programs - askastudent

computer science, programs, prospective student

where do all the cs rejects go

December 14, 2022

What happens if you don’t get accepted into the computer science program after first year. I’m asking this question for all three branches of uoft.

hello,

you get banished. forever. or what i’ve heard is that you go into math/cogsci/*insert cs-adjacent program*.

i’m just kidding. (don’t come for me, math/cogsci majors.) the reality is kind of like a mix of these i suppose, and it depends on the campus you’re at.

at utsg, if you don’t meet the requirements for first year cs stream students (cmp1), you can re-apply from the regular artsci stream, but it’s a lot more competitive. if you just haven’t had the chance to take certain required first year courses, you’ll get until the end of your first summer term to complete them. otherwise, they don’t really give you much leeway for the requirements.

at utsc, you’re allowed to retake all of the first year required cs courses once, except for MATA31, if you need to get a higher mark to pass the cs stream requirements. after that, if you still don’t meet the cutoffs, you’ll have to apply for a non-cs backup program to enter in second year. you may be able to apply for the cs post as a non-cs stream student but again, spots will be limited and it’ll be a lot more competitive.

with utm, you’d pretty much be banished, actually. utm only accepts cs majors and specialists that entered the stream straight out of high school and passed the first year cs requirements. if you don’t make it, you could still go for a cs minor, which seems to be open to any student regardless of stream. utm may rule with an iron fist, but they’re also kinda considerate in a way — they’ve put together a list of backup programs that are similar to cs or other competitive programs, which might be helpful. you can check them out on page 4 of this document.

anyway, hope that helps, and best of luck on your future cs endeavours.

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aska

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cogsci, current student, programs

will the real cogsci major pls stand up

November 4, 2022

hey hey! first off, huge fan 🙂 i’m a first year, and i think i’m going to major in cogsci. however, there are like 7 different cogsci major options, some arts, some science, and all of them different streams. my question is, why are there so many options for the same degree, and does choosing one over the other (eg. arts degree vs. science degree, cognition vs language stream) disadvantage me in any way?

hello hello hello!

well thank you! and welcome — hope first year’s going well so far.

about cogsci, you’re right… there are in fact seven different programs when you look it up, and they definitely have their differences. the five “cognitive sciences majors” are offered by university college, but the other two aren’t really programs at all — they’re actually just part of the computer science major and specialist programs, where you can take 4.0 FCEs to complete a “focus in computational linguistics and natural language processing”. if that horrendously long name doesn’t have you running for the hills yet, the program admissions requirements just might, to be honest, because, well, it’s computer science.

i’m no cs major, but let’s just say i’ve heard… a lot things about how difficult it is to get into cs programs, especially if you’re not in the cs stream (CMP1) already. but hey, if that’s what you end up being interested in, you should definitely give it a shot — although from the looks of it, the “cogsci focus” isn’t really a cogsci program in and of itself. you’d be doing the cs major or specialist mainly, and just complete some of the more cogsci-related courses within the cs program requirements. another thing to look out for is the tuition, since computer science programs have deregulated fees, which are higher than other artsci programs.

so we’ve narrowed things down (somewhat) to the five cogsci major streams at uc, and luckily, it looks like CASA (the cogsci students’ association, basically) has put together a list of all the streams, which probably explains them better than i could, tbh.

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but what i can tell you for sure is that the stream you choose could affect whether you graduate with an arts degree (HBA) or science degree (HBSc). basically, the arts streams would count towards an HBA, the science streams would count towards an HBSc, and ultimately the degree you get depends on that and the other arts/science programs you take. now does that really matter? i don’t know. depending on what your goals are, employers/grad schools/professional schools can be picky.

maybe four years from now, you’ll be cursing that decision you made, if only you’d chosen the HBA/HBSc, if only you’d chosen the other stream, maybe then, you wouldn’t have become an unemployed humanities major/cold insufferable stemlord… (ok jk but you get my point) i can’t claim to know all the industry secrets on arts vs science degrees, but if you have a future path in mind, you could start searching around to see if they have any strict requirements for bachelors degrees. on the flip side, i’ve also heard that employers often don’t really know/care much about the specifics of your degree title (specialist? major? same difference), so the courses you take could be way more important.

