• first year,  odds are that won't be asked again

    tryna impress family i.e. running up a downward escalator

    Hi aska,

    I’ve had this question for a long time now, but everyone else seems not at all bothered by it so I guess it must be a silly one.

    So here it goes,

    Since we won’t apply for POSTs (or a major if I understood correctly) until the end of first year, as a frosh, when someone asks you “what do you study?” what should I say? Some of family friends have asked me the same thing, and I was like.. “uh, I’m an art&science student?” which sounds incredibly vague & I-don’t- know-what-I’m -talking- about. I did get accepted in Life science, but if I were to say that I give the impression I want to be a med student or something, which is not the case at all. The thing is I haven’t decided what I want to study for major, I thought first year was for explore, is it just me? Does everybody else already know what they want?

    I hope you can understand my dilemma and weirdness.

    Sincerely confused..

    ———————————————

    hey there confused,

    i completely understand the question, actually. from aska’s extensive research (i.e. chatting with friends who go to school elsewhere), most universities don’t lump arts and science together in one faculty. it’s usually more logical than that. alas, you chose uoft. get ready for lots of people to be confused about the way we do things (see the ever-popular: “college??? you’re in a coLLeGe? but i thought you went to universitY???”)

    usually, people just say which stream they’re in, so “i’m in life sci.” in my experience, med school students tend to say “i’m in med school/i’m studying medicine,” so i don’t think there should be too much confusion. or you could try “i’m a general science student.” or “i go to lizard skateboarding school.”

    as for using first year to explore, you’ve got it exactly right. if everyone around you is saying “i’m in such and such program,” then they’re all wrong, and you’re right. too many first-year students come in with a subject POSt already in mind, and then if they don’t get into it after first year, they panic, because they’ve got no idea what else to do. or even worse, they think they’re already in a program, and don’t know they have to sign up for one after first year. take note: you do have to.

    there’s enough flexibility in first year that you can take the typical prereqs for most science POSts (CHEM138+139, BIO120+130, MATH135+136), and have credits left over to take some general interest courses.

    so take your time, explore, and don’t rush into a decision about programs. that way, when you actually make your decision after a year of thoughtful exploration, it’s more likely to be the right one for you.

    finally, just FYI, a major is not the only kind of subject POSt. uoft students are accepted to enrol in either one specialist, two majors, or a major and two minors (you can get ambitious like a specialist and a major or two majors and a minor, but those are the standard ones).

    cheers,

    aska

  • odds are that won't be asked again

    a perspective on global perspectives

    Hello,
    I have applied for the global perspectives community as a 1st yr and I was wondering if you can tell me more about it.
    Is this like a community where people hang out and do things together? Or do people live together in the same residence?

    And also, is there any restriction in terms of the people they accept, i.e. how many people they accept? And if they do accept me, is it autonomic or do I get to think about it for a while (Like the ONE programs where I get to choose whether to participate even after they accept me)?

    thank you and best regards

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    it’s everything you just said and more. i like the way you put it: “a community where people hang out and do things together.” that makes it sound really chill and fun. all aspects of university should be like that, don’t you think lectures should be a community where people hang out and do things together. exams should be! come to think of it, that probably wouldn’t help with the learning part of university…

    you will be living in the same residence with your Living Learning Community. you will also be putting on events with them. Living Learning is like the residence experience plus. think of it as a really productive, yearlong sleepover. with less chips. maybe.

    they say that “[a]ll efforts will be made to assign you to your choice of community,” so no, i don’t think it’s the kind of thing where applicants have to duke it out and they only accept a certain percentage of individuals.

    if you are placed in a Living Learning Community, then you’re given a room that’s part of that Community and that’s basically it. you can reject the offer of room i guess, but then it’s up to you to find some place else to live.

    cheers,

    aska

  • odds are that won't be asked again

    creepin’ on a course

    Hi aska!

    I asked a professor if I could audit one of his S-summer courses and he agreed! But he seems to think that U of T has a special auditing process that would grant me access to the course on Blackboard. Googling “auditing courses u of t” only turns up the Slavic department’s protocol for this, and I’m not taking a Slavic course. Do you happen to know if professors have the ability to grant Student access to people not enrolled in the course, and if so, how do they do this (since this professor apparently doesn’t know how).

    <3 <3 <3 love and ice cream,

    VVVVVVVVvvvvvvvvvvv

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    there doesn’t seem to be a formal process. according to the only university-wide policy i could find, “[i]f a faculty, school, or college decides to make courses accessible by auditors, the final determination of whether or not a person should be allowed to audit and whether or not space is available for an auditor in the course will be made by the instructor.”

    basically, as long as the faculty and department that administers the course has allowed the possibility of auditing, the instructor can decide to allow or not allow auditors as he/she pleases. there’s no formal process that i can see; your prof should just check with the faculty that auditors are allowed. apart from that, the prof is the monarch of their own little domain.

    lucky them.

    best,

    aska

    P.S. in order to access a course on Blackboard, you have to be officially registered in the course on ROSI. you wouldn’t be able to access the course on Blackboard if you were auditing it. if you’re auditing the class and you just want supplementary notes and materials posted on Blackboard, i’d arrange to get them from the professor another way, maybe in person or through e-mail.

    P.P.S. thanks for the love and ice-cream, but i’m a little worried you had a stroke at the end of your question??? i hope you’re okay.

