March, 2024 - askastudent

major, programs, specialist

doin the most

March 26, 2024

hiiii!! I’m a high school student looking at uoft programs, do you know if it’s possible to do a specialist and a major at the same time as part of the build your degree? thank you!!

hey there,

great question! yes, it is possible to do a specialist and a major at the same time. you wouldn’t catch me trying that, considering i took too many electives in first year, but all the power to anyone who wants to!

as you can see on the “build your own degree” page, it’s true that the common program combinations are one specialist, or two majors, or one major and two minors. but those are just options that are the minimum needed to graduate. you can absolutely do more, up to a maximum of three programs. but if you do three, one of them has to be a minor.

if you’re doing a specialist, you won’t have to worry about the 12 distinct credit rule, according to the arts & sciences page on program requirements. the 12 distinct credit rule basically says you need 12 credits that don’t overlap and count towards multiple degrees. this rule only applies to majors and minors. so while taking a specialist and a major, it might seem overwhelming to complete all your credits, but you are able to take courses that will count towards both your specialist and major! assuming they’re somewhat related.

for example, if you were doing a specialist in psychology and a major in books & media studies, you could take PSY427 “media psychology” and it would count towards both programs! isn’t that super convenient? i was excited when i found out about that.

just make sure that your programs can be done together, since there are some exceptions where two programs can’t be done together. to my knowledge, this is the case with collaborative life science programs. you can check that out with this short list of program exclusions for the collaborative life science programs under the tab “acceptable combinations”.

and just to be safe, you should also check the specific pages on the arts & sciences calendar website for your programs to see if there are any other exceptions. these pages should be easy to find, but if not, just google “program name uoft” and click on the arts & sciences link.

finally, i’d encourage you to reach out to a recruitment officer if anything else is still confusing! it likely will be, because everything about uni is so confusing at this stage, and we’re just expected to know it all and have it all together? actually, scratch that. everything about life is confusing right now and we’re just expected to know it all.

lol sorry for that pessimistic ending. it’s finals season. but i hope this was helpful, good luck!!

over and out,

aska

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life science, lost, new kids, programs

crash course for incoming students

March 25, 2024

Hey! I got accepted into Life Sci but I’m having some serious second thoughts… I’m not sure if I wanted to major in something science related but I really want to go to UofT, so now I’m stressing over courses. I feel like everywhere I look, I get vague answers, so I was hoping I could recieve a clearer one here :/ are there required courses in first year that are related to the area you’re admitted into, or can you just take whatever prereqs a major has (within arts and sci)?

hey there,

well, you have come to the right place!! before you read all this, the tldr is that you’ll be fine.

when i was accepted into life sci, i was in your exact situation. i wasn’t really sure if i wanted to follow through with science and wanted to try out the arts. the rules around switching around and taking prerequisites are so confusing for incoming students, and for what? it really does not need to be that complicated, so i’ll try to lay it out as clear as i can.

1. admission categories

so when you’re admitted to u of t, you are in an “admission category“. there are six of these in arts & sciences, and they are just a way to group the 340+ program choices into general categories for incoming students. the great thing about admission categories is that they actually give you a lot more freedom to explore during your first year than if you were admitted into a specific program. (here is a list of all the programs included in the life sciences category).

essentially, what i was told for ease of understanding, was that your admission category does not really matter. a common assumption many incoming students make is that your admission category is your program and you’re already tied down and committed. but at this stage, you are not in a program yet—therefore, you can really take any courses you want and shoot for programs that aren’t in your admission category. the only thing your admission category actually has material impact on is getting first-pick during course enrolment.

2. programs of study (POSt)

during the spring of your first year, you will apply to your programs of study (abbreviated as “POSt”). there are three levels of programs: a specialist, a major, and a minor. the difference between these is the number of courses required. most often, people take 2 majors, or 1 specialist, or 1 major and 2 minors. but the maximum number of programs you can enrol in is 3. if this is confusing, sid smith commons has a page with a really great visualizer for what these combinations can look like.

some programs are “open” and some are “limited”. open programs have no prerequisites, while limited programs do. again, sid smith has a page about how to apply to programs.

