• admissions

    to be read in a robotic voice

    December 7, 2009

    Hi there,

    I understand you may not have the time for a lowly high school student, but I am applying
    to uoft in the fall and I need a clear answer. I have asked a number of counsellors and
    online forums and I couldn’t get an answer on the website, but DOES u ofT LOOK at GRADE
    11 marks??

    ————————————————-

    Greetings? earthling. Please? identify? yourself? using? the? following? survey.

    a) Are? you? a? student? from? Ontario? Canada?

    b) Do? you? have? high? Grade? 11? marks??

    If? you? satisfy? both? a) ? and? b), then? your? Grade? 11? marks? may? be? taken? into? consideration? for? the? first? (earliest?) round? of? offers? to? UofT? (this applies to humans applying to the Faculty of Arts and Science only).

    Otherwise, please? watch? this? video? and? listen? for? the? answer? in? the? chorus? of? the? song (hint: it begins with N and is repeated three times).

    Now? proceed? to? human? brain? harvesting? centre? on? your? left? ha? ha? ha.

    (by the way, I’m relaying the information provided to me by the Innis registrar)

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  • admissions,  international students,  psychology

    Munch munch

    November 10, 2009

    Hey, so I have a few questions about admission.

    Right now I’m a Canadian citizen living in Minneapolis. I’m not sure how Minneapolis is relevant to my question, but I’m just throwing it out there.

    Anyway, I really REALLY want to be accepted into UofT. It seems pretty sweet and my cousin went to Innis and reccommends it to me. Last year I had a GPA of about 3.3 (not sure though. I never paid enough attention). Right now I have no idea what my GPA is but I bet it’s bad. My current grades are C- (AP Literature), B (Advanced Pottery), A (Human Geography) and a C- in French 4.

    I know you probably don’t want to calculate that GPA but yeah. I’m in the fall semester of my grade 12 year, and I plan on improving my grades a ton, but I think I’m sending my transcripts in a few months to the school. I took the SAT and did well on that though, and two SAT subject tests, which I haven’t gotten the scores back for yet. My

    Ermm, uhh. Hey again . I just realized that it might help you to know that I’m planning on a psych major? Yeah. Life sciences I guess would be the program I’m trying for.

    …also looking back at my original message, I cut off after my. Sorry about that.

    I’ll continue it here.

    ..My ACT score was a 30, and I also took the AP Psychology and AP Composition tests, getting a 5 on both of them. I think a 5 is a perfect score too right? I’m somewhat hoping that my ACT and AP test scores will redeem me for having terrible grades this fall..also, my term ends on Nov 12 (there’s 2 terms in a semester.) and I’m planning on sending my grades and teacher recommendation letters sometime before December.

    So yeah. I was just wondering if I completely screwed myself by not caring about my classes this fall, or if there’s still a chance that I could be admitted into the University of Toronto?

    ———————————————

    Heads up. In University, you’ll have to teach yourself how to research effectively in order to expect to do well. Guess they don’t teach you that in Pottery class. But since you haven’t been disenchanted by the harsh reality of University yet (ah, I remember the days when ‘doing homework’ meant going on MSN), I’ll begrudgingly do the research for you and direct you to the admissions site.

    If you click around a bit, the site will tell you that you need a high GPA and SAT Reasoning exams and three SAT Subject Tests. Now, I’ll admit that this does sound a little ambiguous. Blame the admissions people. But just to give you a comparison, students from Ontario need low to mid 80s to be admitted into the Life Sciences stream. That’s an A-. The marks that you have now seem a bit low by comparison. But there’s definitely a possibility that your SAT and ACT scores will help your case. The admissions people said, “Successful applicants have presented scores of at least 600 in each SAT component and 26 in the ACT,” and your ACT score is obviously higher than that. As for whether or not you’d actually be accepted, no one knows except the admissions people, but there’s really no harm in just applying. Just remember to keep your options open, just in case.

    I’m guessing a large part of the decision is probably based on the SAT though.

