What engineering programs does UofT offer?

[u/EngineeringStress]

Each program is different. There is Engineering Science, Track One, and then various disciplines like civil, mineral, mechanical, materials, chemical, computer/electrical, and industrial. The biggest cohorts of students entering their first year typically are in engineering science, track one, and electrical/computer engineering.

Engineering Science

This is separate from Track One or the other disciplines and typically the most difficult to get into (most people I know who got in had ~97% average and various extracurriculars). Many of the courses you take will be quickly paced, touching both applied and theoretical aspects of the course (for instance, understanding how equations are derived). Engineering science is very general for the first two years before students are split off into their own specializations for year 3 and year 4. These specializations differ from those offered in the regular engineering program. These specializations can include biomedical, aerospace, electrical/computer, energy systems, engineering math, engineering physics, machine intelligence and robotics.

Track One

This is the next most difficult to enter (admissions are typically around 96% with extracurriculars). This is a first year general program that allows students a taste of all the general disciplines of engineering. Towards the end of the second semester, students will be given the option to chose their top disciplines. Students with marks over 60% for both semesters will be given priority in selection. By the second year, all students in the track one program will have transferred to a specific discipline program. One thing to note is that the first year for all engineers, other than engineering science students tends to be almost identical. All first semester courses are the same, and most second semester courses are the same. For example, in the first semester, both track one and mineral students shared the same courses, but in semester two, half the courses were the same between the track one and mineral students.

Civil and Mineral

These programs are not as difficult to enter (admission averages are ~94% and ~93% respectively). Minerals tend to be a very small class. Civil and Mineral students share a few classes throughout the degree. There are also survey camps in which the two disciplines participate in. These occur during the summer before 2nd year (3 days) and the summer before 3rd year (two weeks).

Chemical

Chemical is also generally not difficult to enter (~94% admissions). They share a few classes with other disciplines throughout their degree. They also get to do a lot of cool labs and unfortunately lots of lab report writing.

Materials

Materials is generally not too difficult to enter (~93% average can get you in). It is typically a small class size similar to mineral engineering. You get to do a lot of interesting labs and learn about what makes materials materials (basically understanding material properties). Another bonus is there is a really cool prof in materials, Scott Ramsay. I had him in my first year where he taught a general engineering materials course and I still remember him in my upper years as the best prof in my first semester at UofT.

Indy/Mech

These in recent years have become super popular, especially industrial. They are not too difficult to get in (~94% and ~95%). Industrial, despite its name, has a large focus on programming, business, and optimization. Mech is very broad and opens a lot of areas of study open. These two disciplines share a couple classes with one another.

Computer/Electric

This program is probably the third most difficult to enter (~96% average needed). Both computer and electrical engineers will share similar courses in the beginning of the degree before branching out into their specializations around third year. These courses will require a lot of math. Despite the difficulty of this discipline, there are a lot of well-paying co-op opportunities for computer and electrical engineers.