• psychology

    this person gets a gold star forreal

    April 14, 2016

    Hey Aska,

    I know this is the umpteenth time you’re getting a psych question, but I’ve searched all the tags and haven’t found what I’m looking for so here it goes:

    I’m planning on switching to a psychology minor this summer while I’m going into my 4th year. I’ve completed one major already and 75% done of my second major, so I think I’ll be okay adding this in rn. I’m taking psy100 first sem in summer, then hoping to take two other psy courses (psy240,270) in the second summer sem *praying I get all credits* so that I can apply for the minor in the second request period of the summer. The only problem is, I don’t remember if I fulfill the calculus prereq. requirement just because I graduated nearly 3 years ago from high school and don’t remember what I took in gr.11/12. I do know for sure I took senior math in both gr.11/12, but can’t remember which ones I got the credits for: calc, advanced functions, or data management [?]   Can I ask the psych department to check if I fulfill the calc requirement, and if not I know I can go back to tdsb and get night/summer school for the calc, but the deadline for registration for that is coming up so what do you suggest? I just need to know if I meet the calc requirement cause I myself am not sure lol.

    thanksabunch.

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    hey there,

    first of all, you’re awesome for checking the tags. and kudos for asking a psych question that’s brand new. you’re the reason i wake up and continue to go to work every day with a smile on my face, despite the fact that my bed frame is now officially broken and i no longer own any tights without holes in them.

    the easiest thing to do in this situation, of course, is to look back at your high school transcripts and see what you took. i assume, however, that you threw away those precious documents and now don’t have access to them. that’s why i keep all my documentation for an absurdly long amount of time. i still have my grade 11 chemistry notes. i have a file on my computer for every class i’ve ever taken in university. yes, i realize i’m an e-hoarder. fight me.

    i don’t know how exactly the psychology department goes about checking how people fulfil requirements, so unfortunately i can’t give you specific directions. asking them if they can take a look for you is a good start, though. they may direct you to enrolment services, which likely has your high school transcript or some kind of academic record on file. may as well start with the department itself, though.

    also, regardless of whether you have the prerequisite or not, it may not be a bad idea to review your calculus over the summer. if you can’t even remember taking the class, maybe you need a refresher on the material.

    best of luck!

    aska

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  • second degree

    degree numero duo

    April 13, 2016

    Hi there,

    I am alumni at U of T (having completed a BA in political science specialist). I am wanting to return to complete a BSc in psychology and human biology. I have already completed the petition to A&S. I was just wondering if you knew anything about success rates or if they are prone to not letting students come back and, if so, for what reasons?

    Thanks.

    ———————————————

    Hey Aska,

    I submitted a petition to return to complete a second degree (BSc – right now I hold a BA) almost a month ago. I called A&S and they said Woodsworth would let me know. I called Woodsworth and they said A&S is handling it. So, seems like neither is handling it? Do you know how long it will take to hear back about the petition and what the success rate is? My GPA in my BA wasn’t fantastic but I also now have no clue how or when I will hear back as I can’t seem to get an answer.

    Help! Lost, frustrated and entirely confused!

    Thanks!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    well, seeing as this answer is obscenely late (how did a month go by so fast?) i’m hoping that you’ve heard back from them at this point. if you haven’t, i would call the office of the registrar at the faculty of arts & science, let them know you’d like an answer, and tell them woodsworth isn’t giving you one. somebody should be able to let you know when you can expect to hear back from them.

    i honestly don’t know the success rate for second degree petitions. lots of people are ineligible because they want the same degree (e.g. another B.A. when they already have a B.A. from uoft), so that’s not an issue for you. i imagine that if you didn’t do terribly in your first degree (no academic probations, suspension, that kind of thing), then you should be eligible, but i honestly don’t know what the rates of success are.

    definitely keep in touch with the office of the registrar at arts & science, as well as the registrar’s office at woodsworth until they can give you an ETA.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • admissions

