course overload, summer

is it illegal

May 21, 2019

Hey got a weirdo question for future references. I know that a typical full course load for summer school is 2.0 credits spread evenly through the summer but, lets say 3 courses I want to take are being offered in the same summer session. Is it illegal to do a summer session with 1.5 credits in one (and potentially 0.5 credits in the other)? I mean, it’s kinda crazy but it’s still 2.0 credits so it’s not an overload… Right?

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hello,

not that weird of a question at all! as far as i can tell, unfortunately it would actually count as an overload. the artsci calendar indicates that the maximum course load for any given summer term is 2 courses, the same way the max you can take in fall/winter at one time is six. so if you did want to take all 3 courses at once, you’d have to request registration in an overload through your registrar.

not much you can do about it. the system’s pretty inflexible, i guess.

either way, i know this is just a hypothetical, but i’d encourage you to take that third course at another time if you’re able. sometimes the rules are there to protect us from ourselves. summer courses are accelerated and it gets pretty tough to juggle three of them in one sem. midterm season hits second week of summer school, i swear. i’m not a fan.

over n out,
aska

let’s get this breadth

May 18, 2019

What are the breadth requirements for arts and sciences students?? The page on the school website gave me an error: not found message :/

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hey there,

yeah so it seems like the artsci website is… broken? or at least the version of it linked to nearly every single google search is chock-full of 404s. trust me, i’m not the biggest fan of this either because it makes my job as an aska harder.

i’m sure someone at the uni is working hard on getting things back on track, though. in the meantime, i’d suggest you either do a search using the artsci search bar instead of google, because the page links you get from that shouldn’t be broken. otherwise, you may be able to find the information on other sites, and feel free to ask again if there’s anything you can’t find.

i did manage to find a working page that outlines the breadth requirements. there are 5, which i can outline for you here since i’m answering this question anyway:

BREADTH 1: “creative and cultural representations” — involves things like creative writing, anthropology, cinema studies, drama, and the like. the artsiest of artsci. want to study tolkien or game of thrones? talk about murder in fiction? find out what the heck a cossack is? these are the courses you’re looking for.

BREADTH 2: “thought, belief, and behaviour”– are your parents nagging you to ‘learn a third language, jimmy, it’ll help prevent the early onset of alzheimer’s’? (maybe this is a me problem.) are you into philosophy? do debates on morality get you going? do you like to do a lot of thinking for the sake of thinking? chances are you’ll already have this breadth pat down.

BREADTH 3: “society and its institutions”–do you self-identify as a history buff? have a burning vendetta against gender violence that you want to explore in the classroom? want to go paddling on the great lakes for credit? hell yeah you do. breadth 3 is for you.

BREADTH 4: “living things and their environment” — is your life’s goal to cure some obscure but life-threatening disease? do you want to talk about drugs? dementia? membranes? TREES?

BREADTH 5: “the physical and mathematical universes” — do chem labs spark joy for you? are numbers your idea of a good time? does thinking about the human genome fill you with awe and wonder? breadth 5, my friend, is your vibe.

–i mean, for a lot of these you don’t really have a choice. to fulfill your breadth requirements, you’ll need to take either:

one full credit from four categories OR
one full credit from three, and a half credit from the remaining two

usually breadth requirements aren’t too bad, though. if your strengths lean more so to one of either humanities or the sciences, you can definitely find breadth requirement courses that won’t pose as much as a challenge for you. for example, i managed to get my breadth 5 credit with a first-year astronomy course that didn’t require me to do any math at all. i’m sure there are also humanities courses designed for the sciences. i would encourage you to get these requirements out of the way early, though, especially since the easiest breadth courses are restricted to first years (seminars and ones).

sorry for the wait getting this answered– i’ve been out of commission for a bit but i’m back now and will try to get through the backlog of questions. big THANK to everyone waiting!

cheers,

aska

first year

freedom!

May 12, 2019

If I’m going into my first year and still pretty undecided about what I want to study, can the courses I take just be exploratory and unrelated to each other?? I’m a vague ~humanities~ person but am also really interested in environmental studies (even though I suck at math!!!! aaah!!!!) and so im worried my courses are gonna be alllll over the place before I figure out what I wanna do.

