• grad school,  grades,  transcripts

    with a grain of salt

    January 16, 2017

    hi.

    i am a sixth-year student, hoping to finally begin grad school next year
    (fall 2017). i have heard that grad schools assign more weight to
    undergraduates’ later academic performance than their earlier; however, i
    was wondering if this is supposed to indicate that higher-level courses are
    more heavily weighted, or if it is rather simply because they are looking
    for how well the student is doing closer to the time of the application.
    so, for example, say you left a bunch of required courses to the end of
    your degree, and they are 100- and 200-level courses, and you do
    significantly worse in them than you did in 300- and 400-level courses that
    you took much earlier –– would the lower-level required courses be
    overlooked in favour of high marks in the upper-year programs? or is it
    really that it is about whatever courses were most recently taken, and so
    the lower-level courses would be given greater weight.

    thanks,
    ‘non

    ———————————————

    hey,

    this is a really good question. each school is different in their process of assessing your transcript. to get more program-specific information, i would highly recommend that you contact the school yourself and take what i am saying with a grain of salt.

    sorry. i had to.

    however, typically, they DO look at your last two years to get an accurate idea of your most recent academic standing. with this in mind, they will still have access to your whole transcript, meaning that if there are certain courses that you took earlier on that were more relevant to the program you are pursuing, they won’t necessarily be ignored.

    so, no. higher level courses (300-level or 400-level) courses aren’t weighted differently.

    capisce?

    peace and love,

    aska

     

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  • GPA,  grad school,  grades,  jobs,  lab experience,  life science,  lost

    don’t lose hope, youngling

    January 11, 2017

    Hello,

    I am a life science student in the second year. After completing the fall term studying, I feel that it is very difficult to get a high GPA. I wonder if I get 3.0 cumulative GPA after graduation, what can I do? what school accept me? what work opportunities do I have? Thanks.

    Best,

    ———————————————

    hello,

    *as askastudentuoft, i hope you understand that i am knowledgeable about all things U of T, and that’s about it, so this post will be very U of T centric*

    while a 3.0 GPA is great, many of the life science graduate programs available at U of T require averages which range from B+ to A- (with the exception of the occupational science and occupational therapy program which looks for mid B’s). but, keep in mind, these are just life science programs available at U of T. there are plenty of other schools which offer similar programs which may require different averages.

    you’re only in second year, which means you don’t ACTUALLY know if you’re going to end up with a 3.0 average. you seem to have already lost hope in yourself. don’t stress out right now about what your work opportunities will be and just try your best to get the best grades you can. i can’t really tell you what kind of work opportunities will be available when you graduate because we don’t even know what program you’ll be pursuing for grad school!

    a good place to start is the career learning network. it’s a great tool for current students and recent graduates. you can use it to find research positions (i hear the life science people like those) and postings by companies looking for recent U of T graduates. logging onto the career learning network website is definitely the first step you should take when looking for work opportunities for students like you!

    for now, focus on school and building up your resume with work and volunteer experiences. they can be relevant or irrelevant to your field, but having experience is definitely an asset when applying for any kind of job. volunteer at a hospital from time to time or make some money tutoring kids grade 10 science! whatever it is, just make sure you work hard and build up a good collection of references in case you need them for grad school.

    in all seriousness, i’m graduating later this year and i don’t even know what work opportunities will be available to me! i can’t even see into my own future, let alone yours!

    anyways, hope this was somewhat helpful!

    good luck, work hard, and try your best at everything you do.

    peace and love,

    aska

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  • exclusions,  grades,  graduation

    proud of you

    November 18, 2016
    I have 21 credits and a cGPA of 3.21; do I graduate with distinction? I’m pretty certain if I had 20 credits my cGPA would not meet the distinction threshold.
    ———————————————
    hey there,
    the only reason why you wouldn’t graduate with distinction is if any of these 21 credits were considered extra. an extra credit would fall under:
    -any 100-level courses taken after you’ve reached your limit of 6.0 100-level FCE’s
    -any course that you have already passed and are repeating
    -an exclusion for a course you’ve already taken
    if none of your courses fall under this category, yes, you will graduate with distinction! your credits will all be considered in your cGPA! congrats for making it!
    giphy-1
    cheers,
    aska
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  • admissions,  getting into U of T,  grades

    c- in grade 9 sewing

    November 15, 2016

    Hi, when I apply to UofT, do I only need to submit my grade 12 grades? or do I need to submit my grades from grade 9, 10, 11 too? Thank you.

