May, 2020 - askastudent

academic offense, online courses

they’re watching you

May 27, 2020

Hi, I recently had a Quercus online test, it was not open book. For one multiple choice question I checked my answer on lecture slides in a different tab, I know this was wrong and this would be my first offense. I was planning on dropping the course anyway and already have, and my test hasn’t been graded yet, but I’m scared I’ll be charged with academic dishonesty and I feel terrible. I don’t know if they will grade my test, but do I email the prof? Do I tell them or will I not even be graded?

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hello there,

i feel like i should have gotten to a question like this quicker, so sorry about the wait!

i dunno if your situation has changed at all since a few days ago, but i’m not sure how helpful i can be anyway. i’m not sure whether your test will be graded if you’ve dropped the course (maybe not?? probably not??) and whether or not you come clean to your prof is your call. obviously, it would be the most honest thing to do, but i can’t really predict what the consequences will be. i don’t know what the academic integrity procedures are for courses that have already been dropped, which makes it kind of hard for me to navigate this for you.

if you want some better guidance on this, i would really encourage you to get in touch with your registrar’s office. i don’t believe anything you say to an academic advisor can be used against you in an academic integrity case given that they’re not even part of the process, but i’d check that over with whoever you speak to just to be 100% sure. regardless, they’d be the best place to go to for advice in a situation like this.

anyway, in case you’re not aware (but you might already be), your profs can see your Quercus activity. regardless of what you choose to do and what ends up happening, the most important thing you take away from this is to not make the same mistake again in the future.

be Boundless,

aska

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first year, FLC, one programs

tfti to first year courses :(

May 27, 2020

Hello, I hope whoever reads this is doing well! I will be joining Physical and Mathematical sciences at UofT this fall, and I wanted to ask about the One’s program vs. FLC! I heard FLC was pretty suitable for those doing LifeSci, so I don’t know if the same would apply to someone not doing LifeSci. So, my question is: which one is better? And, can I do both? Also, is there a cost to the One’s program? How many times do they meet up? Thank you!

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hey there,

congrats on accepting your offer of admission, that’s some pretty cool stuff. let’s unravel your question:

are FLCs suitable for people who aren’t in lifesci?

yes! i suspect you may have heard that they’re good for lifesci students because there’s lifesci first year learning community (FLC) group at every college, making lifesci the most common FLC. but the thing is that there are all sorts of FLC groups to match a range of interests. you can join a humanities group, or a social sciences group, if that’s the kind of thing you’re into. want to hang out with a bunch of actuarial science, compsci, math, psych, or econ kids? apparently there are enough of them that those programs get their own FLCs.

in short, if your interests line up with one of the FLC groups offered, whether lifesci or otherwise, joining an FLC in your first year is at least worth considering. since you mentioned that you’re going into the physical and mathematical sciences, you can probably look into the mathematics FLC.

which one is better? can i do both?

which one is “better” honestly depends on what you’re interested in, experience- and outcome-wise. i think FLCs may be better for meeting other first years with similar academic interests to you, and growing a sense of community in that way. you also get some pretty solid guidance if you’re part of an FLC, since you have access to senior-year student mentors as well as staff/faculty advisors. however, with FLCs you’re bound to a specific set of courses for your first year, which can feel a little restrictive. it’s great if those courses serve as prereqs for programs you’re interested in anyway, as i assume is probably true for FLCs with a more specific focus. however, if you were registered in a humanities FLC but planed to take a super niche humanities program with different prereqs, i can’t imagine that would line up very well. it may also be important to you that FLCs offer CCR recognition, while ‘ones’ and first-year foundations seminars (FYS) do not.

