• scholarships/bursaries

    gimme my money, chumps

    October 6, 2014

    I’m receiving a scholarship that is supposed to be sent to U of T by cheque and then deposited into my ROSI account. However, I don’t know if this will happen before or after the deadline to pay tuition fees (My fees are deferred because I’m receiving OSAP as well.). If the scholarship goes into my ROSI account after the October 30 deadline, what will happen to the money? Am I allowed to take it out of the account? Save it for next year’s tuition? Or it is wasted? Sorryifthiswasalongramble….

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    well, it won’t be sent to you as a cheque AND deposited to your ROSI account, because that would be like giving you your money twice…which is wrong…

    the next slated time for scholarships to be released (either as credit on your ROSI or as a cheque, if you’re graduating) is late october.

    obviously, if you need the scholarship to pay your fees and to avoid service charges, that may be too late to receive it. in that case, you can request that you receive the amount earlier from student accounts.

    otherwise, you can just try and pay off as much as you can, so that the service charge doesn’t impact you too much.

    finally, you can’t “take money out of your account” because ROSI is not a real, money-holding account like a bank is. if you get a scholarship, then the scholarship amount is just subtracted from your total fees on your account invoice (that is, unless you request it as a cheque).

    if your scholarship amount is higher than the amount that is still left to be paid on your account invoice, then whatever amount is left over will show up as a “credit” (or CR, as it’s noted on account invoices) on your account. that amount can then roll over to next year’s fees.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • financial aid,  first year,  stress,  subject POST

    You Won’t Believe What One Girl Did to Destroy her Existential Angst

    October 6, 2014

    Hi there!

    I am a first year in UTSG and from my topic, you guessed it! I have absolutely no clue what i want to major in and the anxiety is eating me inside out.

    This thought has boggled my head so much since money for my tuition is a real problem for me. The financial burden makes me want to ensure that what
    i take will be worth every penny so i tried going for a full on 6 credits over my first year but little by little, i dropped my courses after figuring out how I have no interest(or previous knowledge) in the courses at all. Plus, it’s no joke how serious U of T takes each and every course. Now, I’m at 4 credits.

    I entered U of T in Psychology with the notion that by studying about your mind, you will have a better chance of knowing what you want to major in. Ironically, going through my first few weeks in U of T taught me so much more and i have not even started my first psych class(i got the one for next term). I made the decision that what i study and what i want to do will be two separate entities so i got that covered for me. I do what I want to do outside of Uni and I study what i want to study inside of uni. Only problem is, i’ve been finding it hard to figure out what i want to major in after looking through U of T’s courses.

    What do people normally want to major in in UTSG? What does UTSG facilitate more Arts students or science students? What do you do should you realize that U of T isn’t for you? I am writing this letter not to ask about transferring to another University but to ask about your personal experience about finding what you want to study and where one might get help on this topic on campus.

    Thanks,

    Your average stressed out first year

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    in 100 years’ time, this e-mail will be exhibit 1.a under the heading: ‘Millennials in Crisis: Dealing with the Existential in a University Context in the Early 2000s.’

    gen y crisis

    The literature chronicling our freak-outs is quite extensive.

    as someone who is (mostly) standing on the other side of this academic crisis, i think i can say with some confidence that the issue is not that you don’t have the answers, but that you’re asking the wrong questions. yeah. i’m a veritable Buddha of academic advice.

    let’s just go through your questions step by step, before i compare myself to any more sacred cultural figures:

    1) what do people normally want to major in in UTSG? does uoft better facilitate studies in arts or science?

    there is literally no answer to that question. aside from the fact that the mixing and matching you’re allowed (even expected) to do with POSts allows for an almost infinite number of majors, minors and specialists, uoft does not have a particular inclination to any one area.

    i’m not going to argue (as some overzealous uoft folks sometimes like to do) that uoft is the best university in literally every discipline. we’re not.

    however, across the fine arts, humanities, and the social, applied and pure sciences, we’ve got consistently strong and diverse programs, and between all three campuses, pretty much every area of study’s been covered.

    uoft is not a tech school, and it’s not a liberal arts college. more than anything, uoft is big. if you search long enough, you’re likely to find yourself somewhere around here. but uoft is not going to hand you any obvious choices.

    i can tell you that psych is a pretty popular subject POSt. PSY100, which i guess is the class you’re taking next semester, is a good litmus test for figuring out if you actually enjoy or care at all about psychology. so that’s a step in the right direction.

    process of elimination is a great way of figuring out what you want to study. if you take a wide range of different classes in first year, chances are, you can cross out a whole bunch of areas as definite ‘no’s,’ and that brings you a lot closer to figuring out what you’ll say ‘yes’ to.

    also, don’t worry too much about doing 4.0 FCEs/term. lots of people do that. if finances are an issue, i would suggest looking into the ontario tuition grant, work-study jobs, your college’s bursary/emergency grant options, and UTAPS.

