• exclusions,  psychology,  sociology

    hooray for program conflicts we love being confused

    May 30, 2019

    Hi, I am planning on majoring in sociology and minoring in psychology at utsg. Psych requires psy201 (statistics) and soc requires soc202, but the problem is that psy201 lists soc202 as an exclusion. Is there a way to get around this? Thanks

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    it actually seems like you may be able to get away with only taking SOC202, and having that satisfy the requirement for both your programs. i checked out the psych requirements on the calendar, and where it lists PSY201 there’s an allowance for ‘or equivalent course in statistics.’ i’m not 100% sure, but as an exclusion is considered to be a course too similar to the course in question, i’d imagine that the two would be considered equivalent. i would contact the department just to make sure, because they’re the ones making these kinds of decisions, but i’d say chances are good that this is your best workaround.

    in case it doesn’t work out, you do have another option. according to the university’s rules, you’re able to get special permission (probably from your registrar) to enrol in the second course. it’ll just be designated as ‘extra’ and not count towards your gpa, but my guess is that it’d be okay for your program’s purposes. i wouldn’t recommend registering without talking to your registrar, because if you get discovered they’re allowed (and supposed) to remove you without warning.

    psych and soc seem to be too common of a combination for there to be no way around your exclusion problem. so i hope at least one of these routes works out for you!

    over n out,

    aska

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  • eeb,  exclusions,  UTSC

    the strange world of exclusions

    July 24, 2018

    Hi!!

    I took off the winter semester due to personal reasons however now I’m interested in coming back in the fall so I’m also trying to catch up on classes that I missed out on during the winter semester. I’m interested in taking an EEB major or specialist (not sure yet) but that means that I need bio130 which isn’t offered in the fall(only the winter). I know UTM and UTSC both offer the same course under different course codes (BIO152 and BIOA01H3) in the fall and I’ve decided to go to UTSC for that course since it makes more sense distance wise and also scheduling, but bio130 and bio120 both come up as ordered exclusions for BIOA01H3 and I don’t know what that means or if I can even take that course now, since it’s not under exclusions either.

    Also if I’m taking a course at UTSC do I need to notify my registrar/program coordinator because I’ll want the BIOA01H3 to count as bio130 for a requirement for the program I want or can I just take it and it’ll just transfer automatically.

    I know this is a lot all at once, sorry!! I’m just super confused and any help would be greatly appreciated!

    Thanks!

    ———————————————

    hi!

    welcome back!

    as you said, BIO120 and 130 are exclusions for BIOA01H3. basically, if a course is listed as an exclusion, you can’t take the course if you’re taking (or have taken) the excluded course(s). you can check out the faculty calendar for more information on exclusions.

    hypothetically, BIOA01H3 is equivalent to BIO130. however, i don’t know whether or not the EEB department will accept BIOA01H3 as a part of their program requirements. i would definitely get in contact with them directly to see if they would accept BIOA01H3.

    since you’ve also taken some time off, i suggest making an appointment with an academic adviser at your college registrar’s office. i personally find it really helpful to talk to someone about my academic plans and to have a capital-A Adult tell me that i’m on the right track. they’ll also be able to give you more detailed information on taking courses at another campus, if that’s the route you decide to go down.

    hope this helps! sorry that i couldn’t really give you a concrete answer either, but equivalent courses at other campuses and figuring them out always throws me for a loop. and i don’t wanna lead you astray or give you bad advice.

    episode 18 ghost GIF

    good luck!

