Hi Aska!! I’m a grade 12 student who’s thinking of applying to Arts & Science at the St. George Campus. I was just wondering what the workload is like?? Like how much time do you spend in lectures? How much homework is there? How long does it take to do the homework? I’m a pretty big procrastinator, so I’m really scared that I won’t be able to handle the university workload 🙁
hey there,
ok first off, love you for specifying the faculty and campus! and second, this is so real of you, i remember lots of people wondering about this when i was in high school.
just a disclaimer to start off: the workload would sort of depend on whether you’re in humanities/social sciences or the life science/physical sciences side of things. i do however, actually happen to have one major in social sciences and my other major in life sciences, so i feel like i can speak to both. just please remember that this is one person’s experience and everyone’s is different!
workload
so the overall workload just depends on how many courses you’re taking. each semester, people usually take five (or four) courses at a time. you will hear about people taking six, but in every instance they are super busy and school is the only thing they do — aka no extracurriculars or jobs. so taking more than 5 courses is not super recommended by anyone and is pretty rare. anyways, my humble opinion is that four courses is the sweet spot, and by taking four courses per semester, students are usually able to get better grades and get the most out of each course. (that is, if you are able to. i know some people have to take five courses because they can’t take summer courses and stuff).
within my four courses, i have been taking two life-sci and two social science courses at a time, to balance it out.
for some context: life sci/physical sciences will almost always have practicals and/or tutorials, which will increase your time spent in class. you’ll be assessed mainly on tests/quizzes and problem sets or lab reports. there’s a lot of memorization and the end-of-term assessment will pretty much always be an exam. meanwhile, social sciences/humanities will have longer readings, and assignments are fewer but heavier weighted. here, end-of-term assessments could either be a long essay or an exam.
take from that what you will.
how long does it take to do the homework/study
man, i wish i tracked how much time i spent doing each of my assignments, but i don’t. and i can’t really generalize about this because there are so many different types of assignments.
so i guess i can tell you how much time i spend generally studying/writing essays/doing assignments? uhhhh it might scare you off but i know you asked this question wanting honesty so i have no choice but to give it to you straight:
generally, i spend all my time working, unless i’m cooking, going grocery shopping, or sleeping. every weekend of the semester, i study from noon to night time. often, if my lecture is recorded, i’m skipping it to finish the assignment for said class, and then watching the lecture back in 2x speed. annnd during this past exam season, i was studying from around 7am to 11pm almost every single day for 3 weeks straight.
BUT before you start running, i’m pretty sure this isn’t true of the average U of T student. keep in mind that i do still have the time to work two part time jobs and volunteer on the side. it’s also a known fact that i spend a lot more time on things than others, just because that’s how i’ve always done school, and i like to be super thorough. i am not, however, an anomaly. my old roommate studied even more than i did and i literally never saw her leave her room to do anything fun the whole semester.
which brings me to this: your time spent studying will mainly depend on what grades you’re shooting for. people who are aiming for grad school usually spend more time on their work because they need better grades, but if you aren’t planning on going to grad school and just trying to pass, your workload will look a whole lot different. i, and my aforementioned roommate, just choose to suffer because we’re both trying to get the best grades we can for grad school.
how much time i spend in lecture
i’m going to include tutorial time into this total, because that also counts as class time. (in case you’re not familiar, lecture is the instructive class time that happens in larger groups, tutorial is added to some courses as smaller more focused discussion/assignment time).
i am taking four classes this semester, and i have 10 hours of lecture/tutorial and 3 hours of lab per week. last fall, i was also taking four courses, and i had 12 hours of lecture/tutorial and 3 hours of lab per week. each year, i’ve averaged around 11 hours of lecture/tutorial per week, taking 4-5 courses per semester.
idk what 11 hours of lecture tells you, but an important point i want to highlight is that your time spent in lecture is not indicative of your workload. it’s all about what’s assigned, how long your readings are, and how many assessments you have. you’ll see some people with schedules that are super full and other people with schedules that look sparse, and tbh, they’re often the same amount of busy.
handling the transition to uni
i’d say the workload is definitely a jump from high school, and to be so honest, it took sweat and tears to adjust during my first year. what i would recommend to make this transition easier is to take first year foundation courses — these are super cool courses that you can only take in first year, maxed at 25 people per class. in my experience, the professors of these classes make more of an effort to transition you into uni, like teaching you tips on how to write your first uni paper and stuff.
if you’re worried about procrastination, i will say that i recently wrote a post about how i learned to deal with procrastination in university, which you can find here. maybe it’ll tell you a bit about what it’s like dealing with procrastination and the U of T workload? but also, there are a vast amount of academic resources available at U of T to help you out.
for example, there are learning strategists that can do things like help you out a lot with study habits, preparing for your exams, or managing your time. there are even peer mentors that can do the same thing if you’d rather it come from a fellow student in the same boat as you. i have some friends with ADHD, and accessibility services helps them find accommodation for that in their classes and deadlines. there are registered study groups that are formed for most courses, which can really help with procrastination. your college registrar also offers learning strategists and academic advisors, and you will have counselling services at health and wellness available to you as a U of T student.
this is in no way an exhaustive list, U of T offers more resources than i can put in a single post. the gist is that if you’re worried about procrastination, i want you to know that there are ways to navigate that and you are able to succeed at an academically rigorous institution while dealing with procrastination.
overall..
i really don’t want to scare you off but i also don’t want to lie. the reality is that the workload at U of T is genuinely hard to handle for everyone. but it’s not a U of T specific problem, university is just built to stress you out and make you work hard. i know plenty of other people at other universities who are also very busy, i think that’s just part of the deal you take when you go to university.
i do choose to put up with this rigorous workload for a reason, and that’s because i personally think that the pros of U of T outweigh the cons. i am throwing up while saying this but nothing worthwhile is gonna come easily and U of T is a very. good. school. the opportunities that come with it are numerous and high quality, and you will come out with a world-class education. there are SO many good things about going to U of T that make it worth it.
and finally, just remember to take this all with a grain of salt, because i’m sure other people will have different opinions on things i’ve said here. everyone’s uni experience is different!
over and out,
aska