the ‘ones’ program, though, lends you quite a lot of flexibility in terms of subject matter depending on which course you choose. registering in a ‘one’ won’t take up more than a single slot in your timetable, and there’s no extra meeting on top of the courses, unlike with an FLC. it’s true that you’re less likely to meet first years with similar interests because all sorts of first years tend to register in ‘ones,’ but they’re still great places to make friends! in my first year, i chose the ‘ones’ program over a FLC for its flexibility, and ended up meeting some of the people i’m now closest to at u of t. plus… honestly, in terms of how cool the subject matter is, i would rank ‘ones’ above FLCs, and FYS courses over both of them.

can you take both? i know that there are exclusions for FYS courses and the ‘ones’ program, but i’ve never run into any exclusions for FLCs and ‘ones.’ i’m relatively certain that you can do both, but if you wanna be 100% certain i’d check it over with your registrar.

is there a cost to the ones program?

not unless you take a course with a travel component, like this seminar that involves a trip to california. i think the only ‘ones’ with a travel component are the SMC ones, though– if there’s a fun, expensive field trip involved, usually you’ll know just by looking at the course page. and anyway… who even knows if those field trips are gonna be able to run for this upcoming school year?

how many times do they meet up?

not sure which one you’re referring to here. generally, outside of regular classes, FLCs meet up 13 times over the academic year. on the other hand, ones operate like regular classes (you meet for the designated class time every week for either one semester or the full year).

anyway, hope this was helpful and you have a great first year! good luck making a decision.

be Boundless,

aska

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art, career choice, suspension

a stable job? oh boy

May 13, 2020

Hi, I currently graduated with a 2.53 gpa. I was suspended for one year and managed to graduate! I realized school is not a thing for me in long term. My major was in art history, but jobs like museum curating require you to have a masters degree. I aspire to become a writer one day, but want a stable job to support that. What career would you recommend that is close to my major and requires no grad school and no social media?

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hey there,

buddy, i know next to nothing about art history. but i wear many hats around here, apparently, so lemme put on my career advising cap and see if anything changes.

all right, all right, let’s see. stable jobs, hmm.

oh, what’s that? no such thing as a stable job in this economy? cool cool cool cool cool, okay.

in all seriousness, i can’t tell you much more than a simple google search will be able to. i would recommend that you contact career advising for one of their lovely advising appointments, which you should still be able to take advantage of as a recent grad. they even seem to have revamped their website and offerings to continue to support students virtually, which is cool. kudos to them. last time i linked to them, they didn’t even have a phone number listed and it felt like a dead end. you’re in luck, i guess. go for it! go talk to them! pursue your writer dreams while bagging that stable income! but good luck dodging social media lol, i’ve had no luck so far (exhibit one: i run this website and all its attached accounts).

good luck!!

be Boundless,

aska

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enrollment, enrolment, keeners, timetable

keener alert

May 13, 2020

hi! do you know when the timetable for courses is going to update? i’ve been wanting to plan out my classes for next year but i know the timetable isn’t going to be 100% accurate until it updates.

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hey there,

to my understanding, there’s not really one comprehensive update for the timetable. u of t has too many departments and divisions that like to change things around at the last minute. they’ve probably already begun revamping the timetable for next year, but until it reads ‘2020-2021 fall & winter session timetable” instead of 2019-2020, i’d assume it’s fully unusable. especially with covid, we don’t necessarily know if classes are going to look the same next year. even in regular years, class times and offerings tend to change year to year.

my guess is that by june-ish (late june??) that heading will update. perhaps it will update later this year if covid changes the way u of t will operate. regardless, it’s important to note that the heading update only indicates that the timetable is mostly accurate, not 100% solid. like i said, there might still be smaller updates after that. i wanna say that around…. mid july (?) is typically the best time to do course planning, because it’s when the timetable starts to settle down.

right before my first year, i think i got on top of course planning several weeks before enrollment began. i also remember having to revise my course schedule several times, because a couple of things shifted and messed with the whole thing i had going on.

i understand the desire to plan your courses out (it’s exciting!!) but i would advise against doing it too early, unless you’re willing to spend extra time revising your timetable should your course info change.

i’d say the safest time to plan out your courses is just several days before your enrollment date, even though that might seem a bit tight. and then check over your course details one more time the morning of your enrollment day, to be super super sure nothing has changed.

be Boundless,

aska

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late registration, summer

i added a new category named ‘late regstration’ just for u and now i can’t delete it

May 13, 2020

i’m financially cancelled for the summer session, because i thought i didn’t want to enrol. but now i don’t have anything to do, so i might be changing my mind. is there a way to un-cancel myself so i can enrol in summer courses, or is it too late?