    xoxo,

    aska

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  • exclusions,  grades,  graduation

    proud of you

    November 18, 2016
    I have 21 credits and a cGPA of 3.21; do I graduate with distinction? I’m pretty certain if I had 20 credits my cGPA would not meet the distinction threshold.
    ———————————————
    hey there,
    the only reason why you wouldn’t graduate with distinction is if any of these 21 credits were considered extra. an extra credit would fall under:
    -any 100-level courses taken after you’ve reached your limit of 6.0 100-level FCE’s
    -any course that you have already passed and are repeating
    -an exclusion for a course you’ve already taken
    if none of your courses fall under this category, yes, you will graduate with distinction! your credits will all be considered in your cGPA! congrats for making it!
    giphy-1
    cheers,
    aska
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  • exclusions,  subject POST

    not about that linear path of life

    February 23, 2016

    Hey there aska [aka light from heaven above],

    I’m currently a 2nd year UTSC student who’s doing 2 majors and a minor (IDS, Public Policy co-op, and Econ minor). HOWEVER, I want to make my economics minor a major after finding out I really like the subject matter. the thing is, I’m missing 2 first year calc courses that are require for econ majors. I can take them in 3rd year but while I think I can manage 70s in the calc courses I know that will lower my (C)GPA quite a bit and I AM looking towards grad school eventually [maybe law school, maybe just in social sciences idk yet but that’s another problem] my question is that I’m just wondering if it’ll be worth it to risk lowering my GPA in 3rd year when grad schools look at that .. especially since they are first year courses [p.s I did the math and I could still graduate on time thanks to the 12 distinct credit rule and ids/pp/econ having overlapping courses].

    An add-on question is that I took a statistics course (stab22) earlier for a pre-req towards my other majors but it counts as an exclusion to a quantitative methods of economics class I need to take for my econ major. I did rlly well in stats (83%) so will that mark go to waste? Or can I still apply that to satisfy my IDS requirement and just uptake the other econ class to fulfill my requirements, thereby using both towards my gpa [since its different majors] despite being considered exclusions.

    My last chance to apply as an econ major will be at the end of this sem when I have 10 credits so I’m super confused!!!!!

    Any and all opinions/info/train of thought is very much appreciated!!!!!,

    Thanks a bunch ;-;

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    listen, i understand that this is a tough situation. i’ve been in a similar one myself. and i know that in these situations, ALL YOU WANT is for someone to tell you what to do. “just tell me what i should do and i’ll do it, no complaints!” i’ve begged people. but they can’t tell me what to do, just like i can’t tell you what to do. you’re in charge – doesn’t that suck?

    ultimately, you have to figure out the POSt configuration that will make you happiest. i do have a few general tidbits of advice, which you can feel free to take or leave as you like:

    i wouldn’t recommend making a decision based on tentative post-graduation plans. since you’re not sure exactly what you’d like to do in terms of postgrad, you’ll be very frustrated with your past self in fourth year if you made a decision based on a path you’re not following anymore. chances are, the POSt combination that you’re most excited about, is the one in which you’ll be most successful. even with calc.

    if you find the econ. major really interesting, then go for it. keep in mind, though, that you’re not allowed to have three majors, so you’ll either have to drop another major before you add econ., OR change one to a minor. keep in mind that while the IDS major has unlimited enrolment, the public policy co-op major is unlimited, so i’d recommend thinking on it/discussing with your registrar before dropping or downgrading from that one, because you won’t be able to easily add it back.

    also, whatever you decide to do, it’s best not to drop anything before you get into the econ major. since that major has limited enrolment, there is always the possibility that you won’t be accepted (i mean, not to be pessimistic or anything. i’m sure you will be. but just in case). wait to be accepted before you go dropping or changing around your other POSts – it’s just easier.

    as to your second question: it’s the other way around. the second course that you take will be an extra because it is an exclusion of a course you’ve already taken. that means that it will count towards your econ. major, but it will NOT count towards your GPA or 20.0 degree credits.

    you won’t be able to make both count towards your GPA. what you might be able to do, though, is convince the economics deparmtent to accept the stats course you’ve already taken to fulfil this requirement. you can contact them at ecoss ( at) utsc (. ) utoronto ( .) ca.

    good luck with everything!

    aska

    P.S. thank you for your excellent e-mail subject line – i hope you don’t mind that i’ve appropriated it as title for this post.

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  • exclusions,  subject POST

    bribing departments for credits

    July 22, 2015

    hello aska!

    i am a statistics major and this year i decided that i want to minor in geographic information systems. last time i checked sta220 is an exclusion to ggr270 but i’ve already taken sta220… is it still possible for me to take ggr270 or do i have to give up my dream of minoring in gis forever because of this one course???

    thanks

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    two things might happen, neither of which would mean that you have to abandon your minor.