    $20 for palm reading

    April 13, 2016

    I’m in my first year, and looking to transfer from UTSC to UTSG. However, I failed one of my courses :'( and right now my GPA is probably around 3.36 ish. Is there a possibility I can still get in? Do they look individually at each course or collectively?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    i would say there is still a possibility. a 3.36 is a B+, which is above the minimum mark you need to be competitive if you’re transferring from another university. there is no explicit minimum CGPA for an internal transfer, but given the standard applied to external transfers, i’d say that’s a competitive CGPA.

    as for how they assess your marks, the main considerations are CGPA and program prerequisites. if the course you failed is a prerequisite for the program you applied to, that may present a problem. if it’s a course that will be largely irrelevant to the program you’ve applied to and the rest of your transcript looks pretty good, then i’d say your chances are much better. like, if you failed first-year econ and got 80s in your French courses and you’re transferring to French, admissions is more likely to downplay the importance of the econ course.

    as always, i’m not involved in the admissions process, so all of this is based on careful reading of uoft websites and what i’ve picked up over the years. there are many factors that go into deciding whether or not to admit someone, and you may receive a decision that contravenes what i’ve said in this post. except it won’t be contravening it, because of this disclaimer: i am not a 100% accurate predictor of admissions decisions. i’m more like a fortune teller with a neon sign who works on yonge street: lots of practice means i will sometimes get things right, but not always.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • summer

    you usually need to go to some class to pass

    April 13, 2016

    hey aska!question about summer school hoping u couid answer. UTMstudent thinking about changing programs to DEMprogram. In order to get into the program i need to take cct109,110 was considering taking it in summer school, but I recently accpected a good paying summer job and they said i could have 1hr a week to go to class. Long story short do u think i could do well in the class going to 1 hr of lecture a week? wanna take the class but but also need the money& dont want to fall1yr behind.HELP!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    no, that’s not a good idea. CCT109 and CCT110 both have 5 hours of class per week in the summer (4 hours of lecture and one hour of tutorial, each). that’s ten hours of class altogether, not to mention the time outside of class you’ll need to spend doing readings and assignments. if you only attend 1 hour of class per week, you’re only going to 10% of your classes.

    i’m not going to tell you what to do, but you’d be risking failing those courses if you decided to only go to one hour of class a week. if you really want to do them over the summer, it may be a good idea to seek other, more flexible, part-time employment.

    best,

    aska

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  • admissions

    look down

    April 13, 2016

    Hi, I recently got a conditional offer to st George u of t social sciences. The condition was have a 75% overall average at the end of June, and a 75 in English. We have a report card coming out in mid April and I was wondering if my marks dropped by then, will I lose my offer? Or do they wait to see my final June report card so I can increase my marks??

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    i don’t usually do this, but my answer to this question would be literally identical to the one i just answered, so: see my previous post. thanks!

    aska

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  • admissions

    even the potential for rejection is too much

    April 12, 2016

    So i received a conditional offer from utsc YASSS but they explicitly stated they want 4.0, so an A in the letter. Am i going to get my offer revoked if I got B or B+? (somewhere at 3.5) :”(

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    your use of GPAs instead of percentages is really throwing me off. do you go to a really fancy high school that uses GPAs instead of percentages? is uoft just using its own GPA system in its admission letter? are YOU trying to be clear by translating letter grades to a uoft GPA? are you transferring from UTM or UTSG, or another university? who knows. i’ll just have to cover all my bases.

    if the university’s admission offer?requires you stay at an A and you get a B/B+ as your final average, there is, of course, the chance that your offer will be revoked. i don’t want to deny that, especially (though not only) because i don’t need angry high schoolers chasing me down because they didn’t get into uoft when i said they would.

    however, a B/B+ is not THAT much lower than an A, in high school terms at least. the difference between a 3.5 and a 4.0 is actually pretty significant in uoft terms, but since i’m not sure whether that’s your high school GPA system or ours, i’m just going to ignore it and talk about the letter grade.

    ultimately, grade drops usually have to be pretty severe for an offer of admission to be revoked. i would strongly advise you to do your very best to try to meet the conditions of your offer of admission, because if you don’t, the offer?could be?revoked. that being said, there’s no need necessarily to FREAK OUT over a B+ when they’re asking for an A.

    if you’re transferring, i would say the same applies. usually, you need a ‘B’ average (including prerequisites) to be competitive when transferring from another university, so if you dip down below a 4.0 it’s likely not the end of the world. though, again, if you’re not meeting your conditions, it is a possibility.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • ROSI,  subject POST

    ACORN is just nutty sometimes

    April 12, 2016

    When I tried to apply for my post for second year (fall 2016) is said requirement session: summer 2016. what does this mean?

