• GPA,  grades,  non degree

    back to school you go?

    April 29, 2020

    Hey Aska, so I am thinking about the possibility of upgrading my GPA as a non-degree student. Since I didn’t think my GPA for my last two years was competitive (mid B range), I decided to take a year off to work, but now that I’ve lost that job opportunity due to Covid-19, I considered doing 2 or 3 courses at UTM. The problem is even with getting a 4.0 in those 2-3 courses, the most my GPA for the last two years will increase too is a high B+. I’ve been debating if the money & time is worth it.

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    hope you’re holding up all right and sorry about your job! i know these are tough times all around.

    bad day i give up GIF by America's Funniest Home Videos

    even under normal circumstances, it sucks to have plans upended. i hope that other, even better opportunities are in your future and that you have enough to stay on your feet right now.

    anyhow, if you’re asking me whether or not i think it’s worth it for you to go back to school to raise your gpa, well… that depends, doesn’t it? if you’re not going to use your GPA for anything (ie. grad school or something else??) then i’d say the answer is probably no.

    sometimes people go back to school to work on their GPA just cause it bothers them so much, or because they’re worried about how their GPA will look on a resume. which, if it’s the latter, i wouldn’t worry… i’ve been told by a peer career advisor that it doesn’t even really matter whether or not your GPA is on a resume, in terms of employment. and if it’s the former reason… i dunno. i just don’t think it’s worth the resources, yknow?

    anyway, you didn’t specify what your motivation was, but my guess is that it’s neither of those (included them to cover my bases in case i’m wrong lol). i think you were intending on going to grad school, given that you mentioned you took “a year off” to work. a year off from education, i’m presuming?

    if i am indeed the ultimate detective slash genius that i think i am, and you are indeed thinking of doing this for grad school purposes, here are a few things i think you should note as you weigh your decision:

    • grad schools will be able to see that you raised your GPA by completing courses as a non-degree student, and will take this into account
    • like you mentioned, doing well in two or three courses won’t work miracles for a GPA that took several years to take shape.
    • it would be best if you check in with the grad school programs you’re considering and see how they feel about this avenue of GPA-raising, as well as whether they think it would be a good idea / give you an edge / detract from the way they consider your GPA. it’s hard for me to speak for them, given i have literally zero experience in grad school admissions.
    • it might be useful to contact your registrar and see what they think, as well. if you graduated recently, they should still have your info on file and may be able to provide guidance as to whether or not taking more courses is worth it.

    also, just so you know, online school (so far) has actually really sucked. that might be useful to take into account if you’re planning to complete those two or three courses this summer. it’s hard to focus on your schoolwork when you’re staring at a screen for so long, many profs have no frickin’ clue what they’re doing, some online exams are truly designed to screw you over… man. if i could dodge online school without interfering so much with these glorious (read: so terribly mundane) plans i have for my life, i would.

    cant GIF

    anyway, ball’s in your court. good luck making the decision.

    be Boundless,
    aska
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  • co-requisites

    coreq yourself before you wreck yourself

    April 27, 2020

    if i meet the prerequisites and not the corerequisite of a course i enrolled in, will i get removed from it?

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    makin’ an entrance to let you know: the short answer is that if someone checks your status in the course, you will be removed from it without warning. a corequisite to a course, as you probably know, usually contains material that’s relevant to the first course in question. for that reason, departments do tend to check that you’re registered in corequisites pretty early on in the semester and will give you the boot if they find you’ve snuck in without a coreq.

    if you’re having issues getting into the coreq for any reason, i’d recommend that you contact your friendly ol’ registrar and book a phone appointment with them to get that sorted.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • breadth requirements,  courses

    did someone call for a knockout?

    April 27, 2020

    Breadth requirements advice? I’m going to be a first year student at UofT next year and I kinda wanna get all the breadth requirements out of the way in my first year. i’ve got .5 in BR 5, .5 in BR 4 and 1.0 in BR 3 worth of transfer creds so i still need to knock out 1.0 in BR 1 and 2. any suggestions on what to take or if i should even do all of them in one year? I’d like something easy/interesting. Thanks for the help!

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    congrats!! super excited that you’ve chosen u of t for university.

