• courses,  current student,  programs

    gotta get with the program

    April 25, 2022

    Are only my first 20 credits counted for program requirements? Ahhh its so confusing

    hello there,

    ahhhh indeed.

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    according to the artsci calendar, you need at least 20.0 credits to graduate, courses beyond that can still count towards your program requirements.

    you just gotta make sure that your 20.0 (or more) credits satisfy these conditions:

    • at least 13.0 FCEs at the 200+ level
    • at least 6.0 FCEs at the 300+ level
    • at least 10.0 FCEs from the faculty of arts and sciences

    the one thing you might have to be careful about is that if you have over 15.0 FCEs with the same three letter designation in the course code (e.g. ENG, or MAT), only the first 15 will count towards your degree requirements… but technically, maybe they can still count for your program requirements? i guess if you do find yourself in the unique dilemma of having 15+ FCEs with the same three letter code, it’d be best to check with your registrar, just in case!

    hope that helps!

    aska

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  • auditing,  courses,  current student

    don’t let your dream (courses) be dreams

    March 16, 2022

    Hey! I found out about a course I’ve been dreaming of way too late. I’m on the wait list, but it’s a small class and i’m like 33rd ? so no chance of me getting in. Is there anything i can do at all to still be able to take it? It’s online and I dont know if emailing a prof or the department would do any good for me.

    hey there,

    ironically, i think i may be answering your question way too late… sorry 🙁 but hope this can still help in some way.

    i think 33rd on the waitlist might be too far down to get the prof to accept you directly over the other students who were also interested, but if the waitlist moves along enough, you could have a good shot. anyhow, it doesn’t hurt to ask. some smaller courses (think <20 students) have actually had surprisingly high drop rates in my experience, so there may still be hope!

    another thing is, you may want to ask the prof about auditing the course. auditing would allow you to attend and participate in lectures and classes, but you wouldn’t get a credit for the course or submit any assignments/evaluations.

    you can audit courses for free as a uoft student, or if you really want to get a nice shiny official Certificate of Attendance™, there would be an auditing fee of usually 40% or more of the course tuition. in any case, this could be a good way to get into the class if you mostly want to attend out of interest, and won’t be able to take the course in later years. heck, you can even audit courses after graduating (if you haven’t had enough school yet…) with permission of the department/instructor, and the auditing fee.

    not all departments/instructors will allow auditing, but the best way to find out if you could audit is just to reach out to the prof directly and ask.

    Dreams Can Come True Hillary Duff GIFfrom Dreams Can Come True GIFs

    best of luck,

    aska

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  • admissions

    waiting, not waitlisted

    March 16, 2022

    I was notified today that uoft can’t offer me admission in this round of applications. They will consider it in the next round, meaning in the nest four weeks I would get the decision.

    Does this mean I’m waitlisted? Should I be concerned?

    hey there,

    acceptances should be sent out throughout late january all the way to the end of may so there’s no need to panic yet! it looks like you haven’t been waitlisted at this point, but you’ll just have to wait a bit longer to receive a decision. if you’ve submitted all your required documents and everything you should be all set, so just hang tight and look out for more updates in the next round!

    fyi, uoft will actually be starting a waitlist system this year for applicants that were close to meeting the requirements but weren’t able to get an acceptance directly. you can check if you’ve been invited to the waitlist in the ‘Check Your Application Status’ section of the join uoft site. waitlisted applicants will get their final decisions by june 17 for ontario high school students, or may 25 for other applicants.

    however, if you didn’t get a ‘waitlisted’ status update, then rest assured, you’re haven’t been put on the waitlist, your application is just… undecided!

    Suspense Waiting GIFfrom Suspense GIFs


    i know, i know, no one likes a cliffhanger, i mean come on, uoft… anyway, i hope that helps to somewhat quell your concerns. although the wait can be stressful, i hope you get some time to just chill and enjoy these next few weeks/months 🙂 and hopefully, you’ll get the final decision soon!

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    best of luck,

    aska

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  • current student,  dropping courses,  repeating course

    third time’s the charm

    March 10, 2022

    Hello! I have an urgent question, I am currently on my 3rd year of study and one of my courses I need to take to graduate needs a first year prerequisite which I took back in my first year and got a very low mark and dropped it, now I’m taking it again I am failing it again, can I drop it again and retake it during the summer of 2022 after I had taken a refresher course for it? Or will that show up in my transcript now because I have dropped it twice?

    hello there!

    to my knowledge, you should be able to drop the course and take it again in the summer. there are limits for retaking courses that you have already completed, e.g. to get a better mark, but as far as i know, if you’ve just dropped the course both times without completing it, whether it be a normal withdrawal or late withdrawal, that shouldn’t have any impact on enrolling in it again in the future.