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hey there,

technically, yes, it is past the deadline to enrol in summer courses.

however, if you get in touch with your friendly local registrar, they should be able to process you as a late registration. i’m not super familiar with what the process looks like for the summer semester (especially with the registrar’s office having gone virtual), but i can’t imagine it would be that different from normal? basically a doing a late reg means is that you’ll get un-cancelled (lol, twitter would never) and be able to enrol in courses. it’ll cost you a sweet little sum (i can’t remember how much? i think around $45???? ask your registrar). but yeah, like most things in our capitalist economy, many disallowed things are possible if you’re willing to pay the price.

too bad i’m too poor to get away with stunt driving. too bad i’m too poor to even know how to drive. the bus be my horse,

be Boundless,

aska

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covid-19, grad school, profs

going the distance to bag those references

May 6, 2020

hello! i am looking for reference letters for graduate school and i was thinking of asking a professor during summer courses. any advice on getting to know my profs this summer when courses are online?

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hello hello,

good afternoon to everyone except profs who are still assigning textbooks that cost over a hundred dollars, even during an economic downturn.

grad school! an exciting endeavour.

online summer courses! a mediocre endeavour at best.

< so i took a solid chunk of time and thought this out, because initially it seemed highly unlikely to me that you'd be able to successfully get to know a prof who's teaching remotely. even before this pandemic, i'd taken a few online courses and found that each time without fail, the instructor remained a nameless faceless entity. do online instructors even exist?

i hate feeling useless, though, so here are the suggestions i scraped together for ya:< number one: online office hours

as far as i’m aware, most instructors are still holding office hours using platforms like zoom or whatnot. these office hours are gonna be your best bet to get to know your profs. show up, have good questions, make it clear you’ve engaged with their material so that you make a good impression.

bonus points for knowing what their area of research is and being able to talk to them about it– but only after you’ve spoken to them at least a few times.

number two: engage with your prof via email

it’s a second-rate strat, but if you’re unable for any reason to talk to your prof face to face over some kind of video call, sending them emails will at least let them know you exist. make sure these emails are polite, professional, and make you sound smart without trying too hard lol. respond quickly (which i suck at, rip me) and once again, ask good questions and express an interest in the class material! some form of communication is better than none.

number three: make yourself stand out if you have class discussions

now, i know this isn’t the case for many classes this summer, but some smaller upper-year seminars will still be holding live lectures with a participation or discussion component. if you’re planning to apply to grad school soon, my hope is that you’re an upper year able to take a small advanced class like this. participating is a good way to get noticed by your profs. the ones i’ve had have always appreciated quality participation, and if you do really well they’ll notice you and you won’t even need to try. it’ll then be easier on you when you reach out and want to talk about grad school later down the road.

number four: do well in the class, or make yourself stand out through assignments

it goes without saying that sometimes these things are out of your control.

if we all could do well in our classes we would. but in my experience talking to profs about grad school, they’ve been pretty transparent about how, if you want a solid letter, you should get an A in their course or have something academically noteworthy about you that they can discuss. if you can manage to do really, really well, or turn in a creative or surprising assignment, this will definitely get your profs to notice you as well as hand them material for whatever letters they may write you later on.

hope this was helpful! good luck with your summer courses and grad school applications.

be Boundless,

aska

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enrollment, enrolment

you just got FINCA’d

May 4, 2020
hi! my status on acorn for summer says financially cancelled, but i never enrolled for summer classes in the first place. is this normal?