    Stephen Colbert GIF

    it’s great to see you’re trying to get ahead of the curve by tackling your breadth requirements early. i always recommend that people do this, so that you don’t need to worry about them later on. plus, i actually think you have some of the best breadth options as a first year.

    let’s see what we got here. so as an incoming first year, you have access to the first year foundations seminars as well as the ones programs. these are essentially both academic programs designed to ease the transition from high school to university: they tend to have lighter coursework, very small class sizes, fantastic instructors, and really interesting content. they’re also restricted to first years, so they’re a great place to make friends. i took several of these classes as a first year and wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

    action bronson & friends watch ancient aliens eating GIF by #ActionAliens

    i don’t think the first year foundations listings for next year have been finalized yet– this will probably happen halfway through the summer. here are the listings for last year— you’ll see that many of the topics are really interesting. man,,,, i wish i could take some of these. but alas. i am too old. past my prime.

    Season 10 Friends GIF

    old betty white GIF

    other than that, you can start looking into the offerings from the ones program if you’d like, since they don’t tend to change too much year by year. if you’re looking to fulfill BR 1 and 2, you might be interested in these courses:

    breadth 1

    breadth 2

    two things to note: first, you may want to note is that a lot of people will use some of their 2.0 FCEs of credit/no credits to fulfill breadth requirements, since it means you only need to pass a course to get credit. if this is something that appeals to you, you should know that you can’t use CR/NCR designations for first year foundations or ones.

    second, there’s a limit on how many of these first-year exclusive courses you can take. you’re always limited to just one selection from the ones programs (ie. innis one, or a stream of trin one), and a lot of the time you won’t be able to take both ones AND first year foundations. as in, you gotta pick either or. to be certain that this is the case, you’ll need to check the exclusions on specific courses when you put together your timetable. but it’s good to know that this is the general situation ahead of time, so you don’t run into any fun surprises.

    door dancing GIF by Cheezburger

    so in terms of easy breadth courses beyond what FYF and the ones can offer, here are a few options i’ve heard are solid. not all of them are breadth 1 or 2– i also included a common course taken for breadth 5, since you could technically use it to fill your breadth requirements.

    you can also just browse through the calendar’s breadth requirement filter and look for course titles that look interesting to you. there’s a trick to this: look for the ‘printer-friendly version’ button at the bottom right of the screen and click it, so you can see all the course descriptions at once.

    i always recommend taking a course that intrigues you over one that you’ve heard is easy. the learning experience will be so much more rewarding, and it’s easier to do well if you care about the material.

    one last thing that might also be useful to know (maybe you know this already???) is that your program courses can count towards breadth requirements as well. as in, you don’t need to take courses just to get breadth requirements. sometimes you can fulfill them as a side effect of fulfilling program requirements, especially if you’re in an interdisciplinary program.

    the only way you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of this is if you anticipate that every single one of your mandatory courses throughout your degree will be breadth 3. i guess it can happen. figured i’d mention this anyway, since it’s always best not to make assumptions about what incoming students know.

    Zach Galifianakis Thumbs Up GIF

    best of luck with course selection, and remember not to hammer anything down before u of t finalizes the timetable! learned that the hard way when i was an incoming student– had to start over like, three times. psh. keener.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • academic offense,  covid-19,  no one asked,  profs,  tests

    quercus test PSA

    April 23, 2020

    hey hey hey there online schoolin’ students, and a good evening to everyone except profs who give closed book exams during a pandemic,

    this is just a friendly neighbourhood announcement that when you’re taking exams on quercus, your profs can actually see a log of your activity.

    some of yall might be aware of this already, but for those of you who weren’t, figured i’d put it up on the site. i know finals season is pretty much done but this might be applicable to anyone taking summer school. share to save a life, or whatever.

    so for backstory, quercus is basically the same thing as canvas, just renamed to fit u of t’s pretentious tree theme.

    canvas’s official support webpage is pretty transparent about the fact that, when a quiz or test is taken on its platform, it retains a ‘quiz log’ for up to six months. what can your profs see on this log, you might wonder?

