askastudent - your student life specialists

computer science, UTSC

here’s some unsolicited advice for you instead of an actual answer to your question

June 14, 2020

Hello. I wanted to know about pros and cons of CS program in UTSC. I’m deciding b/w CS program in UTSC and Engineering I in McMaster. I want to know about professors, and some other pros and cons. Also I want to know if someone who’s getting 94-97 in math gr12 courses can get into actual CS program after 1st year. I haven’t taken any cs course. I used to compare myself with other students with high grades so I put in a lot of effort to become first or achieve higher and higher grades.

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hey there,

as someone who’s not really super familiar with compsci or utsc, i’m not sure that i’m a good person to be advising you on this. i’ve never met any of the compsci profs at utsc, and have heard next to nothing about the compsci program there. i hate recommending reddit as a resource because it can often be super unreliable, but for something like this, it’s probably your best bet. it’s likely that there, you’ll be able to find someone in the UTSC compsci program who will be able to shed a little light on what it’s like for you. apart from pointing you in that direction, i feel kind of (read: absolutely) useless when it comes to your question.

as well, i can’t really tell you what your grade 12 math marks mean in terms of your likelihood of getting into the CS POSt, since grading can vary super widely between high schools.

here’s a word of advice i do want to leave you with, though: from what i’ve seen, heard, and experienced as a u of t student, i worry that your mindset of comparing yourself to other students is going to hurt you at university. regardless of what institution you end up choosing (and maybe you’ve made your choice already, by the time you see this), you’re only going to burn yourself out and discourage yourself by comparing yourself with the other people in your class.

don’t get me wrong– it’s certainly possible for you to achieve quite a lot and succeed in your coursework, but it’s more sustainable for you to measure that achievement in other things– like how familiar you are with your course material, or how well your learning can propel you towards your goals.

i would just hate for you to be one of those bright-eyed, ambitious students used to doing super well in high school, only to have their self-esteem crushed by first year or develop GPA-related anxiety. i’ve seen it happen way too many times. however, you did say “used to,” so maybe that means you’ve put that mindset in the past?

anyway. if you’d like to talk your decision through with someone at the university, you could reach out to your registrar! wishing you the most wisdom and the best of luck as you make your decision and tackle first year wherever you decide to go!

be Boundless,

aska

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internal transfer

oh boY

June 14, 2020

Hi! I am in serious need of some advice. I am officially a UTM student, but I only took 4.0 credits there in my first year. I took 5.0 credits at St. George during my second year. I applied to transfer this past year, but was declined because I did not make GPA. Should I try to transfer again in my third year once I boost my GPA? I have taken many classes that would contribute to a major that is only available at St. George. Is it worth it to keep trying to transfer? Thanks so much!

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hello there,

this is a bit of a situation you’ve gotten yourself in, huh?

i’m a little bit stuck on this one as well because i’ve never encountered your circumstances before, and have no clue how i would proceed if i were in your shoes.

i suppose if you’re super set on st. george, you can definitely try to transfer again for your third year. you’re familiar with the transfer process now, which will hopefully make it a bit easier for you. like you mentioned, your classes would contribute to a major that’s only available at st. george, so it may be worth another transfer attempt just to make those credits useful.

however, if you’re not confident in your ability to transfer to st. george, you can also look into having those credits transfer to UTM as electives, so that they don’t totally go to waste and can still count towards your degree. i’m not sure how many of them will transfer over, but this may be worth looking into just so you can weigh your options with better information available. as you’re probably already aware, you can check their transferrability using transfer explorer, or perhaps by reaching out to the relevant UTM departments.

that’s about all i can think of. i would really, really recommend that you reach out to your registrar and book an appointment. i feel like it would be much more helpful for you to talk this through with a real!live!person! who’ll be able to walk you through all your potential options.

good luck :/

be Boundless,

aska

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economics, internal transfer

what’s 90 dollars in the face of tuition, anyway?

June 6, 2020

Hi so I’ve currently been accepted to social sciences and humanities as an alternative offer however i am more keen in BBA management or a Bachelor of Arts in Econ’s. Is it possible to accept my offer and switch later on in my course to a different faculty such as management ?

