• choosing,  courses,  first year,  sociology

    need help double major in soc and psych

    July 5, 2010

    i recently have been accepted to UofT st.George and i am preeety confused with the course selections could you please help me and tell me what courses are mandatory for me to take for this to happen

    ———————————————

    According to the 2010 Calendar (my super BFF), to enroll in the Psychology major, students must have a senior year high school Calc course or equivalent, 4 university classes in whatever, and received at least 70% in PSY 100H1. (Plus a GPA of 2.5 or higher.)

    To enroll in the Sociology major, there are two sexy options which I shall detail.

    Option 1! (the one that applies to you!)

    1. Minimum grade of 65% in SOC 101y, or average of 65% in SOC102/103H1.

    2. 3 full course in whatever (not only SOC.)

    Option 2! (ignore this option as it doesn’t apply to you)

    1. Mark of 72% in two 300 level SOC classes.

    2. GPA of 3.0 (73-76%)

    3. 3 additional credits in whatever.

    Therefore young first year, you should take PSY 100H1 and either SOC101Y or SOC 102/103H in your first year of study. If you’re going full time, you have one to three classes more of your choice.

    Additional helpful sites:

    Psychology For First Years

    Sociology For First Years

    Justin Bieber’s Twitter Account

    Hope that helps.

    xoxo, askastudent

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  • courses,  first year

    how many classes should i take?

    July 5, 2010

    This is my second email, I have sent you an exact some one last month. I assumed you were too busy with something else then maybe you forgot to read this one. And there’s my question.

    Hi, I am now looking through the 2010-2011 Faculty of Arts and Science Calendar and am trying to figure out what courses I am going to take in my first year. However, I don’t know how many courses I should take and wonder if I can handle all of them. So, my question is, what’s the average amount of classes taken per year of a regular U of T student?

    ????????????????

    Hi, pal. An apology to all aska-readers, due to the end of the school year and a changeover in position, I am officially the sexy new kid in town in the form of a grizzled old alum. So feel free to ask away, and your questions shall be returned promptly from now on.

    A full-time courseload is no more than 5 full-year credits. I think that is enough. Any less than three and you are considered “part-time”, which affects your fees and your student union. Seriously though – no matter how keen you feel you are, five credits is more than enough to take on in first year. You can always drop and add courses as you like (look at the registration dates in the timetable!), so think about your workload, additional commitments and the stress involving all the first year changes you’ll experience (moving to Toronto, making new friends, hair in places you’ve never had before). All the college registrars will have a point of contact for first years. But you know yourself better than anyone else. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Or you know, you’ll have to try and swallow it.

    xoxo, askastudent

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  • arts & sciences,  courses,  subject POST,  trinity college

    switching from engsci to IR with first year credits to spare

    July 5, 2010

    Hi Aska,

    I have just been accepted to UTSG, Faculty of Arts and Science. For the past two years, I was an Engineering student at U of T. The Transfer Credit office granted me 4.0 credits for 100 levels, and 0.5 for 200 level. How exactly does “no more than 6 100Y courses” mean? I plan to do a major in International Relations and another major in something else. Would a programme admission consider an Extra for programme requirements?

    ———————————————

    Basically in your 20-credit life as an arts/sci undergraduate at the University of Toronto, here are the rules to live by: no more than six 100 Y credits, at least six 300 + courses, with no more than 15 classes with the same program title (ENG, INI, etc.). There’s also some junk about breadth requirements and stuff that’s gets a little tricky when it comes to Specialists and Majors, but it’s all detailed on pg. 23 of your Calendar.

    You can, of course, do more than 6 100 classes, which given your switchover from Engineering to International Relations might be necessary if you haven’t fulfilled the first year introductory courses for the program. (These look to be either ECO 100/105, HIS 103 or of TRN 150/151 or two of VIC 181H/183H/184H/185H, an introductory language class or MAT133Y/137.) And we’re not even talking about your mysterious second major!

