admissions - askastudent - Page 2

admissions, other schools (boo!), stats

live laugh love? in these conditions?

June 5, 2024

hi aksa!! i have had pretty terrible grades in 11th and somewhat better in 12th, do u think there is hope for me to get into a good uni for statistics ??

hey there,

aw, i’m sorry to hear that! good on you for improving, though! that takes commitment.

ok, so you want to get into a good uni for statistics. i can’t really look into every single good uni out there cause i’m pretty sure they all work pretty differently. so for now, let’s look at a couple example to compare our options with: U of T, UBC, and mcgill. these are the top three statistics programs in canada, apparently.

first, let’s cover U of T.

1. getting into U of T statistics

when applying to U of T, your admission is based on an average grade calculated using your top six grade 12 U/M courses. if you wanted to get into the statistics program, you would apply under the admission category “physical and mathematical sciences“. (this is because at U of T, you don’t enter your specific program of study until after first year).

as you can see in general admission requirements, two pre-requisite courses are required for physical and mathematical sciences: english (ENG4U), and calculus (MCV4U). so these are the two courses that will have to be included in your top six. therefore, your admission will be based on your english grade, your calculus grade, plus your four top grades in academic grade 12 courses. that’s it.

if you apply for early admissions, or if your final grade 12 marks aren’t out yet, U of T may also look at your corresponding grade 11 marks to give you a conditional offer. but if your grade 11 marks are low, they’ll wait to see your grade 12 marks. so really, don’t worry too much about your grade 11 marks. it’s your grade 12 marks that are the make or break factor.

2. UBC

according to this website, UBC looks at your grade 11 and grade 12 marks, paying extra attention to the courses that relate to the degree you’re applying to. this includes english 12 and pre-calc 12. overall though, UBC looks at a whole lot of things other than just the numbers on your transcript. they say they look at the range of courses you took and how challenging they were. infamously, they look at a whOle lot through your personal profile, where you have to write a lot about leadership skills, extracurriculars, and experiences. (maybe i’m just dramatic, but writing this sucked the life outta me.)

so if your grades have been bad but you have a lot of leadership experience and you’re involved in your community, you might have a chance at UBC! but if you have zero experience in that area, and you are throwing all your cards into the numbers on your transcript, U of T is the one to bet on.

3. mcgill

meanwhile, mcgill will look at your grades over the past three years — so grade 10, 11, and 12. and, um, the admission averages are INSANE for computational sciences? 97-98% is crazy high.

but like U of T, they compute your top 6 grade 12 courses, so there is a little room for grace.

ultimately, this just shows that it really depends on where your strengths lie. each university considers its applicants differently, so you’ll have a better chance in some places compared to others. whichever university you apply to, it’s great that you’re doing better in grade 12! i heard somewhere that universities like to see improvement. just do some research on how different place consider their applicants.

so yeah. i think you do have hope to get into a good uni. reach out if you’ve got any other questions, wishing you the besttttt luck!

over and out,

aska

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admissions, applying for U of T, social sciences

no, no, and no

June 5, 2024

hello,
i am currently a grade 11 student. last sem i failed the functions u level course with a 40%, so i’ll be retaking it this summer. i’m worried that i won’t be accepted to the social science program because of this. also, i think my current average right now is around 74%.
so my questions are that would failing functions affect my change of acceptance?
i am aiming to get better grades in grade 12 so will uoft look at my grade 11 marks or my grade 12 marks?
my last question is regarding supplementary applications, i am planning to choose the political science stream so would i need to submit my extracurriculars, volunteer hours, etc? because currently i only have around 45 hours of volunteering and no extracurriculars, would this also affect my acceptance?

thank you,
hope this makes sense.

hey there,

i like you. finally, questions that are within my realm of expertise.

1. will failing functions affect your acceptance?

no, it shouldn’t. as you can see here, U of T only looks at your top 6 academic grade 12 courses, which they use to compute your admission average. among those courses, one must be english 12. depending on the admission category you apply to, there may be other pre-requisites included — such as functions if you were applying to, say, computer science.

however, you are applying to the social sciences admission category, which only requires english 12. this means that U of T will only look at your english course + five other of your top grade 12 marks. so if you’ve failed functions, it won’t be included in your top marks and U of T won’t look at it! so like, moving forward, um wdym, you didn’t fail! that tOTally did not happen!