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speaking of courses, the other thing i can say for sure is that you should definitely check out some of the required courses for the different streams to see what you’re most interested in. after all, these are the courses you’ll actually have to sit through, so might as well make sure you’d actually want to take them! another thing you could look into is the possibility of switching streams later on in the program. i know this is offered for some other programs that also have different streams, kind of as an unwritten rule where it’s relatively easy to switch between different streams, and that could definitely give some peace of mind when it comes to choosing between all these options.

the last piece of advice i can give would be to look out for updates from CASA or other cogsci student organizations/events! i know sid smith does program exploration days in february but student associations sometimes also organize their own events to talk about their programs, and even mentorship events, where you could get advice from upper years already in the program.

hope that helps, and best of luck!

aska

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current student, management, programs, UTM

if at first you don’t get into post, try try again

September 22, 2022

Hi, I’m a UTM student and wasn’t able to make the management pOST or meet some requirements. Would it still be possible to redo the year and graduate within the four years? I’m going into second year with another program, just wondering if attaining that first choice would still be possible. I struggled with economics and math courses as they aren’t my strong suits but the second program doesn’t require them and is something I find more interesting rather than practical. What would you suggests?

hi there,

it’s technically possible to reapply to the POSt and graduate in four years, but honestly, it’ll probably be very difficult. it also depends on the number of courses you’ll need to retake to improve your grades for POSt. retakes to improve your marks for POSt are allowed, but they’ll be considered “extra” and won’t count towards the 20.0 FCEs you need to graduate. so, if you need to retake all 3.0 FCEs that are required to get into management, you’ll need to also squeeze in an extra 3.0 FCEs of other courses that are not retakes. that means taking up to 23.0 FCEs of courses total (since the 3.0 retakes don’t count… hope that makes sense :/)

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if you really want/need to graduate in four years, you’ll need to take courses in the summer or overload during the school year (take more than 5.0 FCEs) to finish all those courses on time. the other thing you might have to worry about is whether you can fit all the upper year management program courses in your third and fourth years. some courses might have prereqs or are only offered in certain semesters, which can be kind of annoying to plan around. i just gotta plug the degree explorer, as always, because it’s honestly just a great tool to plan out all the courses you need.

of course, graduating “on time” is totally subjective anyway and plenty of students take five or more years. if you’re dead set on doing management and it’s feasible for you to take an extra year, don’t feel like you have to finish in four.

btw, if you’re looking to do a “practical” major that’s related to management/business etc, you could look into applying to other related POSts too, which might increase your chances. for example, the utm commerce major or economics programs might cover similar things related to management, and they seem to have the same prereq courses as management, so it probably wouldn’t hurt to shoot your shot at a good handful of programs.

i’d also recommend meeting with your registrar — they could definitely give some more in depth advice based on your transcipt and personal experiences so far.

best of luck!

aska

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current student, major, programs

emailing the program director might make you feel like a karen but it’s ok… just be nice

August 10, 2022

hi there! I recently got declined from my major and wanted to try again in the second request period. I was wondering if it was worth emailing the program director to introduce myself and outline reasons to be in the program. Is it worth it and do you think it would help/hurt my chances? Thank youuu

hey there,

honestly, you beat me to this — usually i do recommend for people to try emailing their departments about stuff like program admissions or course waitlists, because they’ll be able to give the most accurate answer.

i really don’t think it’d hurt your chances, as long as you do it in a courteous way. in the best case scenario, it could get the department to take second look at your file and perhaps improve your chances, and in the worst case scenario, you’d get a no, as in, “this doesn’t count, we’re still gonna review your application the normal way”, or no response (fair enough, i’m sure they get a loooot of emails…) but from my experience no one would hold it against you for sending a brief friendly email.