    2) what do you should you realize that uoft isn’t for you?

    get out. it’s not worth your time or your money.

    that said, the issue may not be that uoft is not for you. it could be that your program is not for you, or your course load is too heavy, or your living arrangements are stressing you out, or your health is in a bad place, or you’re not connecting enough with the community to feel really excited about it.

    if you’re starting to feel unhappy, don’t just push it to one side until it becomes this all-consuming, nebulous thing, like an itch without any clear point of origin. sit down and ask yourself what exactly is making you unhappy. be as specific as possible. write it down as a list, even.

     

    things i hate list

    A list is a great way to figure out what you like, and what you don’t like, about university.

    once you have the list, go through it point by point and try and come up with some solutions for each point. if one of those solutions is to leave uoft, or university altogether, then that’s what you should do.

    obviously, don’t just write a list and drop out the next day. give yourself some time to chew on it. talk to your registrar’s office. go to the career centre and book a career advising appointment, or participate in one of their career exploration programs. as well as being a welcome financial help, work-study jobs can help you explore your interests in a much more concrete way than in the classroom.

    i know you’re already at school, but maybe it might help to come out to fall campus day. pretend you’re coming to university for the first time and just visit a bunch of different people. which programs excite you? which ones do you like talking to? that can also help you clarify some things.

    just be honest with yourself. most people have a pretty good handle on what they like doing, and what they don’t. sometimes, though, our interests and priorities don’t match up with those of the people around us, and that makes us question them. try to block out the voices of your parents, your peers, the NSLC, etc. ask yourself what you actually want.

    finally, don’t be too stressed that you have no idea what you want to do yet. it’s only september of your first year – you’ve got four years – at least – ahead of you to decide, change your mind, decide again, change again, etc. if you’ve already gotten past the homesick phase, that in itself is an accomplishment. clarity about your academics will come in time, if you put in the work to figuring them out.

    best of luck,

    aska

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  • subject POST

    gotta keep an eye on those POSt deadlines

    October 2, 2014

    Hi,

    I was hoping you could provide some guidance with accepting my invitation to an econ minor on ROSI. I had applied for it somewhere during August but now (Sept 27) that I see my invitation on ROSI, if I try to accept it, I get an error: “6703 – Subject POSt is not eligible for WEB enrolment”. I intend on graduating after the winter semester and was hoping on doing my minor in economics.

    Do you have an idea as to what could be wrong? Thanks!

    ???????????????

    hey there,

    it’s likely because the deadline to accept invitations from the second enrolment period for type 2 and 3 subject POSts (the eco minor is a type 2) was september 21st. you came too late to the game, champ.

    if you want to accept it now, you’ll have to contact your college registrar’s office to see if that is still a possibility.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • graduation,  subject POST

    how minor is not doing a minor?

    October 2, 2014

    Hi Aska,

    If I’ve fulfilled all the requirements for my specialist, are there any negative consequences to not finishing all the requirements for a minor I enrolled in (sort of on a whim)? I’m graduating in June and I haven’t removed the POSt from ROSI just in case I decide to take that extra 0.5 FCE that would get me the minor next semester, but I also don’t want it to show up on my transcript or somewhere else as incomplete if I ultimately don’t take the last 0.5 FCE.

    Thanks a lot!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    nah. since having one specialist is an acceptable combination of subject POSts to graduate, there aren’t any real, practical impediments to not completing the minor.

    however, you do need to “ensure that your subject POSts (specialists, majors and/or minors) are correct and up to date on the SWS,” as artsci puts it (saying “the SWS” instead of ROSI kinda reminds me of how older people say “the Internet” instead of “online”).

    since we have just passed the deadline to delete subject POSts yourself, you’ll have to go to your college registrar’s office to get that minor deleted (if you decide that’s what you want to do), so that everything on ROSI accurately reflects your current academic status.

    congrats on your graduation, and best of luck in the real world!

