• 12 distinct credits

    it took me way too long to add 4 + 4 + 7 together

    April 20, 2020

    Hi aska, I know lots of people are asking about the 12.0 distinct credits rule, but how would that apply to 1 major and 2 minors… None of my program credits overlap so I can assume I’m safe?

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    you are correct that this is a super common question, but it’s common because it’s one of the most confusing things at this school.

    the 12 distinct credits rule does apply to 1 major and 2 minors, yes. since a minor is typically 4.0 credits and a major is typically around 7.0 credits, one major and two minors with no overlap should add up to around 15.0 distinct credits. since i don’t know what programs yours are, i can’t confirm this for you, but you can probably do the math yourself!

    if in doubt, UTSC has put together a pretty solid 12 distinct credits worksheet that can be useful for more complicated program combinations with some degree of overlap. just throwin’ that out there in case you decide to change your program at some point, and need to figure things out again. you can also use it for your current program combo if you REALLY want to be sure.

    but yeah, bottom line, i think you’re probably safe.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • admissions,  financial aid,  scholarships/bursaries,  work-study

    fresh blood, bois (thank god it’s good news this time)

    April 19, 2020

    I have been accepted into all 3 campuses and my fam is beyond happy about it. But I just got an email today informing me that I failed to get the scholarship. I’m an international student and the tuition fee is way too much for my fam. I have calculated possible earnings from coop (management) but I’m not confident they will be of any help. Is there any information or organization/ someone I can contact abt scholarship or any means of financial aid?. I’m vibing with UofT already so I’m thinking of taking loans but is it worth it? considering that I can go to my country’s uni debt-free. Thank you.

    ——————————————

    hey hey hey,

    enormous congrats on your acceptance! all three campuses, wowow. even in these whack times, that’s v exciting. i, personally, am on a HUGE ‘i miss u of t’ stint at the moment, so i’m even more excited for you than i’d normally be at this point in the semester.

    u of t is a fantastic school, and it’s offered me so many opportunities/friendships/learning experiences that i wouldn’t give up for anything. with that said, not everyone ultimately finds it “worth it,” so to speak. here’s a previous post i wrote upon the pros and cons of going to u of t, as i see them. give it a look if you’re interested. it might give you a little more information as you draw up your own pros and cons list, metaphorically or literally (but i always recommend literally, it’s how i made my own uni decision).

    i can’t give you a definitive answer as to whether or not going to u of t is worth it, because i don’t have all the details necessary to make that decision (and please don’t give them to me!! i could be an internet criminal for all you know). for example, i don’t really know what your values or goals are, or the caliber of the local school you’d be attending. those are definitely things you should be taking into consideration.

    here are some other questions to ask yourself: what do you want out of your undergraduate degree? are you in an acceptable financial position to take out loans? do you anticipate that your field of study will be lucrative enough to pay your loans back? will you have parental support? would you be able to cut costs by living off-campus and cooking for yourself? etc., etc.

    worried about funding? here are some things you can look into:

    • the award explorer database, which just launched quite recently, will allow you to filter through a ton of scholarships that the school offers in order to find the ones you’re eligible for. there are a good number of admissions scholarships you can probably apply for. many scholarships will also take financial aid into account (some of them only look at financial aid!!) so i’d give this a shot
    • the work-study program provides paid on-campus part time jobs that are generally quite flexible in terms of hours. as an international student, you’ll need to apply for a social insurance number in order to be eligible for work-study, but i know several international students who have successfully done this. i myself am a work-study student, and find the program to be pretty fantastic. our main campus newspaper, the varsity, has put out a few pro-con articles on work-study if you wanna check them out here. 
    • working in the summers or getting an off-campus part-time job during the semester can be a good way to make some tuition money. i have friends who work at bubble tea shops, coffee shops, and more. the downside to non-campus jobs is that your work schedule won’t always be as flexible as it would under the work-study program, but it’s definitely something to consider.
    • becoming a don is also an option in your upper years, if you have the leadership/crisis management skills and the patience to deal with rowdy first-years. each residence has their own hiring process and they don’t all offer the same benefits, but i’ve heard it can be a super solid way for people to offset university costs. for example, many residences with meal plans offer dons free access to those meal plans. other residences offer 100% free accommodations.
    • most colleges and divisions also offer some sort of bursary program to students with financial aid. you’d need to speak to your registrar’s office to find out more.
    • going to UTM or UTSC will typically be cheaper in terms of rent/groceries, and there’s probably less competition for scholarships. but you’d have to weigh the value of each campus in terms of your personal goals as well– i ultimately chose st. george because there were more opportunities downtown.

    if you do ultimately choose u of t, your registrar’s office will usually have a financial advisor who’s willing to work with you to create a student budget. they, as well as residence programs, can also provide money-saving advice. i myself was worried about finances when i chose u of t, but i’ve found that meal-prepping, thrift shopping, living with roommates, and using student discounts is really helpful. i also use an excel sheet to keep track of my spending– if you use a few simple formulas, it auto-updates just like magic! spreadsheets rock.