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hello hello,

yes, this is normal! how the ACORN system operates is this:
1. you’re invited to register in a session (ie. fall/winter or summer, in your case summer 2020)
2. you enroll in courses
3. you pay the minimum payment to register by the stated deadline, which has now passed
4. you’re registered!
or, like a choose-your-own-adventure, you can branch off at the first step and not enroll in courses. since you obviously don’t pay if you don’t enroll, you don’t get to make it to step 4. what happens at this point is you get FINCA’d. financially cancelled.

this is not the same thing as getting cancelled on twitter. it does not mean that you are in trouble. all it means is that ACORN has acknowledged that you have not paid on time for a given session, and so you do not show up in the system as a current student. which is what you want if you didn’t intend to enroll for a session in the first place.

for future references, two things to note about getting FINCA’d:
- when this status shows up on your ACORN, it also means you’ve been booted from any classes you might have been enrolled in
- if you didn’t intend to get FINCA’d, ie. you meant to register but didn’t pay by the deadline, what you need to do is get in contact with your registrar. they’ll be able to process a late registration for you, which is usually accompanied by a small fee.
hope this helps!

be Boundless,

aska
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Uncategorized

is a gpa really forever?

May 4, 2020

Hello! I’ve been struggling with severe anxiety all my life, and it really reflects in my grades. I was wondering if there was anyway at all to get my past grades deleted from my GPA, if there is such a thing. I don’t want to ask the registrars office in the (highly likely) chance that I could be wrong. If I could get my psychologist to give proof that I’m dealing with anxiety, or if there’s anything I can do. I came off suspension and I’m doing so much better in terms of my grades but my GPA.

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hey there,

my first instinct upon reading this question was to tell you that there is no known avenue for removing past grades from your GPA. which is generally true. but then i gave your situation a good amount of thought and realized there was one way you might be able to achieve this, although i’m not ACTUALLY sure if it’s viable. wow. we love delivering news like that. i just don’t wanna get your hopes up by making it seem like cupcakes and sprinkles, yknow?

so. if any avenue would work to remove past grades from your GPA, it would be the petitions process. if you’re unfamiliar, petitions are basically how u of t students beg the big ol’ bureaucracy for an exception to the extensive list of laws that govern our lives, also known as the rules and regulations.

at a first glance, none of the common petitions fit your circumstances. one relatively common petition people send in is for a late withdrawal without academic penalty, which would technically have those courses removed from your GPA. the caveat is that those courses would need to be from this fall/winter term. u of t also notes that if you passed the course, late withdrawal without academic penalty is not appropriate. but if you meet the conditions, it might be an option for you. based on the information you gave me, i’m not sure that you do? but putting it out there in case my understanding of things is not accurate.

if want to know whether it’s possible to petition for any other forms of grade removal, you will need to contact your registrar. they’d be the best people to tell you what’s possible and what’s not possible, because they have a lot of experience with petitions. they’ve probably also encountered this question before, so don’t be afraid to ask. i’m pretty sure the answer is usually a no re: removing past grades, but i’m not sure if medical documentation may change that. it’s best to just ask. even if the answer is no, your registrar’s office will be able to connect you with other resources that might help you move forward, or advise other solutions.

for future references, the system tends to be more forgiving when you address academic issues right away. whether that’s petitioning for term work extensions or even just talking to your professor to see what they can do, there are provisions in place for supporting students who might be dealing with medical issues. the thing is that most of them are only allowed to be enacted until a certain date after a course is completed. i know it can be incredibly difficult to deal with these kinds of things when you’re working through severe bouts of mental illness, but i wanted you to know that if you’re able to act fast in the future, it may make things easier on you.

in any case, i’m glad you’re doing better now. i hope this was at least a little bit helpful and that you’re staying safe and healthy wherever you are.

be Boundless,

aska

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