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hello there,

it’s perfectly okay to still be undecided going into first year! a lot of people go into uni with a concrete four year plan they end up ditching anyway, so i wouldn’t say your lack of direction puts you at any particular disadvantage.

u of t’s actually pretty great place to go if you’ve got a variety of interests. i’m not sure how familiar you are with the school’s requirements, but this university (for some reason unknown to me) pretty much only hands out honors degrees. a lot of students don’t realize this heading in. that means that you won’t actually be able to take a single major at this university: you’ll need a combination of either one specialist, two majors, or a major and two minors. we call these our programs of study, or POSts. i know kids doing double majors in things as unrelated to one another as Chemistry and Peace & Conflict Studies—cross-disciplinary study is easier here, i feel, than at other universities. so by all means, you could end up majoring in environmental studies AND a humanities program.

the only thing you’ll want to be aware of is that you’ll need prereqs to get into those POSts. so it’s not exactly an ‘explore to your heart’s delight’ situation, unfortunately. on the bright side, from what i know, humanities and social science programs generally tend to have fewer prerequisites than science programs, so this might give you more leeway.

i don’t know what humanities programs you were looking at specifically, but i took a look at the environmental studies major for you. the one i’ve linked is the arts version of it, which interestingly enough doesn’t require anything from you as a first year. they recommend you take ENV100, but it’s by no means a requirement. doesn’t look like there are any math courses required for this major, either, so this might be a good option for you! there is an environmental science major, which does seem to be quite a bit more intensive with required first-year chem and bio. you can take a look at it if you want, just to know what your options are.

in short– yes, you can and should explore! just be aware of what you might need to get into the programs you’re interested in. welcome in advance to u of t and all the best for your first year, my friend. hope you figure out what it is you wanna do!

over n out,

aska

physics, subject POST, switching

in with a new POSt, out with the old ones

May 12, 2019

hello!

so i just finished my first year at utsg and i have applied to do a double major in equity studies and pharmacology. within the past couple of weeks i have been getting really really into physics (which is odd because i hated physics in high school). anyways im thinking that i want to switch into a biophysics specialist degree. the issue is, that i didnt take any physics or calculus during my first year and so i basically have to restart my four years. i was just wondering how i would go about switching to the physics specialist, do i just leave my current posts as they are and take the courses that i need for physics or do i have to drop my posts somehow or something else? not sure if this changes things but equity studies is a type one so ive already been accepted and pharmacology is type 3 so im still waiting to hear back on that one. (also do you have any tips on how to cope with the fact that i wasted an entire year and thousands of dollars)

and thank you in advance for your response!

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hey,

nice job making it through first year! it’s a perfectly normal thing to see your interests shift at this point in your degree– i can definitely relate to that, although not to getting into physics.

to get the tedious part out of the way first– how would you go about making the change? i wouldn’t drop your POSts now, no. you need to be registered in some kind of valid program combination to be eligible for second-year course selection, so if you won’t be able to get into biophysics before fall it’s best to keep what you’ve got. think about your current programs as placeholders of sorts– ignore their requirements, and focus on taking the prereqs for your biophysics spec. then, when the program enrollment period rolls around, apply for biophys.

chances are you already know this, but if you took the prereqs for pharmacology, you may already have the chem requirement for biophys under your belt, at least for the most basic biophysics specialist. hopefully that makes things a little less overwhelming!

all the biophysics specialists seem to be type 1, which will hopefully make things a little easier for you. if you were switching into multiple type 2 or 3 progams, i would have advised you to apply for them first THEN drop your previous programs once you got in. just to be safe. but since yours is a type 1 and you’re switching into a specialist, that makes things a lot simpler. you’ll be able to register in biophys before dropping equity and pharm, as ACORN allows you to be in a maximum of 3 POSts at once.

how to cope with the fact that your first year didn’t ultimately feed into your POSt? we’re fed this myth that we all need to finish our degree in four years, and that absolutely everything in our studies must count or serve a purpose or lead to a job. i’m still wrestling with this myself, because i’ve internalized that expectation. but no. everyone has their own time, their own path. this just happens to be yours. maybe it sounds wishy-washy, or cheesy, or whatever. either way, there’s nothing you can do to erase your first year and do it over, so from here all you can do is keep moving forward. i can understand if you’re bummed about it. though. i guess from a financial standpoint especially, it can be difficult to move past.

despite not knowing you personally, i’m real proud that you’ve acknowledged where your passions lie and are willing to pursue them, even if it might not be the most convenient thing to do. so much changes when your course content gets you excited. i don’t know what this past year has been like for you, but if it’s been rough then this might be what you need for study motivation.