    all that being said, i do realize that international student tuition is really high, and the casual offsetting you can do by skimping on restaurant meals and takeout will only make a small dent in that debt.

    in terms of weighing the “should i stay or should i go” question: one lil piece of advice i’ve heard is that, when considering what country you do a postsecondary degree in, it’s helpful to have a sense of what region you’d like to work in afterwards. after you complete a university degree, your degree isn’t the only thing you should have in your pocket– often, you end up with a personal and professional network that may open up career opportunities, but that network will be most useful in the area where your university’s actually located.

    here’s a domestic example: if you were choosing whether to go to school at home in edmonton or out-of-province in toronto, but ultimately want to return to edmonton to work, then it might be more useful to grow that network at home. if, however, you saw your career flourishing best in toronto and would be happy working on the east coast, that’s extra points for a school like u of t.

    hope that makes sense. good luck making the decision! i’m sure whatever you choose, it’ll be good.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • academic offense

    guys please ://

    April 19, 2020

    hi , I just got an email from my professor that the TA suspects me for plagiarizing . This is my first time getting academic integrity/offence email . It involves my final which is worth 30% . The issue was some of my answers were not properly paraphrased and misreference as I thought citing from Wikipedia isn’t valid . I know Im the dumbest person in this uni right now , but currently this issue has give me a lot of pressure . Thanks in advance for your help 🙂

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    not sure what your specific question is, but i can tell you what will probably happen next. according to the code of behaviour on academic matters, you’ll need to make yourself available for a meeting with your instructor, in which the two of you will discuss what happened, your instructor will give you more information, etc. etc. nothing you say in this meeting can be used against you, so you and your instructor can have as open a conversation as possible about the situation. if, after that, your instructor still believes that you committed an academic offense, your case will get passed on to your department chair or dean, and things will be dealt with accordingly.

    in your case, since your assignment was worth more than 10%, it’ll likely be the dean who decides what kind of reprimand you’ll be facing. but no use speculating about what that’ll be until you meet with your instructor.

    to address specific elements of the message you sent me:

    in general, citing from wikipedia isn’t really a good call. if you’re really insistent on using it, scroll down to the bottom of the wikipedia page and see if you can find any legitimate sources lurking in the footnotes. it’s a much better to (properly!!) use and cite those sources than it is to use or cite wikipedia. don’t cite wikipedia. at most, use it as a starting point.

    anyway, you pay for access to u of t’s library of online journals and stuff, anyway, so it may be worth the extra effort next time to pull sources from there instead. i know the language can be more difficult to parse and it’s a little less straightforward than doing a simple google search, but the quality of info you’ll get there is so, so much better than wikipedia. not using a service you already paid for is kinda like:

    as for proper paraphrasing… this document from the uc writing centre is pretty legit in terms of the guidelines it provides. at the core of it, they outline two essential points. first, you NEED to reference your source (in-text, like through footnotes or whatever your prof wants). second, it’s essential that you use your own words and sentence structures when paraphrasing. it may be beneficial to give those guidelines a look, just so that you’re clear on what the expectations are for next time.

    in general, i’d recommend that you reach out to your friendly local registrar. book a phone appointment and explain your situation. it would be useful for you to talk your situation over with someone who can give you advice specific to your case. it would also be a good opportunity for you to ask any specific questions you might have.

    a final note: i need you guys to understand that i can’t bail you out, or give you reassurance i ultimately can’t stand behind, or even predict what’s going to happen to you. i’m willing to answer as many of these as are sent in, but i (as a fellow student!) can only be useful in these ways, as far as academic integrity cases are concerned:

    • explain the code of academic conduct
    • give you tips to avoid academic integrity issues in the future
    • walk you through the next steps of navigating an academic integrity case
    • refer you to resources

    this isn’t @ you specifically, just an announcement for anyone asking academic integrity questions right now. i’ve gotten more this week than i usually do over the span of, like, five months.

    best of luck finishing the rest of the semester if you’re not yet done. we’ll pull through.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • copyright,  library

    sharing is caring????????

    April 17, 2020

    hey! I was wondering what the big copyright stamp/page at the beginning of some of my readings entails? Does uoft really own the material even if it was by some random author at some random time? I have american friends in a different university that i sometimes like to help out by sending pdfs of my readings, but is that not allowed?