  • courses,  odds are that won't be asked again

    picking on the little guy (course)

    Hi there,

    I was just wondering how many students have to be enrolled in a course in order for it not to be cancelled. For example, one of the 300-level summer courses I want to take has space for 45 students but there are only 17 students enrolled. If it reaches, say, 20 students will it still be cancelled because not enough people are taking it?

    Thanks in advance!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    the likelihood of a course being cancelled because of low enrolment is very small. enrolment numbers might affect whether the course runs next year, but if it’s up on ROSI and you can enrol in it now, chances are, it’s going to run. I wouldn’t worry about it.

    so just remember the large, friendly letters on the front of the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy:

    don't panic

    best,

    aska

  • odds are that won't be asked again

    all the best, my surgical warrior

    hey there

    i’m probably going to have relatively major surgery at the end of the summer so i’m probably going to have to take off a semester to heal. do i have to do anything for this? like do i have to notify someone or do something special or do i just only choose winter courses during course selection??

    thanks!!!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    yo, firstly: good luck on your surgery! i hope it goes as smoothly as possible, and that your recovery is super-quick.*

    there’s nothing really official you have to do. if you’re a downtown student/your campus has yearlong courses, then you’re going to have to do enrolment in august anyway, so just make sure to only enrol in winter term courses. in this case, your course load means you will probably be paying part-time fees, because you’ll most likely be taking few enough courses that you have part-time status (i can’t say for sure – if you want to know for sure, talk to your college registrar).

    if you’re at UTSC, which i believe goes on a trimesterly basis, then you’ll do your enrolment for january and not september – though i’m not sure if that will involve any kinda formal process, so talk to your registrar’s office about it to make sure.

    as well, if you’re out of school for more than 6 months, you’ll have to start paying OSAP back (if you have OSAP) after the 6 months is up, unless you can get continuation of interest-free status. so either talk to the NSLC or make sure you’re prepared to make a few months’ payments, if you’ll be out of class for more than 6 months (remember the summer is included in that).

    if you’re unsure about any of this stuff, just talk to your college/school registrar’s office about it, and they should be able to walk you through everything.

    best,

    aska

    *also, while you’re at the hospital, see if you can tease a free lollipop outta the doctors. they’re always up for that.

  • odds are that won't be asked again

    i’m late, i’m late, for a very important date

    Hi ASKA

    So basically my course has a late penalty of 2% a day including weekend, but the prof doesn’t allow electronic submission and the department of Polisci is closed on weekends and I can’t submit my essay over the weekend earning 4% extra penalty. Can the Prof do this?

    ———————————————

    hey there DUDE,

    great question. it’s always a good idea to keep on top of what your profs are doing, to make sure they don’t try to get up to any SHENANIGANS when you’re not looking. you know how sneaky those profs can be. sneaky, sneaky

    unfortunately, uoft has basically given instructors free reign when it comes to late assignments. according to section 8.1 of the academic handbook, profs don’t have to accept late assignments at all if they don’t want to. if they do have a late policy, as long as it’s clear and published in the syllabus, they can basically do whatever they want. the handbook says that “you are allowed wide latitude in…this [late policies],” as long as it’s “fair, equitable and reasonable.” that’s uoft lingo for “NO RULES! GO WILD!”

    although to be honest, that’s a pretty standard late policy that you’re describing. most profs include weekends in days that things can be late, even if you can’t actually hand in the work over the weekend. it’s just meant to encourage you to, you know, hand stuff in before the weekend. comprende?

    i hope that assignment doesn’t go too horribly, man,

    aska

  • odds are that won't be asked again

    oh uoft, i wish i could quit you

    Hi,

    I’m in second year and I just dangerously avoided academic suspension (low GPA), basically failed all my courses first semester and then worked extra hard this semester so I could avoid suspension. Anyways the problem is that this year took everything out of me. I want time maybe a semester or a year to think about life and other quarter life crisis stuff. What are the procedures for taking a leave of absence? Can you take a leave if you don’t have any family/health related issues?

    Thanks, Dean

    ———————————————

    Hey Dean,

    Good for you for deciding to take a break.

    There’s no procedure at all, actually. Just finish this year and go off into the sunset to contemplate life and stuff. Go to Italy and eat pizza, go to India and do some yoga, and go to Indonesia and find your someone special. Or something. Whatever.

    The procedure that DOES matter for you is the whole coming back thing — that is, of course, if post-spiritual awakening you decide university is where you want to be. Actually, “procedure” makes this sound so much more daunting than it is.

    Really, you just head over to your registrar’s office with $24, fill out a Re-Registration form, and bam, they change your status on ROSI to “INV” (invited) and you’re good for the next year! 🙂 So if you want to come for say Fall 2014, make sure you come into the office in June or earlier.

    Cheers!

    aska

  • odds are that won't be asked again

    the science of enormous classes

    Hi Aska,

    I was wondering if there is any way to find out which classes at UTSG are the largest, and where and when they’re held? It’s for a survey type thing.

    ———————————————

    Well well well,

    My most scientific and intellectual answer would be to look in the timetable and find the first year courses offered in Con Hall. and then go on ROSI and “view timetable/spaces” and it will tell you how many people are in the class.
    Yup, that’s all I’ve got for you.

    over and out,

    aska

    p.s. this might be interesting for you