    Its All Good No Worries GIFfrom Its All Good GIFs

    fyi, the deadline to withdraw from winter session courses is coming very very soon on march 14th (4 more days!), so hope this gets to you in time! after that you can also apply for late withdrawals or cr/ncr on winter and year-long courses until april 8th.

    hope this helps! if you have any other questions, definitely reach out or try booking an appointment with your registrar, who can provide more advice specific to your situation.

    best wishes,

    aska

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  • choosing,  courses,  current student,  prereqs

    course selections is like tetris but more frustrating

    March 5, 2022

    Hello! I was wondering… if we’re supposed to take classes for our enrolled major (second year) but also want to enroll at the end of our second year for another major- how do we balance our course load to take the prerequisites AND our major requirements? Thanks a bunch 🙂

    hey there,

    hope second year is going well~ i’d probably prioritize the courses you need to enter the major you wanna apply for, and then try to fit in the courses/prereqs you need for your current major.

    for most majors, there’s no strict requirement on what year you take your courses in, so you could take some of your 200-level courses next year if needed, and just generally mix and match the different course levels as long as you have the prerequisites.

    you might want to plan everything out on degree explorer to make sure that you’ll have all the prereqs you need for upper year courses. course planning is kind of a pain but there’s also something satisfying when you finally get all of those forty-something coloured blocks to fit in your plan :’)

    Car Tetris GIFfrom Tetris GIFs

    hope that helps,

    aska

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  • clubs

    sad music & concrete toboggans for everyone

    February 24, 2022

    if i’m a student at utm, would i able to join clubs at utsg/utsc or am i limited to joining clubs at my specific campus?

    hello!

    as far as i’m aware, you can join clubs at any campus! it might be hard to get to in person meetings at different campuses but i guess one good thing about covid is that a lot of clubs are probably doing online meetings now too.

    Join The Club Be With Us GIFfrom Join The Club GIFs

    soooo yeah! you are free to explore the 1095 (!!) student clubs on ulife in all their tricampus glory. i gotta say, the utsg clubs scene seems to be particularly unhinged… this post wouldn’t be complete without a shoutout to gems like the sad music club (which is exactly what it sounds like), onion club (which has nothing to do with actual onions), and university of toronto concrete toboggan team (which is in fact a club dedicated to concrete toboggans) — the point being, you’re bound to find something for you.

    happy club-searching,

    aska

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  • admissions,  OSAP

    early bird gets the osap (well not yet tho it’s literally february)

    February 6, 2022

    hi aska! this is less a question about uoft and more about applying in general (hope that’s alright). do you apply to osap right after applying to schools or do you apply once you’ve accepted an offer? thanks a bunch

    hi there,

    i’m pretty sure you can start applying once osap opens for the academic year you’re entering. if you’re applying for the 2022-2023 academic year, the application should be open around may/june, which is probably after you’ve submitted your applications and gotten most of your offers.

    you can actually submit osap as late as 60 days before the end of the school year (that is, if you’re in school full time for the fall and winter semesters). it’s probably best to apply as early as possible though to make sure you get that sweet sweet osap cash by the time classes start and tuition is due.

    Somebody Better Have Her Money GIFfrom Rihanna GIFs

    this extensive faq should be helpful if you have other questions!

    all the best,

    aska

     

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  • arts & sciences,  programs

    u got the beeeeest of both worlds (2.0)

    February 6, 2022

    Hi! So I’m starting my senior year in less than a month (whoa) and I’ve decided that I want to major in poli sci. I was on the UofT website and it said that a student can have two majors, if I’m in the social science stream freashman year so I can major in poli sci, how hard will it be to choose a second major in a completely different field (like life sci)?

    hello there,

    sorry for the late reply!!! (yikes) but i hope this helps anyway. and yes i did recycle that title. it’s just too good.

    if you enter in the social science stream, it’s definitely possible to choose a second major in a different field, as long as it’s in the faculty of arts and sciences, and as long as you can take all the courses required for each major. imo one of the coolest things about uoft artsci is the sheer number of programs that you can basically mix and match — here’s the full list!

