• CR/NCR,  UTM

    cr/ncr strike panic (UTM EDITION)

    April 13, 2015

    UTM SUBJECT POST CR/NCR WHY YOU DO DAT???!! So with the recent strike i heard that in order to cr/ncr a course you need to be enrolled in that subject post/program? I am in second year and i plan to enrol in the psy subject post later this year. I already met the first year req. just took a break to figure out if psy was for me. However i am taking one of the courses required 270 even though i am not in the subject post yet. Can i still cr/ncr it.. my gpa will suffer from my not so great grade

    ———————————————

    hi there,

    i think you misunderstood something along the way, amigo. you were able to credit/no-credit ANY S COURSE affected by the strike in the winter semester (including courses that count towards a subject POSt) until april 6th.

    that deadline has already passed, so…i hope you selected it cr/ncr already.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • psychology,  UTM

    psych you out

    April 9, 2015

    Hi,1) I am second year student at the UTM campus and I plan on applying to the psychology major in the coming weeks. I already meet the psy100 grade(completed in first year) and the first year entry psy requirements. i just decided to pursue a major in psychology this January. I know there is a requirement that second year students need to meet in order to apply to the subject post. with a combination of grades. I am currently completing psy210 . what do i need to get into the program now

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    alright, the website is a bit confusing, so i double-checked this info with the lovely lovely people at the UTM psych department, and this is what you need:

    1. PSY201H5

    2. at least 1.0 additional FCE’s of the upper-year requirements for the psych major

    3. at least a 63% average in the above courses

    4. an AGPA of at least 2.0

    5. BONUS: and yes, just in case you were worried, it is a type 2 program (see page 12), which means that as long as you meet the requirements, you should be admitted to the program.

    and voila! just mix your ingredients together in a large bowl, leave to cool for 2 hours, and you’ll have a DELICIOUS psychology major (serves four). then just add tuition to taste (the university’s taste, obviously. not yours).

    best of luck with your application bro,

    aska

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  • first year,  residence,  UTM

    look out…it’s FROSH ON RES!

    April 7, 2015

    Hey Aska! Alright so I was accepted into the CCIT program and I’m seriously considering accepting it, but I just want to get some stuff cleared up before I do.

    First of all, does the CCIT program offer an internship/ Co-op? Also do I have to maintain a certain GPA by the end of my first year to continue on to my second year?

    Ok, now about residence. When I went to the open house someone had told me that the school expects you to find your own place by the second year. Does that mean I cannot live in res after i complete my first year? Also when in res do i have to buy my own internet or does the school provide that for me? Does the school have a list of stuff I should and shouldn’t bring?

    What is campus life like? I hear a lot of people say that it’s pretty dead because UTM is a commuter school. I also hear a lot of complaints about the food options on campus. Is it really that bad?

    Thanks in advance!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    CCIT does in fact offer internships, though it’s not mandatory to complete an internship to complete the program. you can learn all about CCIT internships here and here.

    you can see the first-year requirements for entering one of CCIT’s three programs here (the GPA is competitive for admission, but there’s no minimum cut-off).

    as a matter of fact you can live in res in second year. according to this page, the first 300 upper-year students who reapply to residence are guaranteed a spot. upper year students are definitely a minority in residence – 300 is not a lot – but it is still possible to stay, if you really want to.

    i’d disagree that campus life is dead. UTSG is a commuter school too, and in my experience there are still oodles of ways to get involved. besides that, residence life is a whole separate thing from student life, so if you plan on living on residence, you’ll have two communities you can get involved with. here are just a couple of ways to get involved on res at UTM.

    as for food, this list looks pretty good to me!

    xoxo,

    aska

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  • late withdrawal,  repeating course,  UTM

    MAT133 *shudders*

    March 24, 2015

    Hey! So, I’m a first year commerce student at UTM and I’m going to apply to the accounting specialist Subject POSt. The prerequisite courses for this POSt are ECO100, MAT133, MGM101, and MGT120, but I’m failing MAT133. I think I’m going to withdraw from this course, rather than failing, and take it during the summer. Will the LWD on my transcript affect my admission into the POSt, or anything else?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    well, you won’t be able to get into the POSt if one of the prereqs has an LWD on it. however, i can’t see anything on the requirements for an accounting specialist that says that they will give preference to people who tried the course more than once.