    aska

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  • food

    no, i DON’T have $3 for a hot dog

    September 30, 2014

    The most important question I’ll ever ask: Where’s the free food at?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    finally, people are asking about the real issues. i’m so proud of you for being brave enough to voice what’s really on all our minds.

    there used to be this really great uoft account that just tweeted different places on campus you could get free food, but as far as i can tell, that account no longer exists. some things are just too good to last, i guess.

    however, UTSU often has events with free food, so following them would be a wise move. for example, their free Welcome Back BBQ was just two weeks ago. your respective college’s student life twitter almost definitely tweets about free food events, too.

    what? you don’t know your own college’s twitter? fine. here we go:

    innis, new, st. mike’s, UC, vic, woodsworth and trin/trin.

    itsfreeuoft is another godsend of a twitter account. it tweets about all sorts of free things, not just food, but i figure it’s still worth it.

    best of luck in your noble quest, and please, remember to keep your ol’ pal aska updated on where the free pizza’s at.

    aska

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  • admissions,  humanities

    admissions averages changing like a boggart at a concert

    September 30, 2014

    Hey aska I heard that the humanities average for St George went up from its usual 80-84 average. I can’t get ahold of admissions and I’m applying in November Could you please tell me if it changed?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    i can’t believe people are already applying for another year of school. soon, aska’s time will be over and a new generation of students will be here…all of them smarter, quicker, and more energetic than aska…sigh…

    anyway. existential blip over.

    the average you need to get in every year is kind of impossible to tell. it changes every single year, depending on how ruthless?your competition is.

    what you can do is take a look at the anticipated averages of people who entered uoft in this year. that number can give you a rough idea of what you may need to be a competitive applicant. however, it’s a guide more than it is a rule.

    crazy stuff happens in the uni admissions arena. nothing is for certain. that said, if you know the average averages of the previous entering class, you’ve got a pretty good handle on what you’ll likely need to get in, too.

    good luck,

    aska

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  • depression

    coming back strong

    September 29, 2014

    HI Aska,
    I am in a terrible predicament. This is going to be long so please bear with me.
    I started at U of T Life Science program in 2009 and I am still at it. This is my sixth year at U of T and I am still in my Third year based on the credits I have obtained.
    So, basically my story is that two of my family members died in first year and I started my slide downward from there on. I went from a 3.7 gpa to a 3.3. In second year, I did found out that my grandmother’s cancer was back and had metastasized. I did okay but i started losing interest in my studies. In the ended up with a 2.8 GPA. My grandma passed away in the summer before my 3rd year. And I pretty much started ruining my academic career? I did the first semester (with 3 courses) of 3rd year and dropped out the second semester with a GPA of 2.5.
    Came back the next year and pretty much did the same thing as the previous year – did one course in first semester and dropped out of the rest. I thought that was the lowest I could go but, low and behold I didn’t get any help from anyone. I went to my college registrar’s office and they basically said that i should try to do better and try all the resources available at u of t. I pretty much was so depressed that I just continued on a self-destructive pathway and decided to come back in for another year 2013-2014. I pretty much failed everything. GPA plummeted to 2.1.
    When my family asked me about how I haven’t finished university yet I didn’t have any answer. I had just spent five years of uni, wasted tons of money and only ended up with 11.5 credits and 2.1 GPA. My family sought of help an intervention (for lack of a better word) and told me to get my life back in control. They told me what i already knew that I was ruining my life and all the potential that I had. I have gained 40 lbs over this period cause pretty much all i did was stay in my bed and stuff my face with food. I had decided to just give up on uni but, seeing my parents crying because of what I was doing to myself sought of gave me a final spark to do something with what I had left of my university career.
    So, finally to the question I have for u. (Sorry for the long rant about my sordid past). I am back for another year. This is my sixth year in u of t. I have 11.5 credits so I am considered a third year student and have a GPA of 2.1. Is there any chance that I could actually salvage any the rest of my academic career?? I know I should have asked for help a longtime ago but, now that I am finally getting to it is there anything u can suggest?
    Thank you,
    JJ
    Looking for a light in the dark tunnel of my life.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    well, your health and wellness is your number one priority. if you feel unhappy with where you are in your life, then attending to that is important. on campus, CAPS and Counseline are great counselling services, if you think you could benefit from that.

    the academic success centre is your go-to place for academic support. your college’s writing centre is another good resource.

    i’m sure your college registrar gave you the same resources, and more. all these resources, though, assume that you’re going to decide to complete your degree. if you’ve returned to school, obviously i want everything to work out for you at school.

