Hi,
First time doing this so i guess straight to the point. Due to being a?confused first year student, I didnt know i needed 5.0 credits every year?to graduate with 20 credits for my degree. I ended taking 4.5 credits, and?ended up dropping one course, But i thought i would just take the 0.5 in?summer school and get the 4.0 to get into my subject POSt. As of recent, I?also failed a course (49%) and now am at 2.5 credits (the course was not?required for my POSt), and still plan on taking the 0.5 in the summer,?causing me to be at 3.0 credits in total. Now I just wanted to know what?will have to do to get back into my subject POSt for next year? Will I have?to take all the same courses again or do i just reapply next year? I did?well in my required course (SOC100). I just dont know what to do im so?scared and confused.

Thank you if this gets through and for hopefully some clear answers

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hey there,

you definitely don’t have to retake any courses you don’t want to, and ESPECIALLY not the ones you got a credit for already. next year, you’ll just have to continue taking credits, and then hopefully you’ll have at least 4.0 credits total by april of next year. at that point, you’ll be required to sign up for a subject POSt(s).

i’m assuming you’re interested in a sociology major – if you did well enough in SOC100 that you think you’ll be competitive to get in, then don’t retake it.

just focus on catching up on credits and doing as well as you can. they DON’T have to be the same ones you took last year – just take whatever you’re interested in/need for your degree/will do well in.

and if you feel like you need some more guidance about which courses to take and how to improve for next year, your college registrar’s office is always a great place to go.

good luck!

aska

Hey, I’m a first year UTSG student. Since subject POSt enrolment has started, I’ve been trying to get a grasp of what combination I want. There are a lot of different things I’m interested in, though, so I may not necessarily get to do all of them, unless I spend 6 years on my degree lol. I was wondering if you had any advice in narrowing down choices or fields to study. Thanks !

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hey there,

ah, to be young and interested in everything. i remember when school made me feel something other?than tired and nauseous. hang on to that excitement?as long as you can, eh? ’cause it gets harder and harder as the years go on.

the great thing about subject POSts is that mix-and-matching is a real and totally valid thing you can do. interested in three completely separate areas of study??great! you can do a major and two minors. or two majors and a minor. both those combinations?allow for quite a range of different classes.

something else to consider is how to best stack your odds in your favour, marks-wise. what classes did you do best in this year? you may want to think about doing?a major rather than a minor in that area; perhaps even a specialist.

it?s also a good idea to start thinking about career paths that you?re interested in, and then seeing how you might tailor your POSts to that career or careers. are you interested in graduate school or a professional program? does that school or program require that you have a certain undergraduate degree? these are all things to think about.

and finally: don?t spend six years on your degree. you won?t like what you?re studying by?the end of it, i promise you.

have fun enrolling in POSts all summer,

aska

heya. I have to take 1.5 credits (MAT135 and something else) in the summer to meet the 4.0 FCE requirement for subject POST enrollment. I know the courses in the summer are at a quicker pace so should I just take 1.0 credit in the summer? Can you enroll in subject POSTs during second year? What happens if you don’t get accepted in the POSTs you applied for? Thanks a bunch!

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hey there,

you have to enrol in a subject POSt once you complete 4.0 FCEs. if that happens in the 2015-16 fall/winter term, then you’ll have to wait until the next enrolment period (August-September 2016) to enrol in a POSt. if it happens in the summer, then you’ll do it in the summer.

you?can definitely take 1.0 credits in the summer to catch up. yes, they do move quickly, but they’re definitely not impossible. it’s sort of up to you to figure out if you’re up to it (though, as always, you can talk to your college registrar’s office about it if you need someone else to look at your transcript and offer an expert opinion).

if you don’t get accepted to the POSt(s) you applied for, you need to have a backup, because you *must* be in a subject POSt once you complete 4.0 credits. (just a tip: type 1 POSts are handy backups in this situation).

cheers,

aska

I was admitted to the social sciences program, does that mean i can only take classes that fall under the social science category? Or am I able to try out a class/subject that falls under humanities as well?