    ——————————————

    hey hey,

    i actually have… no clue what you’re referring to? i’d need to have a look at the actual copyright stamp or page to even begin deciphering it, and i’ve probably got as much experience with that as you do. not gonna lie, most of my readings just… start at the first paragraph, or page, or whatever. or i download them off of JSTOR, which outlines its intellectual property stuff here. 

    i’d give it a close read, google any terms you’re unfamiliar with, and try to piece the situation together that way. if you’re not authorized to distribute your readings, then i think any copyright notice included will make that pretty clear. just use your best guess/common sense, and roll with that, i guess.

    as a student myself, i can understand that you’d want to help your friends access materials that they might have trouble getting a hold of. i have no clue how copyright laws work cross-border. that does complicate things a bit.

    i’d actually reach out to a librarian if you want a more concrete answer. i feel like they’re the kinds of people who would know things like this. if you’re aware of your personal librarian at u of t, that might be a good place to start. you can just pose your questions in general, hypothetical terms if you’re worried about repercussions.

    sorry i couldn’t be more helpful! if you wanna send me screenshots of what you’re referring to, i can try and investigate a lil further. but yeah, personal librarian. get in touch.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • academic offense

    sharing is caring, but not always

    April 17, 2020

    I was charged with my second academic offense. My first one was a warning offense for sharing ideas on an extra credit assignment. This time, i was in a groupchat on messenger and people were sharing exam pics and such. I sent answers to 4 pics but didnt send any exam pics and proof was sent to the dean. I got an email saying the deans office is looking into it and now im really worried. what punishment can i expect? I know what i did was wrong and i fully admit to it I dont wanna be suspended:(

    ——————————————

    hello there,

    it’s kind of hard for me to say. since it’s not your first time offense, i highly doubt you’re going to get off with just a reprimand.

    according to the code of behaviour on academic matters, the next lowest steps after a “warning offense,” as you put it, are a grade of zero or F on the assignment, or a reduction of the final grade for the course. you could also face a grade of zero or F in the course. in other words, a suspension isn’t the only possibility you’re facing, which i hope gives you a little reassurance. i know it sucks either way, though.

    i feel like, until you sit down and have a conversation with the dean/your instructor/the department head, you don’t really know what you’re facing. ie. you can’t really guess at what punishment you can expect. it will probably help you out if you admit to what you’ve done (if you don’t, i believe the case moves to higher authority/worse punishments are doled out).

    i’d just sit tight until you get an update re: their investigation. it’s an anxious situation to be in, i know, but you can’t really control what they do/find right now.

    i’d recommend that you reach out to your registrar’s office if you’re really worried. they can talk to you over the phone or something, and give you a better sense of your situation as well as prep you for any potential discussions with the dean. good luck!

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • academic offense

    i do not love that for you

    April 17, 2020

    I just received an email this morning from my instructor that she thinks I plagarized. It’s really freaking me out because I was so sure I paraphrased (we weren’t allowed direct quotations) and that I put a citation to everything and I’m ashamed that I might have plagarized w/o knowing. I’m aware it might be accidental and the meeting will just be a discussion but I’m still really stressed about it and I can’t stop worrying that I also did this in other classes and I’ll get suspended pls help

    ——————————————

    hi friend,

    i feel like this pandemic has brought with it a wave of academic offense questions. not sure if the correlation equals causation here, but rest assured you’re not alone. perfectly natural and valid to be stressed about it, though– i know it’s a scary situation to be in.

    it’s always a little bit hard for me to respond to peoples’ cries for help re: possible academic offenses, because there’s… very little i can do? without actually having a look at your assignment and sources, it would be very difficult for me to tell you if you actually committed an academic offense unknowingly. but i can explain what the possible consequences might be if your case moves past that first meeting, so you can see that getting suspended is far from the only outcome of this. for more, i would recommend that you reach out to your registrar’s office— they’re really experienced with these things, and can help you navigate the situation.

    glad you seem to have done your research (or something?) so i can gloss over the bit about the first meeting just being a discussion. cool cool cool.

    so according to the code of behaviour, how sanctions for academic offenses work is a little different depending on a variety of factors, like whether you admit guilt and how much the assignment was worth. it gets kind of complicated. you can scan through the potential consequences in the code of behaviour if you’d like, but i want to highlight for you that there are so many other options, other than suspension, even if your academic offense is found to be legitimate. for minor and first-time offenses, you may just need to resubmit your work in addition to some sort of reprimand being issued. obviously, since i don’t know the details, i can’t tell you if your assignment would qualify as a minor offense, but it does sound like you’re a first-timer.

    even if it’s a bit of a larger deal, they’ll assign you a grade of 0 or F for the assignment or reduce your final grade in the course before they’ll suspend you. i know that’s not super reassuring, but it is better than suspension. and i have faith in the system to only reprimand you in proportion with what happened, ie. if it really was an accident, i really really doubt you’re gonna face your worst nightmares.

    best of luck with everything though, sending you all the good vibes. drink some water and take a deep breath. focus on something else. as someone who would panic over something like this as well, what i’ve learned is that there’s no use digging yourself into a hole of anxiety– just prepare yourself well for that initial first meeting, be fully honest, and see where things go from there. you’ll have more information about your situation after that meeting. you got this.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • music

    how does janet DO it

    April 16, 2020

    Hi Aska, is there anyone who has transferred midway (I am in 2nd year) to a completely new major in the Faculty of Arts and Science. How likely is it to finish a whole 7 credits in the span of 2 years? If it helps, it is the Music major under the Faculty of Arts and Science, and I want to finish all 7 credits in 2 years. Are the prerequisites really strict or can i take different year courses at the same time? Thanks!

