• fees

    i’m big dumb too it ok

    August 16, 2019
    so I’m big dumb but do you have to pay your semester 1 fees in full, before semester 2? Or are you allowed to pay the continuous fees little by little as the years go by?
    ——————————————

    hey there, 

    unless you’re eligible for a fee deferral for scholarship/OSAP reasons, you do unfortunately need to pay your semester 1 fees in full. if you’re in artsci, the deadline for that is september 30th, while the deadline for second sem fees isn’t too long after that– november the 30th. if you’re in another faculty or at a whole ‘nother campus, i’d give those deadlines a double check just in case they don’t apply to you. but that’s the general gist of it. 

    if you’re looking to have fees stacked up and pay them little by little over many years, you can take a shot at… student loans? i feel like if you try to pull that with u of t, you’ll just end up accumulating a crap ton of service charges for late payment. i know things are rough with OSAP right now (if you’re from ontario) but yeah, that’d be your option if you’re wanting to delay payment and have it drawn out. 

    hope this helped! and don’t worry, we all big dumb here at some level. join the club.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • admissions,  scholarships/bursaries

    A2 AS O what?

    August 15, 2019

    i am currently doing my A2 and want to join the enginnering science program at U of T. I gave my O levels and got 8A*s,above 90%,in all of them. I am also giving SAT currently and will get my AS results soon. I dont have many extra curricular activities but my father died when i was in grade 6 and since then I help my mother a lot.

    Now can i get into University of Toronto with little ECA and get a scholarship? What are some ways to get scholarships or financial grants.

    Thanks in advance

    ——————————————

    hello friend,

    thanks for waiting for this answer! i am super duper unfamiliar with your school system, but am assuming it’s some kind of UK/british commonwealth thing. guess it doesn’t matter too much, since i’m not an admissions officer anyway and can’t really deal with equivalents and conversions and … numbers. so i can’t really assess what your 90+ grades on your O levels really mean. however, i can point you to this lovely engsci website, which tells you that if you were an ontario student, you’d need low to high nineties. hopefully that gives you some sort of gauge. 

    i’m sorry to hear about your dad and all. i can understand why, with more family responsibilities, it would be more difficult to invest in extracurriculars and such. 

    you do happen to be in luck, though– u of t, generally speaking, does not give a crap what you do outside the classroom. not in a bad way. i see it as a good thing, especially for cases like yours. at least when i applied, all i had to do was plug my grades into some form and bada bing bada boom. more specialized programs like architecture and music definitely consider a bit more, but for the most part you will not need to worry about anything other than the numbers. hopefully that’s reassuring to you. 

    as for your SAT– don’t know that it’s gonna do you much good here. it’ll be useful to you if you’re seeking to apply to the states, but other than that… i know you can tell canadian schools what your score was if you took the test, but i’m not sure to what degree it affects things. it’s not required here and most people don’t take it. 

    in terms of scholarships, there are definitely avenues. if you are (as i assume) an international student, you’ll likely have different opportunities than a domestic one would. the most prominent international scholarship i know of is the good ol’ lester b, but you can probably try the scholarship sorter as well. 

    best of luck with it all!

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • fees

    extra hoo

    August 14, 2019

    is there any downside to deferring tuition costs?

     

    ——————————————

    hey friendo,

    as far as i’m aware, i don’t think there is! deferral seems to just be a real nice thing the uni does if you’ve got a legitimate reason not to pay your fees on time, like you’re waiting on scholarships or OSAP. as long as you remember you’ve deferred your fees and ensure that they get paid, you should be fine. make sure you’re also aware of deadlines, too. you’ll need to pay your full tuition by april 30 at the latest. if you don’t, you’ll have trouble registering for future sessions.

    if you’re worried about a specific situation or circumstance, i’d recommend you get in touch with your registrar. they’ll likely be able to walk that through with you better than i can!