    You can take as many first year classes as you want, but only six are going to be counted towards your degree and your program. In the interest of completing your degree before you are 40, and not spending more money than you have to, I’d recommend meeting with your college registrar to advise you on picking the best classes for your program. You can contact the International Relations department here. Tell them do something about that stupid G20 ridiculousness we just endured, will ya?

    xoxo, Askastudent

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  • courses,  subject POST

    whatever happened to interdisciplinarity

    March 10, 2010

    Hi —

    I’ve read somewhere (can’t find the page again to clarify this) that you cannot take more than 15 credits with the same 3 letter designator. ENG, HPS, SOC, etc. What happens if you do? Does your 16th credit not count toward your program requirements, or does the extra course not count toward your GPA?

    Thanks

    ———————————————

    This is a little bit of a fishy issue. My registrar says that you CAN actually take the 16th credit, and it will not be counted as Extra Credit – so it will still count towards your GPA. What it will not count toward is the? 20-credit requirement that you need to fulfill to graduate. What this means is that, should you elect to take a 16th credit in, say, Sociology, you would need to have at least 21 credits when you graduate; you’d need to take 5 credits from departments other than Sociology to fulfill the 20-credit requirement.

    Hope this helps.

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  • architecture,  art,  courses,  victoria

    make your decisions without considering stereotypes

    February 16, 2010

    Heyo aska,

    I’ve just applied for the Frye stream at Vic One and am wondering if the whole affair is actually worthwhile/fantastic vs. pretentious. I’m quite sure it will be at least a little pretentious, but the small class sizes and interesting seminars could make it absolutely marvellous. What is the general reception towards the program at U of T? Is there a “Vic One is smelly” stigma attached to it?

    Also, I’m hoping to keep my options for my major at least a little flexible. I hope to do a double major in Art History/to be decided…And have recently become interested in perhaps doing some intro architecture courses in my first year. Otherwise, I would be leaning towards human geography or history. Something along the lines of urban theory… So I guess the question is, if I take Vic One will some of these options be totally thrown out the window in exchange for a survey of Baudellaire and Derrida?

    Thanks a bunch.

    Your website is pretty much the bomb.

    —————————————

    Let me tell you right now that the affair won’t be worthwhile – not with that attitude.

    One thing I think you really have to train yourself to do is to detach yourself from the stigmas attached to your program(s). For instance, I’m in physics, and I’m sure that when I tell other people what program I’m in, a lot of them automatically label me geek or nerd (or whatever). Stereotypes like these really annoy me – sometimes, they make me question my decisions. But I do my best to ignore them, because I feel that studying physics, personally, a worthwhile pursuit.

    You have to decide yourself whether or not Vic One is personally worthwhile for you. Try hard to ignore the stereotypes (whether real or imagined). If you’re already starting to stereotype Vic One as being smelly/pretentious, there’s a good chance that you won’t enjoy the program at all. But if you instead look at Vic One as a unique opportunity to learn in a multidisciplinary environment, you may find that you enjoy it.

    A major program in Art History only requires 6 full course equivalents, and you only need a half-course in first year. For Architecture, you only need two half-courses (one credit). Even if you factor in your other distribution requirements (one science credit and one social science credit), that’s still only 3.5 credits. You can easily take your Vic One course, and still have another free half-credit you could use as an elective — or more, if you decide that you want to take more than 5 credits. If you’ve found that you’ve made a mistake and would like to add a major in math or something, you can always take a 100-level course in your second year.

    Another thing first-year students can feel disorienting to a lot of people because they are so huge (try sitting in a BIO151 lecture). A seminar-style course could be an opportunity to learn in a more personal setting in which the professor is able to pay a lot more attention to his/her individual students.

    That said, many students don’t take Vic One or TrinOne, and they’re still getting along just fine. So it’s not like Vic One is something that I think you MUST or DEFINITELY SHOULD do. If there’s a course that interests you more than Vic One – be it geology or Japanese or religious studies – then by all means, take that course. But I really advise you to make your decision without the influence of outside opinions/stereotypes – and most importantly, no matter what you choose, to keep an open mind.

