architecture,  art,  courses,  victoria

make your decisions without considering stereotypes

Heyo aska,

I’ve just applied for the Frye stream at Vic One and am wondering if the whole affair is actually worthwhile/fantastic vs. pretentious. I’m quite sure it will be at least a little pretentious, but the small class sizes and interesting seminars could make it absolutely marvellous. What is the general reception towards the program at U of T? Is there a “Vic One is smelly” stigma attached to it?

Also, I’m hoping to keep my options for my major at least a little flexible. I hope to do a double major in Art History/to be decided…And have recently become interested in perhaps doing some intro architecture courses in my first year. Otherwise, I would be leaning towards human geography or history. Something along the lines of urban theory… So I guess the question is, if I take Vic One will some of these options be totally thrown out the window in exchange for a survey of Baudellaire and Derrida?

Thanks a bunch.

Your website is pretty much the bomb.

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Let me tell you right now that the affair won’t be worthwhile – not with that attitude.

One thing I think you really have to train yourself to do is to detach yourself from the stigmas attached to your program(s). For instance, I’m in physics, and I’m sure that when I tell other people what program I’m in, a lot of them automatically label me geek or nerd (or whatever). Stereotypes like these really annoy me – sometimes, they make me question my decisions. But I do my best to ignore them, because I feel that studying physics, personally, a worthwhile pursuit.

You have to decide yourself whether or not Vic One is personally worthwhile for you. Try hard to ignore the stereotypes (whether real or imagined). If you’re already starting to stereotype Vic One as being smelly/pretentious, there’s a good chance that you won’t enjoy the program at all. But if you instead look at Vic One as a unique opportunity to learn in a multidisciplinary environment, you may find that you enjoy it.

A major program in Art History only requires 6 full course equivalents, and you only need a half-course in first year. For Architecture, you only need two half-courses (one credit). Even if you factor in your other distribution requirements (one science credit and one social science credit), that’s still only 3.5 credits. You can easily take your Vic One course, and still have another free half-credit you could use as an elective — or more, if you decide that you want to take more than 5 credits. If you’ve found that you’ve made a mistake and would like to add a major in math or something, you can always take a 100-level course in your second year.

Another thing first-year students can feel disorienting to a lot of people because they are so huge (try sitting in a BIO151 lecture). A seminar-style course could be an opportunity to learn in a more personal setting in which the professor is able to pay a lot more attention to his/her individual students.

That said, many students don’t take Vic One or TrinOne, and they’re still getting along just fine. So it’s not like Vic One is something that I think you MUST or DEFINITELY SHOULD do. If there’s a course that interests you more than Vic One – be it geology or Japanese or religious studies – then by all means, take that course. But I really advise you to make your decision without the influence of outside opinions/stereotypes – and most importantly, no matter what you choose, to keep an open mind.

…so this post wasn’t funny at all, but eh… I’m running low on funny these days. In the meantime, go play this game and see if you can beat my score of 10840 (and leave a comment if you do!).

4 Comments

  • Ashley

    Things I learned in my time at Vic One:

    – NOBODY outside of Vic One cares if you’re in Vic One. You don’t have it stamped to your forehead. Unless you mention it, no one will even know. People outside of Vic usually don’t even know what it is.
    – Only do it if you look at the courses and they make you excited and interested. Otherwise, what you have to give up is so not worthwhile. Check out the website and go to the info days in May.
    – You do get some pretty cool opportunities: the plenary sessions feature some cool people, you get access to certain scholarships, there’s the Vic One house (BG FTW), your professors are often incredibly impressive (an ambassador to NATO, several author, a Vice-Dean of Medicine/Principal of New College/Biochemist in Chief), and the small class thing
    – It can be very limiting. Frye’s been changed so now you can take FAH as your coreq, and since you wanna do Fine Art, it works out well. Nevertheless, Vic One takes up two of your five credits, so be aware.
    – There ARE going to be some pretentious people there, but you’re a) at university and b) at U of T where people think they’re smarter than people at other universities, so this is going to happen in every single one of your classes, Vic One or not. However, there will also be some really cool people who genuinely want to learn.

  • mar

    “That said, students from New/Innis/St. Mike?s/Woodsworth/UC don?t have Vic One or TrinOne”

    THIS IS NOT TRUE
    STUDENTS FROM ANY COLLEGE CAN TAKE THESE COURSES
    I think…

  • tilt

    What is the class average in most of these courses? ARC131 for example? TA said that 71 is normal, but quite frankly for a “fluff” class, thats just ridiculous.

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