    Suspicious Zach Galifianakis GIF by BasketsFX

    well, funny that you ask. they can actually see a second-by-second ‘action log’ of when you view, answer, and skip questions. they can see every attempt you take at a question (previous answers don’t actually get overwritten) and every attempt you take at a quiz overall, as well as how long you spent taking the quiz.

    most importantly, they can see when you click away to a different tab or window. this shows up as “stopped viewing the canvas quiz-taking page.” you can see why a high recurrence of these alerts might look suspicious, especially if your mark jumps quite a lot after the assessment in question.

    suspicious disney GIF

    i’ve also heard (but don’t know where on the canvas support site to confirm this) that profs can see what course materials have been opened/are currently open/have been downloaded on your computer. because we don’t love making empty allegations, this article from the OTHER U of T, the university of texas, seems to serve as confirmation. the article also lets us know that once again, canvas/quercus does its job WAY too well and provides a briefing of how long those tabs have been open as well. which is a bit embarrassing for me, given that i never close those tabs even when i’m done with them. my profs probably think i’m obsessed with their material.

    obviously, canvas/quercus activity reports will generally not be an issue if your tests are open book, or if your profs have made other provisions to prevent students from cheating. but make sure you’re clear on what’s allowed and not allowed before taking an exam on quercus, just to be safe. dodging academic integrity issues is always cool. we like that.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • choosing,  co-op,  co-op management,  UTM,  UTSC

    i’m the goat

    April 23, 2020

    Hi there! Sorry for bothering you but I am really struggling between UTSC and UTM right now. Little bit of background info: I was accepted to the Co-op Management program at UTSC and the Management program at UTM (did not apply to UTSG). I am also an international student who has received a 65% scholarship for my studies in UToronto, and an additional 19000CAD scholarship from UTM.

    Pros for UTSC:
    -Can do Co-op which I believe is really good for a student’s future career
    -Better sports facilities (especially for my sport) which are really ideal for me

    Cons for UTSC:
    -Don’t really like the campus, looks pretty sketchy and people don’t seem to like it on Reddit
    -More expensive as I will be losing my 19000cad from UTM and Co-op costs more I believe
    -The campus just really doesn’t look as nice as UTM but I am not sure because I have really only looked at pictures online
    -No free shuttle bus to downtown:(

    Pros for UTM:
    -nicer campus, more green area which I will feel more comfortable being around
    -Lower tuition fee (which is kind of a big deal for me)
    -Free shuttle bus!!
    -The community just look nicer and suit me better, idk…

    Cons for UTM:
    -no co-op which I’m not sure if its really that big of a deal (Coz I really need job experience but can I even get any at UTM…)
    -might have to travel to downtown/UTSC 3-4 times a week to practice
    -isolated area? So hard to find jobs/internships around campus? I am really not sure because I am just so lost:(

    I guess UTSC can prepare me for a better career which is truly ideal, but UTM is what I prefer for my 4 years of college life. Would be great if I can get the same amount of work experience at UTSC by attending UTM (is there a way to secure that the school can help me find jobs if I don’t do co-op or am I really going to be on my own:( )

    I might even do UTM Commerce in my second year if I study at UTM, but I will probably stick with Co-op management if I study at UTSC. Which one do you think I should choose? Is Co-op really that big of a deal? Is it worth sacrificing part of my college experience/preference for it?

    Sorry that I am all over the place, there’s just too much going on in my head and I’m just so worried that I’m going to regret it. Thank you so much for your precious time and help!

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    congrats on making it into both programs, and with scholarships, too!

    quick psa: it would be v cool if people stop sending questions to every single ask box i advertise! this seems to be an international student thing, so you’re not alone in it, but rest assured that i will see your question even if you only send it once. 

    but you never need to apologize for bothering me, this is what i do. let’s get to it. for anyone who hasn’t been following this epic saga, this post is a part two, it seems, to this one. thank you for taking my suggestion to shorten your question! that’s cool. we love readability.

    so you did the epic pros and cons list, i can see. a few notes on that list:

    • don’t believe everything you see on u of t’s reddit! from my experience, it’s where the angry people go to congregate.
    • finances are definitely something to consider! you’ve been offered a huge scholarship to UTM, and imo that’s hard to turn down.
    • it can often be quite difficult to make a judgement about a campus based solely on pictures. here is a webpage offering virtual tours of utsc, and here are some virtual tours of utm residence buildings. you can also try looking video tours up on youtube, which is something i did when i was making my admissions decision!
    •  utsc has a lot of green space too! 
    • it’s hard to tell what a school’s community is like until you’re there. i’m curious as to why you think the utm community will suit you better. rest assured you will be able to make friends, find mentors, and study under great profs regardless of whether you choose utm or utsc!

    it’s still really hard for me to give you a definitive answer re: which school you should choose, because even if i know what factors you’re considering, i don’t know the weight of each one. for example: if you give up the utm scholarship, will you be taking on that same amount in student loans? or do you have sufficient parental support to not need those loans in the first place? i feel like depending on your situation, the importance of certain things you’re considering can change.

    keep in mind that you will (presumably) be spending four entire years of your life as a student at whatever campus you choose. so if you feel like you’d be happier at UTM, that’s not insignificant. four years is a solid chunk of your life. university isn’t just a stepping stone to a future career– it’s an experience, and one that has so far been really precious to me.

    that being said, i’m not sure that there’s a way to ensure that u of t helps you get a job without a guaranteed co-op. that isn’t to say there aren’t any student supports to help you find jobs at utm– utm has a fantastic career centre, and like i told you in the last post, the utm management program has programming that will help you get work placements and hands-on experience. ie. MGT480H5 and the certificate in effective business practices and leadership skills. if you end up choosing utm commerce, you’ll have access to the Personal Experience Year (PEY), which is a 12 to 16 month internship also done by students at utsg.

    basically, i wouldn’t say you’ll ever be fully on your own. there’s programming at both schools to help ensure that you get hands-on work experience while pursuing your degree. at the very least, your registrar’s office (both at utm and utsc) will be able to provide you with guidance and refer you to career resources.

    ultimately, you’re gonna need to take ownership for your decision. there’s no easy formula to success in life. co-ops are important, yes, but you can do great even without one. students at st. george don’t have access to the co-op program that utsc runs, but they tend to be fine. i have full faith in you to make the best decision for yourself. you got this.

    i actually think it’s pretty clear which school you want to go to, so…

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • grad school

    graduating soon!!!! love that

    April 22, 2020

    Hi,

    I will be graduating soon and technically only need 5 more courses to graduate or 2.5 credits to satisfy the 6.0 FCE at 300+. However, I was wondering if graduate schools require you to have at least 10 credits in both 300 and 400 courses.

    I changed programs last year which resulted in me having extra credits for courses that do not satisfy my current program requirements. But this is also why I would not need to take more than 6.0 FCE in 300+ level courses in order to graduate.

    I do plan on continuing my education in the future and do not want to come back to finish courses if I do not meet the requirements. So would it be best for me to have 10 credits in 300 and 400 courses or would I be wasting my time taking extra courses now?

    Thank you and take care.

    ——————————————

    heyo,

    kudos to you for having the energy to plan for your future during these trying times. i can only manage to sleep way longer than i should, zone out at the kitchen table, and start new podcasts only to give up 10 minutes in.

    anyway, the best course of action for you to take is to get in touch with whatever grad school programs you might be considering for the future and ask them directly. i say this primarily because there’s no one-and-done rule for grad school admissions– different schools have different policies– and i’d hate to give you inaccurate information that screws you over. this is especially true given i don’t know what kind of grad schools you’re looking at. law? med? fine arts? … engineering?

    it’s a lot easier (on your sanity and wallet alike) to email and call a couple of your top choices than it is for you to take an extra ton of credits at the 300 and 400 level just in case.

    it may be reassuring for you to know, though, that many grad schools do encounter applicants in your shoes (fewer upper year credits) and are often willing to account for reasonable factors causing this. for example, u of t medicine’s application info page reads:

    “It is recognized that at times, students take courses in lower years for various reasons, such as a change in program or to complete subjects of interest or prerequisites that did not fit the academic schedule previously. If you have information about your academics that you feel is important for the Admissions Committee to know, please use the Academic Explanations Essay within the OMSAS application.”