i know several people who totally switched their programs when first year was over, and even one who switched faculties AND universities after her second year. everyone who i’ve seen go after something new has been really successful in their current program of study, so much so that it’s hard to imagine what things would have been like had they succumbed to inertia. i think a lot of this has to do with the fact that they followed their interests, and care a lot about what they’re studying now. maybe that’s where you’ll be in a year’s time.

wishing you all the best, friend! i think you’re brave.

over n out,

aska

internal transfer, UTM

you are artiste

May 11, 2019

Before I ask my question, I wanted to say thank you for your advice. I finally got in! So my question is I’m currently going into Art & Art History but I want to transfer to Visual Studies at the St. George campus after my first year. Would it be impossible to do?

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hello again,

WELCOME TO U OF T MY FRIEND, i’m so excited for you and big congratulations on your acceptance. as far as i know, what you want is certainly possible. in order to transfer to visual studies at utsg, you’ll be looking at doing an internal transfer into the daniels faculty of architecture, landscape, and design. utsg’s rotman faculty (the business one) is the only one that doesn’t seem to take transfers from other u of t campuses, so as a potential daniels kid you’re in luck.

the terrible thing is that you actually have to apply through ouac all over again. assuming you’re a full-time student, you’ll be using an internal application that will apparently cost you $90. when going over your application, the university will look at both your overall academic record as well as your grades from the year you spent at UTM.

i’m not sure exactly what grades you’d need to be considered, at utm, to be competitive as a transfer student from another u of t campus, you would have needed a cumulative GPA (CGPA) of 2.5 and upwards. this is a bit awkward because the u of t grading scheme jumps straight from a C+, or 2.3, to a B- at 2.7– and anyway, i would guess that the utsg threshold would be higher. it’s not publicized, though, so you may want to give your registrar a visit and ask if they know anything.

to get into visual studies specifically, you’ll need to have met any program prerequisites. i can’t exactly figure out what prereqs visual studies requires, so you may want to look into that if you can.

since you’re applying to daniels and not artsci, you’ll need to apply for a transfer credit assessment once you get admitted. it’s the same school, i know, but what you’ll learn very quickly is that u of t is this weird disjointed bureaucracy of all these different offices that report to different things. so i guess in some respects, the campuses are treated as quite distinct from one another. you’ll only need to do this after you’re admitted, but keep in mind there’s an extra fee tacked on of 30 whole dollars. that’s like, two whole sushi burritos. a devastating amount.

the deadlines for your application aren’t out yet, but to give you an idea of what you’re looking at, the deadlines for 2019-2020 internal transfers were january 10, 2018 for the application, with a recommended deadline of november 1 the previous calendar year. there’s a supplemental application with a deadline that varies slightly, so you’ll want to take a look at that as well.

the catch is, you’ll want to do this before you hit second year– if you’re serious about transferring, it’s safest not to wait. daniels won’t take anyone with more than 10.0 credits or full-course equivalents, i guess because then your degree will be half done and there’s not really much point. on top of this, you can only get up to 5.0 transfer credits, equivalent to one fall/winter session’s worth of classes.

sorry for the long and dry post but hope this is helpful! internal transfers can get complicated and i would highly recommend you talk to someone in-person about this as well. good luck with it all, though, and if you have any more questions feel free to send them in!

to end the post off, here’s a smol painting dolphin with more artistic talent than me:

cheers,

aska

grad school

higher further faster

May 11, 2019

Hi aska, do graduate programs (such as masters or law school) take into account how many 300 or 400 level courses you take during your undergraduate? I know law school admissions weigh GPA and LSAT marks quite heavily and wouldn’t like to see students taking 100 level courses in their 4th year for an easy GPA record. Should I aim to take mostly 400 level courses in 4th year? Or is that too unrealistic sanity-wise?