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • courses,  enrollment,  enrolment

    (this feels wrong lol)

    August 10, 2019

    hey aska how are you? I’m sorry if you’ve already answered a similar question but I wasn’t able to find anything about this – I’m in 3rd year IMM but want to enrol in LMP406. The timetable says I need to request permission to enrol with the LMP department after aug 9 (& links me to a website that doesn’t exist), & the LMP website isn’t very helpful either. Do I just email the course coordinator & beg them to let me in (this feels wrong lol). I appreciate any & all help as I’m very clearly lost.

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    appreciate you asking how i’m doing–  dunno how many people have noticed, but ever since the complete theme-180, years and years of our posts have been riddled with unsettling and ambiguous blank spots. the true intellectuals among us have probably figured out that when you highlight the invisible text it’s readable, but obviously that’s not ideal.

    so i’ve been doing the backbreaking, laborious work of pressing a few buttons here and there and restoring our precious content. which has also meant i’ve seen some pretty great stuff.

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

    no, aska isn’t running clickbait ads (although– could i make a lil extra cash if we did?) that’s a real post from ’14.

    between literal years of complaints about math and posts with titles like “um” and “s IR PLeasE i jSUt am tr yiNG to wRIt e A NIce E – MAiL,” past askas have won my respect in every imaginable way. they’ve been begged, “please god no sarcastic answer back” and been called the hannah montana of the internet. which means, by extension, i’m also the hannah montana of the internet, right?

    however, all that other work has meant i haven’t been as quick with answers as usual, so sorry for the delay with answering this–it’s already past the 9th.

    i’m unsurprised the website you were linked to doesn’t work– unfortunately, that seems to be a pretty common problem with our school’s web content.  if you haven’t done so already, i would recommend that you shoot the department a wholesome and respectful email explaining the situation and making your request. i’m not aware of any other way to request enrolment in a course like that– there’s no form to fill out, or nothin’. so don’t worry too much– i’m sure they’re not unfamiliar with emails from kiddos in situations like yours.

    best of luck with it and hope this helped, even if it’s a bit late!

    seriously considering remodelling askastudent after a trashy clickbait site,

    aska

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  • 12 distinct credits

    toooooo much

    August 8, 2019

    does the 12 distinct credit rule apply to a minor program taken with 2 major programs?

     

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    it does not! as long as your 2 majors meet the 12 distinct credit requirement, any program you tack onto that (a third major? a minor?) can have whatever overlap you’d like. that is, within reason– i doubt you can tack a history minor on a history major.

    hope this helped!

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • housing

    i don’t know a (harring)ton

    August 7, 2019

    any knowledge on Harrington housing? Do a lot of UofT students stay there? How does it compare to other off campus student residences?

     

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    maybe my head’s been in the sand or something, but this is the first i’ve ever heard of harrington housing. if it’s not on-campus, chestnut, or campus one, aka if it’s not directly affiliated with the uni, i don’t really know anything and dunno if i’m supposed to be advising on it. plus, if i haven’t ever heard of it, chances are it isn’t a huge hotspot for u of t kiddos. from what i can find, if you’re living there, you’re likely to be mixed in with students from other schools, like ryerson.

    i did check out the website– not sure if you’ve watched their testimonials yet, but maybe those can give you an idea of what things are like?

    either way, it’s hard for me to say, having not really dabbled in off-campus student housing myself. i will say harrington’s location (sherbourne and bloor) is good, but it could be better. while no frills, mcdonald’s, rexall, and timmy’s are super nearby, you’re looking at a 30 minute walk to u of t. i guess it’s aight if you buy a monthly pass and subway 10 minutes instead. but it’s no campus one.

    it does seem like having a kitchen as opposed to to a meal plan will help save you money, and i’ve seen some stuff mentioning programming for the students living at harrington. that’s gotta be good, right?

    wish i could be more helpful. but best of luck!

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • fees

    kinda sorta probably important

    August 6, 2019

    do you have to pay the whole year 1 tuition fee before starting year 1, or only the first semester fee? my fee balance on acorn shows the whole year fee and i’m wondering if i have to pay that all at once.

