we’ve all been there

Hey Aska!

My name is [redacted], I am 18 years old and I got accepted to the UofT and plan on starting next fall. I currently reside in Austria with a Canadian citizenship. When I first got my acceptance letter, I was incredibly excited to have been given the opportunity to get my education at one of the best institutions in the world.

I plan on get a major/specialist in psychology, for I intend to pursue a career in mental health advocacy and helping teenagers get out of depression in an effort to lower the suicide rate among youths, as well as assisting them in becoming the best and strongest version of themselves. I do not want to wait until the end of my studies to start doing what I want to do; I intend to go to clubs and meetings that assist me in fulfilling my purpose. Everything was fine and well until a few days ago when I started reading about the Universities? reputation for being a GPA killer and demanding much more of the students than any other university. That reputation is source for a lot of confusion as far as I?m concerned: while everyone on Studentawards laments about the dreaded bell curve, I also read an article on The Medium stating that said lamenting was only an outlet for the venting of irresponsible students who just didn?t study enough. Are there any grounds for either standpoint? Also, I have seen an anecdotal post on Reddit that said that in order to achieve and maintain a >3.6 GPA, one would have to study for 12h a day, assuming a reasonable level of intelligence. Many others complain that the UofT has turned hard working student into depressed zombies, and many regret their choice of institution.

All of this talk is making me increasingly anxious. I?m not sure how the french school system (I went to a french Lyc?e), where standardized tests are the norm compares to the Canadian high school system so I have trouble gauging my ability to succeed at a Canadian institution. I graduated my school with what would be the equivalent of a cGPA of about a 94%, if that is of any relevance. All of this makes me incredibly paranoid, since I absolutely have to go to grad school in order to be able to perform as a psychologist (which requires a PhD). I guess that my ranting boils down to the following question: is it possible to maintain an average of >3.7 whilst maintaing a healthy social life and being able to pursue hobbies without sacrificing unfathomable amounts of sleep?

I am truly sorry for this wall of text and hope that you could help me unearth the truth about academic success at the UofT.

Regards

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hey there,

i’m gonna start off what will probably be an unsatisfying answer by telling you that everyone feels that way coming into first year. whether you went to school in austria or china or Shmoesville, Ontario, uoft will be a new experience. you may thrive, you may fail, or (most likely) you may fall somewhere in the middle.

i think there’s a case to be made for uoft being difficult. in 2015, maclean’s is ranking it 2nd in canada behind UBC; it was first last year. and no, i don’t think that all people who have a poor GPA are just irresponsible or not working hard enough.

you can’t blame it all on the students, but?you also can’t blame it on the school. at the end of the day, your academic career is the sum of you + the university of toronto, and if you’re not right for the school, or if the school’s not right for you, the equation’s not gonna work out.*

to some extent, you just have to wait to get here to figure out whether or not you like it. however, i do have a few tips:

1) you seem really passionate about mental health, and i think it’s a great idea to pursue extra-curricular initiatives related to mental health on campus, and in the city.

camh is a great facility to get involved in, and it’s very close to campus. there are also student groups like Active Minds at UofT,?who work to raise awareness about mental health issues.

integrating yourself into the community is an important part of doing well. if you care about the community at school, you’re more likely to work hard to stay in it.

2) DO NOT even ATTEMPT to study something that you’re not interested in.

if you want to do a psych major or specialist, you have to take PSY100H1 to get in. i know you’re saying right now that you want to do psych and that’s awesome, but if you take PSY100H1 and you’re not into it, PLEASE, on behalf of everybody and your mother, start exploring other options.

however, if you’re doing something you genuinely enjoy, you CAN?maintain a reasonable GPA that is good enough to get you to graduate school, without completely destroying yourself in the process.

‘course, aska isn’t in the business of guaranteeing stuff, but – yeah. it’s not completely unreasonable to expect success. or at least the possibility of success.

3) i don’t think coming from lycee will disadvantage you at all. uoft has a lot of international students coming from all kinds of different backgrounds: IB, AP, the british-patterned system, schools in china and korea, and just your regular old ontario public schools – and much more.

university is its own beast separate from high school, and i think that no matter where you come from, you’ll find some of what you know will come in handy, and some of it will have to be revised.

cheers,

aska

* see? i can do math. academia is alive and well in askastudent.