    1) you go and talk to the geography department. you are super nice to them. you bring chocolate AND flowers. you put on your brightest smile and puppiest puppy eyes, and you ask if it would be possible to use STA220H1 towards the geographic information systems minor instead of GGR270H1. they say yes. wahoo! you don’t have to take GGR270H1.

    2) you go to the geography department. you do the chocolate, flowers and puppy eyes. the absolutely HEARTLESS person you speak to says that unfortunately, STA220H1 cannot be used towards the GIS minor.

    HOWEVER, you can still do the minor. you just have to take GGR270H1 as an “extra,” meaning a course that doesn’t count towards your degree credits or GPA, but will count towards your program requirements for the GIS minor.

    either way, you can still do the minor. it’s just a question of whether you’ll have to do the extra course or not. do make sure to speak with the department to find out (you don’t actually have to bring chocolate and flowers. but it would be nice to smile).

    cheers,

    aska

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  • enrollment,  exclusions

    managing a management tangle

    June 29, 2015

    Hello, i know im a bother but i really dont get this. While i was adding courses to my enrollment cart, I read that i should not take any courses that say extension exclusive, however they ARE my required courses.. I am taking management and it is telling me that i am not allowed to take mgm101, mgm102, mgt120, and soc100(as an elective). How can i not take my required courses and i want to study management? I cant avoid theses courses when they are what i need to get my credits. Please help me. Apparently my program is the specialist which only needs ECO. Can i still take the courses for the major ( add MGM and MGT) if i want to switch to the major program, even when it us said they are ordered exclusive?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    do you want to study management, or have you been admitted to management? because those are two very different things, my friend.

    every course you’re trying to add to your enrolment cart has an enrolment control, so if you’re not in management yet, that’s probably why you can’t add those courses to your cart.*

    • MGM101H5 and MGM102H5 have a restriction for management, business, commerce, biotechnology and digital enterprise management students.
    • MGT120H5 is restricted to management, business and commerce students.
    • SOC100H5 is restricted to first-year UTM students.

    so that leaves me with a couple of guesses regarding your situation. it would be easier if you’d told me this information and i didn’t have to guess, but hey, life isn’t always a chairful of bowlies, now is it? (but for future askees: PLEASE, info like your campus, year and program would be awesome to know. i might actually be able to answer your question).

    if you can’t get into any of those courses, then that tells me that you are neither a management student nor a first-year student. i don’t know what specialist you’re talking about, so i can’t help with that.

    but the bottom line is this: you need to be enrolled in a management, commerce or business degree program to be able to take those MGM and MGT courses.

    if you ARE already in the management program and you still can’t take those courses, then it could be because you have an exclusion that is preventing you from taking them. if that’s not the case, then you need to take to your registrar’s office about it, because i am out of ideas.

    best of luck,

    aska

    * man, ‘add to cart’ sounds so amazon, doesn’t it? acorn is weird.

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  • exclusions,  subject POST

    excluding the peeps from knowledge smh

    January 14, 2014

    Hi aska!
    I’ve read through the numerous responses on exclusions and the like and I have one question that hasn’t been answered (unless it has been making my efforts seem one step short) and my question is, if I have 2 excluded courses, say MAT135/136 and I want to enrol in a subject PoST that requires the two (say, stats for example), will I even be able to because I’ve taken a previous first-year math.
    AStudentWhoseDegreePathIsInJeopardy

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    alright so basically you have one of two options. both require you to schlep over to the department of the POSt that you want to enrol in, unfortunately. BUTTT once you do, the department will either 1) say that your exclusion can sub in as a requirement for MAT135/6, or 2) that you have to take them, in which case you totally can, they’ll just be counted as an extra course. all an extra means is that it doesn’t count towards your degree (that is, the 20.0 credits you need to like, get a degree), but it counts towards your program and as a program requirement for any POSt/grad school/whatever you may want to enrol in.

    i hope that makes sense!