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hey there,

you can take ANY COURSE in the faculty of arts & science you desire, as long as you meet any listed prerequisites. crazy, right?

only thing is, some courses are restricted so that certain students are allowed to sign up for the courses first, and some courses are completely restricted to certain students.

if you look at the fall/winter 2015-2016 course calendar, courses that have these kinds of restrictions are marked with either a ‘P’ (priority) or ‘R’ (restriction). these are called ‘enrolment controls’ and you can read more about them here.

see you around in the fall, chum,

aska

Hello 🙂 I’m a firstyear LifeSci student, but I’m really interested in language/linguistics as well. I’m having a bit of trouble of figuring out how to balance the two out, though. I was wondering if I were to do a linguistics minor for this bachelor’s degree, it is possible to get another bachelor’s degree with a linguistics major & use some of the courses from my 1st degree so that I don’t have to repeat courses? Is there any way for me to use courses from a previous degree at all? Thanks!

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hey there,

i get it;?you’re young. all your bones don’t yet ache. your life is stretching out ahead of you and you’re thinking, “yeah! two bachelor’s degrees sounds?totally reasonable!” and yes, some people have a change of heart at the end of their first undergrad and decide to do a second, and more power to them.

however, there is a way to do life sci and linguistics without having to spend eight years at this school. and THAT is the path an old codger like ME would recommend. consider the magic of: a double major.

i don’t know what life sci program in particular you’re looking at, but most majors require 7 or 8 credits. linguistics requires 7.0 FCEs. that means that you only need to complete 15.0 FCEs max to finish a double major in linguistics and something else – and that’s likely including a whole bunch of first-year courses i’m guessing you took this past year (i’m thinking CHM138+9, BIO120+130, MAT135+6, etc.).

i don’t know your exact situation, so it may not be possible for you to do the double major, but i would look into it. even if you had to take a fifth year to complete both majors, that would be more efficient, time- and money-wise, than doing two bachelor’s degrees.

technically, you?could do a minor in linguistics in your first degree and a major in a?second degree, as long as you weren’t graduating with the same degree both times (i.e. a bachelor in arts and a bachelor in arts, or a bachelor in science and a bachelor in science) (see “Admission of External Students to a Second Degree Program“).

however, it would be a lot easier to do the minor, graduate, and then come back as a special student and just pick up the 3.0 additional FCEs you’d need to complete the linguistics major.

FINALLY, one more caveat to all this second degree and special student stuff: these are the rules as they stand NOW, but they could change in the three years it’ll take you to graduate, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

i know that’s a lot to consider.?if you need more help, please feel free to book an appointment with your college registrar’s office, ’cause they’re super helpful with this kinda stuff.

xoxo,

aska

Hi,

Would it be possible to enroll in a category 3 subject post (Ethics Society and Law) after second year? The web site says it will be determined by a case-by-case basis but what do you think my chance are like? This may be really broad and subjective, but thought i’d just throw it out there.

Thanks!

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hey there,

it all depends on whether you’ve met (and how much you’ve exceeded) the?requirements. unfortunately, as i don’t know 1) what your transcript looks like and 2) i’m not on the admissions committee for this major, i can’t really give you a great idea of your chances of getting in.

what you can do is?contact the program director at?jduncan ( at ) trinity ( . ) utoronto ( . ) ca. he’ll?likely have more information about your chances of getting in at this stage, or he’ll be able to pass you onto the person who does.

sorry i don’t know more, my friend, but i don’t want to discourage/encourage you falsely, you know? aska only deals in straight-up truths. good luck with your application!

cheers,

aska

Is it possible to take a specialized program and still do a minor? Thanks!! 🙂

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hey there,

if you do a specialist, you’re not required to take on another subject POSt. however, if you?want to do a minor, then no one’s gonna stop you.

i mean, it might be difficult, but hey, if you can pull it off – knock yourself out.

xoxo,

aska

welcome to the first ever SUBJECT POST SPOTLIGHT! are you excited? i’m excited. do you have no idea what this is? shame on you. (but you can go here to read an introduction).

the first ever subject POSt spotlight will be about a program i didn’t even know we had: bioethics.

sounds cool! …what is it?

bioethics is a specialist, major and minor program offered by the department of philosophy at uoft. the major and minors go well with another life science or philosophy subject POSt, or you can choose to specialize in bioethics. uoft philosophy also recommends the cognitive science and the history and philosophy of science and technology programs as nice complements to any philosophy POSt.

what kind of degree do i get with this program?

though it has both the words ‘bio’ and ‘ethics’ in it, bioethics is an arts program, and you’ll generally be taking more philosophy courses than biology courses. if you were to take a bioethics specialist, you would graduate with a B.A.

so, what can i do with this kind of degree?

according to the department of philosophy at uoft, “[p]hilosophers in the area of applied ethics, such as biomedical ethics, often find careers as clinical ethics consultants in hospitals and health care centres.”

you can check out the kinds of jobs that are available now for bioethics grads?here, here and here.

clinical ethicists are usually expected to have a master’s or PhD in their field, but if you’re ready to commit to a few more years in university and you’re really interested in the idea of studying bioethics, then this might be for you.

until next time,

aska

could you tell me more about the Munk School of Global Affairs? I have been accepted into U of T for a different program but I was looking at the Munk programs and they sound perfect for me. I’m a little confused as to what the munk school means. Would i still be part of the faculty of Arts and Sciences?

