FAQ

scroll down, and read about the question that applies to your current situation/crisis/information you want to fill your brain with instead of microeconomics or emma or the many different kinds of geography that exist that i never knew existed.

now if you don’t find anything that tickles your fancy here shoot us an email and we’ll hook you up with answer! as we all know, askstudent sits in a cave in the center of piles upon piles of resource books and has some of the administrators from the university tied to wall for the answers to all your inquisitive inquiries.

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Q: why do we have to rank colleges?! other universities don’t make me do that…

A: that’s because other universities aren’t as totally awesome as U of T. that’s right.

let’s start small.

what is a college? Well, put simply, it’s the place where all your records are kept, where you go for any advising, where you can come in crying after an exam, and where you find some community (granted, you can find this in a ton of other places).

now fine, this might sound like something you don’t care about, but let me tell you, when you’re waiting two weeks for an appointment with an adviser at UC, you’ll wish that you picked something tinier like innis. And when you’re walking through new college with a face of “meh,” wishing for something a little more aesthetically-pleasing, you’ll wish you picked something along the lines of trinity.

get it? colleges have personality.

so why do you have to rank colleges? to get into the one you like! And then if choice one doesn’t work, you’ll probably be put into choice two. Probably.

and how do you choose your order of ranking? Well, for starters, take a look at the many, many, maaaaaany archived posts on them. but do your own research, too! take some tours, do a little reading, yada yada yada. But if you’re stiiiiiiiiiill confused, feel free to just send me an email.

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Q: i’m poor and am considering taking a post beside that friendly bum outside of timmies at spadina and college. 🙁

A: let’s try not to be so melodramatic here, you have multiple options after begging your parents for money.

1) for those lucky students that get the privilege of thousands of dollars of debt via OSAP you get the perk of work-study Positions. these positions are 6 – 12 hours a week, perfect for those exceptionally studious or alcoholic students. check it here.

2) if you’re not on OSAP, don’t turn to the street corners just yet. the Career Center had many job postings for every variety of person (this is not a promotion *cough cough*) but seriously– check it out.

3) FREE MONEY – check out student awards/ scholarships. there’s a chance that your 1/5 irish background can get you some money money mooooney.

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Q: what the heck are “subject POSts”?

A: Definitely a frequently asked question.

POSt = Program(s) Of Study.

see what u of t did there? clever, i know.

your POSts are your specialist/major/minor that you devote all your time and your entire soul to. there’s a crap load of programs to pick from to build your degree combo, so feel free to mix and match (as long as you stay within the realm of the faculty)!

a major in medieval studies with minors in religion and finnish? go for it!

a specialist in biomedical toxicology with an unnecessary but still fulfilling minor in writing and rhetoric? totes doable!

a double major in genome biology and art history? h*eck yeah!

get my point?

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Q: how do I possibly choose a course?

A: there are many ways to choose a course and multiple things to consider (yeah I know, you wanted me to say we had a sorting hat down at the registrar’s office that tell you which one your ‘chosen’ to be in), but i think these resources are cool beans.

1) check the course calendar to see the description of the course and their awesome course titles. Here

2) check the website of the department, they might have additional information. I KNOW that the english dept website, for example, provides you with a TON of info.

3) check out the background of your professor to be. NO i don’t mean that you should get a police check or whatever, but here. read the comments, check the ratings and find one that works well with your personality (note: this is not promoting prof/student relationships).

4) check out course finder, in all its blue and white glory. it’ll help you narrow things down by subject, requirement fulfillment business, semester it’s offered in, etc.

mix all the ingredients together, throw in a pinch of studying and coffee, eat the red apple and survive the course.

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Q: SEX.

A: okay clearly ‘SEX’ isn’t a question, but five bucks says you came to this question first. so here we have it, use protection. if you can’t get your PSY100 assignments in on time you shouldn’t be having babies anytime soon. don’t use that pile of condoms you get in Frosh week, people find it funny to poke holes in them and watch all the newly cherry popped victims run for plan b.

visit your local sex (eduction) center. they have 16 different condoms, lube, gloves and dental dams and can order them all in bulk … yippie!

now, if you have a strange itch down below or you’ve just realized that it’s cheaper to go on birth control than take the morning after pill, visit the health services center

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Q: i’m in first year and I failed/got a 50/60! Are my dreams of going to law school/med school/grad school just totally destroyed? have I ruined everything?!

A: nooo, no you have not ruined everything.

as you’ll probably learn from your academic adviser, these sorts of post-secondary schools really look at/focus on your third and fourth year.