• suspension,  UTM

    a series of suspensions – part i

    May 22, 2013
    So I’m a second year student @ UTM and was recently put on academic suspension because I can honestly say I screwed up. But I am unclear of some things. I’ve noticed that for some people their suspensions are only for one session? Why is that? I got an email saying my suspension for one year has now been effective May 2013. Is there any way I can get out of suspension? Or ANY WAY I can make up for my screw up’s?? I am dying here…PLEASE HELP.

    Also, once I come back from suspension, what will happen? Will I be able to continue to 3rd year? And I was planning on going to Grad school, will this suspension impact on my chances of getting in greatly?!

    ———————————————

    Yo.

    I’m not sure what you’re reading, but at UTM, if you’re suspended, that goes for either one or three years. So what you might be seeing is someone saying they’ve been suspended for an entire academic session or something like that, in which they refer to an entire academic year?

    Either way, UTM seems pretty clear when they say it’s a one year thing — assuming you haven’t fallen so far as to be kicked out for three years.

    Now can you get out of this? Well… probably not.

    If you’ve looked into the aska archives on suspension, you’ll notice one or two student who think that they definitely don’t deserve to be on probation and that they’ll try harder and yada yada yada put me back in school for I am a special snowflake. I’m not trying to be mean/cynical/harsh, but if you get put on suspension… well first you were put on probation. You had a year of promising yourself and your registrar that you’d work harder, right? Very rarely does the university sympathize with people who’ve been suspended.

    But good for you! 🙂 The steps to coping with suspension always start off with accepting that you screwed up. Then we move forward!

    So yes, you can make up for your screw ups — just after a year.

    You can spend your time off making money, traveling, starting a blog, or whatever suits your fancy, but once you get back, you just start the year off again back on probation and dealing with the same circumstances as your previous probation. However, this time the threat is that if you plummet a second time, suspension lasts THREE years.

    And depending on your credit count, yes, you can carry on to third year. I mean you can be in your third year of study technically, but the university considers you third year when you have 9.0 to 13.5 FCE.

    As for grad school… well, grad school apps tend to come with a serious of extra requirements like letters of reference, transcripts, personal statements, and so on, meaning it’s possible to explain away the little mark of suspension on your record.

    However, keep in mind that letters of reference typically come from profs whose classes you totally rocked, and transcripts let potential schools see eeeveeerything. So if you really are serious about grad school, make sure that when you get back to school, you actually work on things this time. Hopefully that helps your odds for entry.

    Until then, enjoy your year off.

    Cheers!

    aska

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  • petition,  suspension

    this week on who’s the special snowflake…

    May 10, 2013

    I got into suspension,I am in my second year at UTSG.I have got LEGIT extenuating circumstances that got me into this.Spoke to my registrar,counsellor and filed a petition.Providing them with all the necessary documents and yes I was made sure to get it through my head that petitions as such RARELY EVER get granted.

    So I want to know what are my chances of setting an appointment with the Dean?? I want to, I NEED to get of suspension.If you can please help me out with how to go about fixing an appointment with the Dean via email/office any sort of information you can provide me with at this point would be highly appreciated! Or anyone whom you think I should speak to if I really wish to influence the decision. Even anyone you know got himself/herself out of suspension.

    I am totally,completely DESPERATE to get myself out of this.PLEASE help me.

    ———————————————

    Hey hey!

    Have you ever read the Faculty’s spiel on petitions regarding suspension? It’s surprisingly… not mechanical. It’s actually kind of hilarious in this “k what are you doing look at your life choices” kind of way. Like a lot of the lines are making me laugh obnoxiously.

    I mean LOOK AT THESE:

    – “They often want to make up for lost time and promise to redouble their efforts. However, they have just spent one whole session on Probation and their results are still marginal. They are not headed in the right direction.”

    – “Th[ese steps to appealing the suspension] may sound easy enough – ‘Everything’s okay now!‘ – but it is not.”

    – “Allowing you to enrol in even more courses without having resolved your problems just means that you will be in even deeper GPA difficulty at the end of the next year – so deep you may never get up to the 1.85 CGPA needed to graduate.”

    (Okay okay, some aren’t THAT funny, but that “so deep” bit on the last one killed me.)

