• admissions,  internal transfer,  Transferring

    this or that: transfer or transfer

    Hi, my goal is to study architecture at UofT and unfortunately I didn’t get accepted. The only program open at UofT when I got my rejection was the visual and performance arts program at UofT Scarborough. My question is do you think it’s smart to go into that program in my first year and then do an internal transfer ? Or should I go to TMU for an undeclared program and so an external transfer? How can I make sure I will get accepted if I transfer?

    Have you ever heard about a similar situation? What was the outcome?


    hey there,

    this sounds like a tough decision. well… good thing i’m here, right?

    Excited Game Of Thrones GIF by Saturday Night Live

    1. internal vs. external transfer

    i haven’t heard of situations too similar to yours, but i have heard of many people doing internal transfers between campuses at uoft. and, take this with a grain of salt, but i’m assuming it would be easier to transfer internally since you will already have been accepted to uoft. especially since they have your transcript already and all your records. and in terms of anecdotal advice, people have said that transferring in from another university is very difficult and strict (harder than admission straight out of high school).

    2. how can i make sure i will get accepted if i transfer?

    while there’s no way to make sure you get accepted in a transfer, you can make your application stronger and more competitive. for an internal transfer: you can read about admissions from UTSC to the st. george campus hereadmission decisions are based on your CGPA, and will depend on whether or not program prerequisites, grade requirements and any other admission requirements have been met. people have said that this application process is not difficult, as long as your grades are fine. though uoft doesn’t give out an exact number, i think if your GPA is above a 3.0, you should be good. in the worst case, people who didn’t get in wrote a letter to appeal the decision, and it worked.

    Movie gif. Colin Farrell wears an oversized jacket on a busy street. He shrugs his shoulders and has an exaggerated frown on his face like he has no clue what's going on.

    for an external transfer: admission consideration is based on your overall academic record and your most recent annual average. competitive students normally have a solid ‘B’ average in their university studies (though this really depends on the program).

    in the end though, for something like this, advice from a fellow student probably won’t cut it. i can’t make a call on what is smart to do just based on your question, as i don’t know the full picture or what would work for you. if you wanted to push for program-specific answers, get in touch with the admissions office in the faculty of architecture. their email is: undergraduate (at) daniels (.) utoronto (.) ca . someone on the inside there might actually be really helpful, don’t hesitate to just ask!

    and overall, talk to the people in your life about what makes most sense for you. i’m sure it will all work out, keep your head up! wishing you all the best. (also, thanks for the patience with this answer).

    over and out,

    aska

  • credits,  polisci,  transfer credits,  Transferring

    ur not special (said in solidarity)

    Hi aska, I’m a transfer student from UTSC and I only took 4 credits thinking it was full time but apparently 5 credits is full time — im gonna take some courses for english and PoliSci in the summer (I took POL101 and 106 to make the FCE) so I can get into the Polisci post and get access to 200 level English courses. I’m planning to take summer courses for my whole 4 years — would it be possible for me to graduate in 4 years even with the transfer (and credits that are now just extra/breadth) and the only 80% courseload in year 1? Thanks!


    hi bestie,

    trying to graduate in 4 years after taking an 80% courseload in first year? sorry bro, but. you’re not special.

    You And Me Both Fake Laugh GIF by The Roku Channel

    i think you have a chance here, assuming i understand your situation right and haven’t lost my marbles yet. overall, you need to check off completion requirements in two areas to graduate: degree requirements, and program requirements. using degree explorer is a great way to check your current status on the requirements in both of these areas.

    Both Is Good The Road To El Dorado GIF

    technically, 4 credits per year is a full time course load, since 3 is the minimum to be a full time student according to the academic calendar. but, it’s true that it is recommended to take 5 credits per year to complete the minimum of 20.0 credits within 4 years. with that said, i know several people who take 4 credits during the school year and then take 1 credit during the summer to make up for it, adding up to 5 credits per year. depending on how many courses you take, it could be possible to complete 20 credits by your fourth year—during the summer, there is a max of 1 credit (2 courses) per term, so you could complete 2 credits through the 2 summer terms. if you do that each summer as you’re planning to, that would help a lot.

    meanwhile, you should also keep track of what courses you need to complete for your polisci program. here, i can’t give you specific advice since i don’t know what courses you’ve taken towards your degree.

    overall, it’s hard for me to say anything definite on your situation since your timeline here is a bit unclear and i’m not sure how many transfer credits you have. i would highly recommend that you visit your registrar to get a more specific answer, and spend some time mapping things out with them.