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hello friend,

graduate programs! half of us, maybe more, have these hovering over our heads, don’t we? gotta love the higher education bubble pushing us higher further faster.

admissions questions are often tough to answer well because, as a student myself, it’s hard to know exactly what the decisions people are looking for. so i don’t have a preset formula to offer you– no ‘take 3 400 levels and you’ll be fine’ or whatnot.

according to u of t’s school of graduate studies, though, a variety of non-academic factors play a role in your admissions. apparently, this might include the research statements you propose, their alignment with faculty expertise, and “relevant professional activities.” when you apply to grad school, you’re typically also required to submit reference letters: glowing recommendations from reputable individuals can do wonders for your application. my point in reminding you of this (because you’re likely already aware) is that it’s not all about what you can tackle academically.

while i’m relatively certain it is important to take several higher-level courses in your undergrad if you’re considering grad school, doing so isn’t everything. it’s important for your application to be strong in other areas, and you may not have as much time and energy to expend on things like “professional activities” if you’re drowning under a boatload of 400 level courses. grad schools want to see that you’re able to challenge yourself and succeed, but i feel like there’s a balance and only you would know where that lies for you. like you mentioned, sanity-wise taking lots of tough courses can be taxing and it’s important to prioritize your health and well-being. not that i’m the poster child for doing so, but it’s a process, right?

anyway, i feel like you should probably have a chat with an upper year expert at your registrar or even u of t’s grad school admissions office if you want further information on this. your registrar will be familiar with your academic record and be able to give better recommendations as to what you can handle academically, whereas the grad school admissions people are literally the ones making the decisions so they’ll have more concrete answers than i do.

sorry i couldn’t be more helpful! best of luck figuring it out.

over n out,

aska

Transferring

lemin! LEMINN!

May 10, 2019

Hi there!

I was wondering how hard it is to transfer to UofT LifeSci. I applied after high school and got into UTSG, but my final high school results barely met my conditional requirements so I turned down UofT’s offer to try and make it better at UWaterloo. I want to try for med school, and now my first year grades at Waterloo are much better. We don’t get a GPA but based on online GPA calculators, with a percentage ranging from 80-92%, I have a 3.7-3.8 GPA average.

I got in with much worse grades in high school, but I’m wondering if it’s more competitive to transfer after a year at uni because of lower availability of seats?
Currently I’ve applied and am waiting for my final transcript to be sent to UTSG and UTM before a decision comes in.

Also, should I get to choose, would UTM really be a bad choice for med school as compared to UTSG? I’m in a pickle because I live in Mississauga so UTM is more convenient, and apparently provides a higher chance of getting a good GPA, but everyone says UTSG is the place to be for my program and to make connections, etc.

Thank you for your help!

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hello hello!

two transferees (is that a word?) in one week, wow. we in demand here.

you’ve got two main questions that i can identify, so– because i have trouble! focusing! otherwise! — i’ll break my answer into two main parts.

1. is it more competitive to transfer in now?

ike i told the last person who asked, you’ll need a high b university average to be competitive as a transfer student. at u of t that translates to the 77-79% range. the school does indicate that some programs may require a slightly higher transfer average, but with a 3.7-3.8 you should be safe. or that’s my best guess, anyway. meanwhile, admissions straight out of high school requires an average in the mid- to low- 80s.

so, looking at just the numbers, it does seem like it’s actually less competitive to transfer in after a year of uni elsewhere. keep in mind that they do consider your whole academic record, not just your uni grades, but i’m not sure how the two are weighted against each other. no grade threshold is provided for transferees’ high school record, unfortunately.

2. UTM or UTSG?

i mean, ultimately you still get a u of t degree regardless of which campus you choose. but i can outline what each campus will be able to offer you, and hopefully that’ll help you with your decision.

UTSG is known to be a more competitive campus in general, likely because of two things: its size, and the fact that it seems to attract a greater proportion of high-achieving students. i’m not saying the other two campuses can’t have geniuses, it’s just a general pattern that people at the school believe exists. so as a lifesci kid here, you’ll be dealing with larger, more impersonal classes, and can expect to be graded alongside a good chunk of very smart, very driven people. if you’ve heard it’s not the place to be for a high gpa, this is likely why.

the best thing about UTSG, though, is that it’s where the majority of opportunities are concentrated. it is true that if you’re looking to network or immerse yourself in extracurriculars, the downtown toronto campus has a lot more to offer you. in terms of what’s relevant to you, we’ve got a ton of hospitals in the downtown core, which means more opportunities for you to gain experience in the field of medicine as an undergrad. as far as i’ve heard, a good GPA alone can’t get you into med school– they’ll also look at what you were involved in outside the classroom, like leadership activities and volunteerism. in this respect, i couldn’t recommend UTSG more to you. UTSG also offers a wider range of program and course choices, if that’s something that matters to you.

