Signing up for courses isn’t like trying to get rid of crabs.

Dear Aska;
Alright, I am in an extremely annoying dilemma… I am a first year Life Science student. I plan on taking biology, chemistry, physics, calculus, and VIC112Y1- Puzzles, Discovery and the Human Imagination. I would also like to take the 1st year seminar HUM199H1F – Thought Experiments. This comes up to a total of 5.5 credits in my first year.

Now I have several ways to go:
1. Don’t take HUM199…[can I cry?] – I am new to Toronto and I need time to get used to people + city + university + living alone…
2. Take them all – A LOT of work but I took physics 12U and am really good at math so I think that’ll lower my work quite a lot… still, I am not one of those mark obsessed people, I like getting satisfying marks but also want to have fun with others and actually “live”. Buuuuuuut. I LOVE to learn…so I think even if the going gets tough I’ll take the course…
3. Take it without getting the credit – I heard something about extra courses where you don’t get a credit and your mark in that course isn’t included. Can I do that with the HUM 199? I don’t care about the mark or credit since I’ll have 5 anyways. (Will I still have to pay for the course then?)

Sorry for the load of questions but I am going to have to ask another one: I have been looking around and can’t seem to find the price I would have to pay for an additional .5 credit. I believe our tuition covers 5 credit load, but if we want to take more how much would each cost (0.5 in my case)?

Thanks

So are you saying that you want to take the course ?Thought Experiments? because you need to learn how to get by in the city of Toronto? Dude, that?s pretty pathetic. But, you?re in first year. I understand, if you mean that it?d be better to be a full time student with only 4 courses. That is a good idea. But, here?s what I would do:

Not take the Puzzles course and stick to the Humanities Seminar (which will be REALLY easy, I guarantee) and use it towards your required credit distribution. At U of T, you need at least one credit in each of the following categories: Social Science, Science, and Humanities, and getting one over with in a seminar is a really good way to go. But, in order to not regret your decision, I would sign up for all of them, and then later drop a course if you just couldn?t handle it. A half credit course is ? the price of a full year course, which is about $470, depending on what the course is (some are in fact more expensive than others). If you drop the ? year course within the first month or so, you?ll get a full refund (the dates are always emailed out to you by your registrar office in weekly emails, so you really have no excuse to not know). You could potentially sit in on the seminar course, but the classes are so small that it might be weird that you?re just ?there?. You catch my drift? So take a big breath, sign up for all of it, and then decide later. It?s not a pressing issue, I promise.