    Always Sunny Reaction GIF

    over and out,

    aska

     

  • internal transfer,  Transferring

    goodbye uoft, hello… uoft

    I am an internal transfer student and I have accepted my offer. The conditions are: have CGPA above 2.7 and maintain my current academic standing and if I am currently enroll, do not have any misconduct notes on my final transcript. My question is I dropped 2 winter session courses after I accepted my offer since I don’t need them anymore. I still have 4 winter session courses left. Is this action going to affect my offer?


    hey there,

    if those are all the conditions on your offer, i’d say you’re in the clear. there aren’t any specific requirement on courseload in the uoft internal transfer criteria in the first place, and although they might’ve considered that during admissions in a more ~holistic~ way, i doubt that even uoft would be petty enough to go back and check that after you’ve been accepted.

    the only scenario that i think might possibly be problematic is if you dropped a course that was a required prereq for entering the program you applied to, since you do need the required high school or university prereqs to transfer. but i’d assume that’s not the case since you said you don’t need those courses anymore. so basically, you’re freeee! take the offer and run! they can’t possibly take it back – unless your cgpa drops and/or your academic standing changes, so just be careful of that.

    good luck!

    aska

  • computer science,  subject POST,  Transferring

    chasin the cs dream

    I am a first year international student who bombed in-stream cs class so I’ll be kicked out of stream. I have anxiety disorder and this term has been too rough for me, especially due to not being able to make good connection with my classmates. I feel so sad I literally cry every time I think about it. Should I transfer to another university. Cuz I can not stay sane due to my workload. I was convinced myself that I’ll be super happy not being a cs major but now I see that cs is what I want to do


    hey there,

    really sorry to hear that things have been rough. the first thing that i’d urge you to do (if you haven’t already) is to visit your registrar or book an appointment with them – transferring is a big decision to make so it’d be best to get some personalized advice, and if you decide to stay at uoft, your registrar can help make sure you get the supports and accomodations you need.

    the second thing is – rather specific, actually – if by chance you go to utsc, there might actually be a workaround for your case, because utsc cs stream students get a chance to redo first year cs courses for better grades to stay in the program (lucky you) – except for MATA31 (if that’s the course you did poorly on, well… unlucky you).

    at utsg and utm, you’d have to reapply for cs programs from out-of-stream. in fact, if you’re at utm you’d only be eligible for the cs minor – the major and specialist are for cs stream students only.

    if you decide to give this a shot, it’ll be really important to get on top of your game academically and sort out the kinds of things that went wrong last semester, for example by getting accomodations from accessibility services, mental health support, or taking fewer courses if you can.

    honestly, considering the competitiveness of out-of-stream cs post, it’s going to be tough and there’s no guarantee that you’ll get in. if you decide to give it a try, i’d say that you should be prepared for the possibility of ending up in a non-cs program. for example, you could do a cs minor, which is typically less competitive, along with other majors/minors in different subjects. or you could look into cs-related programs like cognitive science at utsg, which does include a few csc courses and is also relatively less competitive.

    if you’re sure that you’re really only interested in cs, you can definitely look into transferring. for example, there are plenty of other canadian university/colleges with cs programs that may accept transfer students. if you find a program that you meet the requirements for and also seems like a good fit, then i’d say go for it! i mean, sure, uoft’s got the ~clout and prestige~ but there are plenty of other unis with great cs programs that can also prepare you with the knowledge/experience you need.

    i will say, even though uoft gets the reputation of being so hard compared other canadian unis, that’s not necessarily true. transferring gives you a second chance, but it won’t be a magic button to fix everything because chances are, cs is gonna be challenging at any school. so, regardless of where you end up, what’s really important is to reflect on your experiences and make sure to get all the skills, strategies and support systems you need.

    all the best,

    aska

  • engineering,  Transferring

    so you wanna be an engineer

    I’m a utsc student in my 2nd year (social science), i wanna transfer to engineering at St. George, how hard would that be? Is it possible to still graduate in 4 years if I do that? What would the process be? Really appreciate the help!


    hey there,

    so the good news is, it’s definitely possible to do that, and you might be able to get some transfer credits too, especially for electives.

    the kinda bad news is that since you’re not in engineering already, you’d have to transfer into first year engineering (more info here), so unless you’re really keen, it’d be really hard to graduate in four years total.