2. will U of T look at your grade 11 or grade 12 marks?

so again, U of T will only look at your top 6 grade 12 marks. however, if those marks haven’t been released yet, they will look at the corresponding grade 11 marks to make conditional early offers.

check out this answer i posted recently where i talk more about the weight of your grade 11/12 marks. the tldr is that if your grade 11 marks don’t make the cut, U of T will consider you again when your grade 12 marks are released.

3. will you need to submit extracurriculars for political science?

you will not need to submit extracurriculars to get into your program of study, thank GOD. as you can see on the arts & sciences calendar, admission into the political science program only concerns pre-requisite classes and your grades. i’ve never heard of a U of T undergrad arts & science program that required extracurriculars, or volunteer hours. so you’re good to go!

4. will U of T look at your extracurriculars/volunteer hours for admissions?

finally, U of T also does not look at your extracurriculars or volunteering hours for first year admissions. when you apply on OUAC, there isn’t even an option to put these in! if i remember right, you pretty much just upload your transcript lol.

anyways, university applications can be super hectic and so confusing. so i hope this was helpful and that it took a bit of stress off your back! good luck with everything, you’ve got this!

over and out,

aska

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admissions, campus, hard

we love utsg

June 3, 2024

Is there a difference between applying to different campuses at UOFT? (Like applying to St. George is harder to get in or Mississauga is easier) truth be told, I’m only interested in St. George campus

hey there,

good question.

yes, i think there is a difference between applying to different U of T campuses. there is no official info on this, but from what i’ve heard, the st. george campus is harder to get into compared to the mississauga and scarborough campuses. i say this because i know some people who were admitted to UTM or UTSC but were rejected from UTSG.

i would try to compare the admission averages among the three campuses, but i can only find the utm admission average, which is 75%. so take from that what you will.

ultimately though, it depends on what program you’re applying to. maybe the st. george campus is harder to get into because it has programs that have a higher volume of applicants? as in — most people are like you and only interested in the UTSG campus. also, some programs are only offered at the st. george campus, which might play into it.

but don’t be discouraged from applying to UTSG. i think the st. george campus is so beautiful and a great place to spend your undergrad years at. (if you’re interested, find out what makes each campus unique here). it may be a bit harder to get into, but this is just a word-of-mouth thing and again, i don’t have any statistics to back up my facts with.

however, i can back you up. you’ve got this! WOOO! yeahhh!

anyways, good luck with your application, hope to see you here.

over and out,

aska

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admissions, programs, psychology

confusing uoft websites, couldn’t be me

May 22, 2024
Hi! I’m currently in year 12, I study IB and my Higher Levels are Psychology, Sports Exercise and Health Science, and Art. I’m planning to apply to uoft to study clinical psychology in the future but then found out BIO is required after some research. Now I’m confused about this because the websites gave me different answers, one telling me that the only requirements are Calculus and English, and another saying that biology is required too. (if that’s the case would SEHS still be acceptable?)

hey there,

yeah, several people have asked this question before. those admission websites can be so confusing, they’ve got to fix that!

the tldr is that you don’t need bio 12 for admissions, but you’ll need it to go into second year.

admissions

let me explain. when you apply to u of t, you don’t actually apply to a specific program, like biochemistry or immunology, or psychology. instead, you apply to a general “admission category“. basically, all 300ish undergrad programs at the UTSG campus are categorized into 6 admission categories:
you can follow these links to see a list of programs under each admission category. your admission category is what you’ll actually put into your OUAC application, so admission category requirements are the only requirements you’ll need to worry about for now.

if you want to get in to the u of t psychology program, you’ll be applying under the “admission category” of life science. although the psychology requirements website says that you need biology, calculus, and english, the life science requirements website says you only need calculus and english. so for admissions, you only need calculus and english.

program enrolment

HOWEVER, you will need to complete biology 12 to enrol in your psychology program after first year. this is because everyone at u of t actually enrols in their POSt (program of study) when they go into second year. for some POSts, you automatically get in, but many others require pre-requisites or grade minimums. psychology is unfortunately the latter.