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    fees can be so confusing. i am not a fan. i’ve been doing this u of t (and this aska) thing for a lil while now, and i still got massively tripped up going through all the different fees documents and trying to answer this. gotta love me some bureaucracy.

    according to the student accounts website, though, you only have to pay whatever your minimum payment to register is before the school year starts. you can find  that amount by going into ACORN, looking for the ‘finances’ section, and clicking the ‘view invoice’ button. just ctrl+f ‘minimum payment’ or scroll right down to the bottom of the page.

    if you’re an artsci, architecture, music or kinesiology kid, the deadline to pay this minimum payment is august 28th. you won’t need to pay your fall tuition til the 30th of september. meanwhile, your winter tuition is due november 30th. 

    minimum payment deadlines for other faculties and campuses can vary– eng kids only have til august 15, while utsc and utm students’ deadlines are august 12th and 13th respectively.

    don’t skip out on these deadlines, friends. they are kinda sorta probably important, if you’re interested in not paying extra fees and/or staying registered. y’know.

    one more pro tip– if you send a payment in and it doesn’t go through, hold your horses. wait for it to process. this is especially true if you’ve paid right on the last day. you’ve got a fun lil ten-business-day grace period for your payment to go through. no need to wonder if you’re gonna get kicked out of all your classes and whatnot. but do try to pay early or on time (i say, as i know full well i’ll watch the deadline inch up on me and make absolutely no move to do anything about it).

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • enrollment,  enrolment

    big enrollment day… a week ago

    July 31, 2019

    Hello aska,

    I am just finalizing my timetable and course schedule before the big enrollment day tomorrow and I wanted to clarify whether I’m allowed to take the courses I’m planning to take.

    After enrolling in my core program courses, I have added a few electives, one of which is a regular full year course, the other three are VIC135, ENG196, and SMC199.

    I wanted to know whether I can take the vic course without being enrolled in “VIC One” and also whether I could take all those three courses in my first year.

    Thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon.

    Kind regards,

    [redacted]

    ——————————————

    hey friendo,

    sorry this response is so late– it’s definitely past your course enrollment now! i figure that if there were any immediate consequences to registering in these courses, you’re already aware of them. i guess there still is the possibility of you getting kicked out later on, though, so this question is still worth an answer.

    it seems that vic135 is part of the vic one sphere, although i can’t figure out what stream it is. i’m just making this assumption based on the exclusions listed on the timetable– only a vic one class would have a ‘vic’ designation and be incompatible with all the other one programs. as long as it’s a vic one course, then, i doubt you’ll be able to get in (or stay in) without explicit admission to vic one. at least, that’s what this site indicates. if you don’t have admission but have somehow still managed to register (or want to), i would contact vic.one@utoronto.ca. dunno if they’ll actually let you this late in the game, but hey.

    as for the possibility of taking all 3 courses at once– i anticipate that the smc course is the one that’s gonna give ya trouble. it seems to list all other first year foundations and ones as exclusions. so you might wanna find something else to slot in there, because even if you’ve managed to register in it, once someone notices, they’ll have to kick you out.

    otherwise, if you manage to stay in vic135, that course and your eng196 seminar should be a-okay to be taken alongside each other.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • part-time

    pls don’t make me do school full time

    July 30, 2019
    how do i switch to part time student status? i can’t find any instructions anywhere. i used to be part time and then they switched me back to full time for 2019 calendar year?
    ——————————————
    hey,
    from what i know, you don’t actually need to switch to part-time status. what i mean by that is, as long as you’re under the required number of credits to be full-time (2.5 in fall-winter) then you’re automatically a part-time student, with no extra hurdle to jump. there can be a little more to it, for example if you choose to switch to part-time during the school year. other than that, though– as long as you’re only enrolled in a part-time courseload, your final billing on ACORN should update at some point to reflect that.
    hope this helped!
    be Boundless,
    aska
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  • food,  meal plans

    it do be hard

    July 29, 2019
    im a first year enrolled in uc but living in an apartment can i still pay for a meal plan? i cant make food for the life of me