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hey there!

it is possible to switch to different faculties after admission, yes. i believe this would require you to complete an internal transfer, which costs $90 and is done through OUAC. the deadline’s usually sometime in the beginning of the calendar year, which would give you some time to test the waters in socsci/humanities during the fall semester before you ultimately make your decision.

you can find info about doing an internal transfer from artsci to rotman here, assuming you’re a st. george kid. the rotman faculty that this particular internal transfer is quite competitive, so you should have a backup in mind, and make sure that you take the required first-year entry courses.

meanwhile, if you decide that you’d like to take a bachelor of arts in econ, you wouldn’t need to do anything! that is, other than take the appropriate prerequisites and apply for an econ POSt.

my advice would be, if you’re set on switching, to take the required courses for a rotman transfer as well as the prereqs for a major in econ. there’s some overlap between the two, which will make your life a little easier. that way, if your rotman transfer goes through, great! and if not, you have a backup path in a field of study that you’re also interested in.

be Boundless,

aska

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economics, extra courses, repeating course

ECO102 is that course for you, huh?

June 6, 2020
Hi there, I took ECO102 in my first year and did LWD as I was unsure about University policies at the time… For my second year I was doing part-time job and did ECO102 but got a 50%. I am thinking of doing economics as a major as I am not much of a fan of others except for politics and geography. I am doing ECO102 but realize doing MAT235 with this course is a bit much for me, I dropped ECO102 before the drop date. Am I now allowed to not take ECO102 again? Do you have answers?

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hey,

to my understanding, you should be able to take ECO102 again, yes! you meet all the necessary criteria in the rules and regulations for retaking a course:
- you obtained credit for ECO102 only once (when you got 50%)
- AND you need to achieve a minimum mark in ECO102 for entry into the economics major
if you do take ECO102 again, it may be important to note that you won’t receive a record on your transcript for it beyond the notation “EXT.” in other words, the course will be counted as an extra course: the course won’t be counted towards your 20 credits required to graduate, and the final grade will not make it to your permanent academic record/will not be calculated into your CGPA.

if you’re ever unsure about uNiVeRsiTy PoLiCieS again, feel free to reach out to me or contact your friendly ol’ registrar’s office. i hope this helped and that you have a solid saturday night!

be Boundless,

aska
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internal transfer, transfer credits

transfer explorer are u ok

June 4, 2020

Hi! I applied to transfer from UTM to UTSG for my second year and I just finished up my first year. I’ve been planning to do this since around the beginning of my time at UTM and so I planned my courses in a way that I knew they would transfer to UTSG. I made sure this was the case for ALL the courses I took. The problem is, checking on transferex now, it’s not showing some of the courses as transferrable to utsg even though it did at the beginning of the year. Do you know what this means?

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hello hello,

i don’t have a ton of experience with transfer explorer, and it’s a bit tough for me to check this over without any specific course codes. it does sound like you planned well ahead though, which makes this situation pretty strange.

have you reached out to anyone about it? i know the transfer credit departments in general usually take a heckin’ ton of time to respond, but maybe an academic advisor at your registrar might know what’s happening. transfer explorer itself recommends that you speak with an academic advisor, so that’s probably your best course of action right now.

sorry i can’t be more specific! i hope for your sake that it’s just an error, but i do know that on occasion, course equivalencies do change without warning. not to scare you without reason, or anything. don’t panic before you find out what’s going on!!

be Boundless,

aska

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computer science, internal transfer, UTM, UTSC

ThEy WiLL nOt Be AcCePtEd As EquiVALeNts

June 2, 2020

Hello there,I was wondering if I could transfer from UTSC CS to UTM. However, the POSt requirements for CS at UTM it says “Note that only CSC148H5, taken at the UTM campus, will be accepted. Please do not take CSC148H1(UTSG) or CSCA48H3(UTSC); they will not be accepted as equivalent for the purposes of program enrolment. “According to that, Can I still transfer?TNX

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hey there,

it sounds like you’d be able to transfer to the UTM campus, but possibly not directly into UTM’s compsci program. if you’re determined to be a UTM kiddo, you could probably try doing your internal transfer first, taking CSC148H5, and then applying to the compsci POSt at UTM. that’s what the situation seems like to me, anyway.

to be 100% sure, i’d check this over with your registrar, or with someone at the UTM compsci department. maybe both. i’m sure they’ve seen this situation before. good luck!

be Boundless,

aska

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academic offense, online courses

they’re watching you

May 27, 2020

Hi, I recently had a Quercus online test, it was not open book. For one multiple choice question I checked my answer on lecture slides in a different tab, I know this was wrong and this would be my first offense. I was planning on dropping the course anyway and already have, and my test hasn’t been graded yet, but I’m scared I’ll be charged with academic dishonesty and I feel terrible. I don’t know if they will grade my test, but do I email the prof? Do I tell them or will I not even be graded?