    But back to the matter on hand:

    To be clear, petitions are largely a paper process. Meaning the only person you’re dealing with in person is your college registrar to give them your form/statement/medical note/etc. There’s isn’t really someone you can talk to so that you can “influence” the decision, so you’re better off just… well, waiting things out.

    Here’s the general contact info for the office of the dean, but I don’t really recommend trying to set up an appointment. I mean you can and no one can stop but think of it like this: the dean represents the Faculty’s rules. He’s not likely to sidestep them for you — especially when you’ve already started the petition process. If you sent him something today trying to make an appointment about your appeal, he’d probably just tell you to wait until you hear a reply, meaning you’re not likely to get an appointment.

    But if your “extenuating circumstances” are legit and you really truly shouldn’t be on suspension, then there shouldn’t be anything to worry about, right?

    For now, I recommend waiting.

    Sure, it might seem like your petition is taking forever, but keep in mind how busy the petitions office is, especially at this time of the year where students are “sick” and need to defer their exams. Likewise, if your situation really is complicated and worthy of having the suspension lifted, it’ll take extra long since they’ll really need to look into matters.

    So sit tight and enjoy your time off or something.

    Cheers!

    aska

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  • suspension

    if you fail once and you fail twice… TRY AGAIN!

    May 6, 2013

    Hi there,

    Is there ever any leniency in meeting probational gpa requirements? My cgpa is abysmal due to a previous failed year, so to at least stay on probation for another term, I need 1.70 sessional gpa (St. George Arts and Science). I’m still waiting on one mark, but I have a feeling I’m going to be at 1.67. Is there such thing as “close enough”? The difference between 1.67 and 1.70 is just a difference of 1% for any one of my graded classes. If a prof doesn’t want to bump me up 1%, am I screwed?

    ———————————————

    Hey hey,

    Yeaaaaaah the rules are pretty strict, so there’s no such thing as just being “close enough.”

    Sorry dude. 🙁

    I suppose you can beg a prof or two for the slightest bit of a bump, but there’s nothing wrong with taking a year off. I mean, if you’re on the brink of suspension, that means two bad years of university.

    Don’t you think this means something? I’m not saying that maybe university isn’t for you, but there’s nothing wrong with taking a little time off and straightening your priorities. I have a friend who got suspended, spent that year off working his butt off til he became some fancy supervisor, and is now back in school and rocking it.

    University may very well be for you, but maybe it’s time for a[n enforced] break. 🙂

    currently planning a trip to spain to ditch school,

    aska

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  • suspension,  UTSC

    if at first you don’t succeed…

    April 29, 2013

    hey, I’m a second year student at utsc – i was put on probation and suspended for the first semester of my second year – and sad thing is .. i thought i was gonna do pretty well this semester but i ended up failing 1/4 of my courses – i know this mean ill be suspended once again but for 3 sessions straight .. but I was just wondering if i was able to take summer school to maybe get myself out of being suspended .

    ———————————————

    Hey hey,

    So if you’re suspended for a second time, you’ll be how it works for twelve months/three sessions. Seeing as summer school = an academic session/part of those twelve months of suspension, then no, you cannot enroll and try to get yourself out of suspension.

    But there are plenty of things you can do instead!

    Get a job and save up, do some volunteer work, travel the world, watch every episode of Game of Thrones, contemplate your life choices, and so on. I do stress contemplation though. Is there a reason you’ve been suspended twice? Is university actually where you want to be?

    xoxo,

    aska

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  • suspension

    oh spare me the suspension

    January 21, 2013

    Hi,

    I am an international student currently in my 2nd year of studies at Uoft St.George.I was put on probation after my first year.I repeated my bio120 course on fall of 2012 but failed for the second time and I am mad scared about getting into suspension. Yes, I have fixed an appointment with a councillor meanwhile I was hoping if a letter to the professors would work a miracle of giving me a passing grade.I took the course with professors Barrett and Thomson and was wondering how to approach them..to be more specific, would it be wise for me to mention that I am on academic probation and an F grade at this point could lead me towards suspension or just write a normal letter of request saying I am an international student and so on.

    Please help me out. I feel so lost right now.

    ———————————————

    Yo.

    Unfortunately, at this point of the year it’ll take a very long and grueling process to have a mark changed on ROSI that’ll include you and your prof(s) and a number of those higher ups. You can try writing a letter but to ask a prof to bump a grade for you usually requires you to be at least at like… a 49. Likewise, again, they might decline on the grounds of the process of changing is just too troublesome.