    ———————————————

    hi,

    your full transcript will be sent to U of T (including earlier years), meaning they will be able to see your grades all the way back from either grade 8 or 9 (depending on where you’re from). however, admissions will mostly look at your grade 12 marks to see if you have the classes that are required for your program. this is not to say that they won’t take your grade 11 marks into consideration. for ontario high school students, it does say on the website that the university will send out conditional offers based on your grade 11 marks as well as your grade 12 interim and final marks.

    i hope you’ll be as relieved to hear this as i was. if they had considered my grade 9 marks in sewing (or any other subject for that matter), i probably would not have gotten in to U of T.

    giphy

     

    work hard and show’em all you have to offer!

    cheers,

    aska

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  • GPA,  grad school,  grades,  law,  law school

    legally blonde is a prereq for law school

    October 17, 2016

    If i want to go to law school after ungrad, preferably osgoode or uoft; is it better off to go to york and not uoft for undergrad? because apparently uoft marks a lot harder which makes it harder to get into law school

    ———————————————

    hey,

    first, please keep in mind that i am currently doing my undergrad at U of T, not york, so my perspective may be slightly skewed. since you came to aska, i feel that you probably wanted an opinion from a U of T student anyways.

    yes, U of T does mark very hard and you may not end up with the golden 4.0 GPA you had envisioned yourself getting, but then again, you may also find york challenging. who knows?

    i’m sure you’ve browsed the rankings for both undergrad and law school for both schools so i won’t get into that, but it really depends on what kind of education you want for yourself. both schools have very different reputations. you may feel that U of T marks harder, but maybe that’s a good thing! if you are challenged at school, maybe you’ll be more ready for law school. at a different school, you might get higher grades, but will you be ready for law school?

    going to another school may seem like the “easier” choice, but if you work hard now, it’ll pay off. if you don’t work hard now, you’ll have to work hard later on.

    another thing to consider is, lets say you do an undergrad at york. do you think it would be more convenient/ familiar if you went to osgoode for law school? maybe you’ll be more used to being at the same campus.

    it’s great that you’re thinking ahead, but i feel like this question is a little premature. your first year may change your perspective on all of this. perhaps you’ll decide that you don’t want to go to law school, and that you’ll want to become a teacher!

    anyways, definitely think long and hard about this.*

     

    *but come to U of T

    also, if you want to go to law school and haven’t seen legally blonde, you really should. it’s practically a pre-requisite.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • grades

    everything in the last week of classes

    June 6, 2016

    Heyyy there 🙂
    I’m currently a student at UTM and I have a question about my academic rights as a student. I was making a calendar for the month of March and I noticed that for one of my sociology courses I have a test worth 25% of my grade, AND and assignment worth 15% of my grade for the same class due on the same day, which is March 31st. However, when I was looking at the syllabus for one of my other classes (a history course) it states at the very end that as a UTM student I have an academic right to NOT have a term test worth 25% or more in the last two weeks…. Is this correct?? Or do my academic rights as a student change from course to course? I already emailed my prof to make sure whether it is, or isn’t a typo, but he hasn’t responded so I thought I’d check with you 🙂
    THANKS!!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    to quote the UTM academic handbook: “No term test or combination of term tests having a value greater than 25% of the final mark may be held in the last two weeks of classes at the end of ANY session – Fall, Winter, or Summer” (page 16).  that seems pretty clear to me. I hope you were able to sort it out with your professor.

    best of luck!

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  • grades,  partying,  probation

    GPA slave

    March 23, 2016

    Hi Aka,
    Long words in short, I’ve been here in Toronto for so long and never feel too sure academically of myself.Now I’m in my last term of 2nd year, bearing a repeat probation and the feeling of falling down the cliff is comingback again. For this time my midterms are done so poorly that I’m now writing to my registrar’s to see if switchingto part time is a wise option. But I feel like I’ve been delaying so long that I nearly lost all my acquaintances and evenmy roommate is going away to do a super fancy internship in California. My discipline is also a limited one, I also haven’tseen the possibility of switching to another major, feeling my graduation is just further that way. Is there really a way torisk and get a good-looking final mark even though my midterms are really fucked up?
    Slave of GPA

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    we’re in crunch time now. exams are about to smack everyone in the face, much sooner than anyone expects, i’m sure. if i were you, my immediate strategy would be to focus on passing my classes and getting above that 1.50 CGPA that you need to get off probation.

    cancrushed

    crunch time at uoft.

    that means you need to: put everything else aside (except food and sleep) and focus on studying. go to review sessions if they’re available. read the textbook(s). do practice questions. whatever you need to do. if you need to LWD a course/courses, start planning for that now – touch base with your registrar’s office, maybe set up an appointment with them, etc.

    after that’s out of the way and you have a little bit of time to breathe, then you can start thinking about your long-term plans. maybe you need to re-evaluate whether university is really for you. maybe part-time courses are, in fact, the best option for you; talking to your registrar’s office about that is a wonderful step in the right direction. if you’re feeling that you don’t like your current program and you don’t really like any of the other programs uoft has to offer, though, then maybe uoft isn’t for you.