assuming you’re hoping to take the psychology major, this means you’ll need to first take PSY100 (the first year psych class at u of t) and get above 75%. you’ll also need to have passed grade 12 calculus and grade 12 biology.

biology equivalents

i recommend you read through the bottom of this page, where it covers biology equivalents and other options. here, it says that they accept IB biology courses, including standard and higher level classes. since i didn’t take IB myself, i’m not sure if SEHS would be counted. you said it’s a higher level IB course, but my question is — is it specifically a biology course?

you can figure that out. but if not, you are able to directly check by sending an email to psy.ug-assistant@utoronto.ca .

anyways, i hope this cleared things up, good luck with everything!

over and out,

aska
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admissions, engineering, grades

wait for me

May 16, 2024

I’m currently in grade 11 and have a 85 average and in HOSA (and going to be president in my club soon), I want to get into uoft for mechanical engineering, I want to try to get higher grades for grade 12, but will my grade 11 marks be considered a lot for my admission or will they wait for my grade 12 marks?

hey there,

ok, right now, i think all you can do is just stick to your plan and try to get higher grades for grade 12. because, the weight that your grade 11 marks hold against your grade 12 marks just depends on a whole bunch of factors.

first, i’d recommend reading through this faq page, which details a lot of important need-to-knows about admissions! i’ll be drawing some info from there.

as you can see on this important deadlines page, there are two rounds of admissions decisions: students who submit their OUAC application by nov 7 and their engineering application by dec 1 are considered under round one (aka. early consideration). meanwhile, those who submit everything by jan 15 are considered under round two.

the answer to your question depends on which round of admissions you’re considered under, and how soon your school releases your grade 12 marks. in my experience, it makes a difference whether you go by the quarter semester system or the three term system. if you’re considered during round one, there’s a chance you won’t have many grade 12 marks released yet, so they’ll mostly look at your grade 11 marks and whatever grade 12 marks are available. so basically, from the way i understand it, it all really depends on your school’s term system.

however, it is all going to be okay if you’re not admitted under round one due to unavailable grades. you will just be considered again in round two as more of your grades come out.

nothing is really set in stone, but ultimately, you don’t have to worry about applying early if your grade 11 marks aren’t as high as you’d like them to be. after all, the admission committee say they “may hold applications to wait for more information” if you applied early. so overall, yes. they should wait for your grade 12 marks to be released ~~from depths of the underworld~~.

(if you don’t get this reference, you are simply uncultured)

also, i found on this same page that canadian students’ admission averages for mechanical engineering is within the high 80s to low 90s. i think you have a good chance if you succeed in getting those good grades in grade 12! they also say that extracurriculars are considered, so good on you for being extracurricular-ly involved! that will help you out.

sooo good luck with everything, reach out if you have more questions!! you’ve got this.

over and out,

aska

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admissions, physiology, programs

today, your gpa doesn’t matter!! (rare sighting)

April 15, 2024
does u of t look at my first year gpa when I apply to programs for second year? i am looking at majoring in physiology and was wondering if my gpa affects my chances? i have satisfied the individual course requirements

hey there,

this is a good question. well, i can tell you that your cgpa will not affect your chances of getting into the physiology major. (however, it may be different for other programs).

according to the artsci calendar on the physiology major, they only look at your grades in these required courses:
- bio120 and bio130
- (chm135 and chm136) or chm151
- 1.0 credit from mat135, mat136, mat137, mat157, phy131, phy132, phy151, phy152
you just need to be above a certain minimum average in these courses to get into the program. this minimum apparently changes each year, which is common for program requirements. isn’t that just, like, so convenient for us?

sorry i can’t give an exact number, since i’m not in physiology. the academic calendar does say that if you have a grade lower than a 60% in each course or a grade average lower than 70% in these required courses, you won’t be considered for admission. but just because you have higher marks than this doesn’t guarantee admission.

if you wanted my personal (and very possibly straight up wrong!) opinion, you’re only really “guaranteed” to be fine if your course averages are above an 85. so i’d assume the minimum average is somewhere in the bounds of 70 and 80?? idk don’t hold me to that.