3. first year pre-requisite courses

to answer your question, yes, pretty much. you can just take whatever pre-reqs a major has within arts & sciences. because remember, at this point, you are not tied down to anything.

for example, if you were admitted into life sciences because you wanted to get into biology (life sci), but now are changing your mind and wanting to major in urban studies (humanities), you could absolutely do that! all you would have to do to get in to the program after first year is take the pre-req courses listed on the artsci website under “enrolment requirements” for that program. that is, if there even are pre-requisites. if there are no pre-reqs, take whatever you want in first year and then select that program on acorn in march!

4. if you’re still confused, here is what i did

in my first year, i was admitted into life sciences, but decided going into it that i didn’t want to do sciences. so i only enrolled in arts courses for my first year. and the spring of my first year, i applied to my open enrolment arts majors. then, i decided to 180 backwards and go back into life sci. so in my second year, i took the first year pre-req courses for the science major i wanted. then in spring of my second year, i applied to my life sci major, keeping my other arts major.

a lot of people’s paths look like a bit zig-zaggy like this. some people know exactly what they want to do, but most people don’t really know! it takes some exploring to figure it out and that’s okay. it’s normal to have second thoughts!

anyways, i hope this clears things up! please drop any more questions that come up. good luck going into first year, you will be amazinggg!

over and out,

aska

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graduation, hart house, tcard

phone calls are not so scary

March 25, 2024

How soon after the semester ends does your tcard stop granting you access to the Hart House fitness center? This is my final semester so I’m done classes and assignments by April 10, the summer semester doesn’t start until May, and I don’t graduate until June. Will I be able to access the Hart House fitness center, and use my tcard as normal until the end of April, May or June?

hey there,

congrats on almost being done your final semester!!

so since i haven’t graduated yet, i wouldn’t actually know exactly when your tcard would stop working.

but good thing i’m aska and have access to all my past reincarnations. therefore, i do have an answer for you!

but no, this morning i overcame my stereotypical gen z fear of making phone calls and i gave the hart house fitness centre a call. they were able to search up individual students to see when access would end for them. since i’m not graduating, i told them the name of the first person i thought of who i know is graduating this spring. looking at that, they said that from the incidental fees you pay, you would have access until may 21st. i’m assuming this would be the same date for everyone graduating this spring.

however, i’m not sure if this is like a general tcard-ends-working date for all u of t services. i honestly doubt that it is.

anyways, love the hart house gym. enjoy it while it lasts, and good luck on your home run stretch!

over and out,

aska

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admissions, commerce, repeating course, UTM

a grand total of one fact

March 16, 2024

Hello!

I applied for UTM Commerce but the problem is that I retook one of my grade 12 courses. I checked the program details and it says that they use the higher of the two marks when calculating my average but reserve the right to treat applicants who did the course in one go with preference. I was just wondering how much retaking a course will weigh against me and what the chances of getting into the course are (My average currently is in the range that they look for)

hey there,

i don’t blame you for being confused (this implies i sometimes blame people for being confused). if i was in your situation, i would have the same question. but honestly, it’s really hard to say. u of t doesn’t have a specific statement on this, and i hate to say it, but it makes sense. things change every year, since the chances of getting in all depends on the number of applicants and how brutal the competition is. there’s really no way to make an exact projection of your chances.

i think that it would depend on which of your grade 12 courses you repeated. according to utm’s admissions page, you need six grade 12 courses, including english, advanced functions, and calculus & vectors. if it was one of those three courses, i’m sure they would matter more than if you repeated a random grade 12 course. if a repeated course even matters for admissions. it is so unclear.

i know my answer is not much better than what u of t websites officially say, but that’s because i honestly just don’t have insider knowledge on utm commerce first-year admissions. i’m a student, not a recruitment officer. but i do have an identity crisis about this every time i answer an admissions question!

i did find some info about upper-year program admissions, which might give you a feel for the competitiveness. on the undergrad programs FAQ page, they say that they receive about 600 applications for the commerce program and accept around 300 students. i’d say those are pretty good odds, at a 50% acceptance rate! for reference, the management program accepts 60 students out of 300 applications. the competition is pretty bad in that one.

keep in mind that i’m talking about the acceptance process that happens when everyone applies to their POSt (program of study) after first year. so this is not about first-year admissions, where you are at right now. it’s just meant to give us an idea of the numbers. overall, we’ve learned that commerce is less competitive than management, and that many more students get accepted into commerce.