    maybe that’s a signal to start looking into other universities, colleges, or jobs. what career paths are you excited about? or, if you find you can’t bring yourself to feel excited about anything in particular, is there some path that is presenting itself to you right now, that you could be qualified for?

    or, if you’re really set on staying at school, then it’s a good idea to come up with some concrete steps to improve your performance in class. commit to seeking extra help, either from a private tutor, TA/prof office hours, the academic success centre, the writing centre at your college…there are lots and lots of options, depending on what you need. your registrar’s office is a great place to discuss those options and see where you can get the help you need to succeed.

    finally, just a note: you say you feel like you’re delaying and therefore losing friends, opportunities, etc. i don’t mean to say that the situation you’re in isn’t an unpleasant one, or that you don’t need to figure out your academic situation. however, i do just want to give you a gentle reminder that just because you’re going through a tough time, doesn’t mean you’re falling behind. as long as you end up where you want to be, then it doesn’t matter how long you take to get there. focus on you. you’ll get there.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • admissions,  grad school,  grades

    automatically rejected?

    February 5, 2016

    Hey,

    So im a 3rd year physics specialist, and i took a course That was not required for my degree( Just for the fun of it) and i got the mark back and its 50. This Is the first time i have gotten a mark like This. I am usually a high 70-low 80 Student. I had prospects for physics graduate school at uoft and some other school in Ontario. M’y question Is: How Bad Is going to look on applications or am i automatically rejected? Also, Is it possible to ask my college to base This course on a cr/ncr basis? I only took the course for fun. It has nothing to do with my study. The test of my marks for This semester have been 3.7-4.0, So Can i make a case That This Is not a representation of my academic ability? I am worried because Most Schools look at last two years and This Is going to be a cold sore of sorts in my transcript. Thanks

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    you can always ask, but it’s unlikely that your college will make the course credit/non-credit after the course is over. like, very unlikely.

    however, the fact that your mark is so unusual, and that it has nothing to do with physics, can only help your application to graduate school. that means that when a graduate admissions committee looks at your transcript, they are more likely to see this particular mark as a fluke. yes, it might cause your GPA to dip a little, but it’s not going to ruin your chances.

    the M.Sc. requires at least a B+ average or better, so if you’ve been sitting at a 3.7+ GPA, this mark probably will not be the tipping point from accepted to not. in other words, your GPA leaves wiggle room for a mark like this.

    now i want to be clear that i’m not guaranteeing your admission to any program: competition varies widely from year to year and i can’t make very accurate predictions because i haven’t seen your transcript. all i’m saying is that all hope is not lost.

    something that might help your application, if you feel comfortable doing so, is sending an explanatory letter along with your application. most admissions committees will allow you to send along a letter explaining any unique circumstances or unusual results. you can use this opportunity to explain the outlying mark – just make sure to ask whether they’ll accept such a letter first.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • grad school,  grades

    can’t get away from your GPA

    September 24, 2015

    The grad school I wish to apply to requires a course and they need the grade from that course, I’m worried that the course will affect my GPA. So my question is, once I graduate, can I come back and take undergrad courses without them affecting my current GPA/transcript? or will they affect my grades irregardless of taking the course after graduation or before.

    As the school said I needed it done before matriculation, not stipulating whether it had to be done at UofT.

    Regards.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    good question. unfortunately, courses – and their grades – are always noted on a transcript and will be factored into your CGPA, regardless of whether they’re completed before graduation or after graduation.

    chin up, though! i know you can do it! uoft isn’t…that hard…

    best of luck,

    aska

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  • grades

    we don’t talk about grade 9

    July 6, 2015

    Hi, I kinda had bad grades in my first two years of high school. (like 70-68 %) And I was wondering, is that going to have an impact on my future? I would very much like to be a surgeon or an engineer. Or a biochemist or a scientist or an anthropologist…You get what I want to say

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    in the simplest terms: no. grades 9 and 10 are not considered in university applications. only your top 6 grade 12, university-level courses (including any program prerequisites) will be considered for an admission decision. your grade 11 marks may be used for a conditional offer of admission while you’re still completing your grade 12 courses. however, your grade 9 and 10 marks will not be considered.

    and here it is in more complex terms: just because they’re not considered for admission, doesn’t mean grades 9 and 10 won’t “impact your future” at all.

    engineering, medicine, biochem – these are all very challenging disciplines. you need to be on top of your game in grades 11 and 12 to get into university, and to do well in your first year.

    not that grades 9 and 10 will necessarily dictate how well you do in grades 11 and 12 – definitely not. aska herself wasn’t doing so hot in grade 9, and NOW look where she is! writing for an anonymous blog and looking forward to her three oreos she’s got saved up for dinner. holla.