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hello there,

i feel like i should have gotten to a question like this quicker, so sorry about the wait!

i dunno if your situation has changed at all since a few days ago, but i’m not sure how helpful i can be anyway. i’m not sure whether your test will be graded if you’ve dropped the course (maybe not?? probably not??) and whether or not you come clean to your prof is your call. obviously, it would be the most honest thing to do, but i can’t really predict what the consequences will be. i don’t know what the academic integrity procedures are for courses that have already been dropped, which makes it kind of hard for me to navigate this for you.

if you want some better guidance on this, i would really encourage you to get in touch with your registrar’s office. i don’t believe anything you say to an academic advisor can be used against you in an academic integrity case given that they’re not even part of the process, but i’d check that over with whoever you speak to just to be 100% sure. regardless, they’d be the best place to go to for advice in a situation like this.

anyway, in case you’re not aware (but you might already be), your profs can see your Quercus activity. regardless of what you choose to do and what ends up happening, the most important thing you take away from this is to not make the same mistake again in the future.

be Boundless,

aska

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first year, FLC, one programs

tfti to first year courses :(

May 27, 2020

Hello, I hope whoever reads this is doing well! I will be joining Physical and Mathematical sciences at UofT this fall, and I wanted to ask about the One’s program vs. FLC! I heard FLC was pretty suitable for those doing LifeSci, so I don’t know if the same would apply to someone not doing LifeSci. So, my question is: which one is better? And, can I do both? Also, is there a cost to the One’s program? How many times do they meet up? Thank you!

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hey there,

congrats on accepting your offer of admission, that’s some pretty cool stuff. let’s unravel your question:

are FLCs suitable for people who aren’t in lifesci?

yes! i suspect you may have heard that they’re good for lifesci students because there’s lifesci first year learning community (FLC) group at every college, making lifesci the most common FLC. but the thing is that there are all sorts of FLC groups to match a range of interests. you can join a humanities group, or a social sciences group, if that’s the kind of thing you’re into. want to hang out with a bunch of actuarial science, compsci, math, psych, or econ kids? apparently there are enough of them that those programs get their own FLCs.

in short, if your interests line up with one of the FLC groups offered, whether lifesci or otherwise, joining an FLC in your first year is at least worth considering. since you mentioned that you’re going into the physical and mathematical sciences, you can probably look into the mathematics FLC.

which one is better? can i do both?

which one is “better” honestly depends on what you’re interested in, experience- and outcome-wise. i think FLCs may be better for meeting other first years with similar academic interests to you, and growing a sense of community in that way. you also get some pretty solid guidance if you’re part of an FLC, since you have access to senior-year student mentors as well as staff/faculty advisors. however, with FLCs you’re bound to a specific set of courses for your first year, which can feel a little restrictive. it’s great if those courses serve as prereqs for programs you’re interested in anyway, as i assume is probably true for FLCs with a more specific focus. however, if you were registered in a humanities FLC but planed to take a super niche humanities program with different prereqs, i can’t imagine that would line up very well. it may also be important to you that FLCs offer CCR recognition, while ‘ones’ and first-year foundations seminars (FYS) do not.

the ‘ones’ program, though, lends you quite a lot of flexibility in terms of subject matter depending on which course you choose. registering in a ‘one’ won’t take up more than a single slot in your timetable, and there’s no extra meeting on top of the courses, unlike with an FLC. it’s true that you’re less likely to meet first years with similar interests because all sorts of first years tend to register in ‘ones,’ but they’re still great places to make friends! in my first year, i chose the ‘ones’ program over a FLC for its flexibility, and ended up meeting some of the people i’m now closest to at u of t. plus… honestly, in terms of how cool the subject matter is, i would rank ‘ones’ above FLCs, and FYS courses over both of them.