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    is there anyone who’s transferred to a completely new major in the faculty of arts and science after second year? well, i’m not a good place janet, so i can’t tell you for certain, but it doesn’t seem implausible to me.

    aaand i’m also very clearly not a good place janet because i learned, today, that there’s a music degree under the big ol’ artsci umbrella. as in, separate from the faculty of music? huhhhh ok.

    to my knowledge, it should be perfectly doable to finish 7 FCEs over the span of two years. that is, 7 miscellaneous FCEs. it gets a little more complicated when you’re dealing with 7 program requirement FCEs, because then you have pesky things to think about like prereqs. let’s try to unravel that whole mess right here and now so we can get a sense of the feasibility of what you wanna do:

    oh boy. okay. so i’m giving you my feedback in real time, which is a new thing i’m trying, and my guess is that you hit the same wall i did. in other words, you did the thing where you look up the music major program, cool cool cool, here it is, and then you click on the music major requirements. first year, higher years, all there. everything looks normal. but then you take it to the next stage, and literally none of the first year requirements are in the current calendar. 

    try ’em. HMU111H1, HMU126H1, TMU115H1, TMU140Y1 … nothing. why? if this major was a place, it would be one of those desert oasis mirages. looks legit while you’re on your way there, but when you get down to it and want what it has, poof.

    so um, it appears we have hit a dead end. i even tried looking up HMU courses on the fall/winter timetable, also with literally no results. what is going ON?

    all right, all right. i would recommend that you reach out to either the registrar or assistant registrar of the faculty of music, then, and see if they know anything about the ultra-mysterious HMU program. does it exist? does it… not? is course registration so exclusive that you literally can’t figure out what you’re getting into until you’re already in? if they know anything, they’ll probably be your best bet at figuring out whether you’ll be able to finish all 7 credits in 2 years.

    best of luck!! what a MYSTERY i hope the music registrars can help you figure it out. sorry i couldn’t be more useful– my powers can feel so dreadfully limited at times like these.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • chem,  engineering,  grad school

    i had to google submatriculate, but i think i’m still qualified to run this blog

    April 11, 2020

    Hi! I’m a (possibly) incoming UTSG artsci freshman who has too many academic interests. Firstly, would it be possible to do a 2nd major (or minor or 2nd degree) in biomedical engineering? Secondly, is there a way to submatriculate into an MSc program from chem/biochem specialization? Lastly, is there some way for me to skip the introductory courses (apart from transfer credit)? Sorry for ruining your day with a barrage of obscure questions! ?

    ——————————————

    hey hey,

    lmao i feel like 40% of the people on this site are in some kind of serious academic trouble, and 20% are keeners like you (very kind, apologize too much, interested in literally everything). don’t worry, you’re not ruining my day with a barrage of obscure questions. i thrive on obscure questions. we cool.

    i’m not aware of any option to take biomedical engineering in conjunction with an artsci program. to even be eligible for biomedical engineering as a minor, you need to be in one of the core 8 engineering programs or in engsci. the biomedical systems engineering major, meanwhile, has hella requirements. you only get to enter it after two full years of engsci foundational courses. i can’t imagine an artsci kid juggling that on top of another major, even if it were allowed. i suppose you can get in contact with the department if you really wanna know for sure, but i think the answer is unfortunately no on this one.

    to address the lil’ musing about second degrees you seem to have thrown in…. i’m not really sure if a second degree is really what you wanna do, even if you’re super thrilled about everything. i have a feeling your first degree will tire you out a lil, or at least enough to make you wanna reconsider. especially doing a second degree in engsci, i dunno man, it seems like a lot. and then when you add the amount of student debt you’d be carrying after one degree, let alone two… yikes. just some things to consider, yknow? hang on to the second degree thought until you’re close to doing your first degree. then, if you still want to do a second degree, talk to the academic advisers at your registrar and get a lil guidance on it. that would be my take.

    as for the submatriculation thing… i was unable to find any info on this via the big ol’ world wide web. so i reached out to someone who’s pretty well connected in the chem department, and they told me that they’re not aware of any submatriculation options within chemistry. even if you’ve been working underneath the same supervisor for a long time and hope to do a phd with them, you’ll still need to actually apply to admissions to do so. i’m not sure if it’s different in biochem, but like i said, there doesn’t seem to be any readily-available internet info on this, which suggests that the answer is no submatriculation. once again, i would reach out to the department if you want a super solid answer, though. chem contact info linked here, biochem info linked here.

    in terms of skipping required introductory courses without transfer credit… i would say the answer is also probably no, otherwise a ton of people would be doing it. i’m assuming you’d be wanting to do this in order to take a wider breadth of courses, or something? introductory courses tend to have some pretty important information, and even if you could skip out on them i wouldn’t recommend it– the foundation you get in those huge first year courses tends to be quite important for the academic work you’ll be doing later on in your degree.

    but once again, you could contact the department running the course and ask, if you have a super duper legitimate reason to be skipping an intro course.

    this whole post has been an enormous “pls ask someone else” but i hope my insights have at least been… insightful! keep that excited, i-love-everything energy. it’s refreshing, and makes my brain feel a little less melty. wishin’ you all the best as you weigh your options for next year!

    be Boundless and stay healthy,

    aska

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  • subject POST

    very cool.