    ——————————————

    hello friend,

    you certainly can! i figure you probably googled it but weren’t able to find anything– that’s because, according to this site, the plans aren’t available for purchase til august of each year. so hang tight– they should be up soon, and with updated fees.

    if you’re not on res, you can purchase an unlimited dining plan valid at certain locations. new college’s dining hall is usually one of them, which is a win ’cause new is known to have the best dining hall food on campus. when you purchase a plan, you choose a certain period of time it’s active for as well– a year? a semester? a month? i’m not sure what the offerings will look like this year, that’s just based on what it’s been in the past.

    i’m pretty sure buying the annual plan gives you more ~value~ because it’s cheaper per day. an alternative to that is purchasing a plan for a semester, just til you get on your feet with the whole adulting thing. it can get pretty tedious having to go to campus for your every meal– trust me, once january or february hits and it’s -30 wind chill, you’ll want to stay at home if you can. and chances are, you’ll also still end up eating out with friends, skipping breakfast, and wanting snacks outside of dining hall hours.

    these reasons are what have deterred me, personally, from getting a meal plan, although biting the bullet and purchasing a plan can be the right choice for some people. i do believe you’ll learn how to make your own food at some point– but baby steps! it’s totally fair if you don’t feel up to feeding yourself every single meal right now. it do be hard.

    another option you have is to load your tcard with tbucks, which will give you a discount at a bunch of on-campus dining locations. you can also use these tbucks for printing or bookstore purchases, so if you don’t use them all on food, they won’t go to waste.

    that said, if you do wanna go for the full-year unlimited plan, by all means. it can help free up time you would’ve otherwise spent doing groceries and cooking, and hey– maybe you’ll end up making friends in the dining hall. just want you to be aware of your other options, as well as some things i’ve picked up along the way. at the end of the day, choose what works best for you!

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • seminars

    askastudent top fan shooketh to the core

    July 27, 2019

    hi Aska,

    Hey, iz me, the most frequent inquirer (am i really though) of all time lol. Whereas my other questions have been ESSAYS (i am so so sorry for that btw), this one will be fairly short–approximately the length of an intro paragraph in an essay haha.

    I’m entering my last year and a half to complete my undergrad (woohoo!) , but i am shooketh to the core from the idea of taking a 4th year course in the next year, which i must do for my programs. i am so terribly afraid of speaking in class, Aska. PETRIFIED. i have horrible anxiety when it comes to these things and i do horrendous in tutorials because of this. But since i am an English and History Major, these courses will most likely be seminars full of smarticle-particle students talking in the fanciest, most intellectual way possible, getting super high participation marks (…yay), and my ass just sitting there looking dazed and confused (not like the movie, but that would honestly be better lol)– aka my version of a horror movie.

    Am i wrong about this scenario? Are 4th year courses in my field really that horrific? If so, how can i conquer them?

    pls send help. thank you.

    ——————————————

    hello hello,

    this seems like a perfectly normal fear to have– i know plenty of people who detest speaking in class. i also know people who speak more than they probably should. it’s a spectrum, people. personally, i’m a weird combination of both– i hate participating, but if it’s being factored into my grade you best believe my hand is shooting up every class.

    i feel like most seminars probably have at least a few of the absolutely terrifying intellectual™ keeners, for sure. i try not to let them get under my skin, but they INTIMIDATE me. and then everything i say sounds dumb. so i totally feel you.

    while i’ve never taken a fourth year course in your field, rest assured that if everyone in your program has to take a fourth-year seminar to get through, then you probably won’t the only one who doesn’t particularly like this kinda class. there will be others.

    there are a few ways to make seminars less gross. one of them is to try and get to know the students around you– it’s always easier to talk when you feel like you’re surrounded by actual people as opposed to being blindly intimidated by everyone. the more comfortable you are with your fellow students, the more class might start to feel like a discussion rather than a competition. you are friend, not food.