can you take both? i know that there are exclusions for FYS courses and the ‘ones’ program, but i’ve never run into any exclusions for FLCs and ‘ones.’ i’m relatively certain that you can do both, but if you wanna be 100% certain i’d check it over with your registrar.

is there a cost to the ones program?

not unless you take a course with a travel component, like this seminar that involves a trip to california. i think the only ‘ones’ with a travel component are the SMC ones, though– if there’s a fun, expensive field trip involved, usually you’ll know just by looking at the course page. and anyway… who even knows if those field trips are gonna be able to run for this upcoming school year?

how many times do they meet up?

not sure which one you’re referring to here. generally, outside of regular classes, FLCs meet up 13 times over the academic year. on the other hand, ones operate like regular classes (you meet for the designated class time every week for either one semester or the full year).

anyway, hope this was helpful and you have a great first year! good luck making a decision.

be Boundless,

aska

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art, career choice, suspension

a stable job? oh boy

May 13, 2020

Hi, I currently graduated with a 2.53 gpa. I was suspended for one year and managed to graduate! I realized school is not a thing for me in long term. My major was in art history, but jobs like museum curating require you to have a masters degree. I aspire to become a writer one day, but want a stable job to support that. What career would you recommend that is close to my major and requires no grad school and no social media?

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hey there,

buddy, i know next to nothing about art history. but i wear many hats around here, apparently, so lemme put on my career advising cap and see if anything changes.

all right, all right, let’s see. stable jobs, hmm.

oh, what’s that? no such thing as a stable job in this economy? cool cool cool cool cool, okay.

in all seriousness, i can’t tell you much more than a simple google search will be able to. i would recommend that you contact career advising for one of their lovely advising appointments, which you should still be able to take advantage of as a recent grad. they even seem to have revamped their website and offerings to continue to support students virtually, which is cool. kudos to them. last time i linked to them, they didn’t even have a phone number listed and it felt like a dead end. you’re in luck, i guess. go for it! go talk to them! pursue your writer dreams while bagging that stable income! but good luck dodging social media lol, i’ve had no luck so far (exhibit one: i run this website and all its attached accounts).

good luck!!

be Boundless,

aska

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enrollment, enrolment, keeners, timetable

keener alert

May 13, 2020

hi! do you know when the timetable for courses is going to update? i’ve been wanting to plan out my classes for next year but i know the timetable isn’t going to be 100% accurate until it updates.

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hey there,

to my understanding, there’s not really one comprehensive update for the timetable. u of t has too many departments and divisions that like to change things around at the last minute. they’ve probably already begun revamping the timetable for next year, but until it reads ‘2020-2021 fall & winter session timetable” instead of 2019-2020, i’d assume it’s fully unusable. especially with covid, we don’t necessarily know if classes are going to look the same next year. even in regular years, class times and offerings tend to change year to year.

my guess is that by june-ish (late june??) that heading will update. perhaps it will update later this year if covid changes the way u of t will operate. regardless, it’s important to note that the heading update only indicates that the timetable is mostly accurate, not 100% solid. like i said, there might still be smaller updates after that. i wanna say that around…. mid july (?) is typically the best time to do course planning, because it’s when the timetable starts to settle down.

right before my first year, i think i got on top of course planning several weeks before enrollment began. i also remember having to revise my course schedule several times, because a couple of things shifted and messed with the whole thing i had going on.

i understand the desire to plan your courses out (it’s exciting!!) but i would advise against doing it too early, unless you’re willing to spend extra time revising your timetable should your course info change.

i’d say the safest time to plan out your courses is just several days before your enrollment date, even though that might seem a bit tight. and then check over your course details one more time the morning of your enrollment day, to be super super sure nothing has changed.

be Boundless,

aska

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late registration, summer

i added a new category named ‘late regstration’ just for u and now i can’t delete it

May 13, 2020

i’m financially cancelled for the summer session, because i thought i didn’t want to enrol. but now i don’t have anything to do, so i might be changing my mind. is there a way to un-cancel myself so i can enrol in summer courses, or is it too late?