    One thing. If you’re seriously planning on coming here, you really oughta change your attitude. U of T is not for the people who don’t care about their classes. As friend of aska puts it, if you’re one of those people, UofT will eat you alive.

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  • admissions,  grades,  new kids

    …when we’re cruisin’ to geth er.

    June 29, 2009


    Hi there! I have accepted my offer from University of Toronto – St. George Campus (Innis College) for life science. The letters I have received states that I must maintain a good academic standing, in order to keep my acceptance. Other universities have provided a specific average that I must maintain (for example, Waterloo mentions that I must keep an average of 75% or above). I was wondering what final average would I need to maintain; also, if my final average goes below a certain range, will I be rejected?

    Waiting your earliest reply:)

     

     

    I’ll give you the bad news first.

    YES, it is possible that your offer to U of T will be withdrawn should your final transcripts not be up to snuff.??? (who/what/where?IS snuff??)

    It is also possible that your offer will stand, but you would?be admitted on academic probation (i.e. must achieve C- average in first year).

    The good news is that?the ominous statement in?your offer?letter?is pretty much intended to prevent grade 12’s from accepting their offer of admission and then throwing in the towel for the rest of the school year. Much to your chagrin, there is no hard-and-fast rule as to what the conditional high school average is. Rather, it is relative to what your transcript said when you applied. So, the evil marks police are really looking for a drastic drop in your average.

     

    There are also some individual subjects that are scrutinized more heavily than the others. For all new admits to Arts & Science, your English marks should not take a drastic fall. For Life Science students (like you) your high school Maths, Chem, Bio (and sometimes Physics) marks should stay relatively similar as well.

     

    Your Parenting class mark matters less. That is, unless you actually killed the creepy robot baby, in which case you’re out.

     

    Is “drastic”?fall too ambiguous for you?

    How about a “dramatic” fall?

    Not good enough?

    An “embarrassing” fall?

     

    Now I know your type. So I know that you won’t be able to sleep until I tell you an actual number between 50 and 100. Right? Alright… twist my arm… I’ll tell you. It’s 78%.

     

    That was a lie. I just made that up based on being better than Waterloo.

     

    But what if U of T DID give a definitive minimum average, like 75%? Wouldn’t that just enable students to calculate the bare minimum effort they needed to get by? What kind of academic mentality is that?

    (Engineering students’ ears are ringing everywhere right now).

     

    I’m gonna go on a limb and guess that you are a keen life sci kid, who wouldn’t just call it a day after getting your offer from U of T anyway. So, don’t worry.

     

    But if you are still worried, you can try contacting your College Registrar’s Office and annoying them directly with your question. They will be able to check out the situation, contact Admissions & Awards, and then get back to you on your prospects. But seriously people, only do this if your grade 12 marks really took it in the teeth.

    Should your original offer be withdrawn (and you will find out sometime in the latter half of the summer), then you can submit a statement to Admissions & Awards explaining why that happened, which ‘may’ save your –––.?If, after reading this, you’re lower back is?perspirating profusely, perhaps you?will pro-actively issue a letter to Admissions;?just?a little something extra for?your file.

     

    After all that, I guess I didn’t really answer your question. It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that I can’t.

     

    Good luck!

     

    Aska

     

     

    P.s. I will congratulate you on choosing U of T over Waterloo. Was it the stale smell of pickled cabbage that turned you off? Or are you just a chorizo (over bratwurst) kinda girl/guy??

     

    P.p.s. That chorizo joke was kinda deep. Check out the disproportionate number of Portuguese speakers around the St. George campus: http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/pdf2/cpa79.pdf. Love ?em!!

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  • admissions,  money,  notes

    faust revisited

    April 17, 2009

    I got in. But missed the deadline for scholarships (Feb 27!), probably cannot afford to actually go unless I sell my soul to a bank, or anyone who would want to buy it in exchange for an education. Anyone?
    How bad is it to borrow from the bank? Im working full time…and I have no financial help from my parents. What can I do? I would love some help in terms of resources, if there are scholarships left…Im looking but there is not much. I applied to UTAPS already. Anything else? Thank you very much.