    however, you don’t want to be doing anything that seems worthless to you. that’s just not cool.

    if you’re doing your degree for a purpose (e.g. a job, to get an additional degree/certificate, interest in the topic of study etc.), then not only do i think you can salvage your academic career, but that you should.

    on the other hand, if school makes you miserable and your previous difficulties have been a result of doing university instead of what you really want to do, then, honestly, drop it like a hot potato.

    if you are invested in seeing this through to the end, you totally can. it’s possible to improve your GPA from a 2.1 with 8.5(+) credits to go. you just have to do a bit of exploring to find a support system that can help you.

    the awesome services i listed are included in the fees you pay every year, so why not take advantage of them?

    at the very least, you owe it to yourself to investigate a little bit, and see which, if any, of these resources can be useful to you. once you build a network of support, success will seem a lot easier, and maybe you can even start to see that light at the end of the tunnel.

    best,

    aska

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  • odds are that won't be asked again

    “fall” “break”

    September 29, 2014

    Just curious as to why U of T doesn’t have a full reading week in the fall like other universities seem to have?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    i’m curious, too. i haven’t been able to find any official explanation of the reasoning online. this Varsity article gives a pretty good overview of the issue, though it questions why we only get a two-day break instead of a full week, as we do in the winter term.

    for what it’s worth (and this is JUST ASKA’S OPINION – i’m not speaking on behalf of any university administration), it makes sense to me that in a school where full-year courses typically make the winter term heavier than the fall term, that the break in the winter would be longer than in the fall.

    but hey, we’re all allowed our own opinions on the matter. freedom, and all that.

    hope you enjoy your (albeit modest) break when it does come,

    aska

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  • admissions,  engineering,  grad school,  international students

    a very exhaustive examination of admissions to grad school (whoo!)

    September 29, 2014

    Hey aska! I’m very keen on getting into either Mengg or MS in CS at UofT. I’ve done my Btech in electrical and electronics with 66.76% from a tier 1 college of India. I have a 1.3 year work ex with a big data analytics firm. What are my chances of getting into the program. Gre 312. Toefl 104+ expecting.

    ———————————————

    Hey there,

    so. you’ve got a Bachelor of Technology and now you want to continue the roller-coaster ride that is engineering at UofT. great!

    admissions says that you need a four-year Bachelor’s degree, which you have. You also need to have attended a 1st. div. college, which you did. finally, your TOEFL score is comfortably above the minimum requirements for admission.

    the only thing i’m not sure about is your average. to get into engineering, you need to have completed your degree with at least a B or B+ average in the final two years of your degree.

    i’m not sure whether that 66.67% you mentioned is a) reflective of your four years, instead of just the last two, and b) works on a different GPA system than ours.

    the uoft website doesn’t allude to any different GPA scale in Indian universities, so i would contact the faculty of applied science & engineering to ask them whether your GPA scale matches theirs. also, make sure that the average you’re using to calculate your likelihood of admission is the average of your last two years of school.

    if that average is at least a B+, then you’re an eligible and competitive applicant.

    finally, make sure that you check the admissions requirements for the specific department you’re interested in within the faculty, because some of them have extra requirements like letters of reference (that’s where your work experience could come in handy).

    the M.Sc. in comp. sci. also requires a B+, but only in your LAST year of study.

    the TOEFL requirements are the same as those for engineering, and they don’t specify a preferred GRE score.

    the GRE actually seems like an asset rather than a requirement, because they say that “[a]pplicants from outside Canada are encouraged to submit scores from the GRE General Test, and are encouraged to also submit scores from the GRE Subject Test in Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related discipline.”

    the one thing that might complicate your admission to the M.Sc. is that “[p]reference will be given to applicants who have studied computer science or a closely related discipline.”

    i don’t know how closely electrical and electronic engineering is related to computer science, but it may be something you can ask the department of computer science.

    and that’s it! sorry for the information dump – i hope it all makes some sense. best of luck on your application!

    cheers,

    aska

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  • subject POST

    “wacko” subject POSts

    September 25, 2014

    is it true we need to have 2 majors or a specialist or some other wacko combination to enrol in a subjectpost?