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hey there,

technically, yes, it is past the deadline to enrol in summer courses.

however, if you get in touch with your friendly local registrar, they should be able to process you as a late registration. i’m not super familiar with what the process looks like for the summer semester (especially with the registrar’s office having gone virtual), but i can’t imagine it would be that different from normal? basically a doing a late reg means is that you’ll get un-cancelled (lol, twitter would never) and be able to enrol in courses. it’ll cost you a sweet little sum (i can’t remember how much? i think around $45???? ask your registrar). but yeah, like most things in our capitalist economy, many disallowed things are possible if you’re willing to pay the price.

too bad i’m too poor to get away with stunt driving. too bad i’m too poor to even know how to drive. the bus be my horse,

be Boundless,

aska

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covid-19, grad school, profs

going the distance to bag those references

May 6, 2020

hello! i am looking for reference letters for graduate school and i was thinking of asking a professor during summer courses. any advice on getting to know my profs this summer when courses are online?

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hello hello,

good afternoon to everyone except profs who are still assigning textbooks that cost over a hundred dollars, even during an economic downturn.

grad school! an exciting endeavour.

online summer courses! a mediocre endeavour at best.

< so i took a solid chunk of time and thought this out, because initially it seemed highly unlikely to me that you'd be able to successfully get to know a prof who's teaching remotely. even before this pandemic, i'd taken a few online courses and found that each time without fail, the instructor remained a nameless faceless entity. do online instructors even exist?

i hate feeling useless, though, so here are the suggestions i scraped together for ya:< number one: online office hours

as far as i’m aware, most instructors are still holding office hours using platforms like zoom or whatnot. these office hours are gonna be your best bet to get to know your profs. show up, have good questions, make it clear you’ve engaged with their material so that you make a good impression.

bonus points for knowing what their area of research is and being able to talk to them about it– but only after you’ve spoken to them at least a few times.

number two: engage with your prof via email

it’s a second-rate strat, but if you’re unable for any reason to talk to your prof face to face over some kind of video call, sending them emails will at least let them know you exist. make sure these emails are polite, professional, and make you sound smart without trying too hard lol. respond quickly (which i suck at, rip me) and once again, ask good questions and express an interest in the class material! some form of communication is better than none.

number three: make yourself stand out if you have class discussions

now, i know this isn’t the case for many classes this summer, but some smaller upper-year seminars will still be holding live lectures with a participation or discussion component. if you’re planning to apply to grad school soon, my hope is that you’re an upper year able to take a small advanced class like this. participating is a good way to get noticed by your profs. the ones i’ve had have always appreciated quality participation, and if you do really well they’ll notice you and you won’t even need to try. it’ll then be easier on you when you reach out and want to talk about grad school later down the road.

number four: do well in the class, or make yourself stand out through assignments

it goes without saying that sometimes these things are out of your control.

if we all could do well in our classes we would. but in my experience talking to profs about grad school, they’ve been pretty transparent about how, if you want a solid letter, you should get an A in their course or have something academically noteworthy about you that they can discuss. if you can manage to do really, really well, or turn in a creative or surprising assignment, this will definitely get your profs to notice you as well as hand them material for whatever letters they may write you later on.

hope this was helpful! good luck with your summer courses and grad school applications.

be Boundless,

aska

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enrollment, enrolment

you just got FINCA’d

May 4, 2020
hi! my status on acorn for summer says financially cancelled, but i never enrolled for summer classes in the first place. is this normal?

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hello hello,

yes, this is normal! how the ACORN system operates is this:
1. you’re invited to register in a session (ie. fall/winter or summer, in your case summer 2020)
2. you enroll in courses
3. you pay the minimum payment to register by the stated deadline, which has now passed
4. you’re registered!
or, like a choose-your-own-adventure, you can branch off at the first step and not enroll in courses. since you obviously don’t pay if you don’t enroll, you don’t get to make it to step 4. what happens at this point is you get FINCA’d. financially cancelled.

this is not the same thing as getting cancelled on twitter. it does not mean that you are in trouble. all it means is that ACORN has acknowledged that you have not paid on time for a given session, and so you do not show up in the system as a current student. which is what you want if you didn’t intend to enroll for a session in the first place.

for future references, two things to note about getting FINCA’d:
- when this status shows up on your ACORN, it also means you’ve been booted from any classes you might have been enrolled in
- if you didn’t intend to get FINCA’d, ie. you meant to register but didn’t pay by the deadline, what you need to do is get in contact with your registrar. they’ll be able to process a late registration for you, which is usually accompanied by a small fee.
hope this helps!

be Boundless,

aska
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