    April 8, 2020

    Hello! I am hoping to double major in Classic Civilization and Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Is that a valid combination? Or do I need a minor? can i even add a minor? (Degree Explorer keeps telling me it’s an invalid POSt combination!)

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    sorry for the long wait with this answer! it’s taken me a while to look into this, because i’m stupid about degree explorer sometimes, but as far as i can tell it… should be a valid combination? i managed to add all the NMC majors to that combination on my degree explorer, anyway, once i confirmed that it wouldn’t mess with my current degree explorer plans.

    so i don’t know what’s up with your error message. you can contact your registrar if you’re still having trouble, i guess. but the good news is that your combination should be valid! i’ve never encountered a combination that wasn’t valid, unless someone was trying to specialize AND major in the same thing (not ok, apparently).

    to answer your second and third questions:

    you don’t need a minor if you’re doing a double major. to graduate from u of t, you generally need a specialist OR a double major OR a major and two minors. that’s the minimum required POSt combination, and tbh it’s the way to go if you still wanna have any space for electives or breadth requirements. now, if you’re a chronic overachiever, super interested in too many things, or you just plain hate yourself, you can go aBoVE anD bEyOnD those requirements and add up to three subject POSts. that is, as long as the third one is a minor.

    tl:dr u doin good buddy, have fun studying your ancient civilizations! very cool.

    be Boundless,

    aska

     

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  • academic offense,  covid-19

    “waiting for academic rep to contac–” *static*

    April 8, 2020

    I’m a first year eng student shifting online. 2 labs I did not know how to submit and sent it to my professors & second time I tried to submit remotely and searched how to do it and submitted the wrong one. I got an email about an academic offense and realized my friends codes were sent and submitted and not mine they r completely different & work there is no incentive and I have my search history on how I was trying to figure out how submit. What will happen. Waiting for academic rep to contac

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    you ok, bud? never finished your sentence there.

    i know it’s been a rough transition to online school for many people, and it must be even tougher to navigate that as a first year– in my first year, i had no clue what was what. so take a sec, breathe, it’s okay, you’re doing great.

    typically, the procedure for academic offenses begins with a meeting with your instructor. i’m guessing that under the current circumstances, that’ll be conducted on zoom or something. anyway, this meeting is where you’ll explain to your instructor what happened– how the mistake was made, how confused you were, etc etc. at this point, it would be useful for you to have proof that what happened was an honest mistake. so have your search history ready to go, and any other evidence you think will work in your favor, like the file that you meant to submit and proof that it was completed on time. if, after this meeting, your instructor believes you to be innocent of an academic offence, you’re off the hook.

    if not, the case goes up the ladder. in other words, it’ll go to the department chair or dean, and you’ll probably have another zoom meeting. more on the rest of the procedure here, should you choose to torture yourself with information that may not even apply to you.

    that’s basically what i can tell you about what will happen to you. obviously the specifics of it will depend on how your meetings go, and how far up the chain your case gets moved. i hope for your sake that things get resolved early on so you don’t have to gou through the whole ordeal. maybe they’ll be a little more forgiving given that we’re all in a weird transition-to-online-school phase that’s thrown everyone off a little bit, instructors included.

    unrelated, but i’ve referenced the code of behaviour on academic matters way, way more often than is healthy and this is the first time i noticed how melodramatic it is. truly. “this mandate is more than a mere pious hope. it represents a condition necessary for free enquiry, which is the university’s life blood.” um… ok. it’s just a set of rules, but ok.

    sending you good vibes from quarantine! hope your mistake gets resolved okay.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • admissions,  mental health

    the risk of losing one’s identity… in the chaos

    March 28, 2020

    1. I’m scared to accept my offer to uoft for fear of my mental health degrading. Is it truly, truly, as competitive as most people make it out to be? 2. Would it be better to go to Ryerson if I am a student who works hard but tends to overthink my grades a lot? There are many aspects of uoft to love; I wouldn’t want to deny my offer because I’m scared of hard work, because it seems like a cop out. However, at the risk of losing one’s identity in the chaos, I don’t know if it’s right for me.

    ——————————————

    hello hello,

    i’m glad you reached out. to be honest, these were concerns i had when i got my offer of admission as well. especially if you’re a domestic (Ontario???) student, you’ll probably have heard a lot about how hard u of t is and how deep we are into a mental health crisis. it’s hard not to be scared. i don’t blame you.

    without knowing you and your specific circumstances, it’s inevitably gonna be a little hard for me to give you the best advice. but i’ll do what i can, and hopefully after you read this you at least have a better sense of what it’s like here from my perspective. thanks to covid, i’ve got plenty of time on my hands, and can give you a pretty detailed rundown of my thoughts on the matter.

    is u of t as competitive as people make it out to be? yes and no.