    What you can do is possibly request an exam recheck — that is, if you truly think you were graded unfairly. If that’s the case, your exam grade might go up just enough to give you a pass! Granted, that can also work negatively…

    But you still have a whole semester of courses to make sure your sessional GPA rises, so work on that if the bio stuff doesn’t go through.

    Cheers!

    aska

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  • petition,  suspension

    a year for yourself? yikes!

    October 3, 2012

    Hi,

    I just finished my first year of studies at Uoft St.George. I was unable to get the required marks and therefore was put on probation. I tried to take myself out of it by taking summer classes (huge mistake) and now I’m currently suspended.

    This past year, I’ve been having some medical issues that caused me to get bad marks on tests/ exams. I’ve always been really embarrassed and scared to go to my registrars office and talk to them face-to-face about my academic standing. I was wondering if there was a way that I could write a petition for UofT to lift my suspension?? Is it too late for me to do that for this FALL 2012 term?? Or would it be better to write a petition to come back second semester?? I do not think I need an entire year off to focus on my health issues and get back on track. I’ve already visited the doctor and I am taking proper medication. I cannot imagine what taking an entire year off will do to my academics. Is there anyway? I can be granted this petition to come back this semester or second semester?? I really need some guidance!

    Thank you

    ———————————————

    Hey there!

    I’m sorry to hear about your suspension, but the good news is that you can indeed petition to come back – granted the earliest would have to be in January and you might have some difficulty getting into classes.

    Your first unofficial step would be to embrace your registrar’s office. Your college registrar is your BFF in university. They help you with choosing courses, understanding the intricacies of OSAP, and many other forms of guidance. If you’re ever confused about something during your time at U of T, chances are that your registrar will have the answers for you. With the letter explaining your probation, you would have been invited by your faculty to speak to an academic advisor (likely from your registrar) and depending on your college, someone else would have contacted you as well about the importance of coming in.

    Now after realizing that your registrar only wants to help you and is completely non-judgemental of what your GPA is or why you missed that exam, go over to the Suspensions section of the Faculty of Arts and Science’s Petitions website. Petitions are allowed, yes, but the truth is that they’re rarely granted. Do a little reading on that before going to your registrar, where students are recommended to go for counselling and advice regarding petition procedures and whether or not your petition is even worth it.

    If you’re still set on the petition after that meeting, then you’ll have to fill out the petition form and write a clear statement no more than two pages about why you need special consideration in this situation. Since your suspension is a result of medical issues, you’ll definitely need documentation proving that. Your petition will be submitted to your registrar, who will then forward it to the Petitions Office. After that, you’ll probably hear back via email a few weeks later.

    But if you do stay on suspension until next September, don’t feel too glum about it! You can do plenty of things with that time: work, travel, learn how to knit, write a novel, and so on. Taking a year off won’t have a huge effect on your academics. Sure, you might forget how to use your note-taking hand while you’re away, but a week or two back into classes and you’ll be fine! 🙂

    Good luck!

    aska

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  • suspension

    no loop holes in suspension here

    October 1, 2012

    Hi, I am a UTM student, but thought you could also provide some helpful information to me.

    I’m pretty close to graduating, but due to a complicated situation, got in trouble with the school and might possibly get suspended for a year. It’s
    unfortunate, cause I love my psych course and study hard and don’t have anyone else writinh my essays for me. 🙁

    So, I’m trying to put a plan into motion just in case I do get suspended.I want to take courses at Guelph or Athabasca (online uni) and have them
    transfered over to UTM. A lady at the office of Dean said that I am welcome to take courses at other non-UofT universities during suspension. However one of your online posts said that courses taken while under suspension are not allowed to count as transfer credits, even though in a non-suspension
    situation they probably would.

    I need clarification.

    ———————————————

    Hello there UTM one,

    All the information, although contrasting, is accurate.

    What the Dean office lady is referring to is that you are allowed to pursue a degree at another university if you so choose to (and the other university allows it).

    Buuuuutt, your degree at UTM has essentially been hit by a pause button if you are suspended. This means that you are not allowed to take courses to contribute towards your degree. This means that any courses, taken at any school, cannot be contributed to your degree. So, any courses taken during this time cannot be transferred back to U of T to go towards your degree.

