why can i find some courses on the calendar but not on acorn?

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hey there,

i’m not really sure. i’ve seen this happen in calendar entries for programs, ie. a program will list a course but when you click on the hyperlink, you get an error. that usually just means a course used to exist but isn’t being offered anymore. but if you’re seeing full course entries in the calendar (you click on the hyperlink and the course description, prereqs etc show up in a different page) that aren’t showing up on ACORN, i have no idea why that might be.

you could try testing the course codes in the timetable as well? if something doesn’t show up on both ACORN and the timetable, i think it’s safe to say that course isn’t being offered for the upcoming year.

if a course you’d like to take shows up on both the timetable and calendar but won’t pop up on ACORN, i’d recommend that you get in touch with the offering division and see what’s up. maybe it’s an internal error. i dunno.

i hope this helped, and good luck with course enrolment!

be Boundless,

aska

hi! my status on acorn for summer says financially cancelled, but i never enrolled for summer classes in the first place. is this normal?

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hello hello,

yes, this is normal! how the ACORN system operates is this:

1. you’re invited to register in a session (ie. fall/winter or summer, in your case summer 2020)
2. you enroll in courses
3. you pay the minimum payment to register by the stated deadline, which has now passed
4. you’re registered!

or, like a choose-your-own-adventure, you can branch off at the first step and not enroll in courses. since you obviously don’t pay if you don’t enroll, you don’t get to make it to step 4. what happens at this point is you get FINCA’d. financially cancelled.

this is not the same thing as getting cancelled on twitter. it does not mean that you are in trouble. all it means is that ACORN has acknowledged that you have not paid on time for a given session, and so you do not show up in the system as a current student. which is what you want if you didn’t intend to enroll for a session in the first place.

for future references, two things to note about getting FINCA’d:

• when this status shows up on your ACORN, it also means you’ve been booted from any classes you might have been enrolled in
• if you didn’t intend to get FINCA’d, ie. you meant to register but didn’t pay by the deadline, what you need to do is get in contact with your registrar. they’ll be able to process a late registration for you, which is usually accompanied by a small fee.

hope this helps!

be Boundless,

aska

Hello aska,

I am just finalizing my timetable and course schedule before the big enrollment day tomorrow and I wanted to clarify whether I’m allowed to take the courses I’m planning to take.

After enrolling in my core program courses, I have added a few electives, one of which is a regular full year course, the other three are VIC135, ENG196, and SMC199.

I wanted to know whether I can take the vic course without being enrolled in “VIC One” and also whether I could take all those three courses in my first year.

Thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,

[redacted]

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hey friendo,

sorry this response is so late– it’s definitely past your course enrollment now! i figure that if there were any immediate consequences to registering in these courses, you’re already aware of them. i guess there still is the possibility of you getting kicked out later on, though, so this question is still worth an answer.

it seems that vic135 is part of the vic one sphere, although i can’t figure out what stream it is. i’m just making this assumption based on the exclusions listed on the timetable– only a vic one class would have a ‘vic’ designation and be incompatible with all the other one programs. as long as it’s a vic one course, then, i doubt you’ll be able to get in (or stay in) without explicit admission to vic one. at least, that’s what this site indicates. if you don’t have admission but have somehow still managed to register (or want to), i would contact vic.one@utoronto.ca. dunno if they’ll actually let you this late in the game, but hey.

as for the possibility of taking all 3 courses at once– i anticipate that the smc course is the one that’s gonna give ya trouble. it seems to list all other first year foundations and ones as exclusions. so you might wanna find something else to slot in there, because even if you’ve managed to register in it, once someone notices, they’ll have to kick you out.

otherwise, if you manage to stay in vic135, that course and your eng196 seminar should be a-okay to be taken alongside each other.

be Boundless,

aska

i’m a first year, and i’m super stressed about picking courses. how likely is it that i won’t get into the ones i want? (social sciences and humanities mostly.) what do i do if i can’t get in? also, how fast do you have to do your course selection before time runs out?