    They Have Everything Complete GIFfrom They Have Everything GIFs

    in terms of courses, each major usually requires around 7-8 FCEs (credits, basically) and you need 20 FCEs to graduate, so it should be totally fine to major in two very different fields and have some space leftover for electives, too.

    the one thing i can think of that might be a bit tricky is course selections. generally students get priority enrollment for courses in whatever stream/program they’re enrolled in. so if you apply for the social science stream, you’d get priority for those courses in first year, but may have a harder time getting into life sci or other categories’ courses. in my experience though, first year course selections weren’t too bad and i was able to get into most courses i needed in my stream/program and other electives. also, first year classes are usually pretty huge (especially lifesci), so i wouldn’t worry too much about getting into those tbh.

    best of luck,

    aska

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  • admissions,  prereqs

    be freeeee my child (from math)

    January 23, 2022

    Hi I am going into grade 12 and I was wondering if I needed to take grade 12 functions to get into UofT? I’m really weak in math and I just know that if I took advanced functions, it would make my average drop significantly. The program I want to get into only requires me to take English as a course so would it be necessary for me to take math?

    hey there,

    apologies for the late reply!! but it looks like you’re already on the right track by checking out the requirements for your program!

    i’m assuming you’re applying from a canadian high school, in which case, you just need to submit your top six grade 12 courses, including english (ENG4U or EAE4U). you can find more info here. so if the program you’re interested in doesn’t require advanced functions, you don’t need to take it!

    Youre Free Now Run Go GIFfrom Youre Free Now Run GIFs

    i think you probably know where to find the program requirements, but just in case, you can check out specific programs from the full list here, or get a really good breakdown of programs by categories here.

    the only other thing i’d recommend to look out for is if any of the courses you might want to take in the future have advanced functions as a prerequisite. the arts and science calendar is a real godsend for listing all the programs, and their courses, and the prereqs of those courses, so if you have a program in mind you can definitely check it out to be sure!

    so yeah, bascially, you should be all good! hope you’re living your best math-free life~

    aska

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  • academic offense

    an honest mistake

    January 21, 2022

    I think I might have accidentally cheated because I understood my teacher incorrectly. At the beginning of the class the teacher was taking about testing and said something like you won’t have enough time even with open book, so I thought he meant that our tests are open book. But I checked my syllabus just a few days ago after my finals and realized that our tests were not open book. But now I can’t drop my class what should I do. If I tell the teacher will she expel me.

    hi there,

    this is a tough situation but hopefully by now you’ll know if your case was flagged as an academic offense or not, as your instructor probably would have contacted you by now if there’s a concern.

    if your instructor has contacted you about a possible academic offense, don’t stress out too much! they definitely can’t just expel you based on that, and you will have a chance to explain yourself and throughout the procedures for investigating an academic offence.

    Just A Little Talk Just A Little Talk Joey Kidney GIFfrom Just A Little Talk Just A Little Talk GIFs

    first you’d have the chance to talk with your instructor, and then, if they believe there has been an academic offense, you would have to discuss the case with your instructor and the chair of the course’s department. since your case involves cheating on a test, it would likely be forwarded to the dean of the faculty or division. (it seems that chairs are only supposed to make decisions on assignments worth 10% or less of the course grade.)

    when discussing with the dean, you’d have the chance to explain your situation and admit to the offense. in that case, the dean would be able to impose sanctions that they feel are reasonable. a list of possible sanctions can be found here. none of these sanctions include expulsion from the university, but you may get a suspension of up to 12 months. in the best case scenario, you may just receive an oral or written reprimand, or a decreased mark in the course/test.

    i think it would be best to be honest and clearly explain your mistake. also be sure to respond quickly and professionally to communications with your instructor/chair/dean. being honest and showing remorse can definitely play a factor in deciding the penalties you may receive.

    fyi, if for whatever reason you choose not to admit to the offense, your case could technically get escalated to the university tribunal… but hopefully it won’t come to that (*sweats nervously*)

    if you have any concerns you should definitely also reach out to your registrar to get professional advice. you can book an appointment with an academic advisor, and anything that you discuss with tehm cannot be used against you in an academic offense case. you can also reach out to downtown legal services (dls) for support – they’re a free legal clinic at the uoft faculty of law and have lots of experience helping with student academic offence cases.

