component of the 'Writing, Quantitative, and Breadth' (WQB) graduation requirement. While it is up to you which electives to take to meet WQB requirements, we recommend pursuing subjects that interest you the most. You might even end up pursuing a minor in that subject!

Check out the University Prep course for more info. 

Course enrollment at SFU is on a semester-by-semester basis; you will enroll only in the Fall semester for now. Spring enrollment is in November, and Summer enrollment is in March.

While the Summer term offers fewer courses than the Fall and Spring terms, around two-thirds of the student body is typically enrolled, so it’s still pretty extensive! Many first-year core Science courses, especially, are available all year round.

Most departments in the Faculty of Science publish their upcoming course offerings on their websites. 

• Biological Sciences
• Biomedical Physiology & Kinesiology
• Chemistry
• Earth Sciences
• Mathematics
• Molecular Biology & Biochemistry
• Physics 
• Statistics and Actuarial Sciences

Students can log in to their Student Centre at GoSFU to see their transfer credits by selecting “Transfer Credit Report” or “Transfer Credit Summary” under the “Academics” header.  These credits can also be found on your Advising Transcript, available on the same page. Please note that the terms “credit” and “unit” are used interchangeably at SFU.

Yes, you can! You can ask the Undergraduate Admissions Office to remove the credit from your record and then enroll in the course at SFU like usual.

The Faculty of Science is primarily located on the Burnaby campus, where most of our courses are offered. Many core first-year Science courses are also offered at our Surrey campus. You can choose to take classes at either campus. If you would like to be a designated Surrey campus student, you can contact Nadia Williams at science_advisor@sfu.ca.

SCI-100 is a 1-credit course designed to help Science students develop the skills they need to thrive in their program, with a focus on studying, time management, research, and extracurricular involvement. We highly recommend it, especially for students new to post-secondary studies!

If you’re studying life sciences (kinesiology, biomedical physiology, behavioural neuroscience, molecular biology & biochemistry, and biological sciences), we recommend MATH 154.

All other Science majors usually take MATH 150 or 151, depending on their Pre-Calculus 12 grade. The content of the lectures is the same, the only difference is an extra hour of instruction in MATH 150.

MATH 157 is intended for business and economics students and is not suitable for Science majors.

If you did not receive a high enough grade in Pre-Calculus 12 to proceed directly to Calculus I, you can either retake the course through a school district or complete Pre-Calculus Mathematics at SFU (MATH 100 or 110 for MATH 150/151 and MATH 154, respectively). Learn more about meeting Calculus I prerequisites here.

Calculus 12 is not a prerequisite for taking Calculus I at SFU.

Yes, it is! If you would like to change to another program within the Faculty of Science before this Fall, please get in touch with Claire Wilson at science_recruiter@sfu.ca.

After the Fall semester begins, students can still change their program within the Faculty of Science or even to a different Faculty altogether. This process is called an internal transfer, and every program handles internal transfers slightly differently. Please reach out to the advisor of the program you'd like to switch to for more information on their specific process.

A Bachelor's Degree is a minimum of 120 units of study, and takes approximately four to five years to complete. Most courses are 3 or 4 units, so a degree consists of about 30-40 courses. Students can specialize within their degree with majors, minors, and certificates.

Science majors typically require approximately 75 units, which is slightly more than half of a degree (although some may require more). Minors and certificates usually consist of 30 or so units, which is fewer than a major but still a substantial amount of study. 

Joint majors occur when two programs share some overlap in their content, allowing students to complete two majors in approximately 90 units.

If you are interested in adding a second major, it's a great idea to connect with the academic advisor for the program you are not already in. 

You can pursue combinations of majors and minors, both within the Faculty of Science and outside it (for example, molecular biology and biochemistry and computing science, which is in the Faculty of Applied Science). See the different program options within Science here.

Tuition fees are typically due at the end of the second week of classes (deadlines here). You can pay online or in person at any campus, and payment plans are available.

Lecture halls can certainly be quite large! The largest lecture halls at the Burnaby campus hold up to 500 students (about half that number at the Surrey campus, which generally has smaller class sizes). To help offset larger lectures, tutorials usually have only about 20 students, and labs range from 20 to 80 students. When you are planning your courses, you will be able to see how many spots there are in each section to get a sense of its size.

As you progress throughout your studies, class sizes get much smaller. It’s not uncommon for upper-division / third- and fourth-year courses to have a couple of dozen students in total.

For each class you are taking, it’s pretty typical to spend at least 6 hours a week studying, reading, reviewing notes, working on assignments, and preparing for exams. The library has an excellent study guide.

When it comes to taking notes, it really comes down to whatever way works best for you! Some students use paper, others digital tools. The Student Learning Commons has a great resource directory, and check out Sci-Space this Fall for workshops! These are offered both in-person and via Zoom.

Yes, they are! Professors and TAs will have what are called ‘office hours’ – time they set aside each week to be available for students. If someone’s office hours conflict with another class you are attending, contact them to arrange an alternative. The timing can vary, but often office hours are within a few hours of class time.

