u of tears - askastudent

u of tears, UTM

into the deep end

August 13, 2025

hey i’m an incoming freshman for utm social sciences and i had way too many people say uoftears in front of me recently so I was curious as to how difficult the social sciences program actually is, in terms of time spent studying and difficulty of assignments? I’m aiming for criminology law and society as a major plus maybe philosopy and polisci so I want to know what I’m getting into 🙂

hey there,

fair question! it’s super valid to want to know what you’re getting into at U of T after hearing about its reputation.

just a quick disclaimer that i go to the UTSG campus, so i can’t directly speak to what it’s like at UTM. also, not everyone will agree with what i say here, because uoftears can be a touchy topic. remember that all this is just my personal opinion after spending a good three years here. 😀

to answer your question, let’s look at what exactly feeds into the uoftears reputation and whether each thing applies to you or not.

to my understanding, the discourse around uoftears is mostly tied to the student experience at UTSG. this is because the entire concept of uoftears is used to complain about two main things, one of which mainly applies to UTSG:

1. a lack of social life (a UTSG issue)

2. academic stress (a UTSG and UTM issue)

social life

let’s explain!

U of T’s reputation for being depressing is largely fed by students’ feelings of isolation at the UTSG campus. i feel like UTM, if we’re looking at general trends, is not as plagued by this issue.

due to its smaller size, UTM is known to be more interconnected. it’s easier to build relationships with your professors, TA’s, and classmates, with a much lower population compared to UTSG. for context, there are almost 70, 000 undergrad students at UTSG and around 16, 000 undergrads at UTM.

meanwhile at UTSG, courses are so large (in the thousands sometimes) that professors and TA’s can only “know” a tiny fraction of their students. even when i try to build a relationship with my professors, i often just feel swallowed into the hoard of nameless faces and idk, it doesn’t exactly feel good to be perceived as a rando in class.

it’s also notoriously hard to make friends at UTSG. i fear the loneliness epidemic here is real.

so yeah, the uoftears experience of U of T as a depressing school is largely fed by these things. if you’re at UTM, i don’t think you’ll need to worry as much about this side of uoftears.

ok sorry i need to move on and answer what you actually asked about: academics!

academics

in regards to academics, the truth is that U of T is an academically rigorous experience across all three campuses. you will spend a lot of time studying and working on assignments, and getting top marks will be very difficult.

the study culture here is a lot more intense than other schools, especially during the long midterm season and exam month. like, i do not see any of my friends at other schools studying as hard as U of T students do.

however, it’s really hard to say exactly how long you’ll spend studying or how hard you’ll find assignments. if you wanted to check it out, i can offer you a flushed out answer of how long i personally spend studying in this other answer i posted.

all i can really say is, social science programs at UTM are probably not the worst of uoftears and you will likely be fine. these programs aren’t exactly known for grade deflation, like say, life sci programs at UTSG — grade deflation is a big contributor to academic stress at U of T.

you say you want to go into criminology and polisci. what i’ve heard is that they’re quite competitive programs, at least in comparison to other social science programs. i’ve also taken a few polisci/public policy courses, and man! you really gotta work hard in those. everyone was so smart, innovative, and quick on their feet — i had to really push myself to keep up in class discussions. (it was SO worth it though. being in this environment high-key forced made me to get smarter and better in record time.)

overall, the jump from high school to university is quite hard, and at U of T, it’ll be harder than other canadian universities.

but here’s the thing.

sure, it felt like i was thrown into the icy cold deep end of a pool in my first year. but genuinely, it’s a high risk high reward situation. yes, you’ll study for so long your eyes start twitching, but also, you’ll have access to priceless career opportunities and connections at U of T.

professors here are all, like, celebrities in their fields. they do crazy cool work and there is so much to learn from them. not all, but most, of the students here are super smart, dedicated, and ambitious people. you have a lot to gain from learning alongside them. U of T is also a very powerful institution with strong partnerships to other institutions, and we get a lot of funding for research, experiential learning, etc.

basically, there are numerous reasons why people choose to go here. it’s hard work, but there is a lot to reap. there are also ways to avoid falling into the dark side of uoftears — like finding a good community on campus, choosing a program you actually care about, and knowing what resources are available to you (there is very good student support available at U of T).

so yeah.

and that’s all i have for you. please don’t let anything i’ve said here scare you away. like, don’t you dare let me change the course of your future like that?? but i hope this helped. i hope i’ve adequately addressed the good and bad sides of U of T, however briefly.

bestest of luck and welcome!!

over and out,

aska

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campus life, clubs, fun & places, u of tears

seek and you shalt receive

January 18, 2025

I just need to know. Everybody says UofT isn’t as depressing and it’s what you make out of it, but I need a clearer answer. What’s it like there? Do you get to have a vibrant social life there? Are there fun things to do on campus? Like maybe attending games or idk just fun things to do.