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also, i’m assuming that the major you’re applying to doesn’t have a supplementary application already, so that your email is actually adding something above and beyond. but if it does, you should probably hold off on the email so that you’re not just bombarding the department with multiple versions of “reasons i should get into [insert competitive major]” because, well, they know, or will eventually after reading your application.

other than that, try to be respectful — and imo, that also includes being respectful of time. a straightforward email describing your interest in the program (you can back this up by mentioning a few relevant future goals/extracurricular involvement) and marks from prereqs will get the point across.

it might also help to end off on a specific question/concern you might have, like asking for feedback to improve your application, or if there were truly extenuating circumstances (cliche, i know… try “unprecedented times”? “never-before encountered conditions”?) that affected your application, this could be your chance to explain things — not in a guilt-trippy way of course, but more to show that despite all this, you’re still very interested, and would like to know if you still have a chance/what you could do to make up for it, etc.

anyway, i hope this post has had the effect of helping you in some way (besides making you overthink about email etiquette).

best of luck!

aska

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12 distinct credits, current student, life science, programs

all my homies hate the 12 distinct credits rule

August 3, 2022

hi! i ended up switching programs after first year so figuring out requirements has been crazy. i’m aiming for a human bio major with two minors, psych and imm. the issue is that the immunology minor doesn’t have a lot of required classes and almost all of the listed ones are also in the hmb program. how does this work with the distinct courses thing? thank you for any help!

hey there,

ok, maybe “hate” is too harsh a word but let’s face it, it’s just confusing.

i also wanna preface this post by saying i am so sorry for the late response… the blog post backlog has been real, but hopefully this still helps someone out there :’)

so anyway, back to that pesky 12 distinct credits rule. the whole idea is that your program requirements should add up to at least 12 different FCEs. for example, the human bio major is 8.0 FCEs. if all of the 4.0 FCEs in your imm minor end up overlapping with human bio, then you’d need to make sure to take 4.0 FCEs in your psych minor that are all distinct from your human bio/imm courses — that would get you to 12 distinct credits.

of course, psych probably also overlaps with human bio/imm/other life sci programs, so it might not be possible to get 12 distinct credits just by meeting the minimum requirements of the programs. for example, even if you take your 8.0 FCEs for human bio and they all overlap with imm, you could take a few more eligible hmb or imm courses beyond the overlapping ones in order to fulfill 12 distinct FCEs for your program courses. alternatively, you could try to enrol in a different combination of programs to make it easier to get those distinct credits.

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i know this all sounds incredibly convoluted, which is probably why utsc has a whole worksheet on the rule. personally, i’ve just planned things out on degree explorer which helps to just lay out all your program courses so that you can count them all up and make sure that they add up to at least 12.0 FCEs total.

hope that helps!

aska

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current student, major, programs

major changes

August 2, 2022

Can you change or decide to double major in your 3rd year?

hey there,

yup, speaking from experience, you definitely can. honestly, this is probably one of the most redeeming qualities of POSt (especially for us indecisive students).

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you can switch between programs in the “program change groups” directly on acorn without any application or approval (see the list here), and for other programs you can try to request the change on acorn or contact the department for approval.

program changes are usually available on acorn in march/april and july/august each year. in fact, this year’s program change deadline is august 23rd, so if you already have a program in mind, you might even be able to get it done this summer!

of course, the success of your program change may depend on the courses and programs you’ve completed so far, and how related they are to the programs you’re switching into. competitive programs would also still be evaluating you by their POSt criteria.

anyways, hope this helps. be free! go find the program of your dreams!

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good luck,

aska

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courses, current student, programs

gotta get with the program

April 25, 2022
Are only my first 20 credits counted for program requirements? Ahhh its so confusing

hello there,

ahhhh indeed.