since you’re a first year, all the above applies to you. but if you were a second year and above applying for physiology, your whole record may be considered in your admission. this is specified on the same artsci page linked above, which says “applications from students lacking numerical grades in one or more of the specified prerequisites, or students applying in their second or later years, may be considered on the basis of their entire academic record and the availability of space in the program”.

i hope this clarified things, wishing you the best luck (and grades) in your application to physiology!

over and out,

aska

p.s. anyways guys, there have been a lot of questions coming in lately so thanks for everyone’s patience. ~~is it finals week or is it my final week? stay tuned to find out.~~ either way, answering your questions is a top tier way to procrastinate and i hope i am being useful. 😀 love y’all
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admissions, commerce, repeating course, UTM

a grand total of one fact

March 16, 2024

Hello!

I applied for UTM Commerce but the problem is that I retook one of my grade 12 courses. I checked the program details and it says that they use the higher of the two marks when calculating my average but reserve the right to treat applicants who did the course in one go with preference. I was just wondering how much retaking a course will weigh against me and what the chances of getting into the course are (My average currently is in the range that they look for)

hey there,

i don’t blame you for being confused (this implies i sometimes blame people for being confused). if i was in your situation, i would have the same question. but honestly, it’s really hard to say. u of t doesn’t have a specific statement on this, and i hate to say it, but it makes sense. things change every year, since the chances of getting in all depends on the number of applicants and how brutal the competition is. there’s really no way to make an exact projection of your chances.

i think that it would depend on which of your grade 12 courses you repeated. according to utm’s admissions page, you need six grade 12 courses, including english, advanced functions, and calculus & vectors. if it was one of those three courses, i’m sure they would matter more than if you repeated a random grade 12 course. if a repeated course even matters for admissions. it is so unclear.

i know my answer is not much better than what u of t websites officially say, but that’s because i honestly just don’t have insider knowledge on utm commerce first-year admissions. i’m a student, not a recruitment officer. but i do have an identity crisis about this every time i answer an admissions question!

i did find some info about upper-year program admissions, which might give you a feel for the competitiveness. on the undergrad programs FAQ page, they say that they receive about 600 applications for the commerce program and accept around 300 students. i’d say those are pretty good odds, at a 50% acceptance rate! for reference, the management program accepts 60 students out of 300 applications. the competition is pretty bad in that one.

keep in mind that i’m talking about the acceptance process that happens when everyone applies to their POSt (program of study) after first year. so this is not about first-year admissions, where you are at right now. it’s just meant to give us an idea of the numbers. overall, we’ve learned that commerce is less competitive than management, and that many more students get accepted into commerce.

i’m working with crumbs here, guys. it’s just that the 3D world is holding me back from unleashing my omniscient powers today, or something.

then we finally come to the one and only concrete fact we’ve really got about your chances. the admissions site says that the approximate competitive average for first-year commerce admissions is in the mid 80s. so if your average is in that range, i think you should be fine. but keep in mind the site says “meeting these minimum requirements does not guarantee you admission to the university”. again, this is because “admission is subject to space availability and competition”.

anyways, sorry i couldn’t be more helpful. i recommend checking out my previous answer about retaking grade 12 courses, and reaching out to a utm recruiter. if you want to know specific details, definitely please reach out to a recruiter. good luck with everything! i think you will do great.

over and out,

aska

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admissions, repeating course

why so ambiguous

March 15, 2024

Hi. I am retaking MH4U1 (12 Advanced Functions) and SCH4U1 (12 Chemistry) in private school. I already got a conditional offer from UTSC in neuroscience, but was wondering if it hamper the decision later on? UofT websites are not that clear on repeating courses.

hey there,

yay, congrats on getting an offer!

you know, this is such a fair question. i looked on u of t websites, and i agree, they really are not clear on how repeating a course might impact your admission offer. it’s almost like they’re trying to be ambiguous (they probably are, idk).

all that the utsc admissions page says is: “while we recognize that there may be valid reasons for repeating a course, in general we urge you to do as well as possible on your first attempt”. and then the arts & sciences admissions page just really clears things up with: “in some instances, repeated courses will not be accepted for competitive admission categories”.

