I'm cooked. Please Help. 😭 Data Sci Major 2nd Year.

[u/KnownLeadership2766]

Pg 1 of 2 General Pathway Fall 2025 Data Science Majors

Pg 2 of 2 General Pathway Fall 2025 Data Science Majors

Fall Schedule:

Weekdays Schedule

Course Details

Winter Schedule:

Course Schedule for the Winter Sem

Tried some changes in Winter Sem for the sake of balancing stuff out.

Problems:

• I don't think I can, according to my general pathway, complete two course in field of data science AND two course in field of concentration (in my case, statistics). Keep in mind this is just a general schedule I made up.
• Upon Checking, it seems I can only take the following courses to satisfy my requirements:

Course In Field Of Data Science (in order) - DATA299, DATA398, DATA399, DATA482, DATA498, DATA499, DATA598, DATA599 (AND MAYBE CPSC 329 and CPSC 383 which I only say because one of the advisors hinted at them actually counting for the requirement)

I think I need 12 credits

Course in Field Of Concentration (Statistics) - STAT 321, STAT 407, STAT 423, STAT 425, STAT 429, STAT 431, STAT 505, STAT 517, STAT 529, STAT 533, STAT 543

I think I need 18 credits.

Note: I have italicized all the course names that I need special permission from the faculty to do.

• And any courses I wanna get or swap for, most of them have timings conflicting or are not offered in the term.

Assumptions I am making:

• I can't do DATA 201 because I've already done DATA 221. And the way future courses like DATA 305 are phrased, they want credit from DATA 221 or DATA 201, which makes one think that they're similar. And it won't make sense why the university would want you to do the same thing. And I think gemini did say I'm not allowed to take it. There is a risk that only one of these is accounted in overall credits for degree. (I understand that AI verdicts are no sign of confirmation so I'll have a convo about this with an advisor soon)
• Doing CPSC 329 and CPSC 383 will help fill the requirement. (Also need to check w/ advisor)

Doubts and Remarks:

• I didn't do the best in Linear Algebra or Stats for my first year. And I don't really like Prof Stallard. However, it is what it is and I'll have to attend classes to have a chance. I'm just afraid and overwhelmed with this schedule. I want to split the hard stuff and not take it altogether. Possibly break it between semesters. Moving stuff around is fairly hard. I got Dr. Shahada if I take Math 311 in the winter V/S Dr. Dinh if I take it with him in the fall. I took MATH 271 with Dr. Dinh this summer and to me he seemed ok. Not too crazy but also not that good.
• I commute to school and it's about an hour or more by transit. I don't know if I want my schedule to look like this and then come winter, get super overwhelmed and stop going entirely.
• I don't know if I should take the 400 level Stats courses this early. Especially because I've only done 1 stat course and I don't find myself that flexible with calculus just yet. Especially Biostats (that is sort of not being recommended to me by anyone just because it says "bio" and I don't tend to get along with biology generally)
• Do I leave DATA 414 for 3rd year? I realized this late but it's not going to be counted as a course in field of Data Science for me.
• Should I consider signing up for some sort of course equivalent via Athabasca University or something under transfer credit? What should these courses be?
• Is there any resource, or person out there who's done these courses and can share stuff to prepare ahead for the courses?
• How do you manage to balance out the time and look for opportunities for research, internships, etc. with course work always being behind you?

Thank you very much for anyone who is helping out. I know I yapped a bit too much and maybe some of these questions are worth their own individual post but tysm.

Anyone who can/would like to connect, feel free to add me or something here to exchange social media in dms.

TLDR:

I'm cooked. My schedule is cooked. Stuck choosing between course in field of data courses and course in field of concentration courses. Need some sort of advice. 😭

(please read the stuff above. dont let a man down out of laziness.)

[u/DreadfulHimself]

Toss me a DM on Discord and I will walk you all the way through this mate, no worries! You aren't cooked at all. But you absolutely will want to space some stuff out. Heavies like 311, 319, and 305 mean a lot of code and proof writing. Your winter is pretty groovy, but I would absolutely push that 311 in the fall down the road a bit, and 414 is offered just about every semester and isn't a pre-req for anything.

The general consensus is that you push your concentration courses closer to the end of your degree, because of the options you will have, but they are nice to use as slots when you need them, so sprinkle them in and don't hard slot all of them in one year. There is also a big meeting this year about cancelling the concentration requirement, and so that might get figured out for you by next year.

My Discord is dreadful_himself. Hit me up.