    SO if you LWD the course, take it again and do really well, and your marks in the other three prereqs + CGPA are competitive, then you’d still be competitive for the POSt.

    otherwise, LWDs do have some impact on graduate school applications, but this is one LWD in your first year, so honestly, i wouldn’t stress too much about it. if you think you can do significantly better in the course by LWD’ing it now and taking it again, then go on over to your registrar and make an appointment to discuss putting through a request.

    good luck with it, my friend,

    aska

    P.S. make sure you follow updates related to the strike, as they may affect the rules related to LWDs. HOW they might be affected, i can’t say. it’s all part of the THRILL AND EXCITEMENT of labour disputes! whoo!

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  • UTM

    managing utm management

    February 23, 2015

    I’m worried about whether or not I will get into the upper year management program, do you know any people who got into it with moderate gpa’s? My GPA is currently 2.5 and I don’t know if that’s enough. Also, what happens if you don’t get in? Can you retry by just essentially doing your first year again?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    today on, ‘hey, what campus are you from?’ aska makes a WILD GUESS that you’re in utm management. if you’re NOT in utm management, then, well, you should’ve told me that.

    utm’s department of management website doesn’t make any specific statements about what GPA you need to be competitive – mostly because, like with most things in life, it all depends on how good everyone else is, and not so much on how good you are.

    i don’t know if a 2.5 will be enough. you can talk to a management advisor and your registrar about it – honestly, i think it would be smart of you to come up with a back-up POSt or two, in case it doesn’t work out this year. management’s pretty competitive, and while i have a firm no-admission-prediction policy, a 2.5 is not great, for such a competitive program.

    you should be able to repeat all three prerequisite courses if you didn’t get a 63% in any of them – they’ll just appear as extras on your transcript next year. however, i would definitely recommend you discuss this option with your registrar before taking it.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • UTM

    just LEAVE

    February 12, 2015

    Hey Aska!

    I am currently a first year at utm. I have been considering to get a college diploma then come back and finish my degree. I think it works better for the field I want to get into. I am just not sure how would uoft look at the credits I have here so far. Like, do I have to let them know I left temporarily or what I did during my time off?? I don’t want the credits I have at the end of this year go to waste.. WOuld I have to reapply?

    thank you

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    you don’t have to let them know you’re taking time off, and you don’t have to reapply when you came back. once you’re here, you’re here, and you can come and go as you please.

    you DO have to let them know about any courses you’ve taken at other institutions for transfer credit purposes. you can read more about transfer credit?here.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • psychology,  UTM

    why oh why oh do i need to take bio?

    January 27, 2015

    Soooo stressed so I last year summer 2014 I applied for the psychology major at utm and I was told that inorder for my request to be granted I had to complete only highschool 4u functions before I could be granted acceptance into the program…fast forward now I am enrolling for a highschool grade 12 functions class at night school and i just found out I need grade 12 biology too..but I was only told I needed math what do I do now since I didn’t take science in grades 11-12 🙁 🙁

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    at this point, i think one of the most practical things to do would be to take grade 12 bio at summer school. tdsb offers summer school courses to both tdsb students and non-tdsb students – keep an eye on this page for more information.

    utm also lists the peel school board, independent learning centre and virtualhighschool.com as acceptable alternatives.

    best of luck,

    aska

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  • gap year,  UTM

    i’m off!