    ???????????????

    hey there,

    it is true! and, if i may shed my cynical, outer shell for a minute and speak in defence of uoft, it’s actually not that bad a system.

    the standard subject POSt combinations in the faculty of arts & science are: one specialist, two majors, or one major and two minors. (you can also do a specialist and a minor, two majors and a minor, etc., but it’s not required).

    this means that if you only have one, singular interest that you’d like to study, you can do that through a specialist. however, if you want to combine several interests or you’re not entirely sure what you’d like to study, you can do that as well!

    it’s actually a system that allows for quite a bit of flexibility, which i am all for.

    embrace the wacko, is what i’m saying.

    aska

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  • psychology

    do you believe in life after psych?

    September 25, 2014

    Hi there,

    I’ve applied for a psychology major program during the second request period this past summer, and i got the results saying they refused me. i’ve completed all the requirements for the program so i had hope and it really sucks right now. they sent email to all the applicants saying, they only had space to admit approximately 1/4 of applicants for each program; thus the cut-off averages were high and we were unable to admit all of those who met or exceeded the minimum admission requirements. I planned my this year’s fall and winter courses around psychology thinking i’ll get into the program and i even planned to fulfill graduation requirement by end of summer 2015 so i can graduate in November. I’m thinking of applying to the minor program in April, but i really wanna get into the psych major and i’m very passionate about it. I’m already a 5th year student so i don’t wanna spend 6 years in school. To get into the major program do i have to take another course to even exceed the requirement so that i have a better chance? Please help, what i can do. Is there anywhere else i can take other courses to get into the program?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    man, i’m sorry you didn’t get in. psych is tough, and the awful fact of the matter is that a lot of very worthy people apply and don’t get into the POSt.

    if you’re (justifiably) saying that you just don’t want to stick around for another year, then it might be time to graduate with whatever POSt(s) you do have, and look for alternative ways to pursue psychology.

    you’ve already taken lots of psych courses, so even if you don’t graduate with that degree, you still have the knowledge. do you want to be a doctor? great, apply to medical school. grad school? great, apply there, too. maybe there’s a college program that suits your interests, or a job. the list goes on.

    most graduate and professional schools don’t require that you have a specific degree coming out of your undergrad. they may prefer certain areas over others, but there’s usually some wiggle room there.

    so maybe the best thing to do now is plan to graduate and start thinking about what’s next. how can you incorporate your passion for psychology into your future?

    as for getting into psych in april, it may still be possible. as far as i know, it’s more important that you get high marks in the required courses, rather than that you take a surplus of courses to get into the program.

    however, it may be worthwhile to take a few more psych courses, maybe to complete the requirements for a minor, or to boost your GPA for the next time you apply to the POSt (if you decide to do so).

    whether that is a good or helpful idea, though, depends on your academic history, which is why you should probably make an appointment with…you guessed it…your registrar’s office.

    the best thing is to chat with your registrar about all this, because they can advise you not only about courses and applying to psych again, but also about other possibilities for this year, and after graduation.

    best,

    aska

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  • OSAP

    i want my money!

    September 23, 2014

    does aska know how long it takes for an osap probation decision to be made after a letter indicating proof of academic progress is submitted to enrolment services? got put on probation cuz didn’t complete 4.0 credits cuz transferred campuses and credits don’t count towards program usually so i dropped courses to save money/time. it shouldn’t be a big deal i think/hope but i would like my funding ASAP.

    ???????????????

    hey there,

    this time of year, enrolment services has a pretty fast turnaround time for this sort of thing. i would say that anything bordering on 2 weeks is longer than typical right now.

    if it is coming close to two weeks since you submitted your letter, just contact enrolment services again and ask them when they expect the decision to be made.

    you can also ask them whether the fact that you changed campuses is having any effect on the wait time, while you’re at it (it may, but i can’t say for certain – it’s worth it to ask).

    xoxo, good luck,

    aska

    P.S. throwback to the video this title references.

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  • computer science,  courses,  summer,  work-study

    mysterious impossible courses

    September 23, 2014

    Hi! I was looking at summer courses, and I came across CSC207H1Y. Would students have gotten a half-credit or a full credit? How would this impact their eligibility for a summer work-study position? Thanks.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    i think you misread the course code there, chum. i see a CSC207H1 on the 2014 summer timetable, but no CSC207H1Y.

    and it’s a good thing, too, because ‘H1Y’ is not a thing (at least, in the faculty of arts & science – not true for the faculty of engineering, or for certain independent studies courses in artsci).

    you can’t be in a half-year course and a full-year course at the same time. unless you’re cheating.

    anyway, if you’re in a half-year course, you’d need to pick up at least 0.5 more credits over the summer to be eligible for work-study.

    cheers,

    aska

     

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