    you can also keep in mind that the other kids in your class, no matter how smart they might sound, probably have insecurities too. they might overthink everything they say before they say it, or kick themselves for something that sounded stupid but no one else even noticed. there’s something called the spotlight effect, which is basically the idea that you’re more likely to notice your own mistakes than others are.

    for me, something that helps is also to jot down quick notes about the comments i want to make before i make them. as soon as i’m called on, everything in my brain scatters and it’s reassuring for me to have that sort of backup.

    i also try to set small goals for myself– speak at least twice a class, or something. the more used you get to talking, the easier it will be. my throat tends to close up if it’s been a few classes and i haven’t yet said anything– the longer i spend quiet, the more the anxiety gets to me and the harder it is to speak.

    other than that, i’d just advise that you come prepared to class! it’s always easier to offer insightful or quality comments when you’re familiar with the material. don’t think too much about how fancy your language is when you talk, or anything– it’s the content that matters.

    i know that despite whatever advice i might offer you, it’ll probably still feel like a rough class if you’re anxious about speaking. but you got this. it’s just a semester or two. and hopefully you’ll learn from it– become more comfortable with engaging in discussions and stuff!

    in other news– lol, i wish i could hand out top fan badges like facebook does. not that i ever claim my own. no one needs to know how much i love hummus memes.

    GOOD LUCK with the fourth year seminar! hope these tips helped and conquer away.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • new kids

    aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

    July 27, 2019

    hi im definitely not smart enough for this school but ill be there this september aaaaaaa

    ——————————————

    hello friend,

    welcome in advance to u of t! super happy for ya as you enter this ~new chapter of life~ and hey, i’ll let you in on something– plenty of students here feel the same, and continue to feel the same even after first, second, third, and even fourth year.

    impostor syndrome can be a weird thing. i mean, i dunno if that’s exactly what you’re feeling– maybe you’re just nervous. but i remember reading this pretty good article in the varsity about it that resonated with me and at least a few others. it says the thing better than i know how to say the thing, if you wanna check it out. tl:dr impostor syndrome is not an uncommon feeling at u of t, but there are ways to refocus and start to move away from it. one of those is to compare yourself to your own achievements and look at your own growth, rather than holding yourself up against others.

    and hey– you got into the school, right? that’s gotta count for something. what matters now is what you make of that admission. go to your classes. keep up with your readings. u of t does ask for a lot from its students, but if you’re up to tackling that workload i wouldn’t say you’re any less deserving of your place than anyone else.

    wishing you the best of luck,  and if you find yourself dazed or confused at any point in time, don’t be afraid to ask. i’m super excited for you and all that you’re going to experience/achieve/learn in the coming years. don’t let your self-doubt get you down.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • enrollment,  enrolment

    i am student blogger!

    July 25, 2019
    can/should a first year take 200/B courses? i gotta enrol tomorrow morning oops
    ——————————————

    yo can first years take courses above 100 levels
    ——————————————
    hey friends,

    sorry i (probably) wasn’t able to get this answer to you before your enrollment– at the same time, please try not to send me panicky last-minute asks! in the future, i’ll try to monitor my inbox the night before first year enrollment, but this goes for all things. it usually takes me a week or two to respond to questions. i am student blogger! not emergency help line! and this student blogger has got a backlog of stuff to get to.

    it’s not even a monday, but it’s always a monday, if you know what i mean.

    with that said, i sympathize with the whole panicky-last-minute thing, so i bumped yall to the top of my queue. the answer is that it depends. you definitely can take 200s, as long as you meet the prereqs. the prereqs will keep you out of a course if it isn’t meant for a first-year. for example, they’ll be first-year courses like BIO1whatever that you need to take first. or the prereq might simply be ‘the equivalent of 4.0 FCEs,’ which is just another way to say ‘no first years allowed.’

    i wouldn’t say 200-level courses are impossible for first-years to tackle– they’re usually just smaller and different from those huge first-year con hall lectures. so i would say go for it, if you’ve got the requirements. and if you don’t? that’s what second year is for.

    hope this helped! and that course enrolment went well.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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