    yes, in that it’s the top postsecondary institution in the country and for that reason alone attracts very ambitious (and often advantaged) students, both domestically and from abroad. is that necessarily bad? i’m not sure. i’ve met some incredibly driven and accomplished peers in my time here, and it’s honestly pretty inspiring. but it does mean that your basis for comparison with your classmates is going to be pretty different from what it might have been at another school. if you don’t acclimatize well to that– and if your identity is super tied to your grades and position in a class– then on average, u of t may not be the healthiest for you.

    academically, there’s probably something to be said as well. in some of the humanities classes i’ve taken, the TAs are pretty transparent about the fact that they’re expected to grade you in relation to the other people in your class. even if you’re in a class full of A-calibre work, only a few people will qualify for A’s, etc etc. i’m not sure what the situation is like in programs outside mine, but i wouldn’t be surprised if it’s similar.

    but if you’re interested in reading about the grade deflation situation at u of t, this the varsity article does a good job of explaining the “grade calibration” policy. or a better job than i could do, anyway. i’d recommend reading it over believing the rumors floating around.

    no, in that the level of competition isn’t standard across the school. and you can definitely make choices to shield yourself from the worst of it.

    i will admit that there are some really cutthroat programs– you’ll know which ones they are, because when you apply for a subject POSt after first year they’ll usually be a type three, sometimes a type two. type two and three programs are defined by more stringent admission requirements– for example, meeting a grade threshold in certain classes, completing interviews, or even having your CGPA assessed. they have those stringent requirements because there’s often more student demand for those programs than there is space in them. as a result, it makes sense that they’d be filled with brighter/more competitive students.

    so it’s important to be aware of the type of program you’re choosing. a good friend told me that in her professional program at u of t, there is definitely a competitive culture that’s at least borderline toxic. it stems from everyone in the program knowing who’s good and who’s not– the way they’re graded and given feedback is very public, in an unavoidable way. i’ve heard competitive things about engineering and rotman as well.

    BUT someone on reddit told me (before i got here) that u of t has some really great niche programs where you’re more likely to find a sense of community than a competitive atmosphere. i’ve found this to be true, both in experience and from talking to other people. i personally went for a type one artsci program over a type three i’d been interested in, and haven’t found there to be any noticeable toxicity. unless i have a close friend in the class with me, i’ll never know what other people are getting. the one exception is in my stats class– my prof LOVES to graph the grade distribution to show you how many people did better than you. thanks, dude. he also writes problems that are coronavirus, mental health, and student debt themed, so… whatever. i’m sure there are instructors like him at tons of schools.

    my point is, i haven’t noticed any substantial competition in the programs i chose. but i chose them intentionally, with my own mental well-being in mind. what you choose is up to you, and i get that sometimes what you want to study is going to by nature be a more competitive program. whether or not that’s right for you is an assessment only you can make.

    the culture in different programs is obviously going to be different, and it would be impossible to give you a sort of blanket statement for the whole school. i’ve given you the most detailed take on it i can muster.

    is there hope? i always think so, yes. outside your subject POSts, you can definitely surround yourself with forms of community that will help cushion you from the competitive nature of the school. whether that’s a group of friends on res, a fun club like the sandwich club, or a choir. or something, i dunno. i’ve met a lot of very supportive people at this school that have helped me get through the day to day of being a stressy student.

    the one rumor about u of t that i think is the most misleading is that it’s an antisocial school. i’m pretty introverted and came here knowing a single person– it took time, but i now have a number of very cherished friends. we don’t have the party culture that mcgill or queen’s has, but i’ve felt very supported by my fellow u of t students. we’re all just trying to get through, after all.

    i also think that u of t has a number of fantastic resources to help you through your degree. one resource i always, always recommend is the registrar’s office. i’ve heard some pretty unfortunate things about the state of academic advising at other major canadian institutions (wow we get it, aska, you’re well connected) and it’s put some things into perspective for me. at least in my experience, registrars at this school are fantastic.

    i do agree that a lot of our resources need more funding/staff/improvement, and will happily throw my support behind anyone pushing for that improvement. but it’s not a total lost cause. i’ve written more about our mental health awareness/resources in this post. 

    one last hopeful thing to throw into the mix– if you’re worried about your grades dropping massively, i should note that it is possible to do well here. i and many of my friends have found that to be the case (i don’t feel weird saying that because no one knows who i am anyway, lmao). it takes work, dedication, and sometimes a bit of luck, but it is possible.

    i’ve learned that intentionality and awareness are super important. this last year, i’ve suffered most from surrounding myself with people i love dearly but who very much buy into the hustle culture of u of t. i was constantly comparing myself to people who were excelling in their fields, but barely sleeping and eating. cause yeah, those people do exist here, in numbers.

    whatever i was doing to myself felt fine because they were doing worse. but i’ve since learned that i can continue to spend time with them AND still care for my well-being by going to therapy, taking space when i need it, and checking in with other friends who have healthier lifestyles. it’s all about finding a balance, and shifting my focus.

    and anyway, something i’ve realized this year is that even when people seem to be thriving, when you get to know them better you realize it’s probably because they’re sacrificing important elements of their wellbeing. don’t set unrealistic benchmarks for yourself. it’s more important to take care of yourself, and slow things down if you need to.