    ie. they allow you to explain your situation, so that it’s accounted for when they’re looking over your file. i’ve heard that this is quite common among grad schools.

    but yeah. best course of action is always to go right to the source of the admissions policies, just to be sure. hope you’re takin care of yourself as well, and good luck with finishing your degree!! you’re almost there.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • career choice,  grad school

    i have a lot of question sand, too

    April 20, 2020
    Hello! I am looking for some advice. I am a graduate student at U of T and ma planning to make a career change after finishing my grad school. In order to do that, I may need to acquire a second bachelors degree. However, I am not entirely sure which department would be most suitable and how to proceed about it. I have a lot of question sand need to find a very good academic advisor that can meet with me in person. Would you recommend any specific person that I can get in touch with?

    ——————————————
    hello hello,
    i’m so sorry it took me so long to get to this! i wrote a post up, but it got buried in a bunch of other stuff. fully my bad.
    so you’re at u of t, which is bureaucracyland– meaning that i can’t necessarily recommend a specific person for you to speak with, because there are so many different academic advising offices serving different populations. i doubt the academic advisors i know would be able to help you out, given that as a grad student you don’t fall under their jurisdiction.

    so my first instinct was to send you to your own registrar, but upon actually looking into that… apparently this is a lot more convoluted than i thought. the registrars’ directory that i normally link people to does have a line for “school of graduate studies,” but when you click it, it sends you to a registration info page. what? did someone just paste the wrong link in? more concerningly, do grad students not have a registrar? who do you run crying to when you miss a deadline and need reassurance? ah, you’re grad students, maybe you have your lives figured out.

    i would recommend that you email graduate.information@utoronto.ca to see if the school of graduate studies has any academic advisors (i would sure hope so). you can also reach out to the career centre for a one-on-one career advising appointment. this might be more of a post-covid thing, given that they don’t have a phone number listed (???) so maybe try the school of graduate studies first.

    while most departments are no longer doing in-person appointments at this time, you can probably get the same caliber of advice over the phone or microsoft teams.

    hope you’re staying safe and sorry again for how long it took me to get back to you!

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  • 12 distinct credits

    it took me way too long to add 4 + 4 + 7 together

    April 20, 2020

    Hi aska, I know lots of people are asking about the 12.0 distinct credits rule, but how would that apply to 1 major and 2 minors… None of my program credits overlap so I can assume I’m safe?

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    you are correct that this is a super common question, but it’s common because it’s one of the most confusing things at this school.

    the 12 distinct credits rule does apply to 1 major and 2 minors, yes. since a minor is typically 4.0 credits and a major is typically around 7.0 credits, one major and two minors with no overlap should add up to around 15.0 distinct credits. since i don’t know what programs yours are, i can’t confirm this for you, but you can probably do the math yourself!

    if in doubt, UTSC has put together a pretty solid 12 distinct credits worksheet that can be useful for more complicated program combinations with some degree of overlap. just throwin’ that out there in case you decide to change your program at some point, and need to figure things out again. you can also use it for your current program combo if you REALLY want to be sure.

    but yeah, bottom line, i think you’re probably safe.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • admissions,  financial aid,  scholarships/bursaries,  work-study

    fresh blood, bois (thank god it’s good news this time)

    April 19, 2020

    I have been accepted into all 3 campuses and my fam is beyond happy about it. But I just got an email today informing me that I failed to get the scholarship. I’m an international student and the tuition fee is way too much for my fam. I have calculated possible earnings from coop (management) but I’m not confident they will be of any help. Is there any information or organization/ someone I can contact abt scholarship or any means of financial aid?. I’m vibing with UofT already so I’m thinking of taking loans but is it worth it? considering that I can go to my country’s uni debt-free. Thank you.