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hello friend,

it’s natural to be stressed your first time, but there’s less to worry about than you might think! it is true that first years get to pick their courses last of the bunch, but first year courses also tend to be on the larger side. so it kinda balances out. chances are your schedule will be full of those larger con hall shenanigans, where it doesn’t really matter if you’re the 15th or 959th person in. if you’re shooting for first year seminars and application-free ones, you might find you have a little bit of trouble, but those also don’t always fill up all the way. it’s hard to say how likely it is you won’t get your first picks without knowing the popularity of your courses or your start time, but speaking as someone who’s done course reg before, i think you’re gonna be okay. 

if you’re worried about not making it in, you can put together as many backup timetables as you want. i think i had… three different versions, my first time doing course reg? and i ended up getting my top timetable. it’s kind of funny because this year, i’ve spent waaaay more time answering yalls’ questions about course planning than actually paying attention to my own. which is unfortunate cause my start time is (was? will be? nah. not gonna drop you any clues about my year) much, much sooner than yours. maybe it’s the sense of total nihilism that starts to accumulate when you’ve spent one too many months sleep-deprived and hyped up on coffee to get through the day. or maybe i’m mellowing out. we don’t know. hopefully the second one. 

when your start time comes up, i would just recommend being ready– have your enrolment cart on ACORN preloaded with the courses you want, so all you have to do is click a few buttons a few times. there’s no “how fast”– just how prepared. make sure your internet connection is speeeedy. set several alarms if you’re in a different time zone and your start time is smack dab in the wee hours of the night. 

aaaanyway. take a deep breath. another one. there you go. you’re gonna be just fine. 

be Boundless, 

aska 

what can we do to prepare for course selection? (first year anxiety woo)

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hello friend, 

a very valid question! i should probably get started on that myself, given that my course selection’s coming up much much sooner than yours. (upper year anxiety woo)

anyway, here’s a quick step-by-step of what i do/would do as a first year to prep.

go through the calendar and check the prereqs for all your programs 

these are gonna be important. a lot of the time you’ll need to pass some kind of grade threshold, too, to make POSt, but for now all you’re concerned with is what you’ll need to take in first year to even get considered. it can be wise to make sure you’ve got the prereqs for one or two backup POSts just in case– in particular if the POSts you’re eyeing are types 2 or 3.

use the timetable  to add courses to a hypothetical plan and view them blocked out in a schedule 

the timetable is great, guys. probably my favorite u of t course planning tool, not that i’m aware of that many others.

if you’re a keener/super anxious/both like i was, you can make backup versions of your schedule too. this can be especially reassuring if you get a crappy start time, and are legitimately worried that the lecture/tutorial sections or classes you want will be full. saves you from a last-minute scramble while things are filling up. 

when you’re choosing courses, take into account:

• how far apart any back-to-back classes are, because you only have ten minutes of leeway. if you’re on st. george, you can search this map using any building codes given on the timetable. then plug the buildings into google maps, to give you an estimate of how long it’ll take you to walk. jackman humanities to leslie b. dan is the longest trek i’m aware of. if you walk fast, con hall to vic can technically be done in under ten, but it’ll leave you panting. or maybe i just need to hit the gym more.

• what do your class sizes look like? it’s a good idea to balance those classic first-year con hall monstrosities with at least one smaller class. first year foundations seminars and the one programs are a fantastic idea to check out, and they can help you fulfill breadth, too.
• what breadth requirements will your courses fill? you’ll need to hit at least 4 of the 5 during your time at u of t, and a good time to get them out of the way is first year.
• who’s teaching the course? ratemyprof is a decent resource for this, although not all the entries are super populated with our school. it can be helpful to give you a sense of the more well-known instructors, though.
• what’s the course content like? this feels like a pretty minor consideration to me, but still worth mentioning because you’re more likely to do well in classes you enjoy. i’ve found it’s pretty hard to find syllabi on the internet for u of t’s classes, but you can check out the past exams repository to see what you might be tested on. i don’t know if this is a normal thing to recommend people do. but i sorta wish i’d done it my first year.
• evening classes or morning classes? a few, stacked days or a well-distributed courseload? eight straight hours of class or four hourlong breaks throughout the day? it’s up to you. personally, i find it hard to focus for more than a few hours straight. for some reason, i’m still stacking my schedule because it feels more efficient. so this one’s on me.

when you’ve planned that all out, you can check your start time on ACORN

assuming you’re a first year, you’ll be able to do this starting july 19. for all other years, kindly! consult! this post.

preload your cart on ACORN with the courses you’ve planned for 

once again, this’ll save you from a scramble once your start time comes.

right off the bat (aka, when your start time comes up) you’ll be able to enrol in a maximum of five courses. after the priority enrolment period is over, you can add a sixth. general enrolment opens to everyone on august 2, although times are still staggered by year.

log on to ACORN at your start time and register! 

hope this was helpful, and it does something to ease your anxiety.

be Boundless,

aska