i liked writing the first one so much, i decided to do it again. besides, a list of ten sounds so much better than a list of five.
here we go:
6. COLLEGES
kind of obvious. if you’re a faculty of arts & science student, you’ll be placed into one of seven colleges: innis, new, st. michael’s, trinity, university, victoria or woodsworth. automatic community, right? well, it’s not that simple.
here’s the trick about colleges: they don’t have to affect your university experience. at all. you don’t?have to spend any time in your college, meet anyone in your college, take classes offered by your college, or use any of your college’s student services.
HOWEVER, if you?do?get involved with your college, you probably won’t be one of the people complaining to this or that magazine (i’m looking at you, maclean’s) about the lack of a small community at uoft. whether or not you choose to live in residence, every college has a?unique and vibrant community.
7. SMALL CLASSES
yep, class-time counts as community time, too. it only takes one torturous?lecture in con hall to make you appreciate a small class.
first-year courses tend to be particularly horrendous in terms of class size. for that reason, faculty of arts & science students have lots of opportunities to take small classes. victoria college students are even required to take at least one small class.
examples of small classes include the 199 first-year seminar courses, the college one program?(innis, new, st. mike’s, trinity, university, victoria, woodsworth), and the vic 100 courses.
not only are these classes smaller in size (which is amazing in itself) but they tend to have quirky or unusual course content. they provide an interesting complement to the standard first-year course fare, which can be very similar from university to university.
8. FLCs
FLCs (or first-year learning communities) are a sort of add-on to first-year classes. it’s the Class+ experience. first?class, you might say.
if you’re in an FLC, you’ll be a part of a group of 25-30 students who are enrolled in some of the same first-year courses. your small group will meet regularly outside of class for “useful and fun activities.” these include social activities, degree-planning sessions and study strategy sessions.
FLCs are led by upper year peer mentors, and they’re a truly great resource to help orient you to university in your first year. i honestly can’t recommend them enough. plus, the extra-curricular involvement is noted on your transcript, which is nice.
9.?EXTRA-CURRICULARS
another obvious one.?just try to avoid two COMMON TRAPS?when joining extra-curricular activities: being overwhelmed, or underwhelmed.
there are so many clubs/teams/committees that the sheer amount can be intimidating. it can cause you to feel like you have to stick with the first club you tried, because venturing out into the rest of the impossibly large university seems scary and confusing. but don’t settle on doing something you don’t care about.
on the other hand, if you don’t like one organization, don’t take that as a prompt to quit altogether. remember: a club is only as good as its members. just because you had one bad experience, doesn’t mean all organizations at the university will be the same. keep trying, and you’ll find the place for you.
10. FROSH WEEK
alright, here goes my very best pitch for frosh week:
a lot of people don’t like frosh.?the extra cost on top of a frankly offensive?tuition invoice is enough to make a lot of students withdraw from orientation?without thinking twice about it.?which i understand. what are we, made of money? i can’t even afford soup.
from the outside, it looks like a lot of unnecessary shouting and enthusiasm that can make a grade 12 think: “spare me the headache. i’ve been to enough pep rallies to know to steer clear of this.”
here’s the thing: frosh is genuinely really, really fun. if you can afford it, it will be worth your while.
it provides valuable academic orientation as well as opportunities to socialize with other members of your faculty/college. and – at least in my experience – it really does make a concerted effort to include?everyone, not just the people who are outgoing and like that kind of stuff anyway.
plus, you’ll get, like, coupons and UofT-insignia’d Frisbees and stuff.