I want to study Economics on the St. George campus and I want to know if there’ll be time to do fun things on campus, in the city. I know I’ll be busy; it’s university it has to be.

But I just need my university life to be fun and full of adventures, if that makes sense. Can I get what I’m looking for?

Thank you.

hey there,

ok but those people are kinda right, it is what you make out of it. in my opinion, your sense of fun and adventure will entirely depend on how much initiative you take to seek out fun activities on your own.

the baseline is, you will have fun and adventure at U of T if you actively seek it out.

things to do on campus?

to answer the first part of your question, are there fun things to do on campus? yes, a hundred times yes. there is honestly an overwhelming number of fun and exciting things to do on campus, happening everywhere and everyday. because of the large and diverse student population, there are more clubs and student organizations than you can count, and events are targeted to a wide range of interests.

there’s everything from cultural or spiritual groups to artistic groups to academics/career focused groups and everything in between. like, there’s a club about bread? and definitely a LOT of clubs have game nights if that’s what you’re looking for.

since you asked specifically about games, i can point you towards the GLG board game club, the esports club, and the tabletop gaming club, found on instagram at @torontotabletopgamingclub. but if you were interested in other things, you can also search up clubs by category on the utsu website, “find a registered club“.

in short, i can tell you with absolute certainty that the opportunities do exist, should you wish to take them.

but do you want to join clubs, student leadership, sports teams? are you the type of person to sign yourself up for an art gallery night? attend a karaoke event? sign yourself up for a weekend of cooking workshops? you gotta take that initiative and make that commitment, it won’t just come looking for you.

that’s one thing i wished i knew earlier on in my undergrad. in high school, there were only so many clubs, you only really joined things if your friends were joining too, and it was easy to hear about everything going on. but at U of T, the biggest university in canada, you gotta actively search through all the noise and find the groups/events/opportunities you’re interested in. you gotta put yourself out there, into rooms where you don’t know a single person.

vibrant social life?

from what i’ve heard, many people at U of T don’t consider their social life to be particularly vibrant. there are plenty of people who do, but plenty of people who don’t. once it hits the second month of the semester, most people who consider themselves studious will mainly hang out with their friends by studying in the library. maybe there will be some fun things on the side, but as you go deeper into midterm season, those will be fewer and farther in between.

it also depends on what you consider to be a “vibrant” social life. does that mean parties every weekend? having a large friend group to do things with? these things are definitely possible at this school, depending on your ability to balance your time. we are not a party school like mcgill or western, but parties do happen!

this section is funny because i wouldn’t say i have a vibrant social life, i mainly only see my friends within the walls of a library. all of our hangouts happen during the first two weeks of school and reading week. but like, that’s kinda on me because i like my sleep. if you don’t (like most people at U of T), you can most likely have a vibrant social life.

fun things to do in the city?

y’all, if i had to pick a sentence to say in front of a lie-detector test, i would say that toronto is definitely a city with fun things to do. that’s a given.

this one is hard to go over though, just because of the LARGE scope of fun things this city offers. toronto is THE city to socialize in and make connections in. i always say that i love toronto because it feels so connected and so, so alive. there is just such a depth and breadth of culture and community in this city, and it’s filled by the most incredible people with such interesting backgrounds.

personally, my favorite events in toronto are kensington market pedestrain sundays and the annual nuite blanche event. but the best everyday thing to do is go exploring! every street here is filled with exciting things to see. there are also a lot of niche socializing events i’ve heard word about that you won’t see in most other cities.

basically, if you’re at U of T, there will be some type of gathering within 2km, on or off campus, for pretty much every pursuit you could think of. it’s crazy. but it’s just a matter of hearing about the right events for you and making the time to go.

which brings me to the second part of your question.

will there be time to do all these fun things?

yes, if you make the time. honestly, it’s completely up to you and your work ethic. economics is a hard program, but i know several econ students who do make the time to get involved in campus life and fun events. as long as you’re not taking 6 courses (pls don’t do this to yourself), or have a bunch of evening classes, you will probably have time to do fun things even if you have a part time job on the side. plenty of people have made it work.

just don’t expect to have an abundance of free time. you’ll have to choose which fun things you want more out of the many options, since there will be only so much time in your schedule. most likely, your schedule will be packed, but it is absolutely possible to strategize and fit in time for fun and adventure. i’ve done it, and most of the people i know have done it. you can do it too!

however, please take everything i say with a grain of salt. this is all just my opinion as informed by my singular experience, and you could have a totally different take when you get here!