    …so this post wasn’t funny at all, but eh… I’m running low on funny these days. In the meantime, go play this game and see if you can beat my score of 10840 (and leave a comment if you do!).

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  • courses

    stop fueling my google addiction…

    January 19, 2010

    Hi aska,

    I’m an arts and science student and I would like to get an idea of the required course work for my winter courses. In the past I have been able to google courses and somehow stumble across the course website to view the syllabus, but the switch to portal is making that less effective this year. Is there a collection of old course syllabuses somewhere?

    I just heard that if you are applying to Grad school you may need a copy of the syllabus from every course you have ever taken. This makes me think it would be beneficially to most students if ASSU or UTSC was able to get and hold onto a copy of most syllabuses. Is something like this already in effect? If not, is there any rule against this and who should I be bugging to make it happen?

    Thanks.

    ——————————-

    If there is a collection of course syllabi available somewhere, I haven?t stumbled across it, and you should know that aska spends a lot of time googling (it?s an occupational hazard… you get addicted).

    You could still try googling the course codes and adding ?Toronto? to your search or something. Some professors still prefer using websites (as upposed to portal), and you can find the old syllabi on their websites. For instance, I was looking up the syllabus for MAT257 the other day and I typed in “MAT257 Toronto” and there it was. I searched “CHM328 Toronto” and also scored a hit (there are even some past problem sets there… hint hint nudge nudge for anyone taking the course).

    Otherwise, you might try searching for the department?s website for a list of syllabi. I?ve located several old syllabi this way– for instance, here?s one for Sexual Diversity Studies.

    As for whether there is a rule against against? a site that compiles course syllabi, probably not. Perhaps you could bug ASSU ? I mean, they do the anti-calendar anyway.

    I?m like 99% sure that you don?t need to show graduate schools copies of your course syllabi. Otherwise, no one would get into grad school because as far as I know, people don’t generally keep their course syllabi… I mean, grad schools might ask you to give descriptions of courses ? but syllabi? Come on.

    If I?m wrong and keeping copies of course syllabi is indeed a secret requirement of grad school that I have never heard or read of before, you can laugh at me later when I’m applying and I l00k lyk dis: I threw out my first-year physics syllabus and it?s probably half-way around the country by now, with the used condoms and what not.

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  • courses

    wouldn’t bank my luck on “miracles” if I were you (otherwise, I’d be getting straight A’s)

    January 4, 2010

    Hi 🙂

    i was enrolled for two biology courses (one in fall and one in spring). the one in the fall is the prerequisite for the one in the spring. even though i dropped out of the fall course, i am still enrolled in the spring course on ROSI. i have to take both courses eventually so can i still take the tests and exams for the spring course even though i don’t have the prerequisite. i’ll probably be taking the fall course during the summer. i have a feeling that i will have to drop out of the spring one but by some miracle if i do well, will i get penalized for taking a course without the prerequisite?

    Thanks

    —————————————–

    This is a question best answered by someone other than the acclaimed askastudent. You should go and email/call the undergraduate administrator of the department that hosts your biology course ? whether it?s cell and systems biology, ecology and evolutionary biology, biochemistry, or whatever it is (or even better, VISIT and go talk to the undergraduate advisor!) ? and ask for permission to take the course. Otherwise, you?re essentially gambling, and the stakes are high. The department has the right to remove you from the course at any time during the semester, and without warning. You would not want to come home one day and find a nasty surprise waiting for you on ROSI.

    Considering that you dropped the fall course, though, I would generally advise you not to take the spring course. Since the fall course was a prerequisite of the spring one, it probably builds on the material that you would?ve learned during the fall course. But I would like to emphasize that you should contact the department. If they DO let you take the course, then there would not be any academic penalty imposed upon you. In the event that they don?t end up letting you take the course though, remember that they may have a good reason.

    In my (not-as-important-as-the-department?s) opinion, you ?have a feeling that you?re going to drop out of the spring one?, so I would advise you to just enroll in another course that you?re interested in, for the sake your time and money. I know you’re afraid of falling behind, but if you’re removed from the spring course without notice, you could fall even more behind. But go and get your fingers warmed up and your tongue wet, cause you have some typin’ n’ talkin’ to be doin’.