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according to the artsci calendar, you need at least 20.0 credits to graduate, courses beyond that can still count towards your program requirements.

you just gotta make sure that your 20.0 (or more) credits satisfy these conditions:
- at least 13.0 FCEs at the 200+ level
- at least 6.0 FCEs at the 300+ level
- at least 10.0 FCEs from the faculty of arts and sciences
the one thing you might have to be careful about is that if you have over 15.0 FCEs with the same three letter designation in the course code (e.g. ENG, or MAT), only the first 15 will count towards your degree requirements… but technically, maybe they can still count for your program requirements? i guess if you do find yourself in the unique dilemma of having 15+ FCEs with the same three letter code, it’d be best to check with your registrar, just in case!

hope that helps!

aska
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arts & sciences, programs

u got the beeeeest of both worlds (2.0)

February 6, 2022

Hi! So I’m starting my senior year in less than a month (whoa) and I’ve decided that I want to major in poli sci. I was on the UofT website and it said that a student can have two majors, if I’m in the social science stream freashman year so I can major in poli sci, how hard will it be to choose a second major in a completely different field (like life sci)?

hello there,

sorry for the late reply!!! (yikes) but i hope this helps anyway. and yes i did recycle that title. it’s just too good.

if you enter in the social science stream, it’s definitely possible to choose a second major in a different field, as long as it’s in the faculty of arts and sciences, and as long as you can take all the courses required for each major. imo one of the coolest things about uoft artsci is the sheer number of programs that you can basically mix and match — here’s the full list!

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in terms of courses, each major usually requires around 7-8 FCEs (credits, basically) and you need 20 FCEs to graduate, so it should be totally fine to major in two very different fields and have some space leftover for electives, too.

the one thing i can think of that might be a bit tricky is course selections. generally students get priority enrollment for courses in whatever stream/program they’re enrolled in. so if you apply for the social science stream, you’d get priority for those courses in first year, but may have a harder time getting into life sci or other categories’ courses. in my experience though, first year course selections weren’t too bad and i was able to get into most courses i needed in my stream/program and other electives. also, first year classes are usually pretty huge (especially lifesci), so i wouldn’t worry too much about getting into those tbh.

best of luck,

aska

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programs, transfer credits

give us priority enrolment!

August 25, 2020

hey! really appreciative of what you’re doing here 🙂 I’m a UTSG student and I need to take PHL281 (biothetics) as part of my program (health studies). But, no priority so the waitlist is super long (40% would need to drop lol). PHLB09 at UTSC shows up as transferable to 281 on transfer explorer, and it has lots of space and a great prof. does that mean I can take it and have it count towards my major reqs? i should email the dept, but I don’t know how to write that email/what to say :/

——————————————

hey there,

this is one of the most annoying things about course enrolment at u of t, tbh… i wish they’d provide priority enrolment for all program requirements. it makes things so hard when the school doesn’t give you priority for courses that you actually need in order to complete your degree.

as far as i know, if PHLB09 at UTSC is transferrable to the PHL281 at UTSG, you should be able to take it. it might be even easier than normal this year, with hybrid/online classes. i agree that you should probably email the department and double-check. you can keep the message pretty brief. here’s a suggested email from me if you’re not sure what to say:

“Hello (name of person),

I’m emailing with a question about a Health Studies program requirement. My name is ______ and I’m a student in the Health Studies major. My student number is _______.

I haven’t been able to get into PHL281 for this upcoming academic year, but according to Transfer Explorer, PHLB09 at UTSC has been accepted in the past as a transfer credit equivalent to PHL281. I’m wondering whether or not I’d be able to to take PHLB09 in place of PHL281 and have it fulfill the program requirement.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to a response!”

i’d also shoot a quick email to your registrar, just to check what else you need to do in order to take a UTSC course and have it count towards a UTSG degree. i’m not sure if this is a letter of permission situation or not, but there are likely other hoops you’ll need to jump through in order to be 100% certain you can get credit for the UTSC course. i think you’ll almost definitely need to interact with the transfer credit department at some point. your registrar will know what to do. don’t forget to include your student number in the email so that they’ll get back to you sooner!

i hope this helped and good luck.

be Boundless

aska

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english, programs, subject POST

what is this, valentine’s day?

March 22, 2019

Hello again!

I just had a few quick questions regarding program enrollment. So, for my english major and creative expression and society minor it says that I can apply from March 1-September 18th 2019 and then for my book and media studies it says March 1-May 12 2019 but to check for results on July 2nd 2019 and enroll by August 7th 2019. Does this mean I can apply for it now for my second year beginning in September? Because I went to enroll in acorn and it said that the “start session” begins Summer 2019 but am I not enrolled nor do I want to enroll in summer school. I’m just confused on what this means.

Thankyou!

——————————————

hi again and welcome back!

lot of dates you got there. not all of us can relate.

SORRY anyways, all this info you’ve got boils down to yes, you can apply to your programs now for september. that summer start session thing just means hypothetically, if you DID want to start courses for your program in the summer, you’d be able to.

this is the statement the registrar put out about start sessions, that does a way better job of explaining things:

Heads up: If you have just enrolled in a program and the Start Session says 2019 Summer, that’s normal! It doesn’t mean you need to start taking courses this summer. The purpose of the Start Session is so you know which year you added the program, and which calendar’s requirements you will be following in order to complete the program.

hope this helped!

over n out,

aska

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programs

POSt to play

September 19, 2018

Do you have to choose a program second year or can I still be undeclared

——————————————

hi!

once you complete 4.0FCE, you must choose a program of study. in general, this happens at the end of your first year. if you don’t enrol in a valid POSt combo (ie. a specialist, two majors, or a major and two minors) after finishing 4.0FCE, ACORN won’t let you add courses. which is a big time uh-oh.

if you finish 4.0 credits, but you haven’t completed the requirements for your desired POSt, you can add yourself into a placeholder type 1 (the kind with no application or specific course requirements) program. as i mentioned before, if you’re not in a valid POSt combo you won’t be able to add courses. by adding yourself into the placeholder POSt, you’ll be able to add courses on ACORN, avoiding the big uh-oh.

now you may be thinking “but aska, now that i’m in this fake POSt, do i have to take courses in that POSt?” no you don’t! adding the fake POSt just ensures that you can add courses. basically, you can take the courses you ACTUALLY want, finish the requirements for the POSt you ACTUALLY want, then drop the fake POSt after. no harm, no foul.

i hope this all makes sense, it can be a little hard to follow.

xoxo,

aska

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english, first year, programs, sociology, UTAPS

good luck, young one

September 10, 2018

Hello!!

I am a first year student. I plan on majoring in English and Sociology. I have a couple of questions:

What is Type 1,2,3 program? From what I understand type 1 program does not have any requirements. And does English and Sociology fall under any of those programs?

If English and sociology does fall under type 1 program that means that I do not have to worry about anything hopefully.

Can I enrol in my english or sociology major now or in second year?

Also how fast can i graduate? I am currently enrolled in 5 course. I plan on taking however much courses I am allowed in the summer.

Lastly, one of my friend told me about UTAPS. I will be receiving OSAP this year. Will i be eligible for UTAPS. And (if so, i hope so) when will I know if i am getting UTAPS?

Thank you

——————————————

hello eager first year!!!

since your question is in multiple parts, i will be answering in multiple parts.

1. program types

the program type basically indicates what the entry requirements are for that specific program. type 1 programs have no special requirements. type 2 programs require specific courses and/or grades in those courses and type 2L programs are programs with a limited amount of spots. type 3 programs require specific courses and have a limited number of spaces. some type 3 programs might require additional information (an application, an interview, etc). check out this link for more info.

according to the program listings, english is a type 1 program and sociology is a type 2L program.

2. enrolling in the majors

you don’t need to enrol in a POSt (program of study) until you’ve earned at least 4.0FCE (full credit equivalents). this is usually at the end of your first year.

for english, you will just need to add the program during the program enrollment dates and you will automatically be added to the major–easy peasy lemon squeezy.

for sociology, you will need to have a minimum of 65% in SOC101Y or an average of 65% in a combination of SOC102 + SOC103, SOC102+SOC150, SOC103+150, or SOC100+150. once you’ve completed that requirement, you will request the program on ACORN during the request period, and then wait for the response. if you are accepted, you will see an “invitation” to the program that you will need to accept to be officially in the major. keep in mind that because sociology is a 2L program, it means that just meeting the minimum requirement may not get you into the program.

check out this link for more detailed information about enrolling in programs.

3. how fast can you graduate

if you take 5.0FCE every year, you should graduate in 4 years (5 FCE x 4 years= the 20 FCE needed to graduate). if you take the maximum number of summer courses (2.0FCE) every year, you could graduate a little earlier (ie. if you were supposed to graduate june 2022, you can graduate november 2021). basically, that would look like this:

5FCE (fall/winter 2018-19) + 2FCE (summer 2019)

+ 5FCE (fall/winter 2019-20) + 2FCE (summer 2020)

+ 5FCE (fall/winter 2020-21) + 1FCE (summer 2021)

= 20 FCE needed to graduate for november 2021.

keep in mind, however, that summer courses move super super quickly and it isn’t a really good idea to take the max amount of summer courses– especially since you’ll be coming straight from a full year’s worth of school. personally, i can’t fathom the idea of three years straight of school– i need my downtime!

another option that you could look into is taking 6.0FCE (the absolute maximum amount of credits) per year. again, keep in mind that u of t courses are super intense and a lot of students actually take less than 5.0 because of how heavy the workload can be. it might be a good idea to see how first year goes and then decide if you wanna take a heavier course load (either in the summer or in the year after).

4. UTAPS

if you’re receiving OSAP, you will be automatically assessed for UTAPS. you can use their online estimator to see if you’re eligible and how much you could potentially receive.

according to the financial aid website, UTAPS is first applied to your balance on ACORN and any extra is sent to your bank account. it doesn’t say when you will receive the UTAPS if you are eligible.

i would get in touch with enrolment services, the financial aid office on campus, for more information.

phew, that’s a TON of information.

i hope this helps! good luck, young one.

xoxo,

aska

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degree requirements, extra courses, programs

don’t forget the magic POSt combo

July 27, 2018

Hi! So, I currently exceeded the 6.0 100-level limit, and they won’t count my last course I took for a breath requirement to go to my GPA, I got an 84. I was previously suspended for a year, and came back, and my GPA has gone up to 2.13 from being 1.14. It seems to be a bit unrealistic, but my goal is to graduate with a high distinction and study masters at Scotland or England. ????With my latest 100-level course, my GPA would have been 2.23. I’m in no rush to graduate early, only have 7 courses left, the highest GPA I would get is 2.8. I’m majoring in history of art, and double-minoring in history and music culture. Would it be possible to add an additional minor using the course they counted as “extra” to bring it up, I’m just scared if I go above degree requirements, they wouldn’t count those too.???? What should I do or aim for from now on?

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hi!

though courses that count as “extra” don’t go towards your GPA or the 20.0 FCE needed to graduate, you can put them towards a program. so, hypothetically, you could use the “extra” course to add an additional minor.

i say “hypothetically,” however, because you won’t be able to add a third minor to your degree. you’re allowed to be in a total of three programs of study, so adding a third minor would put you up to four POSts. sadly, if you deleted your major to add your third minor and still only be at three POSts, that wouldn’t work either. you need to be in at least one “big” program (so like a specialist or major) and a maximum of two “small” programs (a minor). there is, sadly, a magic POSt combo that you gotta fulfill to graduate.

you can check out this link for more information on degree requirements.

i suggest making an appointment with an academic adviser at your college registrar’s office. they can talk to you about grad school and boosting your GPA. they can give you advice and help you plan for grad school.

i hope this helps!

xoxo,

aska

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