i mean, yeah… wouldn’t it be nice if they elaborated a bit? well, while we can’t fix the lack of communication skills, we can go through a couple different scenarios here:

if you disclosed the repeated courses on your application, there shouldn’t be an issue. since you’ve already received a conditional offer of admission, all you can do at this point is to meet the conditions on that offer. but if you had specific questions about your offer or the conditions, you should definitely reach out to the utsc recruitment team.

meanwhile, if you didn’t disclose the repeats on your application and were admitted based on your first attempts, it probably is still not an issue. the only scenario where you might have a problem is if you are repeating a course and didn’t disclose an earlier, lower grade on your application. you honestly might still be okay if you fall into this camp, but i really recommend reaching out to the utsc recruitment team to clarify. *points at you* i know we’re scared of human interaction, but you can do it!

over and out,

aska

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admissions, math, prereqs

another mathless student

March 1, 2024
hi, I’m currently in highschool in India (not a Canadian citizen) and am trying to get into UofT for chemical engineering. Unfortunately I did not take math in 11th grade, despite being excellent at it. How can I still apply for the undergrad? Should I complete math courses from TVO ILC? Thank you.

hey there,

well, first of all, you’re not alone. i’ve recently received some similar questions about not taking math prerequisites in high school.

so, to apply to chemical engineering at u of t, you’ll be applying under the admission code TB to the faculty of applied science and engineering. that means you’re looking at the admission requirements for all applicants to the faculty of applied science and engineering. according to their website, this includes senior level courses in mathematics (including calculus), chemistry, physics, and english.

(also, if you’re interested, there is a specific section at the bottom of this site on requirements and document details specific to each country).

and so we’ve got ourselves in a little bit of a situation here. your program requires that you take senior level high school math, but you haven’t taken grade 11 math yet. here’s the good news: the engineering website says that in the case that you haven’t taken one of these prerequisites, you can complete the grade 12 ontario high school equivalent prerequisite subject. furthermore, they actually recommend completing the course through the independent learning centre (ILC), so yes, to answer your question, you can complete math courses from TVO ILC.

but hold on, let’s dial it back for a sec. i noticed that you’re only asking about grade 11 math. to my understanding, you would actually need grade 12 level math to meet the admission requirements, since they specify that calculus is included. meanwhile, i looked at the ILC website for you, and it also seems like you’ll need grade 11 math as a prerequisite for the grade 12 math courses on there. so i think you might need to take both grade 11 and 12 math on the ILC, unless there’s a way for you to somehow bypass the grade 11 prerequisite.

just keep in mind that for ontario school systems, the admission requirements specifically ask for two grade 12 math courses:
1. advanced functions (MHF4U)
2. calculus & vectors (MCV4U), which requires advanced functions as a prerequisite
so if you’re taking your grade 12 math prerequisite through the ILC, which is within the ontario school system, i think you would need to take both of these courses. the international student admission requirements are “senior level courses in mathematics (including calculus)”, which probably means you need the calculus & vectors course. but according to the ILC website, to take calculus, you need advanced functions. and to take advanced functions, apparently you need a grade 11 math course.

blegh, that was a mouthful. so many prerequisites! for your sake, i am glad you’re good at math.

anyways i really hope i’m understanding this right. just keep in mind that this is just my best interpretation of what steps you need to take, and don’t follow this blindly. i would actually really recommend that you directly contact the engineering admissions office at admissions@engineering.utoronto.ca to make sure you’re doing all of this right. and if you’re still confused, you can shoot me another question!

good luck! i hope it all works out for you.

over and out,

aska
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admissions, scholarships/bursaries

you’ve got good things going for you

February 29, 2024

Hi! I’m a Grade 12 who got accepted into UTSC. For the automatic entrance scholarship, I received $1500 (which is for an overall 90% average), which I figured out must be based off of my first semester midterms since my first semester finals gave me an average of 94.3%. My question is, am I stuck with the scholarship amount based from my first semester midterm? Is there no possibility that UTSC will increase my scholarship amount since they admitted me after first semester ended, when I had actually a 94.3% average?