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    hey there,

    i had to stare at my ACORN screen for an entire minute before cluing in to what ‘requirement session’ means, but it’s actually pretty simple. all it’s saying is that, in the course of?your degree, you’ll need to?meet the requirements for your program?that correspond to the time that you entered that program (i.e. signed up for it on ACORN).

    that means that if next year, or somewhere down the line, the program requirements change, you don’t have to worry. no matter what the new course calendars say, you only have to fulfil the requirements in the calendar?when you entered the program.

    now the obvious question becomes: do you go by the 2015-2016 calendar, or the 2016-2017 calendar? the summer doesn’t have its own calendar, so it’s important to know which one to follow should there be any differences between the two. according to my HIGHER-UP SOURCE, subject POSts that are added in summer 2016 follow the 2015-2016 calendar.

    hope that helps!

    aska

    P.S. i had to pretend-add a subject POSt for this question, and since i’m graduating this June, i tiptoed on the very edge of messing up my entire transcript just to find out what you were talking about in this question. i hope you appreciate that.

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  • Transferring

    from Hamilton to the 6ix

    April 6, 2016

    Hi.

    i am kicked out from Mcmaster university last year because i didn’t reach their grades, and now i studied at college one year program, and get averages 80s for midterm, can i apply university of Toronto Mississauga social science program after i finished college? will UT refuse me because my bad university transcript?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    technically, you might be eligible to transfer – if you keep up these current marks – based on your college transcript. according to the official uoft literature on the topic, a B average in your college program makes you competitive to transfer (assuming you meet program prerequisites). however, you will have to send in all of your academic transcripts with your application, which means the McMaster marks can’t just be swept under the rug.

    snow white sweep under rug

    you may be tempted to try and hide your marks. you cannot.

    depending on what those university marks actually are, you may or may not be eligible. i would say that the further away your university marks are from a B, the less likely you are to be accepted.

    however, as always, i can’t say yes or no for certain. i hope you went ahead and applied, because you can never know these things for sure. all you can do is apply and see.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • subject POST

    a landscape of dead lines

    April 6, 2016

    Hey aska I’m a little confused about applying to posts… am I able to apply to the first round of posts before I get my final exam marks for this year? Or do I have to wait for final marks and in that case do they usually come in time for application in the first round?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    the first enrolment period for type 2 and 3 subject POSts is between April 1st and May 11th. SO if all your marks are up by then (and there is a good chance they will be), then you can apply as soon as they’re up.?if you don’t, it’s no big deal, because you can apply in the second request period.

    if your marks do come in before the 11th, though, i would really recommend you apply for the first round. the big inconvenience about the second request period is that you only hear back from them?in September. that means that if there are courses that have restrictions or priorities for people in your POSt of choice, you won’t be able to sign up for those courses?until you get into that POSt in September, at which point they may be full. and that would just SUCK.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • courses,  summer

    this credit is only worth half because of the sunshine

    April 5, 2016

    Hey aska, are summer Y courses worth 1.0 credits?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    yep! all courses in the summer are worth the same number of credits as they would be in the Fall/Winter. don’t worry, you’ll still pack in the same number of hours as you would in the Fall/Winter term, but they’ll just be SQUISHED INTO a smaller number of weeks. have fun.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • courses,  UTSC

    courses for coop

    April 5, 2016

    How do co-op students finish their studies? Do they have to complete a year course in 4 months(study term)? I checked course schedule there?s no specific course for co-op students. I’m from utsc btw.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    because of coop, UTSC doesn’t have any full-year courses (with a very few exceptions, like work term prep courses, independent and research project courses, and capstones; these can either be taken alongside a coop term, or are not required courses). other than the exceptions i listed, all courses are?half-year courses, so you can take any one you want and finish it in four months!

    best,

    aska

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