    stay radical,

    aska

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  • exclusions

    extra courses are more trouble than they’re worth tbh

    December 4, 2013

    To AskA,
    I’m a “first-year” student that took MAT133 the year previous and I am currently taking MAT135. Problem is, MAT135 is an exclusion to 133 and thus it is designated as an “Extra” course. I’m doing well in the course but no so well in other courses. Should I just not try to do well in MAT135 and put all my focus in my other courses? I’m just worried about the MAT135 being looked over in my final academic transcript and me not being able to find a job because of it. What should I do?!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    alright, before we dive into this question, let’s just clear up some things about extra courses, because no one ever seems quite sure what they mean: 1. they do not count towards your 20.0 FCE’s for your degree and 2. they do not count towards your cumulative GPA.

    HOWEVER. they do appear on your transcript, and a good mark is a good mark, extra or not. obviously, i would suggest that you work as hard as you can on getting your mark in those other classes up, since they do impact your GPA, but an extra course is not a useless course. don’t “not try to do well” in it – if it comes more easily to you than other courses, then by all means focus more of your energy on them, but don’t completely abandon MAT135 because it’s been made extra.

    if you’re doing significantly better in MAT135 than all your other courses, then maybe you should look at structuring your next year around courses that build on that, like MAT235 and MAT244. playing to your strengths next year will also probably make your GPA go up, mitigating the effects of this year.

    but yeah, don’t worry about not being able to find a job or whatever because of this. the good mark will appear on your transcript, and you can and should play it up as much as possible. and like i said, consider taking similar courses you’re likely to do well in, and then the ones that aren’t going too hot this year won’t be as big of a deal. capice?

    xoxo,

    aska

     

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  • exclusions,  polisci

    poli sci? more like poli SIGH.

    September 23, 2013

    Hello aska,

    I am a second year student who has recently considered applying for the public policy major. However, a grave dilemma has occurred, in that one of the courses required for completion of the major (POL214Y1) is an exclusion to a course in which I am currently enrolled in (POL224Y1). Does this exclusion thus prohibit me from taking POL214 later on, and thereby prevent me from successfully completing the Public policy major? And if not, is there some mystic manipulation that the university can do that will allow me to take POL214, while having already completed its exclusion?? Thank you greatly for your guidance, oh wise aska senpai.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    Don’t worry your little face, wee one. Aska is here for you, mystical and omnipotent as ever.

    By which I mean I have done some snooping around on the Internet, and it looks like the Public Policy Major’s requirements do specify POL214, which makes me think that they’ve got their hearts set on that one.

    Still, it doesn’t hurt to go and talk to them in person. Maybe the sight of your worried wee face (tear-streaked, maybe?) will move them to make an exception for you.

    However, they might say no, in which case you’ll unfortunately have to take POL214 as well as POL224, even though there seems to be a lot of overlap between the two courses. I know, it sucks. Life is hard. I’m sorry. You know Spot? Yeah, he’s not on a farm, either.

    It is possible to take a course that is excluded by another course – you’ll just have to take it as an “extra.” This means that it doesn’t count for degree credit, or get factored into your cumulative GPA. The course and final mark do appear on your transcript though, and then you can be on your merry way.

    Good luck, junior. Hope it all works out.

    aska

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  • exclusions

    one of these courses is not like the other ones — wait, it is!

    September 12, 2013

    Hi, I’m a science student, and I was wondering if it was a bad idea to take a stats course that’s designed for a sociology student? Most of the other stats classes are full anyways, but I wanted to know if it would affect my prerequisite and my requirements to graduate? Thanks.

    ———————————————

    Hey hey

    I assume there’s a particular sciencey version of stats that you’re told to take but for the most part, there are like five different stats courses offered by so many different departments that are all exclusions of each other so bleh.

    Is it a bad idea to take the soc stats? Not at all!

    All of these stats courses are exclusions of each other because their curriculums are all ridiculously similar to one another.