hey there,

first of all, congrats on getting accepted AND on receiving a scholarship! geez those are some high grades, your future is blinding me. based on this question, i’m diagnosing you as an overachiever. source? me. credibility? i’m an anonymous blogger on the world wide web.

so i checked directly with a recruitment person at UTSC, and i can tell you that your entrance scholarship will not be reassessed (meaning it will not increase but also should not decrease).

but the good news is, there are more paths towards funding sources than just your automatic entrance scholarships. for one, if you really wanna be up and at ’em about it, you can connect directly with the UTSC recruitment team.

i also highly recommend that you submit your awards profile by the deadline, may 31. with the awards profile, you can be considered for multiple scholarships with just one application, and you can find a list of all these awards in the previous link. i definitely wish that i had filled this out when i was going into first year, so please don’t be like me and put it off until it’s too last minute to complete—you’ll need to get a reference letter!

and finally, if you’re still looking for more, check out the awards explorer to find other potential sources of funding—there are a lot though, so filter by key words to see the ones relevant to you.

anyways, i hope this was helpful! good luck with everything. they say don’t count your chickens before they hatch, but i’d say you’ve got some good chickens (grades) going for you.

over and out,

aska

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admissions, human resources, management, UTSC

is the human relations program in the room with us?

January 13, 2024

Hello, I hope you’re doing well!!

I am currently a 3rd year student at University of Toronto, Scarborough and wanted to start applying to uoft for my younger sister who is currently in 12th grade.

She has not taken mathematics but wanted to Human Relations or Marketing and as far as I know getting directly into the program for the same is not possible since maths is a requirement. Is there a way she can get in undeclared and finish pre requisites in first year and then apply for her selected program by 2nd year?

Also are there any programs that do not require maths as a prerequisite? If yes would you be able to guide me to the list of the same.

Thanks

hey there,

ok, i have a couple questions. first: what campus is your sister hoping to apply to? and, second… are you lonely, buddy? i think you had a freudian slip there. did you mean human resources or international relations?? ~~if you wanted human relations, uoft is not the place for you.~~ it’s fine, don’t worry about it, this is not the time to unpack all that. i’m going to assume you meant human resources since a human relations program doesn’t exist.

anyways, this isn’t about you, it’s about your sister. so here is some info on the st. george campus (UTSG) since that’s where my expertise lies.

at UTSG, you don’t apply directly into programs of study, but instead into admission categories. all arts and science programs are categorized into these groups as a way to identify your general area of study. each admission category has the same admission requirements for all the programs within it. so for example, the industrial relations and human resources program is under the admission category of social sciences, which only requires high school level english. on the other hand, the marketing program would be under rotman commerce (basically uoft’s business school) where you can take a focus in marketing by enrolling in their management specialist program. but for this, she would still need high school level calculus.

so basically, if she wanted to enrol into the human resources major at UTSG, she wouldn’t need high school level calculus! and even if she did, at UTSG, students apply directly into their specific program of study after first year. and after she’s in a program, it’s pretty simple and common to switch later on if she changes her mind!

but as for uoft scarborough (UTSC), the program application process is a bit more complicated. what i would recommend is having your sister connect with the UTSC recruitment team to see what the options are. unlike at st. george where students are admitted into very broad admission categories, students at UTSC are admitted into narrower fields and have the option to apply to co-op streams, which can complicate things if they want to make a change later into their studies. overall, while at st. george you only have to complete prerequisites or achieve a certain average to apply for a program, at UTSC there might be other restrictions on switching after being admitted.

i’ve heard that the recruitment team at UTSC is always happy to help, so you can’t lose anything by reaching out to them! they’re experts on this and will be able to tell your sister about her options.

on another note, there is a UTSC summer mathematics preparedness course that can be used as a prerequisite for MATA29, MATA30, or MATA32. this could be helpful for your sister!

and finally, let’s get to your last point. there is no existing list of all the programs that don’t require math as a prerequisite, but someone let me know if you want me to actively make one.

for now, here is a list of all the programs at UTSC, sorted by admission category. it seems like the only management program that doesn’t require a math prerequisite is global leadership. but you’ll also see that there are plenty of social science/humanities programs that don’t require math! for general arts and sciences, here is a list of admission categories, where you can click further to see lists of programs per admission category. and here is also a complete list of all the programs in arts and sciences.

good luck to your sister with her application and decision making!!

over and out,

aska

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admissions, applying for U of T, extracurricular

everyone is always doing too much. like, do less pls?