it is true that if you’re struggling academically as a result of commuting and UTSG’s higher demands, you may not have as much space in your life to dedicate to volunteering and extracurricular involvement. at UTM, i’m sure you can still find clubs and such to immerse yourself in. UTM’s also not as massive, and if your classes/labs are smaller it stands to reason that you’re more likely to get to know your profs. this can be immensely helpful in terms of getting reference letters and getting help on coursework.

in other words, your proximity to UTM definitely isn’t the only thing going for the campus– it wouldn’t doom you for med school, as far as i know. the rumors are that there aren’t many successful med school applicants from UTM, but perhaps that’s a reflection of the smaller campus size? it’s definitely still possible to do med out of UTM.

i’m not sure if all i did was make your decision more difficult. i really hope not. i would recommend that if you’re really stuck, you speak to someone in the admissions office and see if they’re willing to advise you. after all, i’m just a fellow student who’s never made it to med school.

one last thing. how do you not get a gpa? what? whaT? with the utmost respect, that’s kind of whack. i’m really curious as to why.

over n out,

aska

graduation

almost THERE the end is NEAR

May 9, 2019

Hi, I’m almost graduating in this June and already complete all the requirements of my major. But I’m afraid that one of the other course I take in other department will fail. Just wondering if I fail in this cr course, will it reflect on my graduation? Cause the completion will only be 19.5/20 credits but I already apply for graduate… And what could I do next?Thank?

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hey,

congrats on making it this far, that’s no small achievement! you’re so close to being outta here.

unfortunately, unless you can get the full 20 credits under your belt, the university can’t consider you eligible for graduation because you don’t meet the degree requirements. so although you’ve already applied for grad, your application likely won’t be successful if you don’t manage to pass this one last course.

if that happens, what you might want to try doing is taking a half credit course this summer, and applying a cr/ncr to it so all you have to do is pass. then, you can apply for november graduation to avoid waiting another full year to graduate. if you’d like, you can give your registrar a visit and see if they have any other recommendations for you– this is the only one i can think to pass on.

hopefully, though, you manage to scrape a pass and don’t even have to worry about it. fingers crossed for you!

over n out,

aska

Transferring

DYING to transfer

May 9, 2019

Hi there!

I just completed my first year at another Ontario university and unfortunately, because I wasn’t in a program I was very passionate about, I only achieved a GPA of 73% during first semester, and as things worsened, my GPA was only 61% – so I now hold a low cumulative GPA of 68%. However, my high school transcript is much higher at about a 94% average for the whole year, and I have lots of volunteer and extracurricular experience under my belt.

I am dying to transfer to UofT St. George for an arts and science/humanities program (something involving writing). I’m aware that the average to transfer must be a solid B. What percentage grade does this translate to? I know a B is considered to be a 75% for some schools, but an 85% for some schools. I’ll be taking more courses this summer to try and boost my GPA, but what percentage average would I need to even be considered? I’ve calculated and even if I take 10 more courses and achieve a 90% in all of them (which is not likely), I’ll still only be able to get my GPA up to 79.6%. Even if I’m able to achieve a 75%, I’m assuming this wouldn’t be enough to be competitive – would my high school grades help me at all? Is there any way you think I can make this happen?

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

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hello and welcome,

glad you managed to figure out where your interests lie and are brave enough to take this jump! as previous askas have stated, none of us really know how u of t’s transfer admissions work, but hopefully i’m able to help you out at least a little.

at u of t, a solid b translates to a range of 73% to 76%. however, based on what i can find on the admissions site, it looks like you’d need a high B in uni to be competitive. i’m guessing that means a B+ (77-79%) to be safe. the website does suggest that high school grades will be considered, as it reads that admissions are ‘based on your overall academic record.’ there’s a chance, then, that your 94% average may be able to help you out here. the thing is, it’s not explicitly stated so if you’re really keen on your high school grades being used, i would shoot the admissions office a question here just to confirm whether or not it’s possible. you might also want to ask them whether they’re looking for your school’s equivalent of a high b or u of t’s.

as for your volunteer and extracurricular experience, unfortunately i doubt that’s going to help you out. u of t is one of those schools that really only considers academics for admissions, as far as i know. what’s holistic admissions? we only see numbers here.

other than that, i would also consider whether you have the prereqs for the program you’d like to transfer into. there are generally fewer requirements if you’re shooting for humanities, but either way you can check those using the program finder.