    Now I can’t tell you anything about your prereqs or grad requirements cuz well… I know nothing about you and your programs, but do the proactive thing and take a look at said requirements and see for yourself if the soc stats is useable — or, at least, an exclusion to what you’re SUPPOSED to take. If that’s the case, you can talk to whoever manages the undergrads in your program and make sure the soc stats is allowed.

    Cheers!

    aska

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  • exclusions

    can we excuse the exclusions?

    April 25, 2013

    Hi,I did a course, changed my major and now am being forced to take an exclusion to the course. Usually they use the first mark on your transcript. Is there anyway I can get them to use the second mark. Any place I can petition, especially if its a significant difference?

    Thanksfromyetanotherdisorganizedstudent

    ———————————————

    Love the name!

    So basically, I had to go to the higher ups before giving you a definitive answer, but no, there’s no getting around the rule on exclusions.

    Why? Well, the things is courses are usually exclusions of each other because they cover pretty similar content. So say you got a 70 in the first course you took. Good. Then you took the second one, had a moment of “Oh, wow, I know half of this crap already!” and bam, you end up with a 77.

    See why they won’t let you switch things around?

    Doing better is, quite often, a result of having gone through the first course. Sorry about that!

    xoxo,

    aska

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  • exclusions

    the natural order of exclusions

    January 8, 2013

    Hey Azka,

    I really want to take Ast222 (astronomy)? next semester, but at the same time I’m taking Ast201 which is an exclusion for ast222. What do I do? Can i take both courses, and pretend I didn’t know? Will some higher authority check and kick me out of Ast222 or something?

    ———————————————

    Dude. Dude no.

    Exclusions can be annoying, but as long as you take the classes in the right order you can make things work.

    Basically, since AST222 has AST201 as an exclusion but not the other way around, if you want to take both, you’d have to take AST222 this semester, and then AST201 afterwards. But no, you cannot take both now because the department will definitely find you and boot you out of one of the two, although I’m not sure which one. So really, it’d be best if you took care of that as soon as possible.

    And no trying to be in both at the same time!

    happy choosing,
    aska

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  • courses,  exclusions

    I want to be the exclusion, not the rule

    January 14, 2011

    Hi Aska!

    I have three questions regarding summer sessions and course exclusions.

    1) If the summer session is split into the first half (F) and second half (S) semesters, are we allowed to enroll in just half of the summer session, or do we have to enroll in both the first and second half of the session? If we are allowed to do just half, do we still have to pay for the full summer session?

    2) On the Calendar it says it’s *recommended* to take a maximum of 2.0 FCEs during the summer session, but what are the chances of the registrar approving taking more than the maximum course load? The rules says that if we are in good standing, we can request through the registrar to add additional courses, and approval is at the discretion of the registrar. So IF we are allowed to enroll in only half of the summer session, we would normally only take 1.0 FCE during that time. But is it possible to take 1.5 FCEs instead in half the summer session? I know that in the case of the Fall/Winter session, the registrar almost never approves taking more than 6.0 FCEs (I was told), so does it hold true for the summer session?

    3) For course exclusions, if a certain course we need for our degree doesn’t fit our schedule very well, can we take a course listed on “exclusions” as a substitute for it to fullfill our degree requirements? My understanding is that we get exclusions for a course if we took a course that is too similar to another course; thus, we aren’t allowed to take the similar course again. So if that’s the case, if there is a course I need for my degree (HMB200H1S) but it is a prerequisite to HMB300H1S and I want to take it on the same year but can’t because it’s offered in the same semester only, can I instead take PSY290H1F (an exclusion to HMB200H1S)?

    Thank you so much for your help!

    ———————————————

    Holla,
    Your organized method rubbed off on me.

    1) Yes you can enroll in just half of the summer session. Simply choose half courses offered in the first term (or second I guess). For the summer session, the fees are paid per course.

    2) the reason they recommend taking only 2.0 credits in the summer is because the course load is twice that of the regular fall/winter courses. Pretty much they cram 4 months into 2. Now if you want to take more than the recommended amount of courses, I would suggest making an appointment with your academic advisors.

    3) And no, you can’t take the exclusion as a replacement. You have to take the exact courses listed for the degree requirements.

    Yours truly,
    Aska

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