    hope that helps,

    aska

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  • CR/NCR,  dropping courses,  late withdrawal

    to drop or not to drop

    January 10, 2022

    Should I drop my course, I did really bad on my final but I was not able to mark it as credit no credit and now the deadline is over. I’m really scared that this will affect my grades and everything else. But if I drop it it will be such a waste of money that I would also regret. Please help me.

    hey there,

    i think this might be too late for utm and utsc, but if you’re going to utsg, you may be in luck this semester as the credit/no credit and late withdrawal deadlines have been extended to january 18, which is hopefully after all your marks have come out so you can make a more informed decision.

    hopefully, if you didn’t do as well as you’d hoped in that course, you’d still be able to cr/ncr it! but just keep in mind that the extended cr/ncr does not apply to program requirement courses, unless your course was one of those that had their final exams cancelled due to the new covid regulations (it seems like that’s not the case for you).

    if you need the course for program requirements and can’t cr/ncr it, i’d recommend seeing how much that course impacts your grades overall using a gpa calculator like this one. that might help you to decide if you’d like to late withdrawal the course. unfortunately, a late withdrawal does mean that your fees for the dropped course wouldn’t be refunded, and you may need to pay to retake the course in the future. it’s a tough decision, but i think ultimately it comes down to what mark you need from the course to meet your goals, and how feasible it would be for you to drop the course and retake it if needed.

    hope that was helpful in some way. i’d also recommend checking out some of the academic advising resources (here’s a list of resources in arts and science) on campus if you have any other concerns, they could definitely help out with questions about lwd and even financial aid or academic support which could be helpful if you end up needing to drop the course.

    best wishes,

    aska

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  • course conflicts

    the fault in our timetables

    December 2, 2021

    If a course has two tutorial sessions in a week, would I have to go to both? I am fine with going to one of them, but the other one overlaps with another lecture I have to attend…

    hi there,

    i apologize for the late reply and hope that at this point you’ve figured things out… but usually if there are multiple tutorial sessions for a course, you’d sign up for one time slot on acorn and that’s the one you go to. i’ve never heard of a course that requires you to attend more than one mandatory tutorial per week, so you should probably check the acorn thing or ask your instructor to see if you just need to attend one tutorial session.

    if it turns out that you do need to attend two tutorial sessions per week AND a lecture that takes place at the same time…

    well, that honestly sounds quite hectic, i’d say — but you might be able to pull it off if your lecture or tutorial is recorded, and attendance isn’t marked. you could also try fiddling around on acorn some more to see if there’s any way to switch your lecture section.

    hope things worked out and that you were able to get some reasonable arrangement of courses this semester, but if not, i wish you the best of luck getting into better time slots next semester/year~

    hope that helps,

    aska

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  • admissions

    a (late) reply about early admissions

    November 25, 2021

    If I applied between mid-Nov and early/mid-Dec would that be considered early admission? Also what are the usual circumstances around someone getting a conditional offer? Thanks a lot 🙂

    wellll this is slightly embarrasing — sorry to be answering your question during late november, we’re really cutting it close here.

    hopefully you’ve been able to gather more info on this by now, but if not, all the important dates for early admissions should be here. although admittedly, that webpage gets pretty convoluted with all the different programs and applications and documents, so i’ll try to break it down a bit here.

    first of all, the deadlines are going to be a bit different depending on if you’re currently attending an ontario high school (OUAC 101) or not (international applicants, OUAC 105 i.e. canadians not at an ontario high school, or internal applicants). if you’re at an ontario high school, you’re in luck: applications this round are due january 13, 2022 for you, and the only faculty that has an early consideration deadline for applications is the faculty of applied science and engineering, on december 1, 2021. there are also early recommended dates for submitting supplementary applications and other supporting documentation, and the earliest dates for those are in mid-december, but they vary for different programs.

    it’s a bit more complicated for other applicants: a bunch of programs have a recommended application deadline of november 7, 2021 for early consideration. some also have early recommended dates for supporting documentation in mid-november, but it really depends on your program.

    hopefully you’ve already figured this out but if not, then go go go!! good luck 🙂

    EDIT: oooops i totally skipped over your question about the conditional offers… luckily, the answer for that is pretty simple. most offers for students applying from high school will be conditional because uoft won’t have all your final marks yet. so the offers are made on the condition that you maintain “acceptable academic standing“. just make sure your grades don’t drop too much, and you’re good.

    aska

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