    in terms of the process, since you’re already a uoft student, you’d have to apply for an internal transfer on this portal. it looks like your application is based on your transcript and a supplemental application for things like extracurriculars, and apparently you need:

    unfortunately i don’t have personal experience with transfering, but engineering is a pretty competitive program and transfers can be especially hard to get. if you really want to get into the nitty gritty, a bit of snooping around led me to this report where you can see the number of applicants and offers for uoft engineering undergrad each year (pg 8-9 of the pdf) and it does not look pretty. if you’ve got the prereqs, a good gpa and extracurriculars, it’s definitely worth a shot, but you could also look into alternatives like eng programs at other unis to get some more options.

    good luck!

    aska

  • Transferring,  UTM

    seeya sauga

    Hello, I got refused from uoft art and science. And got admitted to UTM physical and chemical science. But the major I want do is not offer at UTM. Is there any chance that I transfer to uoft art and science. If yes what should I do, like would it matter the courses I’ll take in my first year at UTM? Please help. And thanks ?


    hey there,

    yup, you can definitely transfer to uoft artsci after first year. you’ll have to apply as an internal applicant on ouac. just so you know, the application deadline for early consideration is november 7th and the final deadline is january 12th next year.

    it looks like the main criteria for transferring is your gpa (what else is new) and you should aim for at least a 2.7 cgpa, which is around a B average. you’ll also need the high school and university (first year) prerequisites for the program you’re interested in.

    one possibly good thing is that as an internal transfer, you can carry over some of the courses you’ve completed at utm so that they go towards your uoft artsci degree — these are called “retained credits”. the confusing part of all this is that there isn’t actually any firm guideline out there on which utm courses correspond to uoft artsci courses, so you’ll have to do some guesswork.

    i’d recommend looking up the uoft artsci major(s) that you’re interested in and checking out the required first year courses. if you see any utm courses in the “exclusions” section of the course description, that usually means that they have similar content or overlaps with the course you’re looking at, and there’s a good chance that they’ll count as a retained credit for your transfer. you can also try to pick courses that match the timeframes of the utsg courses you’re interested in, like picking full year Y courses versus semestered S or F courses.

    of course, you don’t have to load up on all the courses for your future major in order to transfer, the most important thing is probably keeping a good gpa and taking the prerequisites you need for POSt.

    anyways, i hope that helps. best of luck!

    aska

  • GPA,  Transferring

    gpa is forever (mostly)

    Hi,

    I was wondering if gpa resets when you transfer within campuses at uoft? let’s say i transferred from utsc to utsg, will my gpa reset or remain the same?


    hey there,

    so first of all i know this is really late….. i’m sorry!! but i’m BACK and i am here to stay.

    now onto your actual question: it depends. you actually can get a gpa “reset” if you transfer into utsg artsci from some other faculties at uoft. your transfer credits would not have any marks associated with them, and they can still count towards part of your degree or program requirements.

    BUT the catch is, utm, utsc, and daniels faculty don’t count. if you transfer from a different campus or daniels and go into utsg artsci, your previous courses will be “retained credits” and they will be part of your cgpa. and no, you cannot refuse these retained credits. 🙁 … or maybe 🙂 if you’re really happy about your marks so far i guess.

    all the best,

    aska

  • internal transfer,  Transferring

    come to the dark side

    I am a utsc student looking to transfer to utsg, and I only have 4.0 credits with a decent gpa. I also took most of my courses here at utsg, so I just wanna ask does the university look at how many courses you have taken when considering transfer, and what are my odds.


    hi there,

    from what i’ve seen, gpa is the main factor for transferring campuses. courseload doesn’t seem to matter much (if at all) based on what i’ve been able to find after 30 solid minutes of googling, ctr-f-ing and opening way too many tabs, so i think you’re safe there. overall, if your cgpa is decent enough to pass utsg’s cutoff of a 2.7 or B average, i think it’s definitely worth a shot!