if you do decide to take more courses to increase your gpa before transferring, keep in mind that after you have second year standing, it becomes significantly harder to transfer to u of t. i don’t know how similar your current field of study is to what you want, but the school will literally bar you from continuing your studies in that field when you transfer. eg. if you were already in biochem somewhere else, once you hit third year standing you can’t decide you want to be a biochem major at u of t. there’s also a limit on how many transfer credits they’re willing to take. i’d recommend that you keep yourself aware of these possible complications if you don’t feel that your chances at transferring are at their best right now.

either way, good luck with everything! if the process continues to be confusing, feel free to send in another question.

over n out,

aska

academic standing, suspension

the waiting, the waiting, the waiting

May 7, 2019

I was just suspended for a year. When will I be able to re-apply for courses? I am planning to spend this year intensively studying and preparing for my return to Uni. As an international student, is it possible for me to take courses from other colleges during this time? I have already contacted the immigration center about my visa status and they will get back to me soon. I just wanted to know how I can make this year productive for myself.

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hi there,

good on you for not letting this knock you down! getting suspended can be really discouraging, and i’m glad you want to fill your time with something useful.

to address your first question, if you’ve been suspended for a year, you’ll be able to register for courses after a full calendar year has passed. provided you were just suspended, that means you will be back, albeit on probation, come summer 2020.

as an international student, you should be eligible to study elsewhere in the meantime, just not for credit. your eligibility, though, depends on where you go– i know u of t’s school for continuing education should be an easy option, because the steps for registration are the same regardless of whether you’re domestic or international. they don’t even charge international fees! community colleges and continuing education classes are definitely options for you if you want to keep studying while you’re on suspension. this is a good time to explore new things and take courses that excite you, productivity aside. in some ways, you’ve got more freedom here than you’d have with a degree program, and i’d encourage you to take full advantage of that.

if you’d prefer a break from u of t, i can understand that. i don’t usually give advice regarding other schools, but as far as i can tell you can take classes at ryerson without formal admission, even as an international student. george brown might also be an option, but it looks like you’re a little more limited depending on your status in canada. i’d encourage you to take a look at other institutions like humber, sheridan, and york as well.

there are definitely options other than class if you want to keep yourself busy. some people choose to work, especially if they’ve been juggling a part-time job during the school year. i’m not certain whether that’s a viable option for your visa status, but it might be something to consider.

wishing you a productive and fulfilling year while you wait for your suspension to elapse!

over n out,

aska

academic standing, fees, suspension, Uncategorized

if you throw money at your problems maybe they’ll disappear

May 7, 2019

In my first year of university I was in good academic standing but then I took some summer courses and was on academic probation because I didn’t do well in the summer session. The following Fall/Winter term my CGPA was still below 1.5 but I signed up for summer classes to increase it so I can get SGPA of 1.7. But since I had some overdue fees on my account I was kicked out of those classes. Then got an email that I am going to be suspended. Can I still take the classes after I’ve paid the fees?

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hello hello,

this question confuses me a lil but also seems to be one of the more urgent ones lined up, so i guess i’m gonna give it a shot. part of that confusion is because i’m not actually sure what happened to you. were you put on financial hold? were you financially cancelled? neither? help?? fees? what?

i guess i’ll focus on what i can answer: whether or not you can still take classes once your account is cleared. this is one of those rare instances where i can’t find anything from utsg (maybe i’m not looking hard enough? i bet it’s out there) but both the utm and utsc websites suggest that late registration is possible, albeit with a fee of $44 plus $5 each business day. this fee is paid to your registrar, not to ACORN. my hope is that if it’s possible at those two campuses, it should also be possible at st. george provided you don’t wait too long. it stands to reason that yeah, once your overdue fees are dealt with and if you’re able to put a tuition deposit down for summer, you should be able to take the courses you need to keep yourself out of suspension.

however, i would really suggest you confirm this with your registrar— you’d have to visit them anyway to pay your late registration deposit. i’d say book an appointment with an advisor sooner rather than later, given that summer classes are accelerated. if you’re trying to pull your gpa up you don’t wanna get in too late.

best of luck dodging the suspension! i hope it’s actually possible for you to take the courses you need and pull that SGPA. you gots this.

over n out,

aska

plagiarism

tfw turnitin turns YOU in

May 7, 2019

Hi, I was wondering if anyone went through this as well. I have a meeting with the Office of the Dean for plagarise for a paper I wrote in one of my classes. I obviously didn’t purposely didn’t cheat. I even made sure to use 20 other plagarism checkers to check if my paper had any detection of plagarism. But clearly it didn’t pick up. So I checked on Turnitin what section of my paper had plagarism. Instead it says “source details have been deleted”. I’m, literally confused at this point.