    What U of T is getting at is that they want you to chill out and reflect on what you want in life and sort any complicated situations that are holding you back from excelling at your academics.

    Stay calm and suspend on.

    pumpkin pie and coffee,
    aska

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  • suspension

    Life is not over after suspension

    January 19, 2011

    I honestly need guidance I have an addiction.because of my addiction I cant study, for three years I’ve given in, now that I found help- I’ve just been suspended because I was on academic probation. I need to know that i can come back from this, i’m a student at utsc. I have severe anxiety from talking to the registrar, about my embarrassing situation, I don’t even know why im typing this i just want to get my academic life back on track I feel like this is the end.
    if this has happened to anyone please just tell me if i can do this.
    thankfully,verysadperson

    ———————————————

    Dear a verysadperson-turned happy (hopefully)

    First of all you shouldn’t be embarrassed to talk about your situation. Your brave for realizing your addiction and getting help for it.
    Annnd people get suspended all the time.
    Here’s what I found on your situation.

    Suspension

    As it sounds that this is your first suspension, so this is what applies to you:

    Students who have incurred no previous suspension will be suspended for four months (one session)

    Meaning, I would take those 4 months and continue to get help with your addiction. This is probably a really difficult time for you, so take these 4 months to recoup and not worry about school.

    When you return to U of T after your suspension you will be placed on probation. Read this information on being on probation. Pretty much it says that you need to have a CGPA of 1.60 in the year returning.

    It actually looks likes your life is looking up. You have four months to focus on your recovery and can come back to U of T ready to go. You can definitely get a CGPA of 1.60.

    Good luck bud,
    Aska

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  • failing,  suspension,  switching

    i’m suspended, can i go somewhere else?

    August 4, 2010

    Hi,I was wondering if i can apply for college, if im on suspension? Im on suspension now for 1 year and im thinking of switching out of UofT any ways,but im not sure if i can since i am on suspension
    thanks

    ———————————————

    Hello there! I have asked a registrar at Innis College about your situation and here’s what they told me…um, here it is.

    Basically you can feel free to approach other schools about letting you take courses there, but none of those credits that you’ve taken, while you are suspended, will count towards your degree. If you are interested in one day returning to U of T after your year long suspension, maybe it doesn’t make sense to take classes that will not go towards your degree? I don’t know, I am just a gender-ambiguous expert in academic course registration. But if you love learning and don’t care about time or money being (in some people’s minds, not mine) “wasted”, then by all means go forth. After your year of being on suspension, you will be able to either register in classes at U of T again, or transfer to another school (though please talk to your registrar about transfer credits). Hopefully this helps! In the meantime, spend your time partying and working on your tan.

    xoxo, Askastudent

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  • bad times,  suspension

    my dog ate it… repeatedly.

    February 20, 2009

    soo… i’m feaking out. this past little while has been stressful enough with a lot of family stuff going on and being the idiot that i am…i decided not to “take it easy” like the people at registrars suggested and instead just kept plowing through anyways…. now i have a fear of being suspended for a semester. so now for my questions
    a) if i am suspended for a semester does this tarnish my rep of getting into teacher’s program at u of t?
    b) does the u of t teacher’s program look at all 4 years or the final year.. or what?
    c) be honest with him… with a screwed up past like this and a possible suspension… what are my chances of even getting into a teacher’s program if i pull my marks up high next year?
    d) can an academic suspension be petitioned? and what are the chances of it going through?
    ps. i’m in my third year at utsc

    ?

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  • suspension,  transfer credits

    now that’s a lousy vacation…

    November 19, 2008

    Hi

    I have a questionn to ask about credit transfer. Actually I was in suspended condition 2 years before. And these 2 years, I go back to my home country and continue my study in a community college of applied psychology. I wish to know if i do have a chance to transfer my credits back in UT for my 2nd year study???

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  • housing,  jobs,  money,  suspension

    a job get some money get out of your house

    March 7, 2002

    I need to move out next year.
    I need to find a decent apartment near campus.
    Where can I find a job where I can earn at least $5000 so I can afford to live downtown next year.
    There is all of this talk about how U of T student have access to better jobs; that is such crap.
    I earn $8.50 and it doesn’t look like I will be earning any more.
    Help me!
    Help me!

    Read More