December 6, 2023

Hiii! Out of curiosity, does UofT value extracurricular during their undergraduate admission? Here’s the thing, my consular told us that extracurricular is super important so I believed him and really focused on that. After doing some research UofT become dream school of my life but I heard UofT don’t ask for extracurricular. This makes me super stressful since I devoted so much time into those things & Im a BC student, not a Ontario. With an avg of mid 80 is there anything I can do to+the odd

hey there,

so, it kind of depends on what admission category you’re applying for. for general arts and sciences, uoft does not look at your extracurriculars during undergrad admissions. you pretty much just send in your transcript through OUAC when you apply, so that’s all they look at when considering your admission. but if you’re applying to rotman, they require a supplemental application that goes beyond your grades. (rotman is always doing so much).

on that topic, sometimes i feel like everyone is always doing too much. like, please. no. what do you mean you’re involved in clubs and councils and intramurals and have a 20hr job and are taking 5 courses and are still sleeping at night? did you steal hermione’s time-turner? where are you hiding the room full of people getting your work done for you?

anyways, ignore my exam-week-induced rant. if you’re from BC, i think your consular was telling you that extracurriculars are very important because they are, at least for most schools in BC. ubc admissions rest very heavily on extracurriculars, because of a personal profile that some say is more important than your grade average.

every school prioritizes grades and extracurriculars differently, so your consular wasn’t lying. their advice just wasn’t universally applicable. because while extracurriculars are make-or-break for ubc admissions, they aren’t like that at uoft. here, extracurriculars are mostly just important when filling our your awards profile, which is how you would apply for scholarships going into your first year.

something to note is that uoft will mostly just look at your top 6 academic grade 12 grades to compute your admission average. and with an average of mid 80s, i honestly think your odds are pretty fine. most art and sciences programs require top 6 averages of mid to high 80s.

good luck with admissions, shoot another question if you’re still confused!

over and out,

aska

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admissions, psychology

throwback thursday: a stressed high school student

November 9, 2023

helloo, i’m a gr 11 highschool student and i’m so stressed out abt uni applications 🙁 my question is, if i apply for early admissions (they only review gr11 marks for this i think) at uoft and don’t get in, will i still be able to reapply during general admissions that’ll include my gr 12 midterm marks? also, how likely is it for me to get accepted into uoft’s psych program if i do bad in gr 11 math and perhaps english? like around low to mid 80s. but my other grades are in the 90s (T^T)

hey there,

another prospective psych student? if i had a nickel for every psych student i got on here this month, i would… have two nickels.

i can almost feel the gr 11 student stress emanating off my screen. i was definitely there once, so don’t worry, i can help!

to answer your question, if you don’t make early admissions, you actually don’t have to do anything else to be reconsidered as your new grades become available. so long as you keep your application up to date as grades come out, there’s no need for you to reapply. and by “keep it up to date”, i remember having to upload my most recent transcript to OUAC as new grades came out (i think you’ll have to do this for early admissions, too).

so don’t worry, you have more than one chance! uoft will wait for additional results to become available from your grade 12 courses, and will make decisions based on that.

i see you mentioned your english and math marks. something to keep in mind is that psych requirements vary across the three campuses — UTM and UTSC will look at your grades in biology 12, calculus 12, and english 12, but the st. george campus only looks at the grades of calculus 12 and english 12. you can see an explanation of this in my previous post.

if you’re really worried about your grade 11 results, i can tell you that uoft puts more emphasis on grade 12 results when they look at your application. and honestly, if you only have two grades in the 80s, with the rest in the 90s, i think you’ll be fine! especially since these are grade 11 courses. however, i know it’s hard to not stress over your grades, no matter how well you’re doing, and especially at this stage of your life.

i hope this was helpful and that it relieved a bit of your stress! but if you’re still feeling nervous about this, i would tell you to reach out to a recruitment officer—they know everything about admissions (not that i don’t know everything, i swear i do).

over and out,

aska

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