    i guess you could say i’ve learned a lot from weathering u of t culture on a personal-relationship level.

    i guess the point of having mentioned this all is that there are ways to mitigate the level of stress that u of t students experience. for me, this has included choosing my programs very intentionally, being mindful of my headspace and wellbeing, and teaching myself healthier ways to think. i think i would’ve needed to learn these things no matter where i went, just u of t forced me to learn them faster. i’m not ashamed to say that i’ve struggled here. but at the same time, i’ve also been supported very well here. it’s not a one-dimensional story, i guess.

    should you be afraid of your mental health degrading? i’m not sure.

    i think that’s dependent on a myriad of factors, like where you are now with your mental health, what kind of supports you have in place, what types of things trigger you, and what facets of this school you immerse yourself in.

    is health and wellness as bad as it sounds? 

    admittedly, it wasn’t the easiest for me to get help for mental health concerns. i wrote up a previous post with a more in-depth take on how i was feeling about mental health awareness here, in which i mention struggling to get a health and wellness appointment. it was hard enough to admit i needed help, and when my first effort to get an appointment didn’t go through, i really had to push myself to keep trying. i ended up needing to go in person, at which point i was offered an appointment in a week’s time.

    but hey, when i made it to that appointment, i managed to start cognitive behavioural therapy with my college’s embedded counsellor. at the end of the day, i thought it was helpful.

    of course, i’ve heard stories about much longer wait times from friends. so it’s a bit of a hard thing to gauge. i don’t know. i think health and wellness is trying. it’s definitely not perfect, and it’s definitely failed a lot of people. it didn’t fail me, so hey, there’s that.

    with everything considered, would i still choose this school? yes, time and time again. for me, it’s worth it. that doesn’t mean i think the state of things here is okay. all it means is that i’ve done my personal cost-benefit analysis and while i recognize that being at this school (as opposed to someplace less rigorous) takes a toll on my mental health, it has also given me access to opportunities i could only have dreamed of. maybe that cost-benefit would look different for you. i dunno. i don’t know if that’s wrong. it’s the most honest assessment i can give you.

    would it be better for you to go to ryerson? i don’t know, i’ve never been to ryerson and can’t make a fair comparison. i can only tell you what my experience has been like at u of t.

    anyway, here are a few tips from me as you make your decision:

    • read reddit with a grain of salt. i feel like thriving students are not very well-represented on reddit– they’re too busy to be dropping things in threads. be mindful of the sample from which your results are drawn, or whatever.
    • assess your support network. if you’re one of the people who falls through the cracks of u of t’s system, will there be other people there to catch you? for example, in the time between first reaching out and actually getting a health and wellness appointment, my mom spent many hours listening to me cry. mock me for that all you want, i don’t care. my mom is great. and i had other options, as well– good friends to lean on. if i’d already felt isolated in my current life situation, i may not have weathered that gap as well.
    • decide whether or not you’d be able to weather disappointments in your academic career– not getting into your desired subject POSt, watching your GPA drop, etc. in my personal experience, it’s better to come to u of t bracing yourself for a fall that never comes than to show up with high hopes and have them crushed.
    • weigh your priorities. u of t is a great school, but it will demand a lot from you. only you can decide whether or not the tradeoff is worth it.
    • make a pros/cons list, if you think it’ll help you! always good to get those thoughts out of your head and organized.

    i hope this post has been helpful, and gives you a better sense of what it can be like to be a student here. if you know any people at either u of t or ryerson, i’d encourage you to reach out to them as well and get a couple different takes on the situation. i’m also happy to answer any followup questions you have, if you’re not already sick of reading my heckin’ long posts. sorry ’bout it, i’m talkative and in quarantine. gotta do what you gotta do.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • admissions,  science,  subject POST

    yuhprobablyright,idk

    March 26, 2020

    hiya there aska! i’m from al(aska) [hehehe] and was wondering what the difference is between a specialist science program and a major science program. also what do the 300 or 400 level thingies mean on the courses? also does uoft accept AP physics taken taken in high school? probably right, idk. also does uoft require a language 12 credit for science? yuh muchthank and muchappreciate bye

    ——————————————

    hey there, from al(aska),

    what’s the difference between a specialist and major in the sciences?

    basically, you’d opt for a specialist if you:

    • heckin love the subject material so so much and want to dedicate most of your degree to it
    • are really set on doing grad school in a specific discipline and want to specialize early
    • or otherwise have a very intent and specific interest in a program (or an intent and specific disinterest in everything else, i guess???)
    • want to become a !specialist! at something during your undergrad
    • want opportunities that are only available to specialists, like specific research openings or sometimes even specific classes

    if you do a major you’ll need to do it in conjunction with another major or two minors, meaning with a major you can:

    • diversify! you’ll choose concentrations in multiple subject areas, and have a lot of leeway with what those subject areas are. you can choose one major in the sciences and one in the arts, for example, and still graduate with a bachelor’s of science; or you can choose two majors in very different scientific fields; etc etc. round your education out, friends.
    • explore your interest in a certain program by committing to more extensive study than a minor, without going to the lengths that a specialist would

    this is because a specialist will require you to take more classes (or credits) in a specific department than a major will. usually, the credit breakdown for specialist, majors, and minors is as follows:

    • specialist: between 10 and 14 FCEs
    • major: between 6 and 8
    • minor: 4 FCEs

    if you think about each credit as a yearlong course OR two half-year courses, then that means a minor would account for almost a year’s worth of courses, while a specialist would account for about two to (almost) three years’ worth. a major, then, would be about a year and a half’s worth of courses. obviously, you don’t usually complete one program in one fell swoop then move onto the next one– they’re usually completed alongside each other, in fact. i just thought that might be a helpful way to kind of account for the level of study expected from each type of program. following me so far?

    a few things to note:

    • not all programs will offer all three options (minor, major, specialist). some won’t have the capacity to offer any more than a minor. meanwhile, some bigger departments won’t have built-in allowances for minors, maybe because that level of study isn’t plausible for the subject
    • you can technically choose up to 3 programs in general, as long as that third one is a minor. this means if you really hated yourself, you could do a specialist and a major, or a double major and a minor. i don’t know what would happen if you tried to do 2 specialists and a minor, or a specialist, a major, and a minor. just like,,,,,,, don’t. i guess you could? but don’t.
    • it doesn’t matter if you’re in the arts or sciences! the number of credits required for each program type is the same.

    what do the 300 or 400 level thingies mean?

    how many minutes a day you spend doing classwork. if you do the math, 400 minutes/60 minutes in an hour = 6.67 hours.

    haha the internet already has so much misinformation on it and adding to that doesn’t make me special. the 100/200/300/400 level designations are really meant to indicate what year level the courses are designed for. for example, 100-level courses typically provide general overviews of a topic for first-years, and as you go up the chain, your class sizes will grow smaller and the topics will become more specialized. once you get to 400-level courses, you’re typically looking at very small seminars that will do a deep-dive into a topic, and mark you far more stringently than you would be marked in a 100-level course. this is because most 400-level students will be fourth years.

    in short, the “300/400 level thingies” are indicators of topic depth and coursework expectations! it’s important to note, though, that you don’t need to be a fourth year to take a 400 level course. you just need to meet the prerequisites. i took a 200-level course in first year just for the kicks, because it had no prereqs and i thought it would make me cool. it didn’t. no one cares.

    does uoft accept AP physics taken in high school? 

    heck yea. all the AP physics courses translate to first-year equivalents– you can see the full list here. as you’ll notice, not all AP courses are accepted for credit/accepted as equivalents. the physics APs are probably some of the best to take if you want u of t credit.

    does uoft require a language 12 credit for science?

    haha what. i’m not aware of one. like, if the language you mean is english then yeah, but other than that i don’t think so. i would check the high school prerequisites for the specific programs you’re interested in on this website just to be safe– it’ll vary from department to department, i think. but no, i don’t think you’ll find a language 12 among them.

    i hope this was helpful!

    be Boundless,

    aska

     

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  • covid-19

    PASS

    March 23, 2020

    Hi there! With all this craziness going on I’m just getting more and more confused. UofT just issued another statement and it seems to me like they’re just going to give us credit for the courses completed during winter. Did I read that right? Do we still have to pass? Should I bother handing stuff in?

    Thank you! Stay safe!

    ——————————————

    hey friend,

    sorry i didn’t get back to you sooner– been upended by all this turmoil, same as everyone else, and lost connection to the website for a couple days as well. the u of t statement you saw does not mean that credit is going to be handed out for everything– the credit/no credit option is basically a pass/fail, meaning you still need to pass in order to receive credit.

    as a result, i exhort you:

    i want to stress the seriousness of this situation– the updated CR/NCR policy for covid isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card for your semester, but rather a provision from our school to ease the repercussions/anxiety that students disproportionately affected by covid are facing. i’ve been really proud of be a u of t student as this crisis has unfolded; our admin seems to be doing right by us, and seem to have recognized that so many people are packing their lives up and leaving toronto, caring for sick family members, or facing the mental health consequences of social distancing. i know it’s been confusing, though, dealing with the flood of information, and i’m not saying you specifically are treating it like a ‘hell yea, school is out’ situation. just wanted to clarify that. and i’m happy to continue clarifying policies if anyone else has questions.

    in short– please continue handing stuff in. i hope you’ve continued to do so in the time between having sent this question in and seeing the answer. i know it’s difficult to focus on school right now, but if you need a lil’ monday motivation, here’s our fave artsci dean melanie woodin with a good luck/hang in there message. most wholesome thing i’ve seen all week.

    hope you’re staying safe and healthy as well– and another reminder to everyone to use my tumblr ask box for covid-related things, as i monitor it more often and will respond quicker. on top of that, please don’t look to me for urgent answers. your registrar’s office is still your best option for important matters.

    be Boundless (but within the bounds of your home),

    aska

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