i’m working with crumbs here, guys. it’s just that the 3D world is holding me back from unleashing my omniscient powers today, or something.

then we finally come to the one and only concrete fact we’ve really got about your chances. the admissions site says that the approximate competitive average for first-year commerce admissions is in the mid 80s. so if your average is in that range, i think you should be fine. but keep in mind the site says “meeting these minimum requirements does not guarantee you admission to the university”. again, this is because “admission is subject to space availability and competition”.

anyways, sorry i couldn’t be more helpful. i recommend checking out my previous answer about retaking grade 12 courses, and reaching out to a utm recruiter. if you want to know specific details, definitely please reach out to a recruiter. good luck with everything! i think you will do great.

over and out,

aska

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admissions, repeating course

why so ambiguous

March 15, 2024

Hi. I am retaking MH4U1 (12 Advanced Functions) and SCH4U1 (12 Chemistry) in private school. I already got a conditional offer from UTSC in neuroscience, but was wondering if it hamper the decision later on? UofT websites are not that clear on repeating courses.

hey there,

yay, congrats on getting an offer!

you know, this is such a fair question. i looked on u of t websites, and i agree, they really are not clear on how repeating a course might impact your admission offer. it’s almost like they’re trying to be ambiguous (they probably are, idk).

all that the utsc admissions page says is: “while we recognize that there may be valid reasons for repeating a course, in general we urge you to do as well as possible on your first attempt”. and then the arts & sciences admissions page just really clears things up with: “in some instances, repeated courses will not be accepted for competitive admission categories”.

i mean, yeah… wouldn’t it be nice if they elaborated a bit? well, while we can’t fix the lack of communication skills, we can go through a couple different scenarios here:

if you disclosed the repeated courses on your application, there shouldn’t be an issue. since you’ve already received a conditional offer of admission, all you can do at this point is to meet the conditions on that offer. but if you had specific questions about your offer or the conditions, you should definitely reach out to the utsc recruitment team.

meanwhile, if you didn’t disclose the repeats on your application and were admitted based on your first attempts, it probably is still not an issue. the only scenario where you might have a problem is if you are repeating a course and didn’t disclose an earlier, lower grade on your application. you honestly might still be okay if you fall into this camp, but i really recommend reaching out to the utsc recruitment team to clarify. *points at you* i know we’re scared of human interaction, but you can do it!

over and out,

aska

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future, getting involved, lost

a spoonful of salt helps the life advice go down

March 13, 2024

I’m a second year life science student with a pretty good cgpa but absolutely no experiences – am I screwed?

In all honesty I don’t have an idea what I’m going to do with my future and I haven’t joined any clubs. I applied to a program I’ve been really wanting (MRS at uoft!) but honestly not sure if I’ll get in and have been so anxious these past few months about the future. I don’t especially have any backups if I don’t get into MRS and I’m worried that I’m wasting time.

Any advice to stop being so anxious about the future and to just take action?

hey there,

man, isn’t that the question of the year. you want advice on how to stop being anxious about the future and to just take action. well, ok, but take all my personal life advice with a spoon of salt, please. not just a grain. this is a proceed at your own risk typa thing.

if it makes you feel any better, i’m kinda in the same boat! and i definitely don’t think you’re screwed—like you said, you’re only in second year, and you have a good cgpa! that puts you in a good position.

when you say “experiences”, i’m going to assume you mean like, internship / research experiences relating to your programs? with that, i really don’t think you should be worrying about having no experiences in second year, since a lot of these opportunities are geared towards second years and above. i mean, in first year, everyone’s still trying to figure out what they want to do. as a result, most people don’t get involved in professional experience stuff until the summer after their second year, when they have a better idea of the path they want to take.

overall though, i completely understand feeling overwhelmed at this stage of your life, when everyone around you starts looking into research opportunities and internships. but the first question you should ask yourself is: do you even want to do research?? do you even want to do that internship? because you do not have to follow the paths that people around you are taking. just do what you want to do!!!