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  • courses,  new kids,  TAs,  tutorials

    Two Toe Rye Al.

    August 12, 2009

    With each course that I want to take comes a tutorial. Now I’m reading about them but it’s just not clicking. Are they classes (after the lecture) that further the students understanding of the lecture?

    ———————————————

    Every time I send a new question, I think of a new one! So this one is:

    I understand that beside courses it says [_L] and [_T]
    But under Vic college, I’m looking at a bunch of humanities courses and instead of L and T it says [_S] [_P]

    So whats S and P?

    Two questions. Same student. Same day. Normally I wouldn’t indulge such a desperate plea for aska’s attention. BUT, your first question is irresistibly basic – yet important, and I actually didn’t know the answer to the second. So, here goes…

    “With each course… comes a tutorial.” In my head I read that like a cheesy, white, male voice actor excitedly announcing on an infomercial. Like a tutorial is some sort of bonus if you “enroll within the next 30 minutes!!” I’ve never heard a tutorial sound more exciting! With that attitude, I suspect you will do quite well in school, my dear.

    So, what IS a tutorial?? To an upper-year student this question is almost amusingly obvious – but then I realized… I had NO IDEA what they were when I came to U of T. In fact, I think I was scared of them ( “Will I have to speak…. out loud?!”). A great question, asker.

    A tutorial can takes many different forms, but is more or less “a class.”

    A tutorial intends to supplement the lecture material. It may be a re-iteration of the Prof’s discussion. It may be an in-depth debriefing of required readings. It is always a chance to seek clarification.

    A tutorial is facilitated by a T.A. (teaching assistant), who is more often than not a grad student. If you have an undergrad as a T.A. you know that they are either a) a big deal, or b) so far up the Prof’s @#% that you don’t know where one ends and the other begins. In upper years, it’s not uncommon for the Profs themselves to conduct the tutorial.

    A tutorial may require passive or active participation. The T.A. might give a mini-lecture while you sit, write, and ask questions. The T.A. might facilitate a dialogue between the students. The T.A. may also administer quizzes. It is really common for students to have to prepare a five-minute presentation or lead a group discussion as well.

    A tutorial is smaller than the general class. 15-30 students is the usual range.

    A tutorial is almost always 1-hour long.

    A tutorial may be enrolled in on ROSI, or be signed up for in the first week of class. Once the Prof announces, “Okay, come to the front and sign up for your tutorial” – your bland, sterile, Sid Smith classroom will transform into a warm summer’s morning on the cobbled streets of Pamplona. Except the bull horn that trails inches from your thoracic vertebra is actually the ballpoint pen of a Polish girl who commutes daily from Mississauga.

    A tutorial is usually mandatory. That is to say, they take attendance for 5% of your grade. If no grade is assigned you should still go. That’s right… should. But I’ll leave the guilt trip up to your own superego. Besides the obvious, one benefit of going is that your T.A. will begin to recognize you, and dare I say like you. Don’t tell me that won’t help when they come across your essay at the bottom of a pile of 200. A second plus is that you can meet friends in tutorials. It happens all the time, I swear. A tutorial is just small, conversational and informal enough to lay the foundation for some lasting bondage.

    A tutorial is almost never held in the first week of class, especially if the timeslot precedes the lecture (don’t go, no one will be there).

    A tutorial may occur weekly, or less frequently. The total tutorial hours are indicated in the Calendar Listing.

    E.g. HIS104Y1 -Ten Days That Shook The World [48L, 24T] (pg. 262). The “24T” means that there are 24 tutorial hours across both Fall and Winter terms. This is approximately once per week.

    That was THE perfect segue, to answering your next question.

    [__S] = Seminar: essentially a hybrid of lecture and tutorial. It will be a smaller class with the expectation that you speak now and then. Like high school. With less melodrama. Probably.

    [__P] = Practical, aka laboratory, aka lab. In first year, these are usually held every other week.

