Hey Aska!
First off, let me just say this website is awesome. Even before I got into U of T, it cleared up all my questions. =)
Anyways, first year has been kind of a rough ride for me. I entered university thinking I wanted to do something in the physical/mathematical sciences and took a whole combination of math and economics courses. But, by the end of first semester I ended up dropping out of most of those courses and enrolled in a different set of humanities courses for second semester. All in all, it wasn’t a positive experience but this semester has been going well (much better than the last). I like my courses and I think I want to know what to declare my POSt as.
However, I read on the U of T website that you have to have 4.0 courses to enroll in a subject POSt. I will only have completed 3.0 full credits by the end of this fall/winter session. I plan on taking summer school to make up for my 2 foregone credits, but in regards to start times for enrolling in courses for the next fall/winter session, will I be considered a first year or a second year student (if I am enrolled in summer courses)? I expect to have completed at least 4.0 FCE by September, but I would like to know if I will be a second year when start times are decided because a lot of second year courses give priorities to certain majors.
In case it was relevant, I am interested in the English major, but I know it’s a really popular program so I don’t want to have to wait list all of my courses or end up in my last choices during the first year enrollment period.
Any wisdom you have would be greatly appreciated,
S =)
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Yo!
You know, one thing I noticed is that for a first-year, you actually write “POSt” correctly. I’ve seen many combinations of the upper and lowercase letters, but you actually got it! Woooo!
Anyway, on to your question, you’ll be considered a second-year student during enrollment time as long as you’re in 1.0 FCE during the summer session. Basically, according to our lovely calendar, you’re considered a second-year at that point as long as you expect to have at least 4.0 FCE by the end of the summer session. Pretty generous of UofT, right?
But honestly… okay, I hate to be the one to say this, but start times are based on your number of credits, so although you’ll be considered second-year and be allowed to enroll in that week, you will most likely be stuck with a start time in the evening. Personally, I ended my first year with 4.5 credits and had a start time around 5pm. Hopefully you luck out, but if you don’t end up getting those English courses you want (e.g. “The Graphic Novel,” which is awesome, or “Children’s Lit,” WHICH DO NOT TAKE OKAY NO), then that will give you time to take the less desirable courses that will fulfill your other requirements.
So yeah. Second year.
Cheers!
aska