    November 25, 2014

    Hello, I’ve started my first year of uni at utm but I’m thinking of taking a gap year after I’m done, before starting my second year. Is this possible? Who would I have to contact to sort this out? Thanks.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    it’s totally possible! and you don’t have to do anything. as long as you don’t enrol in courses when the time rolls around, your fees will be cancelled (see page 30 of this booklet).

    then, after a year of finding yourself or trying to work so you have money to live or supporting your family or whatever CRAZY SHENANIGANS kids these days get up to, you can just come back! re-registration of your student record will cost $25 (see page 35), and you can go to your registrar’s office for that.

    sometimes – even at uoft – things can be that simple. it’s a christmas miracle.

    cheers,

    aska

     

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  • business,  rotman,  UTM

    talking about some business business

    November 24, 2014

    Hello,

    I am an IB student. I would be interested to go to a business school or a university in order to study business/management. I was wondering in which school could I go with which grades ? Maybe, if you have some websites in mind that could help me, I will be happy to visit them.

    Thanking you in advance and waiting for your answer.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    i only really know about business at uoft, and very generally in ontario, so that’s what i’m gonna tell you about.

    most people agree that the really good business schools in ontario are schulich at york, ivey at western and rotman at uoft (utm’s management programs are also really good).

    this is a uoft blog, so obviously i can tell you the most about rotman and UTM management. i’d recommend you browse the rotman tag if you want to learn all the intricacies and funny little details of that part of uoft.

    you can also browse rotman’s viewbook and their FAQ’s and Useful Links page for a lot of basic info about the school.

    if you have any more questions about commerce at uoft, just shoot ’em my way. and good luck in your research – hopefully you’ll be on your way to the most businessy of careers in no time!

    best,

    aska

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  • admissions,  UTM

    i am the epitome of communication AND culture

    November 10, 2014

    Hello! So i have a couple questions regarding the Communication, Culture, Information & Technology program.

    First of all is there anyway i can get more information on the program from UTM? I wasn’t able to attend the fall information day and I’ve already looked on the website at the program description, but i would like to know a little more about it if possible. So if there’s a number i can call or an email i can contact that would be great! Or if you know anything about the program please further enlighten me on it! I am aware that within the CCIT program there are a multiple interdisciplinary specialist programs, The one i’m interested in is the IDM (Interactive Design Media). On the UTM website it said that i have to apply after my first year of CCIT and that spaces are limited. So my next question is when applying on the ouac website do i just select IDM or select CCIT and then after my first year reapply to IDM? Also, if i do not get accepted into the IDM program after my first year, what happens? Do i continue on doing CCIT as a major? Im just really confused about the admission process. My last question is does the IDM specialization have coop/ internship opportunities?

    Sorry about all of these questions! I really hope you can help me out with this because i don’t know where else i can contact for more information about this stuff. Thank you so much!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    i don’t know much about Communication, Culture, Information & Technology, to be honest with you. i would read the brochure if you haven’t already. also, it’s always interesting to go on a little google odyssey on the professors that teach in your department of interest; their research can tell you a bit about the kinds of things you might be learning.

    there’s also this careers by major thing which UTM does that i am super jealous of. also take a look at the websites of the student groups related to CCIT – they’ve got some helpful information on there (also, their websites are beautifully designed. figures). you can even contact the execs of the student groups for advice; i’m sure they’d be more than happy to answer your questions.

    otherwise, you can always call the ICCIT directly.

    as for admissions: CCIT is an institute – as in, the ‘Institute of Communication, Culture, Information & Technology.’ the institute itself offer a few different programs: the CCIT major, the DEM specialist, or the IDM specialist.

    you don’t enrol into specific programs until second year at uoft. when you’re applying out of high school, you just pick a stream. see this? the green headings are streams, the things listed under each heading are programs. your stream would be CCIT, and that’s what you’d pick on OUAC.

    again, that doesn’t make you a CCIT major, just a student in the Institute. you pick your program after first year. comprende?

    if you’re not accepted into the IDM specialist after first year, then you would enrol in one of your backup programs instead. you need to be in a program after first year to continue taking courses.

    and i don’t want to hear any of this nonsense about not having backups. life is gonna throw you some curveballs, y’know; it’s always a good idea to know what you’re going to do when and if they happen. (however, i do think applying to the CCIT major is a pretty good backup).

    you can browse every program offered by UTM here.