    ——————————————

    hey hey hey,

    enormous congrats on your acceptance! all three campuses, wowow. even in these whack times, that’s v exciting. i, personally, am on a HUGE ‘i miss u of t’ stint at the moment, so i’m even more excited for you than i’d normally be at this point in the semester.

    u of t is a fantastic school, and it’s offered me so many opportunities/friendships/learning experiences that i wouldn’t give up for anything. with that said, not everyone ultimately finds it “worth it,” so to speak. here’s a previous post i wrote upon the pros and cons of going to u of t, as i see them. give it a look if you’re interested. it might give you a little more information as you draw up your own pros and cons list, metaphorically or literally (but i always recommend literally, it’s how i made my own uni decision).

    i can’t give you a definitive answer as to whether or not going to u of t is worth it, because i don’t have all the details necessary to make that decision (and please don’t give them to me!! i could be an internet criminal for all you know). for example, i don’t really know what your values or goals are, or the caliber of the local school you’d be attending. those are definitely things you should be taking into consideration.

    here are some other questions to ask yourself: what do you want out of your undergraduate degree? are you in an acceptable financial position to take out loans? do you anticipate that your field of study will be lucrative enough to pay your loans back? will you have parental support? would you be able to cut costs by living off-campus and cooking for yourself? etc., etc.

    worried about funding? here are some things you can look into:

    • the award explorer database, which just launched quite recently, will allow you to filter through a ton of scholarships that the school offers in order to find the ones you’re eligible for. there are a good number of admissions scholarships you can probably apply for. many scholarships will also take financial aid into account (some of them only look at financial aid!!) so i’d give this a shot
    • the work-study program provides paid on-campus part time jobs that are generally quite flexible in terms of hours. as an international student, you’ll need to apply for a social insurance number in order to be eligible for work-study, but i know several international students who have successfully done this. i myself am a work-study student, and find the program to be pretty fantastic. our main campus newspaper, the varsity, has put out a few pro-con articles on work-study if you wanna check them out here. 
    • working in the summers or getting an off-campus part-time job during the semester can be a good way to make some tuition money. i have friends who work at bubble tea shops, coffee shops, and more. the downside to non-campus jobs is that your work schedule won’t always be as flexible as it would under the work-study program, but it’s definitely something to consider.
    • becoming a don is also an option in your upper years, if you have the leadership/crisis management skills and the patience to deal with rowdy first-years. each residence has their own hiring process and they don’t all offer the same benefits, but i’ve heard it can be a super solid way for people to offset university costs. for example, many residences with meal plans offer dons free access to those meal plans. other residences offer 100% free accommodations.
    • most colleges and divisions also offer some sort of bursary program to students with financial aid. you’d need to speak to your registrar’s office to find out more.
    • going to UTM or UTSC will typically be cheaper in terms of rent/groceries, and there’s probably less competition for scholarships. but you’d have to weigh the value of each campus in terms of your personal goals as well– i ultimately chose st. george because there were more opportunities downtown.

    if you do ultimately choose u of t, your registrar’s office will usually have a financial advisor who’s willing to work with you to create a student budget. they, as well as residence programs, can also provide money-saving advice. i myself was worried about finances when i chose u of t, but i’ve found that meal-prepping, thrift shopping, living with roommates, and using student discounts is really helpful. i also use an excel sheet to keep track of my spending– if you use a few simple formulas, it auto-updates just like magic! spreadsheets rock.

    all that being said, i do realize that international student tuition is really high, and the casual offsetting you can do by skimping on restaurant meals and takeout will only make a small dent in that debt.

    in terms of weighing the “should i stay or should i go” question: one lil piece of advice i’ve heard is that, when considering what country you do a postsecondary degree in, it’s helpful to have a sense of what region you’d like to work in afterwards. after you complete a university degree, your degree isn’t the only thing you should have in your pocket– often, you end up with a personal and professional network that may open up career opportunities, but that network will be most useful in the area where your university’s actually located.

    here’s a domestic example: if you were choosing whether to go to school at home in edmonton or out-of-province in toronto, but ultimately want to return to edmonton to work, then it might be more useful to grow that network at home. if, however, you saw your career flourishing best in toronto and would be happy working on the east coast, that’s extra points for a school like u of t.

    hope that makes sense. good luck making the decision! i’m sure whatever you choose, it’ll be good.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • academic offense

    guys please ://

    April 19, 2020

    hi , I just got an email from my professor that the TA suspects me for plagiarizing . This is my first time getting academic integrity/offence email . It involves my final which is worth 30% . The issue was some of my answers were not properly paraphrased and misreference as I thought citing from Wikipedia isn’t valid . I know Im the dumbest person in this uni right now , but currently this issue has give me a lot of pressure . Thanks in advance for your help 🙂