    P.s. Speaking of Salt and Pepper. Did you hear that all of a sudden salt is healthy for us now?! What’s next, poutine and cigarettes?!?

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  • art,  courses,  first year,  important dates,  ROSI,  wait list

    Wait watchers.

    August 4, 2009

    Hi aska!
    i just enrolled in courses today, and i am waitlisted for art history second term. what are the chances of my actually getting in? Or, should i switch around my courses now, cuz there is a different course i would like to take in the fall term if (FAH is winter) i cant get in. thanks!!!

    ———————————————

    Tis true. FAH102H1-S: The Practice of Art History is full. Quite full. There are currently 106 students on the waitlist, beyond the 188 spaces in the class.

     

    Your chances of getting in are dependent on a few things: a) your karma, and b) where you are on that wait list. A general rule of thumb is that if your waitlist ranking is within 10% of the total enrollment capacity then your chances are okay. “Okay” is situated somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of chances; above bad, and below pretty good. Okay is close friends with “decent.” A.k.a. – you have a chance.

     

    So, if you are waitlisted, like, 100th – I hate to break it to you – but you probably ain’t getting in.

    What should you do now? There are several possible courses of action:

     

    a) Drop the course and add something else that has room; OR

     

    b) wait until 6:00am on August 7th (when your course load limit increases to 6.0) and add an additional course as a backup in case you never get in to FAH102; OR

     

    c) wait until the waitlist is removed (on January 3rd), and try to grab a spot that opens up. You have until January 10th to add courses. This will require you to be obnoxiously persistent in checking ROSI to see if a spot becomes available. Depending on how much of a life you have, I would check it at least 5 times per day (I am a ROSI junkie, mind you). This is only a 7 day window… that is not a lot of time. Do not get your hopes up about this option. Also, think about attending this class in the first week, so that you aren’t behind if you do eventually get enrolled.

     

    I did some snooping in the archives of ROSI, and it turns out that last year FAH102 offered two meeting sections with capacity of 188 – neither of which was full, but the net enrollment was 275. This year there is a single meeting section that accommodates 188 students. I also noticed that FAH102 was offered in the summer of 2007 and 2008, but not this past summer.

     

    So, Art History, why offer half of the spaces in a course that obviously has a greater demand?? Beats me. This bizarre/frustrating observation suggests one of two things. One, that Art History is sick of first-year students, and is trying to wean them off; or two, Art History is struggling to staff that course. Perhaps an issue of limited social or economic capital?

     

    In any case, I concur with what you are all thinking right now – it is super annoying.

     

    Now I did a Minor in Art History, and I have taken FAH102, so let me give you some advice, from the school of hard knocks. I can’t believe I just said that. If you are NOT enrolled in FAH102 this year, consider these two things:

     

    a) In all likelihood, you WILL be able to take this course next summer, when enrollment never meets capacity.

     

    b) You can always take this course in an upper-year, when you will have an earlier course enrollment start date, and therefore will stand a better chance of getting in. This works because you will find that none of the upper-year FAH courses actually list FAH102 as a pre-requisite. Sure the content of 102 may be useful preparation for 200-levels courses, but it is far from mandatory.

     

    c) Based on this, you could go ahead and enroll in a 200-level FAH course in your first year. They have “P” enrollment indicators, which means that you will be eligible to enroll on August 7th (at 6:00am SHARP). Let me give you a breakdown of these potentials…

     

    Although you might not ever be able to spell/fit her name on your test booklet, Prof. Katsougiannopoulou is a lovely lady who is teaching FAH207: Greek & Roman Art/Architecture. FAH246: Modernism is a little heavy for first-year, unless you have a good modern art background and/or interest. I’m totally biased, but I found FAH272: Modern Architecture to be a blast, and VERY doable in your first-year. FAH230: Renaissance Art/Arch is somewhere in between. The content is straightforward, but a little dry – depending on how much you can handle starting at triptychs of “virgin and child.” Annnd… I’ve never taken the Later Medieval Art course. Did they even create art in the Dark Ages? Watching The Sword in the Stone will probably suffice for knowledge on that time period, anyway. Ah ah ah Merlin! (If you got that reference you are a loser, and I love you).