in terms of not being anxious about the future, i can tell you something that has really helped me recently. i used to be overwhelmingly anxious about the future, but i feel like this has shifted since i started to change the way i thought about opportunities. taking action and applying for things can seem so daunting and like such a commitment in itself, especially when the chances of getting accepted feel low. and i totally get the feeling of wasting time!! so recently, i’ve been telling myself that we get one chance at life, and every time you doubt yourself, it’s like throwing the winning lottery ticket away. you’re telling me you have a winning ticket and you’re just not doing anything with it?! tiktok might be rotting my brain, but it does give me solid motivation like that sometimes. pretend you already have the future you want! you have ONE life and you wanna spend it doubting yourself?? we don’t do that here. are you actually scared of failure, or are you scared of people seeing you try? what if you started acting like it’s impossible for you to fail?

some gentle food for thought. weaving in a little bit of delusion into your confidence can be healthy, particularly when you have worst-case-scenario anxiety like me!

ok but finally, let’s get real:

in the case that you do want to, now is definitely the time to start looking and applying for summer opportunities. if i knew what branch of life science you were in, i could probably point you towards more specific opportunities. but first, if you’re into research, a good thing to look into would be the ROP (research opportunities program). if you go onto CLNX, you’ll see that there are many ROP options listed in different fields. ROPs are popular and a lot of people i know are applying for those, so i’m pretty sure they’re good! meanwhile, if you want an internship, you should look into the ASIP (arts & science internship program), or course-based experiential learning.

your TAs are also a great resource to ask about experience opportunities! they have the connections and the knowledge to help you out with this search. sometimes, they might need assistants in the research they’re carrying out. and if you want work experience, check out CLNX under the work-study category. work-study postings should open up on april 2 for the summer session.

anyways, good luck with everything! i hope you get in to your program. maybe this was all just me projecting, or maybe this was helpful for you. i really hope it was the latter.

over and out,

aska

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admissions, math, prereqs

another mathless student

March 1, 2024
hi, I’m currently in highschool in India (not a Canadian citizen) and am trying to get into UofT for chemical engineering. Unfortunately I did not take math in 11th grade, despite being excellent at it. How can I still apply for the undergrad? Should I complete math courses from TVO ILC? Thank you.

hey there,

well, first of all, you’re not alone. i’ve recently received some similar questions about not taking math prerequisites in high school.

so, to apply to chemical engineering at u of t, you’ll be applying under the admission code TB to the faculty of applied science and engineering. that means you’re looking at the admission requirements for all applicants to the faculty of applied science and engineering. according to their website, this includes senior level courses in mathematics (including calculus), chemistry, physics, and english.

(also, if you’re interested, there is a specific section at the bottom of this site on requirements and document details specific to each country).

and so we’ve got ourselves in a little bit of a situation here. your program requires that you take senior level high school math, but you haven’t taken grade 11 math yet. here’s the good news: the engineering website says that in the case that you haven’t taken one of these prerequisites, you can complete the grade 12 ontario high school equivalent prerequisite subject. furthermore, they actually recommend completing the course through the independent learning centre (ILC), so yes, to answer your question, you can complete math courses from TVO ILC.

but hold on, let’s dial it back for a sec. i noticed that you’re only asking about grade 11 math. to my understanding, you would actually need grade 12 level math to meet the admission requirements, since they specify that calculus is included. meanwhile, i looked at the ILC website for you, and it also seems like you’ll need grade 11 math as a prerequisite for the grade 12 math courses on there. so i think you might need to take both grade 11 and 12 math on the ILC, unless there’s a way for you to somehow bypass the grade 11 prerequisite.

just keep in mind that for ontario school systems, the admission requirements specifically ask for two grade 12 math courses:
1. advanced functions (MHF4U)
2. calculus & vectors (MCV4U), which requires advanced functions as a prerequisite
so if you’re taking your grade 12 math prerequisite through the ILC, which is within the ontario school system, i think you would need to take both of these courses. the international student admission requirements are “senior level courses in mathematics (including calculus)”, which probably means you need the calculus & vectors course. but according to the ILC website, to take calculus, you need advanced functions. and to take advanced functions, apparently you need a grade 11 math course.

blegh, that was a mouthful. so many prerequisites! for your sake, i am glad you’re good at math.

anyways i really hope i’m understanding this right. just keep in mind that this is just my best interpretation of what steps you need to take, and don’t follow this blindly. i would actually really recommend that you directly contact the engineering admissions office at admissions@engineering.utoronto.ca to make sure you’re doing all of this right. and if you’re still confused, you can shoot me another question!

good luck! i hope it all works out for you.

over and out,

aska
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