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    not sure what your specific question is, but i can tell you what will probably happen next. according to the code of behaviour on academic matters, you’ll need to make yourself available for a meeting with your instructor, in which the two of you will discuss what happened, your instructor will give you more information, etc. etc. nothing you say in this meeting can be used against you, so you and your instructor can have as open a conversation as possible about the situation. if, after that, your instructor still believes that you committed an academic offense, your case will get passed on to your department chair or dean, and things will be dealt with accordingly.

    in your case, since your assignment was worth more than 10%, it’ll likely be the dean who decides what kind of reprimand you’ll be facing. but no use speculating about what that’ll be until you meet with your instructor.

    to address specific elements of the message you sent me:

    in general, citing from wikipedia isn’t really a good call. if you’re really insistent on using it, scroll down to the bottom of the wikipedia page and see if you can find any legitimate sources lurking in the footnotes. it’s a much better to (properly!!) use and cite those sources than it is to use or cite wikipedia. don’t cite wikipedia. at most, use it as a starting point.

    anyway, you pay for access to u of t’s library of online journals and stuff, anyway, so it may be worth the extra effort next time to pull sources from there instead. i know the language can be more difficult to parse and it’s a little less straightforward than doing a simple google search, but the quality of info you’ll get there is so, so much better than wikipedia. not using a service you already paid for is kinda like:

    as for proper paraphrasing… this document from the uc writing centre is pretty legit in terms of the guidelines it provides. at the core of it, they outline two essential points. first, you NEED to reference your source (in-text, like through footnotes or whatever your prof wants). second, it’s essential that you use your own words and sentence structures when paraphrasing. it may be beneficial to give those guidelines a look, just so that you’re clear on what the expectations are for next time.

    in general, i’d recommend that you reach out to your friendly local registrar. book a phone appointment and explain your situation. it would be useful for you to talk your situation over with someone who can give you advice specific to your case. it would also be a good opportunity for you to ask any specific questions you might have.

    a final note: i need you guys to understand that i can’t bail you out, or give you reassurance i ultimately can’t stand behind, or even predict what’s going to happen to you. i’m willing to answer as many of these as are sent in, but i (as a fellow student!) can only be useful in these ways, as far as academic integrity cases are concerned:

    • explain the code of academic conduct
    • give you tips to avoid academic integrity issues in the future
    • walk you through the next steps of navigating an academic integrity case
    • refer you to resources

    this isn’t @ you specifically, just an announcement for anyone asking academic integrity questions right now. i’ve gotten more this week than i usually do over the span of, like, five months.

    best of luck finishing the rest of the semester if you’re not yet done. we’ll pull through.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • copyright,  library

    sharing is caring????????

    April 17, 2020

    hey! I was wondering what the big copyright stamp/page at the beginning of some of my readings entails? Does uoft really own the material even if it was by some random author at some random time? I have american friends in a different university that i sometimes like to help out by sending pdfs of my readings, but is that not allowed?

    ——————————————

    hey hey,

    i actually have… no clue what you’re referring to? i’d need to have a look at the actual copyright stamp or page to even begin deciphering it, and i’ve probably got as much experience with that as you do. not gonna lie, most of my readings just… start at the first paragraph, or page, or whatever. or i download them off of JSTOR, which outlines its intellectual property stuff here. 

    i’d give it a close read, google any terms you’re unfamiliar with, and try to piece the situation together that way. if you’re not authorized to distribute your readings, then i think any copyright notice included will make that pretty clear. just use your best guess/common sense, and roll with that, i guess.

    as a student myself, i can understand that you’d want to help your friends access materials that they might have trouble getting a hold of. i have no clue how copyright laws work cross-border. that does complicate things a bit.

    i’d actually reach out to a librarian if you want a more concrete answer. i feel like they’re the kinds of people who would know things like this. if you’re aware of your personal librarian at u of t, that might be a good place to start. you can just pose your questions in general, hypothetical terms if you’re worried about repercussions.