finally, if you wanted to vibe check what life at U of T is like, you could check out some student life instagram accounts. like @lifeatuoft, @uoftsu, @uoftsportandrec, @econ_uoft, @utsgdc, or @esauoft. your home college will also have plenty of student-run events! check out @myncsc, @innisicss, @vusac for example.

over and out,

aska

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academic success, course work, u of tears

pov: i try my best not to scare you away

December 19, 2024

Hi Aska!! I’m a grade 12 student who’s thinking of applying to Arts & Science at the St. George Campus. I was just wondering what the workload is like?? Like how much time do you spend in lectures? How much homework is there? How long does it take to do the homework? I’m a pretty big procrastinator, so I’m really scared that I won’t be able to handle the university workload 🙁

hey there,

ok first off, love you for specifying the faculty and campus! and second, this is so real of you, i remember lots of people wondering about this when i was in high school.

just a disclaimer to start off: the workload would sort of depend on whether you’re in humanities/social sciences or the life science/physical sciences side of things. i do however, actually happen to have one major in social sciences and my other major in life sciences, so i feel like i can speak to both. just please remember that this is one person’s experience and everyone’s is different!

workload

so the overall workload just depends on how many courses you’re taking. each semester, people usually take five (or four) courses at a time. you will hear about people taking six, but in every instance they are super busy and school is the only thing they do — aka no extracurriculars or jobs. so taking more than 5 courses is not super recommended by anyone and is pretty rare. anyways, my humble opinion is that four courses is the sweet spot, and by taking four courses per semester, students are usually able to get better grades and get the most out of each course. (that is, if you are able to. i know some people have to take five courses because they can’t take summer courses and stuff).

within my four courses, i have been taking two life-sci and two social science courses at a time, to balance it out.

for some context: life sci/physical sciences will almost always have practicals and/or tutorials, which will increase your time spent in class. you’ll be assessed mainly on tests/quizzes and problem sets or lab reports. there’s a lot of memorization and the end-of-term assessment will pretty much always be an exam. meanwhile, social sciences/humanities will have longer readings, and assignments are fewer but heavier weighted. here, end-of-term assessments could either be a long essay or an exam.

take from that what you will.

how long does it take to do the homework/study

man, i wish i tracked how much time i spent doing each of my assignments, but i don’t. and i can’t really generalize about this because there are so many different types of assignments.

so i guess i can tell you how much time i spend generally studying/writing essays/doing assignments? uhhhh it might scare you off but i know you asked this question wanting honesty so i have no choice but to give it to you straight:

generally, i spend all my time working, unless i’m cooking, going grocery shopping, or sleeping. every weekend of the semester, i study from noon to night time. ~~often, if my lecture is recorded, i’m skipping it to finish the assignment for said class, and then watching the lecture back in 2x speed~~. annnd during this past exam season, i was studying from around 7am to 11pm almost every single day for 3 weeks straight.

BUT before you start running, i’m pretty sure this isn’t true of the average U of T student. keep in mind that i do still have the time to work two part time jobs and volunteer on the side. it’s also a known fact that i spend a lot more time on things than others, just because that’s how i’ve always done school, and i like to be super thorough. i am not, however, an anomaly. my old roommate studied even more than i did and i literally never saw her leave her room to do anything fun the whole semester.

which brings me to this: your time spent studying will mainly depend on what grades you’re shooting for. people who are aiming for grad school usually spend more time on their work because they need better grades, but if you aren’t planning on going to grad school and just trying to pass, your workload will look a whole lot different. i, and my aforementioned roommate, just choose to suffer because we’re both trying to get the best grades we can for grad school.

how much time i spend in lecture

i’m going to include tutorial time into this total, because that also counts as class time. (in case you’re not familiar, lecture is the instructive class time that happens in larger groups, tutorial is added to some courses as smaller more focused discussion/assignment time).

i am taking four classes this semester, and i have 10 hours of lecture/tutorial and 3 hours of lab per week. last fall, i was also taking four courses, and i had 12 hours of lecture/tutorial and 3 hours of lab per week. each year, i’ve averaged around 11 hours of lecture/tutorial per week, taking 4-5 courses per semester.

idk what 11 hours of lecture tells you, but an important point i want to highlight is that your time spent in lecture is not indicative of your workload. it’s all about what’s assigned, how long your readings are, and how many assessments you have. you’ll see some people with schedules that are super full and other people with schedules that look sparse, and tbh, they’re often the same amount of busy.

handling the transition to uni

i’d say the workload is definitely a jump from high school, and to be so honest, it took sweat and tears to adjust during my first year. what i would recommend to make this transition easier is to take first year foundation courses — these are super cool courses that you can only take in first year, maxed at 25 people per class. in my experience, the professors of these classes make more of an effort to transition you into uni, like teaching you tips on how to write your first uni paper and stuff.