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hello!

okay SO you seem pretty nervous, which is reasonable in this situation. i would be flipping out too. i can’t say i’ve been in your exact place– but maybe someone else reading this blog has? anyway, hopefully i’ll be able to help a lil bit with the confusion. obviously i don’t know anything about the exact situation or even about how much you know, but i’ll try to cover my bases here.

if you’ve received a summons to the dean’s office, you’ve likely been referred to a copy of the code of behaviour on academic matters. if you’ve read this through, you’ll know that a meeting with the office of the dean may not be the end of the world: that meeting exists to decide whether or not you committed an offense, meaning they may actually declare you innocent. in that case, your work will be evaluated normally. if you don’t admit to anything during this meeting and they still suspect you of an academic offence, you’ll head to a tribunal hearing where you’ll be able to plead your case. in short, the university isn’t going to treat you as automatically guilty just because your work has been flagged. you’ll have more than one opportunity to resist the plagiarism charge.

i would suggest that you bring up the ‘source details have been deleted’ thing at your dean’s meeting, and have them explain to you what that means. i’m not familiar enough with turnitin to know exactly what that entails, but if there really is an error that may be useful in your defense.

i guess there’s always the possibility that even despite your best intentions, you accidentally committed plagiarism. according to u of t’s academic integrity page, plagiarism doesn’t necessarily entail using the exact wording of an established source like a book or website– it might also mean your content is too similar to that of another student’s, for example. alternatively, the TA may feel that your writing style differs far too much from your previous work to be yours. in that case, they may suspect that you paid someone else to write your paper. in either of these cases, i’m not sure that a third party plagiarism checker would necessarily detect anything. or there’s the possibility of an issue with your citations; that may also have gotten you flagged.

either way, i’m sure that if you are innocent and continue to plead that, the system isn’t going to screw you over. i can’t really help you out beyond this, but i hope the process is kind to you and that the outcome is just.

last thing– 20 plagiarism checkers? man. i know of like, two tops, but maybe that’s just me. kinda intense to put yourself through that, especially if you do it for every assignment you submit. dang.

over n out,

aska

friends

Where is frend? Where’s is anybody?

May 3, 2019

how hard is it to make friends at u of t? i’m very stressed and have heard some scary things about the workload and massive size of the school 🙁 is there a sense of community?

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Image result for all alone bert

hey,

man oh man it’s like me from the past sent this question in. among my many other concerns in the months leading up to starting at u of t, i had the same worries about managing the workload while settling into a community. i guess i’d heard so many terrifying things about the school— i had this one brilliant friend who’d received a substantial scholarship from u of t, but told me there wasn’t any amount of money that could convince him to come here. it’s almost fitting, then, that at the end of the school year i get to speak to this and reflect on how it’s been. and it hasn’t been quite what i expected it would. this is gonna be a long post, just cause i want you to understand exactly what i mean by that.

before i got here, i did sometimes wonder whether u of t had the reputation it did not because of some inherent property of the school, but rather because a larger student body meant more people around to complain. like if ten percent of people at each school absolutely hate it there, on reddit it’ll just look like u of t is objectively worse. we’ve got something like 80k students anyway, which is about 20k more than the next largest canadian school. i’d also found it difficult to find postings and comments from individuals who were having positive experiences at the school, but a teacher of mine pointed out that people who were thriving were less likely to be wallowing in the depths of reddit at 4:47 in the morning.

i’m not gonna lie, the first few months i was here i was absolutely certain this school was going to wreck me. i don’t know what it says about me that i chose u of t believing what i did about it, but hey, where i am now i couldn’t be more grateful for that decision. at first, though, my mentality was that i was here to study and study only. i signed up for a few surface-level commitments that i knew wouldn’t keep me busy, and spent the rest of the time sequestered in my dorm room with my books. when my first grades started to roll in, i braced myself to see percentages thirty or so lower than what i’d been scoring in high school. i was terrified. and so by the end of the first semester, i had, like… two friends? which is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

i gave it time, though. thought about how, in my first year of high school, i also felt wildly out of place. but by the time senior year rolled around, i couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. i hoped that in some way, my university years would turn out to be the same. it’s true that by the end of first year, i felt much more settled. it’s cheesy, i think, but i really do believe what you put into a place is what you get out of it. in my experience, i’ve always felt more at home in communities i’ve poured hours of volunteer work and involvement into. that’s been true at u of t, too: once i opened myself up to taking the opportunities offered to me, my friend circles and support network at the school began to grow.