     

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  • admissions,  arts & sciences,  engineering,  math,  switching,  transfer credits

    doozer blues

    April 3, 2009

    Hi, I’ve been browsing through this site and it looks great.
    But there’s a question that I haven’t seen.
    I’m in second year engineering (computer). But as I have found out, I’m not cut out for the engineering life. Which is why i want to transfer to Arts and Science for a Math Major.
    I was wondering, will I get the transfer credits required, and is engineering math on the same difficulty as a math major program? I took MAT196/MAT 197 and looked at the math course website, and there are equivalent for some first year courses.
    Sorry, One more question, I have a CGPA of 2.52, what are my chances of getting in?
    Thanks

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  • admissions,  trinity college

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!

    April 3, 2009

    Hi! Sorry to bother you, and I know this sounds a little too late, but I’m just curious if I have any chance of getting into Trinity College… These are my marks:

    English: 93
    Advanced Functions: 70
    Chemistry: 83
    Biology: 88
    Physics: 81
    Music: 91
    Calculus: 92
    Also a side note, I handed in my application, the one with pertaining questions, 10 minutes before my assigned due date. Will this affect my chances of becoming accepted at Trinity?
    Also, when is the last round of admission offers? (The last time Trinity will look at your marks)

    Thank you so much for your time!

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  • admissions

    over the hill my @$s

    March 27, 2009


    I have recently applied for the undergraduate sociology program at UTM and I am wondering/nervous about my chances of being accepted. Here is my situation:

    I am 24 and dropped out of high school with two credits left before graduating with plans to take correspondence or night school. The years went by and I only ended up taking one night school course, which means I am one credit short of completing high school.

    A year and half ago I began taking classes at Sheridan in Gen. Arts and Science (University Profile) and am presently completing my last semester. My grade point average is 3.5, and I am hoping to raise it this semester, although I am positive I can maintain it.

    My question is, do I have a shot in hell of being accepted?
    People have told me that because of my age, I may have a better chance than someone younger or less mature, although I am sceptical.

    Please let me know your opinion. Thanks!!

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  • admissions

    no, I’M sorry

    March 20, 2009


    I’m a student attending high school in Ontario, most universities look at the “Top 6” 4U/M courses specifically but do they look at your final grade 11 marks as well right?

    Also, from what I’ve heard from my friends our school doesn’t give a lot of information on the application process. What happens, you submit an online application to the universities of choice sometime before mid-January and the school takes care of sending grades to OUAC which sends them to the universities? Students in Ontario don’t need to self-report their grades or worry about submitting grades on deadline right? If you could that up that’d be great, I’ve looked around on uoft.ca and a few other sites and I’m sort of confused about it all.

    Lastly, in grade 12 I’m thinking of taking just 6 courses (five being 4U level and the last being 4M) and taking two spares so I have more time to concentrate on the core courses and less of a course load. Would this effect my application negatively at all, only taking a total of 6 grade 12 courses?

    Sorry for rambling on, thanks in advance.

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  • admissions,  english,  grades

    like, how particular is particular?

    March 20, 2009


    So, I stumbled across this website while Googling (Google is your best friend…sometimes) and found the answers to my questions. Well, most of them anyway. There is just one thing I want to clarify. I applied to the Humanities Program at UofT. The Viewbook says that the university pays particular attention to my English marks. Now, I ended up with an 82 in the course (bear with me, I know you don’t like to hear about marks), and with my teacher that is about the best mark ever (according to my guidence councilor). With a different teacher, I could have ended up with a 90. So, what are my chances? Is 82 considered scratch-my-eyes-out horrible or passable? I know that it isn’t spectacular, so I’m not even going to go there. I have exhausted all possible resources available to me. So, please help me out. Before I hemorrhage out of sheer anxiety.

    Thanks much.

    Cheers.

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