Hi, so I’m going to be starting at U of T as an engsci in September. As such, I have to rank my residence options. I had also received an offer from Trinity for artsci, but I declined this in favour of engsci. However, I’d still quite like to live at Trinity. My concern is that if I do manage to still get residence at Trin, would I be kind of isolated from the rest of the engineering faculty? Would it be a better idea to put somewhere like New College as my first choice, and be in residence with more engineering students? Thank yooouuu
———————————————
hey there,
living in engineering’s living learning community at new college is a great idea. engineering is pretty gruelling, and living with a whole bunch of people – including your don – who understand what you’re going through is probably a very comforting and supportive residence experience.
you’ll always have people to study with and people to vent with. people will be by and large on the same schedule as you are – so when you’re buckling down, everyone else will be too. when you have some time to wind down, you’ll have people to enjoy it with.
so yeah, living with engineers could be great. but it could also be not so great.
think about it this way: you love your mom, right? of course you do. you and your ma are the tightest. you would do anything for her. but do you want to live with her? see her day in, day out?
of course you don’t – that’s why you’re moving out.
a living learning society has the potential to be kind of like that. engineering is pretty intense, and you might find yourself?wanting a break from it when you come home from class.
living at trinity could provide you with that break. no matter where you live, you’re not going to be isolated from your engineering peers – so don’t worry about that. firstly, you’ll be spending too much time in class together for that to ever be possible, and secondly, most people commute anyway, so living on res won’t exclude you.
but what trinity can give you that engineering can’t is a community outside your studies – friends from other programs, with other perspectives.
there are only 425 people living at trinity, and trinity, more perhaps than some other, newer colleges at uoft, has a very strong sense of self (dressing up in black robes every wednesday evening can do that to a group of people).
being a part of the trinity community as well as the engineering community might give you a nice balance between engineering and, well, something else.
ultimately, there’s no right answer. residence is very largely a non-academic experience, and different people will prefer different kinds of communities. just try to go with whichever option you feel more excited about. if you can, book a residence tour at each college. then just feel it out.
best of luck, and see you in september!
aska