i left home to come to u of t, and my friends at home seemed to complain equally as much as i did. in some ways, actually, they seemed to be struggling more with both academics and the social scene. at the end of the day, it’s still uni, and the transition from high school will still be difficult. with that as my frame of reference, it’s difficult for me to look back and wish i’d gone somewhere other than u of t. this school has every opportunity i could have wished for.

now, that isn’t to say u of t isn’t difficult. this last semester, i had one week with four papers and two exams, sandwiched right between several other papers and the impending exam period. on top of that, i didn’t know where i was living for the next year and was scrambling to find housing. it can get rough. i had many an anxiety attack. when i put it like that, i almost sound crazy for not hating the school. in the moment it feels like it’s never going to be over, but the thing is, it’s possible to make it through. especially with a solid support network. for full disclosure, i’m in the humanities and social sciences, which are generally… i wouldn’t say easier, but we at least have fewer class hours, i think, than most other programs. at least, the perception is that they’re not as rough. that may be important to keep in mind.

is there a community in terms of a school-wide community? i wouldn’t say there’s a strong one, no. feels like the closest thing we’ve got is u of t memes for true blue teens. but that doesn’t mean there aren’t communities, plural, smaller ones that you can find yourself at home in. your college or faculty may be a good place to start, or perhaps clubs and student organizations are where you’ll put down your roots. u of t isn’t as antisocial as it sounds: if you want parties they’ll be there. if you want a small and wholesome group of friends, i’ve seen plenty form—they take time, but they’re worth it.

u of t is just another school. people here can be just as kind, open, and hands-down incredible as anywhere else. i met someone in dorm who helped me move apartments during his exam season. a friend of mine trekked 20 minutes in the snow to bring me a humidifier and electrolytes when i got sick earlier this year. and when i was out of a place to live for a few days, these two girls i adore let me crash in their living room. my roommate for next year has already offered to cook for me during exams. we all just tryina make it through, and at the end of the day it’s easier to do that together. and it’s not just students— i’m a little biased, but i really love the people at my registrar as well.

in terms of making friends, i would encourage you to be open-minded and optimistic. i wrote off many of my favourite people the first time i met them, for a few reasons—i was skeptical that you could actually become friends with the person sitting next to you in class, for one. i mean, what are the chances you’re lucky enough to click with them? it’s true that a lot of time you won’t, but it is definitely possible and that’s something i learned this year.

talk to the people around you! if you’re lucky enough to be in dorm, get to know the other kids on your floor—it took me a while to meet them, but some of my favorite people ended up being the ones in my building. if you think about it, student housing is such a cool thing—you live in the same building as a crap ton of potential friends, and if you want to bring people over, they might not even have to go outside. what a win in dead-winter negative-forty-degree toronto. and if you’re a commuter, do your best to join things on campus and get yourself acquainted with the other kids in your classes so you have connections in case of a sick day, yknow?

it can also help massively to take smaller classes, like first year seminars and ones. apart from the lighter workload and better likelihood of getting to know your prof, it’s also a lot easier to make friends in those.

ultimately, i love it here and i know other people that do as well. i don’t in any way speak for everyone though, as i acknowledge some people really, really wish they could be literally anywhere else. the school has its flaws. Things are particularly rough in engineering and compsci, and i wish i could tell you what exactly i mean by rough but obviously i’ve got no experiences to go off of. even then, i know people who are killing it in those programs and have strong circles of friends.

i hope it eases your concerns that at least it’s not impossible to have a highly positive experience at the school. be prepared to work, is all, but as long as you don’t make that your sole focus i do believe you can thrive here. it’s okay to be a little scared, i think, but there’s no need to be stressed about it.

sorry it took me so long to get to this question! i wanted to do the answer justice, so i waited til i had a good chunk of time set aside to answer it. i only just realized the uni acceptance deadline is something like may 1 for domestic kids, and i really hope this post isn’t too late to be useful :/

cheers to u of tears,

aska