Hey!

I go to UTM for the commerce program. This upcoming school year (Fall/Winter 2019) I am supposed to be going into fourth year. However, due to life I did really bad in school first year (failed all of my courses) and halfway through second year I dropped my courses. This lead to me being put on probation and suspended for 3rd year. I currently have a 0 CGPA & I have 3.5 credits on my record.

I spoke to academic advising and they told me that to pass 1st year again and eventually get accepted into second year for UTM’s commerce program, and major in finance (what I aim to do), it would be really difficult (I would need  90s in all my courses for the next 2 years, with 8 credits each year, just to get accepted into the program because the cut off is now a 3.0 minimum CGPA). This would make me behind 6 years, with just a chance of being admitted into the program. I’m not sure if the courses I would take for the next 2 years would even count towards my degree properly.

I really only see myself doing a bachelors in business with a finance major. I took the year of probation to actually study the content and prep myself for the upcoming school year so I can do well. I also started my career in the field as well.

I really don’t know what I should do and what would be the most effective path.

Academic advising also told me that even if I applied to other institutions, my transcript would definitely minimize my chance of getting in.

I wanted to know if there’s anyway for me to get into a different school for example, Ryerson’s accounting and finance program, by just showing my marks high school, if I didn’t want to transfer in, but rather join in as a first year student.

Or are there any other options within UofT, at any campus, to get the degree I want. I feel like all my doors have closed again, just because of a rough patch I went through when I was younger and just got into Uoft.

Please help! And thank you so much in advance!!

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hello friend,

thanks for waiting for this response. your circumstances stumped me, though i’m sure not as much as they’ve frustrated you.

this is what i want to say:

regarding the ‘starting over’ option at ryerson or elsewhere, unfortunately the extent of my domain is the university of toronto. i would have loved to help you look into other places and such, but i would recommend you contact those schools directly and find out what their policies are regarding re-starting your degree. you can give ryerson a call here, and if you’d like to at least check out york i’ve linked that too. i feel better sending you directly to their admissions offices just cause i don’t actually have the answers to your question– i’d only be acting as an intermediary, which isn’t the most effective or foolproof way to do things. if you have any specific circumstances you think might affect their decision, you’d also be able to present those to them better yourself.

i doubt you’d be able to apply to any university, though, with a totally fresh start using just your high school marks. they’d require you to provide your entire academic history upon application– if you omit your university marks, this could be considered fraud. there’s a chance you could submit some sort of supplemental statement along with your transcript to explain what went wrong. it may not help you as much as i wish it would, though, given your record and suspension.

also– from what i remember, when you apply through OUAC, one of the sections of the application will ask you to account for what you’ve recently spent your time on if you’re not entering directly out of high school. for example, those who took a gap year to travel would indicate that there. you’d be obligated, then, to let any potential institution know about the time you spent at u of t.

for the path of least resistance, so to speak, you could look into doing college programs, where admissions may be more forgiving as opposed to a university. i’m not sure, but i’m pretty sure colleges like george brown have business programs. i’ve done some research into this, but at the moment i’m not aware of any options you have to get your degree at u of t without taking the path you already know about.

i know you’ve already visited an advisor, but my gut says to send you back to your registrar. these are the kinds of conversations that are best to have in-person, which is something i’m neither qualified nor allowed to carry out. my hope is that, even though they delivered bad news to you last time, they’ll be able to help you more if you continue to have these conversations with them. 

i do have a question for you– when meeting with your advisor, how open were you regarding the “life stuff” you struggled with? if you went through something particularly compelling and can show how you’ve grown and overcome your difficulties, maybe there’s a chance they might be able to make some kind of exception for you? for example, you can talk about how you’ve used your probation year well. good on you, for that– i hope it does something for your circumstances overall.

if you choose to go the route of pulling your GPA up with the eventual goal of making it into business, i’d also ask them what’ll happen if you take those commerce courses but ultimately don’t make POSt. they might know more about what your options look like, eg. if they’re usable for another program.

this is a tough one, dude, i feel you. all my best and i wish i could be of more help. i’m sorry the system is as unforgiving as it is– that it’s so difficult to pull yourself out of a place you were in at a single time in your life. but i have faith in your ability to get where you need to be, even if that path doesn’t look the way you hoped it would.

over n out,

aska