if you’re worried about procrastination, i will say that i recently wrote a post about how i learned to deal with procrastination in university, which you can find here. maybe it’ll tell you a bit about what it’s like dealing with procrastination and the U of T workload? but also, there are a vast amount of academic resources available at U of T to help you out.

for example, there are learning strategists that can do things like help you out a lot with study habits, preparing for your exams, or managing your time. there are even peer mentors that can do the same thing if you’d rather it come from a fellow student in the same boat as you. i have some friends with ADHD, and accessibility services helps them find accommodation for that in their classes and deadlines. there are registered study groups that are formed for most courses, which can really help with procrastination. your college registrar also offers learning strategists and academic advisors, and you will have counselling services at health and wellness available to you as a U of T student.

this is in no way an exhaustive list, U of T offers more resources than i can put in a single post. the gist is that if you’re worried about procrastination, i want you to know that there are ways to navigate that and you are able to succeed at an academically rigorous institution while dealing with procrastination.

overall..

i really don’t want to scare you off but i also don’t want to lie. the reality is that the workload at U of T is genuinely hard to handle for everyone. but it’s not a U of T specific problem, university is just built to stress you out and make you work hard. i know plenty of other people at other universities who are also very busy, i think that’s just part of the deal you take when you go to university.

i do choose to put up with this rigorous workload for a reason, and that’s because i personally think that the pros of U of T outweigh the cons. i am throwing up while saying this but nothing worthwhile is gonna come easily and U of T is a very. good. school. the opportunities that come with it are numerous and high quality, and you will come out with a world-class education. there are SO many good things about going to U of T that make it worth it.

and finally, just remember to take this all with a grain of salt, because i’m sure other people will have different opinions on things i’ve said here. everyone’s uni experience is different!

over and out,

aska

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u of tears

u of tears

June 22, 2023

Why is it that even though most people find uoft hard , they continue to go there like aren’t there any other options maybe an international student has to go there but other domestic students go there? even though it deflates your grades or leads to mental health issues like depression or anxiety , it is literally called U of Tears. Why would you willing subject yourself to this if you had a choice as opposed to someone who came from another country but did not know the school’s reputation’s

hey there,

so sorry for the late reply, this kinda got lost in my inbox 🙁

to answer your question, it’s probably because U of T students ~~are pain-loving masochists~~ love a good cHallEnge. we’re obviousLy here for the ~~stress and suffering~~ academic rigour and world class Profs, and are definitely not being forcibly iMprisonEd here against our will!

ok… some of the above is true. the real truth is, U of T is probably not the best fit for everybody. maybe you come here in first year with big dreams of a big city and Boundless opportunities. maybe you just wanna go to school in toronto without having to say you go to tmu. maybe you want to avoid america. maybe it’s the most feasible uni for you financially or logistically. maybe you’re here for the prestige and all that. maybe you think you’ll be special and none of these U of Tears things will actually affect you — maybe you’re right.

i think its funny how you’re suggesting that international students get blindsided by the U of Tears reputation, and that nobody in their right mind would come here otherwise. but despite its reputation, i do believe there are several things that explain the appeal of U of T — if some 97, 000 students decided to go here, we can’t all be crazy (right?).

my favourite thing about U of T is its location: toronto is one of the most exciting cities in Canada! being in toronto means being surrounded with lots of extracurricular and professional opportunities, which can have a really good impact on your career, and is also just nice for overall life quality. there’s always something going on everywhere, and so many learning opportunities for every field you could be interested in. the faculty at U of T is also top tier. you can learn from some of the top instructors and researchers in the country, many of which are doing very cool work! along with this, there are lots of programs and courses that aren’t offered at other universities, which was definitely a factor in my decision to go here. this school has SO many cool courses that are unique, niche, and specific, and can make school kinda interesting and *gags* enjoyable.

also, U of T is highly ranked, if that matters to you.

U of T is called “U of Tears”, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the only way to experience the university. grade deflation, which is a big con, also isn’t universal – i’ve heard things about it happening in some departments, but don’t believe it’s equally as bad everywhere. that’s not to say studying at U of T isn’t hard. it is. to be honest, a lot of your time spent as a student might feel a bit like this:

but, there are ways to make it manageable: finding a good supportive community on campus, choosing a program that you really care about, getting to know your classmates and instructors, knowing what support resources are available for you and accessing them when you need them. in general, it’s really important to have strong support networks! the main thing i’ve heard from people is that U of T can be isolating under certain circumstances, because of how big the university is. having friends and family that you can lean on throughout your degree makes a big difference for how you experience the highs and lows.

over and out,

aska

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