    sorry i couldn’t be more helpful! if you wanna send me screenshots of what you’re referring to, i can try and investigate a lil further. but yeah, personal librarian. get in touch.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • academic offense

    sharing is caring, but not always

    April 17, 2020

    I was charged with my second academic offense. My first one was a warning offense for sharing ideas on an extra credit assignment. This time, i was in a groupchat on messenger and people were sharing exam pics and such. I sent answers to 4 pics but didnt send any exam pics and proof was sent to the dean. I got an email saying the deans office is looking into it and now im really worried. what punishment can i expect? I know what i did was wrong and i fully admit to it I dont wanna be suspended:(

    ——————————————

    hello there,

    it’s kind of hard for me to say. since it’s not your first time offense, i highly doubt you’re going to get off with just a reprimand.

    according to the code of behaviour on academic matters, the next lowest steps after a “warning offense,” as you put it, are a grade of zero or F on the assignment, or a reduction of the final grade for the course. you could also face a grade of zero or F in the course. in other words, a suspension isn’t the only possibility you’re facing, which i hope gives you a little reassurance. i know it sucks either way, though.

    i feel like, until you sit down and have a conversation with the dean/your instructor/the department head, you don’t really know what you’re facing. ie. you can’t really guess at what punishment you can expect. it will probably help you out if you admit to what you’ve done (if you don’t, i believe the case moves to higher authority/worse punishments are doled out).

    i’d just sit tight until you get an update re: their investigation. it’s an anxious situation to be in, i know, but you can’t really control what they do/find right now.

    i’d recommend that you reach out to your registrar’s office if you’re really worried. they can talk to you over the phone or something, and give you a better sense of your situation as well as prep you for any potential discussions with the dean. good luck!

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • academic offense

    i do not love that for you

    April 17, 2020

    I just received an email this morning from my instructor that she thinks I plagarized. It’s really freaking me out because I was so sure I paraphrased (we weren’t allowed direct quotations) and that I put a citation to everything and I’m ashamed that I might have plagarized w/o knowing. I’m aware it might be accidental and the meeting will just be a discussion but I’m still really stressed about it and I can’t stop worrying that I also did this in other classes and I’ll get suspended pls help

    ——————————————

    hi friend,

    i feel like this pandemic has brought with it a wave of academic offense questions. not sure if the correlation equals causation here, but rest assured you’re not alone. perfectly natural and valid to be stressed about it, though– i know it’s a scary situation to be in.

    it’s always a little bit hard for me to respond to peoples’ cries for help re: possible academic offenses, because there’s… very little i can do? without actually having a look at your assignment and sources, it would be very difficult for me to tell you if you actually committed an academic offense unknowingly. but i can explain what the possible consequences might be if your case moves past that first meeting, so you can see that getting suspended is far from the only outcome of this. for more, i would recommend that you reach out to your registrar’s office— they’re really experienced with these things, and can help you navigate the situation.

    glad you seem to have done your research (or something?) so i can gloss over the bit about the first meeting just being a discussion. cool cool cool.

    so according to the code of behaviour, how sanctions for academic offenses work is a little different depending on a variety of factors, like whether you admit guilt and how much the assignment was worth. it gets kind of complicated. you can scan through the potential consequences in the code of behaviour if you’d like, but i want to highlight for you that there are so many other options, other than suspension, even if your academic offense is found to be legitimate. for minor and first-time offenses, you may just need to resubmit your work in addition to some sort of reprimand being issued. obviously, since i don’t know the details, i can’t tell you if your assignment would qualify as a minor offense, but it does sound like you’re a first-timer.

    even if it’s a bit of a larger deal, they’ll assign you a grade of 0 or F for the assignment or reduce your final grade in the course before they’ll suspend you. i know that’s not super reassuring, but it is better than suspension. and i have faith in the system to only reprimand you in proportion with what happened, ie. if it really was an accident, i really really doubt you’re gonna face your worst nightmares.

    best of luck with everything though, sending you all the good vibes. drink some water and take a deep breath. focus on something else. as someone who would panic over something like this as well, what i’ve learned is that there’s no use digging yourself into a hole of anxiety– just prepare yourself well for that initial first meeting, be fully honest, and see where things go from there. you’ll have more information about your situation after that meeting. you got this.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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