    (i have no clue why there’s a gif specifically of motivational jane goodall in front of a uoft banner, but hey, it works)

    as for your odds, well, only the admissions officers really know that. but if you’d like some guidance through this whole process, i’d suggest getting in touch with your registrar!

    good luck,

    aska

  • admissions,  conditional offer,  Transferring

    i am once again asking you to ask enrolment services

    [Asking for a Friend] He’s a transfer student from UK and failed a course during his spring term. Will his admission offer be revoked by UT? Is there any way to prevent this?


    hi there,

    so… i’m a bit confused. is your friend in high school and transferred from the uk to canada? is he transfering to uoft from a university in the uk? or neither? i have so many questions.

    anyway, i’ll just assume it’s one of those two… if your friend’s in a canadian high school (although similar criteria apply for international schools, like in the uk), it’s possible that his offer will be revoked, especially if the course is a prerequisite for the program he was accepted for.

    conditional offers made before your final marks are out will usually have requirements to maintain your marks, but they can be super vague. unfortunately, i can’t say if uoft will rescind his offer but i’d recommend contacting enrolment services directly to ask, if you haven’t heard from them already.

    if the offer gets rescinded, your friend might be able to further explain his situation to the admissions office to see if any exceptions can be made, or if they would accept a retake of the course in summer school, private school, or any other options available to him.

    if your friend’s transferring from a university/college, the failed course could also be an issue since conditional offers for transfers do emphasize your cgpa and overall academic performance. again, prerequisites probably matter the most, but you’d also have to pass the cgpa cutoff which is generally around a B average, according to the requirements. to be safe though, i’d still recommend asking enrolment services.

    it might seem like i’m just outsourcing every other question to enrolments services at this point, which… well. just trust me, they know best.

    good luck (to your friend, that is) and hope that helps!

    aska

  • Transferring

    i do not know!

    hello! if i transfer from york biomed to utm life sci, I understand not all of my credits will transfer, or will either transfer as half a credit. I read somewhere that i may need to take an extra year to compensate for my missing credits, however i really want to avoid doing so and would love to complete my undergrad in just 4 years! are there ways i can complete all my credits in time?

    ———————————————

    hi there,

    thank you for your patience with this answer!

    unfortunately, it’s a bit tough for me to gauge your situation because i don’t have access to your academic history. i don’t even know what year you’re transferring out of!

    i’d recommend that you try getting in touch with both an academic advisor at york and an admissions officer at UTM. they’d likely be better able to answer your questions — i’m sure other prospective students have been in your situation.

    but in terms of strategies to keep your degree within four years, you can always take summer classes if that’s something you’re open to. at u of t, you can take a maximum of 2.0 FCEs over the summer (four courses). if you have a high enough CGPA, you can also petition for a course overload, which will allow you take more courses than the usual limit (6.0 FCEs in the fall/winter, 2.0 FCEs in the summer). i can’t say for sure whether these strategies will allow you to complete your degree within four years, though — that’s something you’ll need to do the math on yourself.

    i hope this provided a bit of clarity! good luck with your decision.

    be Boundless,

    aska

  • colleges,  innis,  Transferring

    innis LOVES you

    Hi! I was just wondering, is it possible to switch colleges? I’m a first year in Vic right now, and I find that the resources (i.e. the writing centre) is much better at Innis. Just not sure if this is possible though. Thank you.

    ——————————————
    hey there,

    it is in fact possible to switch colleges! if you check out this webpage, click the “new students” drop down menu, and look for the “can i switch my college affiliation?” question, you’ll find the info about that there.

    the tl:dr of it is that you have to submit a letter to the registrar explaining why you want to transfer colleges. i’ve heard that these transfers aren’t easily granted, so make sure the reasons you cite are legitimate.

    i’d actually recommend giving the registrar’s front desk a call, so you can briefly explain some of your reasons and ask for advice on drafting the letter. you might be more successful that way.

    i hope this helps, and good luck with transferring should you choose to move forward!

    be Boundless,
    aska

  • admissions,  internal transfer,  transcripts,  Transferring

    someone’s jumping ship from utm or utsc

    hey do you know if i need transcripts (from uoft and/or high school) to apply for an internal transfer to utsg?

    —————————————— 

    hey friend,

    i started an ouac internal application myself to figure this out for you, so here’s hoping they don’t actually hold me to finishing this lol, i am happy where i am.

    under the ‘transcript requests’ section of the application, you will be required to have transcripts sent directly from whatever your high school was, as well as from your current u of t campus. this u of t website also says that yes, they will be looking at your full academic history to evaluate your application.

    hope this helped and best of luck with your internal application!

    be Boundless and have a good winter break,

    aska

     

     

  • probation,  suspension,  Transferring

    a rough patch

    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!!

    ——————————————

    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