    CCIT is not offered as a co-op program, but there are some 400-level CCIT courses which are either just internships or can incorporate an internship into their structure: take a look at CCT409H5, CCT410H5, CCT411H5 and CCT413H5. also, the career centre, which is available to all uoft students, provides lots of experiential opportunities across all three campuses. also, there’s this. or you can just go door to door and beg to do people’s programming grunt work for free.

    and don’t worry that you’re asking too many questions, dude. i’m here all night. i have nobody to go home with and am very lonely, so…yeah. i’m here all night. also they sometimes have free food here.

    xoxo,

    aska

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  • St. George,  Transferring,  UTM

    will you MISS me when i’m gone, MISSissauga?

    October 6, 2014

    Hello!

    I’m a first year English student at UofT Mississauga. I wanted to transfer to UofT St.George next year. What do I need to do in order to do so? What is the cgpa I need to get in and when do I need to apply? and how hard is it to get in, because I heard it’s difficult to transfer.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    logistically, it’s actually easier for you to transfer between uoft campuses than people at other universities. so you’ve go that going for you.

    now, don’t get too excited: i’m not saying you WILL get in. i’m just saying it’s not IMPOSSIBLE, if you meet the requirements.

    so, as for requirements, it’s pretty straightforward. all you need is to meet any program requirements, and have a decent CGPA.

    that means at least a ‘B’ average and, assuming you want to transfer into English at UTSG, there are no specific program requirements UNLESS you’re interested in the specialist, in which case you’ll need at least a 73% in your school’s equivalent to ENG110Y1, ENG140Y1, or ENG150Y1.

    all the application deadlines you could ever possibly need are here.

    best of luck in your quest down town,

    aska

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  • courses,  french,  UTM

    i wish we had a parseltongue class

    September 18, 2014

    Hey there aska! Could you possibly tell me anything about French languages courses, particularly at UTM? I am taking one as an elective (Y course) and am afraid of signing myself up for something that will take up too much time and become a GPA killer. Are languages courses particularly well known as time suckers? Thanks so much, I-want-to-be-bilingual-without-becoming-insane.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    language courses aren’t well-known to me as time suckers, but 1) i don’t go to UTM and 2) i haven’t studied any secondary languages at the post-secondary level. i’m not an expert in the topic.

    BUUT it seems like indications of ease/proficiency in french are pretty clearly indicated in course descriptions.

    this class, for example, is very clearly called ‘advanced beginner,’ specifies a prerequisite, and says that it is not open to native speakers of french.

    if you still feel unsure of the difficulty level to expect, you can always chat with someone at the department of language studies about it.

    also, we’re into the semester now, so hopefully if you decided to take it, you now have a decent idea of how intensive it’ll be. just keep in mind that september 21st is the last day to add or change F or Y section courses, so you’ve only got a few more days to make up your mind!

    cheers, my bilingual bud,

    aska

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  • courses,  enrollment,  UTM

    it is now open season on uoft courses

    August 15, 2014

    if i am on the missigua campus can i take all my classes at the st. george one or at least some?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    you can definitely take courses at either UTSC or st. george if you’re a utm student.

    i’m doubtful that you can take all your courses on another campus. there are no rules specifically stopping you from doing so (that i can find), but if you’re a utm student, you do need to meet the requirements for a utm subject POSt, and that’s pretty much impossible to do without taking at least some classes at utm. there are three different campuses for a reason, after all.

    just a note: today happens to be the first day uoft students can enrol in courses at uoft campuses other than their own (thank you for the beautifully timed question, btw), and as you may have noticed, quite a bit of time has passed since course enrolment opened for students on their own campuses.

    so if you ever want to take a course at a different uoft campus, you will always run the risk of not being able to get into the course because it’s already full.

    but you have the schools’ blessing to try.

    cheers,

    aska

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