     

    Should you (wo)man up, and take a 200-level course, I suggest limiting yourself to one per semester. They ARE 200-level so they will jump into things quicker. But, as I said, there is no reason why you can’t do well in these courses in your first-year.

    Think about what a breeze FAH102 will be when you finally take it in 4th year! Such a treat!! It’ll be like finding a curly fry in your regular fries from Arby’s.

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  • anti-calendar,  ASSU,  courses,  geography,  religion

    Aunt Eye Cal End Hair.

    June 8, 2009

    I am having the hard time in choosing the courses. I’d like to know the course load of the following courses:
    RLG100Y1Y
    GGR124

    Thanks.

     

    Another school year has passed us by, and another round of course enrollment looms in the not-so-distant future. With a new cohort of students entering of U of T, I am morally obliged to advertise the “Anti-Calendar.” Proudly presented by the Arts & Science Students Union (ASSU), this document presents a synthesis of course evaluations that students fill out at the end of term. While the info may not always be transferrable to subsequent courses (e.g. there’s a new Prof), the Anti-Calendar is still one of the most useful resources for course selection, and/or mindless time consumption. Aska shamelessly refers to it like a broken record.

     

    The 2008-9 version will be available in mid-June online and in tangible form at the ASSU office.

    In the meantime, I will rely on the 2007-8 edition in the hopes that you readers will chip in … a lot.

     

    Before I begin let me just say… If you are a new student, which it sounds like you are, then I wouldn’t base my course selection solely on work load. Sure some course combinations yield a hellish course load, but very few are heaven-ish. And even if you could take the Sun & its Neighbours’ 5 times simultaneously, where would that leave you?

     

    May I suggest considering…

    a) pre-requisites for subject POSts that you might want in the future;

    b) distribution requirements;

    c) courses of pure interest (I’m convinced everyone likes at least one thing); and

    d) first-year seminars.

     

    According to the Anti-Calendar, from 2 years ago, RLG100 was interesting and not too tough (woo), but the tutorials are supposedly not great (boo). One Prof seems enthusiastic and fun, and the other seems enthusiastic and approachable. Students indicated that the workload was about 4.25 out of 7. So, like, average.

     

    The Anti-Calendar indicated that GGR124 had a marginally lower workload. The Profs were reported to be… guess what?… enthusiastic. Apparently the powerpoints aren’t posted online, which is totally irritating. I guess you’ll HAVE to go to class.

     

    A second useful resource, when selecting courses, is the exams and course collections database (search by department… it’s easier). PDFs of many past exams and syllabi are accessible here. Calm down, most Profs are not lazy enough to repeat the same exam two years in a row, BUT reading previous exams gives you a great idea of the course content. And yes, I said the word “syllabi.” Plural for syllabus, it is a pretentious word for course “outline” (oh, how banal!). Get used to it. Again there are no guarantees that these details (e.g. description, lecture topics, modes of examination) will remain the same from year-to-year, but they will probably be really similar.

     

    On a side note, syllabi are like “contracts” between the student and Prof. So, if the Prof ever changes assignment weightings or late penalties without consulting the class you totally have a leg to stand on when appealing to them.

     

    And that’s all I have to say about those two courses that I have never taken. Any help from out there?!?

     

    P.s. Both courses had non-multiple choice exams. So, you’re on the right track so far.

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  • bad times,  courses,  grades,  registration

    acting your get together

    May 8, 2009

    I’ve had a rough two years in terms of personal life and only passed 2.5 credits in my first year. Now, in my second year, problems at home have continued to build up and stress me out. I tried taking a lighter course load this year but it was still too much. I dropped my last course of the school year in time for the S-course drop date. Now that I have no credits for this year, will I be able to take courses in the summer and fall?

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  • courses,  weirdness

    salem revisited

    March 16, 2009

    Is it true that 300 and 400-series courses are easier to do well in than 100 or 200-series ones? Because my registrar told me in 1st year that courses are more difficult in higher levels! Thanks!

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