programs - askastudent

choosing, programs

hear me out what if we made no decisions ever

June 23, 2023

Hello so I am a first-year student, but I started in September 2020. So for the past two years, I was not doing well at U of T and I took a break for a year. So I am coming back in September, and I do not know still what to major in. To be honest, I started at U of T almost 3 years ago. I spent my entire life until last year just focusing on my studies and wanted to take a break. I want to continue my studies and finish what I started. I booked an appointment with an advisor. Any advice?

hi there,

good job, you’ve already done the best thing you can do right now — booking an appointment with an advisor! it’s also great that you took a break. breaks are important.

here is a bit of anecdotal advice from me (an all-knowing deity, ofc). first off, don’t worry, you are not alone. in my first year, every single person around me was very confused and unsure about their major, and it was pure chaos, people changing their minds back and forth between programs the whole year.

if you’re not sure what you want to do with your major yet, you can think about jobs you can picture yourself doing, areas of interest you have, and particular courses or subjects of study you enjoyed from your first year. or, you could think about what kind of job you want, and look up what majors those job postings are looking for on websites like indeed. it would also be smart to take advantage of the fact that you’re surrounded by successful and experienced professionals at u of t: if you end up in any classes that intrigue you, it’s worth trying to get to know your instructor to learn more about the field. finally, the people closest to you, who know you well, can give really valuable advice from an outside perspective.

once you come back to school, it’s worth looking into peer mentorship programs. plenty of people have been stuck on what they want to do, and fellow students who’ve figured it out may be able to help you navigate the confusion. there are several listed here (along with one that is academically focused). but the truth is that lots of people don’t know, and people switch their programs in third year, fourth year, and beyond. again, (i know this does not help but) it’s normal not to know!

choosing a major can feel really overwhelming and unsteady. it made me wish i never had to make any decisions. there are so many exercises meant to help with the decision, and so many points of advice coming from everyone around you, but at the end of the day no quiz or person can tell you what to major in, and you’re going to have to listen to your gut.

with all that said, in these big decisions, don’t freeze up out of fear of making the wrong decision. there’s this quote from sylvia plath’s “the bell jar” that i think about all the time, about how choosing one thing can feel like giving up on everything else. but then if you freeze up and choose nothing because you want everything, the options might pass you by. meanwhile, i am a strong supporter of having a wide range of dreams and not having a set box of what you want to be in the future. i think there’s a bit of excitement, beautiful possibility, and relief in not knowing what you want to do! you will do fine and be amazing, i believe in you.

i hope everything goes well, best of luck!

over and out,

aska

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commerce, current student, programs, subject POST

following your passion

March 25, 2023

I’m currently a first year and I’m planning on going into a commerce program. However, I don’t like math and I literally know nothing about commerce. They say follow your passion, but I don’t have one yet. Stability seems like the next best thing. I don’t know how I’ll survive another year of math, and I def do not know what I want to do with my university life. Would it be difficult to switch from commerce to media/cinima? Or maybe I should take those as minor while commerce is my major?

hello hello,

starting off with the heavy hitting questions, are we? seriously this one is a lil too real :’)

if you’re trying to figure out what to do with the rest of your schooling/life, i guess aska’s a good a place as any to start. but idk if there’s a good and final answer to all that, and even if there is, it probably won’t be coming from some random (albeit extremely wise and knowledgeable) uoft student on the internet, although i’m flattered that you’re asking. ultimately, the answer’s gotta come from you obviously, and it might take some time, but that’s okay. we all go through it. (still going through it.)

No One Knows What They’Re Doings.Gif GIFfrom No One Knows What They’Re Doings GIFs

luckily, uoft does give some leeway to us perpetually indecisive students. most arts and sciences programs let you combine different fields and switch things up if you decide to change your path for whatever reason. if you’re interested in media/cinema or another field, you could take one of their required first year courses to see if it’s something you’d like to pursue further. i think it’d be feasible to fit in a minor alongside commerce, but you’d have to plan carefully to fit in all the courses you need (don’t forget breadth requirements, too). degree explorer is pretty great for that.

it can be hard to completely switch programs in upper years because you’d have to take required courses for programs that might be entirely new to you. it’s technically possible and you could always extend your undergrad later on if needed, but if you feel really unsure about commerce (to the point where you might hate it enough to want to drop the program), it might be better to apply for the commerce program but also take some other electives you’re interested in during second year to fully explore your options. who knows, maybe you’ll find your passion, and if that’s the case, you’ll be set to pivot into it relatively early on. or maybe you’ll still feel unsure, in which case you could still take all the required commerce courses in your upper years and finish with a “useful” degree.

if you decide to switch out of commerce, it’d probably be easiest to do a major and double minor, or even a double major, depending on what programs/courses you prefer. unlike rotman commerce, for example, which just has three specialist streams and a bunch of focuses you could tack on, other artsci students basically have a paralyzing amount of choice in terms of program combinations (no really it’s great… i love it). if you’re still willing to tolerate some math courses, commerce-related minors like economics, math, or stats, have courses which overlap with commerce requirements that could help you complete your program faster rather than starting in something completely new.

honestly, your university path is still pretty wide open, so don’t feel like you have to decide everything now. the world is your oyster – a terrifying kind of oyster. and how do you really go about figuring it all out anyway? it’ll be different for everyone, but i’d recommend looking into mentorship programs or events like career nights or program Q&As with upper years or alumni. lots of student associations organize these, and you could also attend more general ones within your college, too. it’s a pretty low commitment way to learn about what these fields/programs are actually like. you can also get more personalized advice from your registrar.

best of luck!

aska

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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.

Mind Blow Galaxy GIFfrom Mind Blow GIFs

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.

Harry Potter Letters GIFfrom Harry Potter GIFs

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).

The Good Place Indecisive GIFfrom The Good Place GIFs

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!

They Have Everything Complete GIFfrom They Have Everything GIFs

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

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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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