    but if you didn’t do so great in grades 9 and 10, you might want to look into how you might do better in the coming years. identify the areas where you need help. is it math? writing?

    then figure out what you can do to improve. maybe that means getting a tutor. maybe that means de-prioritizing a few things to make room for school.

    it does NOT mean freaking out about your grades and giving yourself a heart condition at the age of 17. i’m not saying any of these things to SCARE you. aska would never want to cause anything but happiness to the wee youngins reading her posts.

    all i’m saying is that you may want to invest some time in figuring out 1) what you really truly want to do and 2) how to get there, so that once you do get to uni, you’ll be ready.

    i hope that helps!

    xoxo,

    aska

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  • grades,  hard

    hard as nails

    May 5, 2015

    Is it really hard to get a 3.7 gpa at UOFT…

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    honestly, i should start a tag for all the posts where i lament how complicated the words hard and difficult? are. who determines difficulty? who can say what’s hard or not? are we supposed to SIT HERE and be QUIET while bureaucratic overlords determine HOW MUCH OUR BEING, OUR THOUGHTS, ARE WORTH??EVERYONE LEARNS AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS AND THIS STANDARDIZATION OF LEARNING WILL BE THE DOWNFALL OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM.

    anyway.

    unfortunately, the university doesn’t publish any kind of GPA distribution stats, so i don’t know, like, what percentage of people graduate with a certain GPA, or what programs tend to have higher GPAs than others. i could GUESS, but they don’t pay me to guess, and i need to keep that dough coming in.

    HOWEVER, across the board, an A (that is, a grade above a 3.7) does indicate that you’ve gone above and beyond in a course. you really have exceeded expectations, rather than just met them.

    in general – and i don’t have any numbers on this, so keep in mind that your experience might be different – i have found that A students tend to put at least 20 hours per week into their schoolwork outside of class.

    for science/math students, that might involve completing assignments, doing practise questions, and clarifying questions from lecture with TAs or profs. for humanities students, that might involve writing essays, completing readings, and making notes on readings outside of lecture.

    A students take the initiative to seek out answers to their questions, ask whether they’re understanding things correctly, and see if there’s any way to improve what they’ve been working on.

    A students might do extra-curricular activities on the side, but they always make sure to schedule enough time into their week to keep up with their school work.

    A students are NOT geniuses. (not most of them, anyway.) they just keep up with their work and consistently put in their best effort, from september to april. A students exist AND SO CAN YOU!

    cheers,

    aska

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  • grades

    just tell me how bad it was. i want to know.

    January 22, 2015

    Hi aska

    I still can’t see my statistics final grade on rosi. Is there a problem with my rosi account or something? Should I go somewhere to ask about that or send an email to a specific department?

    I’m so anxious for my grade and have been waiting for half a month:(

    Hope you can give me some idea what I can do right now..

    Thank you

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    well, it’s been nearly a month now. if you still haven’t gotten the mark, you should definitely talk to the statistics department. e-mail your prof, too.

    (p.s. this is one of the VERY RARE TIMES that your local superhero – your college registrar’s office – will not be useful. marks get submitted to departments, and then the faculty of arts & science registrar. so save yourself some time and a phone call and go straight to the department).

    cheers,

    aska

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  • first year,  grades

    reality is no fun

    January 13, 2015

    Hey,

    Just got my mark back for a half year class… It doesn’t count towards my program or anything but I finished with a mark I am not too happy with (65, C). Did I just ruin my academic career or like… (I am in first year by the way, just having a hard time wrapping my head around this mark).

    Thanks

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    no, you didn’t ruin your academic career. i know this kind of thing can send first years crashing into a months-long spiritual and existential crisis, but trust me – this isn’t the end of the world.

    i’m not gonna go so far as to say that first year doesn’t matter, but i think it’s important to understand that everybody, from your overzealous chem prof to the admissions board at whatever professional/grad school you think you want to attend, understands that you don’t have everything figured out in first year.

    first year is there precisely to figure stuff out. if you don’t fall on your face in first year, you’re gonna do it later on when it really matters (i.e. in third and fourth year), and that’s a whole lot worse (though, even that is still not something you can’t recover from).

    so don’t freak out about this. try and internalize this feeling of getting a mark that you’re not happy with. understand that you’re not infallible. i know it doesn’t feel great, but it’s good for you, i promise. it’s gonna help you in the long run.

    once you’re nice and comfy with the idea that you’re not immune to mistakes, start thinking about how you can improve in the future. maybe that means taking different kinds of courses, or altering how and how much you study. or maybe this course was just a one-off and nothing to worry about. take time to do some good ol’ REFLECTION – but don’t beat yourself up about it.

    here’s to a good rest of your degree,

    aska

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