The Faculty of Science runs a completely free peer academic support program! We highly recommend it.

Sci-Space offers many academic workshops throughout the semester to help with study skills, exam strategies, and more. We list all our upcoming events online, alongside other helpful info!

The mathematics department also offers free math workshops and open labs on a drop-in basis. See more information here.

The folks at the Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) here at SFU are wonderful! CAL works with students to provide accommodations so they can continue learning at SFU in ways that meet their needs. Usually, some form of documentation is required, so we recommend contacting their office for the next steps. Accommodations can include more time to write exams, writing exams in a quiet area, having a professor use a dedicated microphone, and ASL interpretation. CAL also assists students with short-term issues (e.g. having a broken wrist and needing a notetaker in class).

In addition to speaking to your professor and/or teaching assistant (TA), we encourage you to connect with your departmental advisor. Aiden Wickey, our Sci-Space Student Success Coordinator, is also a great resource. Last, but not least, the Student Learning Commons is fantastic!

SFU has a limit of 5 repeated courses throughout your degree, and any given course can only be repeated once unless you get special permission from the department. Find full details about course repeats here.

Welcome Day is a great way to get familiarized with campus and get to know some of your fellow students! It will be held on Tuesday, September 8, and an invitation will be sent to you via email in August. Welcome Days happen at each of SFU’s three campuses.

The Science Peer Mentorship program is designed to support new students, both first-year and transfer, in their social, personal, and academic transition to the Faculty of Science – and we cannot recommend it enough! You can learn more on our website here.

Truly, there are tons! You can browse the list here. Around the second or third week of September, the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) will host Clubs Days, where you can chat with members and sign up.

Science student unions are also active student groups that you can join - meet peers from your program, join events, and more. See the full list here.

Co-op is paid work experience (not an unpaid internship) in a field related to what you are studying, and is usually done during your second to fourth year. You apply for positions just like you would for any other job, and they can last for one, two, or even three terms (four, eight, or twelve months). Students work full-time without taking classes during co-op and typically work for at least three terms during their degree. Many students get offered jobs with one of their employers after they graduate! It’s a great way to get your foot in the door and to try out different industries.

You can apply for co-op after the end of first year (about 24-30 completed units), and you should apply to join the program at least two terms in advance of your first intended work term (e.g. apply in the Fall if you intend to work in the Summer). Transfer students can consider applying to co-op in their first or second term at SFU. The Science Co-op page is a great resource for more information.

Yes! SFU offers many courses that meet the prerequisites for professional programs across Canada and abroad. Be sure to consult the prerequisites for whichever program(s) you are interested in. Usually, these courses are at the lower division/first-and second-year level. We recommend checking in with academic advisors to discuss your plans!

The SFU Stephens Family School of Medicine will focus in particular on training students to become family doctors (general practitioners), but students can also pursue other areas of specialization. For the latest on the SFU Stephens Family School of Medicine, visit their website.

The Faculty of Science has some of the most extensive research facilities at SFU! Our faculty is deeply committed to research that addresses fundamental and cutting-edge topics from an interdisciplinary perspective. Students can find something that piques their curiosity and get involved by connecting with professors and researchers as undergraduate students - like working in a lab, being part of a long-term research team, or being out in the field.

You can learn more about undergraduate research here.

SFU has a huge study abroad program, with over 130+ partner schools in more than 40 countries. You can browse those schools here and learn more about studying abroad here.

Student loans are administered by StudentAid BC for British Columbia residents. For anyone from outside British Columbia, student loans are administered by your province/state/country. SFU’s Financial Aid & Awards team has a resource page for student loans, here.

It depends on what is most convenient (and, maybe, cost-effective!) for you. All students receive a U-Pass, an all-zone transit pass, covered by your student fees. There are a variety of parking options at the Burnaby and Surrey campuses, and you might also want to consider carpooling with fellow students. If you are taking any courses in Vancouver, please note that there is no designated student parking at that campus.

From fitness programs and intramural leagues to the climbing wall and sports clubs, SFU Recreation has a lot to offer students. Your student fees include membership to the gym and many of its activities. And, if you are a Surrey campus student, you might be eligible for a Surrey Parks & Recreation membership.

Every room in Residence is a single room, there are no doubles or triples. It’s a great community! Some students live in Residence for a short time, and some for their whole degrees - it varies. And if you make friends with folks in Residence, you may visit them any time you are invited.

Fees for one term range from $3,800 - $4,900, depending on the building. Some dorms also require a meal plan because they do not have kitchens. Full fees are listed here. The Dining Commons offers meal plans and is otherwise open to everyone for meals (if you don’t have a meal plan, you can just pay the door rate).

You can learn more about Residence and apply here.

While it is past the May 1 deadline for guaranteed housing, applications are still being accepted,  and the Residence and Housing Office will continue to make offers over the summer until all spots are filled.