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hey there,

that’s a pretty good question, and i’m not surprised you’re confused.?we’ve got a lot of programs, schools, faculties etc. at this university, and it’s easy to get lost in them.

so, let me try to break this down in a way that makes sense.

munk?is an entity which does a lot of things: it?does research, it has a graduate program, it puts on events, etc. one of the things it happens to do is house a?number of undergraduate programs in the faculty of arts & science (or FAS).

those POSts are just as much a part of the faculty of arts & science as any other POSt. in fact, every POSt is hosted somewhere, by something, in a department or program office somewhere. the munk school of global affairs is that place for the munk programs.

that fact?doesn’t affect you as an undergrad in any significant way academically. it will affect you in that?that you’ll be hit by a pretty unpleasant wind tunnel along bloor every time you go to visit a departmental advisor. also, you’ll have access to a lot of cool?opportunities which i highly recommend you check out.

excited yet? good. so when the time comes for you to choose your subject POSt(s) after first year, as long as you’ve completed any required prerequisites, you’ll be just as eligible to apply to a munk POSt as any other shmo in the?FAS.

good luck with it, eh?

aska

my favourite time of year is almost upon us. no, i’m not talking about christmas. and no, i’m not talking about bath day, or go-home-and-let-your-mom-do-all-your-laundry day (although that day is pretty FREAKING GREAT).

i’m talking about SUBJECT POST ENROLMENT TIME! this is one of the most exciting times of the year for first years (and sometimes even for second years…and third years…). i would argue that it’s the MOST exciting for people who haven’t totally decided what they want to do. maybe you have a general idea, but you’re not exactly sure what you want. or maybe you don’t have any idea what’s out there.

if you’re feeling CONFUSED and BAFFLED by the whole thing, then this is the perfect opportunity to explore all the wonderful options that are out there for you!

to get you started, aska will be doing a series called?’subject POSt spotlights,’ where i’ll be talking about programs at uoft that maybe aren’t as well known – but might be exactly what you (yes, YOU) are looking for. these spotlights will be leading up to the subject POSt enrolment date, which starts on april 1st.

this is not a decision to make lightly. so i want you to read up, start thinking, and then you can make an INFORMED CHOICE?about what you want to study that won’t leave you feeling awful when you graduate?because you wasted four years and $30k on a degree you don’t actually care about.

so when will these spotlight posts be going up, aska??? well, i can’t commit to a schedule because i’m a child, so they’ll probably be coming out sporadically a couple times a week. if you want to keep track of when they get posted, feel free to follow aska on twitter/tumblr/facebook.

see you around,

aska

Dear Aska,

I’m a student half way through my 3rd year. I’m currently working towards a double major in Archaeology and Classical Civilizations with a minor in Art History. I’ve done summer semester for the last 2 years as well in order to keep my workload down to 4 classes/semester (fall/winter) and have everything planned on the ROSI degree planner through the end of my degree. The thing is, I really really would rather up my course load and get a triple major, as I really do love all of these subjects equally and each one is beneficial to my career/ academic aspirations. I’m just not sure how to go about trying for this. Is this possible at all? Do I petition my registrar? I was hoping you could point me in the right direction.

Thank you so much,

~ Tripledown

P.S. I’m really hoping for a response chock-full of great links and funny gifs.

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hey there Tripledown,

the faculty of arts and science is pretty explicit about not letting people do more than 2 majors/specialists. however, since they’re the ones who make the rules, they’d be the ones who could make an exception, if at all possible. i’d start off by calling them and asking.

i wouldn’t get my hopes up, but it’s always worth it to ask. also, if it’s just about really, really loving the programs, you can always take the courses required for an art history major, without actually having the ‘major’ designation on your transcript.

cheers,

aska

P.S. here’s one of my favourite gifs, completely complementary, just because you asked so nicely: