• academic offense,  chatgpt

    chatGPT? more like chatGPTea

    Hi, I as just accused of using chatgp for an assingment worth 5%. I had two draft’s open. Before I submitted I went downstairs and they were left unattended. Someone had gone upstairs and had messed with them. When I came back the document was already downloaded but I didn’t think much of it and submitted. I have messages with the person who indirectly confesses to messing with it. They case is going to the chair and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want this to drag on.


    hey there,

    first of all, omg???? i’m sorry that happened to you, that seems like some emotional damage.

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    second, to answer your question. to be honest, the best thing i can tell you is that you should probably go see your registrar about this. book an appointment with an academic advisor there. it will be super helpful because:

    1. they are professionals and have lots of experience with this
    2. they can provide you with strategies, resources, and support
    3. they can’t use anything you say against you!!
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    you can also consult UofT’s downtown legal services clinic for free legal advice during this—they have experience advising students on academic offence cases.

    so you’ve said that your case has already gone to the chair, which is “Level 2” of the academic offence process. at this point, what happens next depends on when you admit to the offence (i don’t know if you’ve done that yet). because if you don’t admit to it, your case can go further up to the dean or the tribunal. if you’re worried about what might happen to you, don’t worry, you shouldn’t be suspended or have any serious sanctions, since your assignment was only 5%. a possible consequence for assignments worth less than 10% is receiving a mark of zero for the assignment. also, showing remorse for the offence can have an impact on the sanctions you receive.

    over and out,

    aska

     

  • credits,  polisci,  transfer credits,  Transferring

    ur not special (said in solidarity)

    Hi aska, I’m a transfer student from UTSC and I only took 4 credits thinking it was full time but apparently 5 credits is full time — im gonna take some courses for english and PoliSci in the summer (I took POL101 and 106 to make the FCE) so I can get into the Polisci post and get access to 200 level English courses. I’m planning to take summer courses for my whole 4 years — would it be possible for me to graduate in 4 years even with the transfer (and credits that are now just extra/breadth) and the only 80% courseload in year 1? Thanks!


    hi bestie,

    trying to graduate in 4 years after taking an 80% courseload in first year? sorry bro, but. you’re not special.

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    i think you have a chance here, assuming i understand your situation right and haven’t lost my marbles yet. overall, you need to check off completion requirements in two areas to graduate: degree requirements, and program requirements. using degree explorer is a great way to check your current status on the requirements in both of these areas.

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    technically, 4 credits per year is a full time course load, since 3 is the minimum to be a full time student according to the academic calendar. but, it’s true that it is recommended to take 5 credits per year to complete the minimum of 20.0 credits within 4 years. with that said, i know several people who take 4 credits during the school year and then take 1 credit during the summer to make up for it, adding up to 5 credits per year. depending on how many courses you take, it could be possible to complete 20 credits by your fourth year—during the summer, there is a max of 1 credit (2 courses) per term, so you could complete 2 credits through the 2 summer terms. if you do that each summer as you’re planning to, that would help a lot.

    meanwhile, you should also keep track of what courses you need to complete for your polisci program. here, i can’t give you specific advice since i don’t know what courses you’ve taken towards your degree.

    overall, it’s hard for me to say anything definite on your situation since your timeline here is a bit unclear and i’m not sure how many transfer credits you have. i would highly recommend that you visit your registrar to get a more specific answer, and spend some time mapping things out with them.

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    over and out,

    aska

     

  • academic offense,  current student

    the (possibility of a) suspens(ion) is killing me

    I was flagged for an academic integrity violation. First offence and it was an exam. Will I get suspended?


    hey there,

    to be honest, i don’t know. you might get suspended. you might get away with a “written reprimand”. if it was for something relatively severe like cheating on purpose, i’m pretty sure you’d get a zero or some other mark penalty on the exam at least. all of these, and others, are listed as “possible sanctions” for cheating on a test, and it’s up to the dean to decide the outcome.

    they do consider the context though, like the number of previous offenses, severity of the offense, and if you honestly admit to the offense as soon as possible. the fact that it was your first offense does help your case, and i’d recommend being honest about the situation and communicating professionally to show that you understand your mistake. the artsci website has some info on key steps you can take if you get caught up in an academic offense case, like contacting downtown legal services for advice (it’s free! and they have services catered to students).

    hope that helps,

    aska

  • CR/NCR,  current student,  psychology,  St. George

    those pesky program requirements

    Hi! Hope you’re doing well. For my psy major one requirement is 1.0 credits in cluster A and 1.0 credits from cluster B in 200 level classes. I did really bad in one of my cluster B credits (think 50-60s range). I was thinking of using cr/ncr since it would be bad for my gpa which is already pretty mid. Since it’s technically a program requirement I know it’s not allowed but couldn’t I just remedy that by taking a different cluster B class in a different semester? Thanks in advance


    hey there,

    so sorry for the late reply, i don’t think you can do cr/ncr anymore but hopefully this is still somewhat helpful. i think you’ve got it right, it should be fine to cr/ncr that course as long as you can take a different one for your program requirements (which seems to be the case for the psy major). the cr/ncr course just won’t count towards your major/program, obviously.

    best of luck!

    aska

     

  • prospective student,  rotman,  St. George

    chill out rotman you’re scaring the first years

    likely will be starting at rotman commerce in the fall. my question is, could I transfer from rotman to programs like utm commerce or utsc management? it’s been my dream program for a long time, but it wasn’t until the moment I got accepted that I started panicking about actually surviving rotman. realllllyyy want to make sure there’s a way out if I end up getting mauled in my first year lol


    hey hey hey,

    congrats on getting in! i don’t know what rotman horror stories they’re telling to make you all so anxious before uni even starts, but i guess it doesn’t hurt to have a backup plan…

     

    anyway, in case you get mauled and rotman doesn’t work out for whatever reason, there are definitely decent ways to get out. utm commerce and utsc management both accept “internal transfers”, which are just transfers from other uoft campuses. i don’t know how difficult it is to actually get in, but at least the rotman math, commerce, and econ courses set you up pretty well for the prereqs to transfer.

    there might be a few restrictions, for example, the utsc management programs with co-op (oooo fancy) only accept transfers straight out of first year, so if that’s something you’re interested in, you’d have to start planning early on. i don’t see any requirement of that sort for utm management/commerce but you could contact the program advisor directly to make sure, because i know some other competitive programs also only accept students straight out of high school or first year.

    another backup could be transferring into other utsg arts and sciences programs, like economics, which is usually a bit easier/more straightforward than trasferring campuses.

    hope that helps!

    aska

  • daniels,  prospective student,  St. George

    architecture and more

    Hi. Variations of these questions have been asked and answered, but I guess I’m looking for the mechanics of the whole thing: first, have been admitted to Daniels in Architectural Studies and hope to pick up Art History as a second major. How easy is this to accomplish? What steps are involved? Second, how do non-Daniels electives work? Say I’m interested in an elective in English Lit or Archaeology or photography. Would I be able to tack these on and when? Third, any way as a Daniels student to do a business certificate? Thank you so much! You’re an amazing resource.


    hi there and congrats!

    although i can’t speak from personal experience (i took a nap in the daniels building once, does that count?), as a daniels student you are definitely allowed to enroll in other arts and science programs or electives and there are certain pathways that allow more flexibility to do this within your degree requirements. computer science and rotman commerce are the two main exceptions though – they have higher “deregulated” program fees and are basically gatekept from daniels students and also all the other artsci students, so you’re really not missing out on anything overall. all the typical artsy (and science-y) courses will be available to you.

    in terms of scheduling different courses and programs, as you may know, you need 20 FCEs (“full course equivalents”, which are essentially full-year courses or credits) to graduate. architecture studies students have to do a specialist in architecture studies, which is like a major but more intensive, with more courses. the comprehensive stream of the architecture studies specialist (a mouthful, i know) is a good option to complement a second major because it only has 10 required FCEs, essentially taking up half of your degree courses. the other streams are more specialized, but would require 13 FCEs. for example, the art history major requires 6 FCEs, and you also have breadth requirement courses which are required for graduation and can include up to 4 FCEs of courses from different subjects, which all starts to add up.

    depending on the number of required courses you end up with, you might have space left over for other electives too. as far as i know, you can add any electives you’re interested in during course selections as early as your first year. the only potential limitation is that some courses may have priority enrolment for students in a specific program or stream, so it might be harder to get into really popular ones, but most of the more intro-level courses that people usually take for electives are pretty open.

    as for your last question, rotman does offer a “certificate in business fundamentals” for all artsci students (including daniels i assume) which requires 2 FCEs, so you can totally tack that on. like, when uoft said you can build your own degree, they meant it.

    it gets pretty hectic trying to keep track of all the different programs and courses you want, so i’d recommend keeping everything organized on degree explorer. also i will say, while it might be tempting to do ~all the majors~ it’s definitely not required and depending on what you find interesting/useful, it might not even be the best way to go about it. electives can also give you a way to dive into different fields with more flexibility. although having a fancy title on your transcript also is kinda cool, too, so there are advantages either way i suppose.

    good luck!

    aska

  • commerce,  current student,  programs,  subject POST

    following your passion

    I’m currently a first year and I’m planning on going into a commerce program. However, I don’t like math and I literally know nothing about commerce. They say follow your passion, but I don’t have one yet. Stability seems like the next best thing. I don’t know how I’ll survive another year of math, and I def do not know what I want to do with my university life. Would it be difficult to switch from commerce to media/cinima? Or maybe I should take those as minor while commerce is my major?


    hello hello,

    starting off with the heavy hitting questions, are we? seriously this one is a lil too real :’)

    if you’re trying to figure out what to do with the rest of your schooling/life, i guess aska’s a good a place as any to start. but idk if there’s a good and final answer to all that, and even if there is, it probably won’t be coming from some random (albeit extremely wise and knowledgeable) uoft student on the internet, although i’m flattered that you’re asking. ultimately, the answer’s gotta come from you obviously, and it might take some time, but that’s okay. we all go through it. (still going through it.)

    luckily, uoft does give some leeway to us perpetually indecisive students. most arts and sciences programs let you combine different fields and switch things up if you decide to change your path for whatever reason. if you’re interested in media/cinema or another field, you could take one of their required first year courses to see if it’s something you’d like to pursue further. i think it’d be feasible to fit in a minor alongside commerce, but you’d have to plan carefully to fit in all the courses you need (don’t forget breadth requirements, too). degree explorer is pretty great for that.

    it can be hard to completely switch programs in upper years because you’d have to take required courses for programs that might be entirely new to you. it’s technically possible and you could always extend your undergrad later on if needed, but if you feel really unsure about commerce (to the point where you might hate it enough to want to drop the program), it might be better to apply for the commerce program but also take some other electives you’re interested in during second year to fully explore your options. who knows, maybe you’ll find your passion, and if that’s the case, you’ll be set to pivot into it relatively early on. or maybe you’ll still feel unsure, in which case you could still take all the required commerce courses in your upper years and finish with a “useful” degree.

    if you decide to switch out of commerce, it’d probably be easiest to do a major and double minor, or even a double major, depending on what programs/courses you prefer. unlike rotman commerce, for example, which just has three specialist streams and a bunch of focuses you could tack on, other artsci students basically have a paralyzing amount of choice in terms of program combinations (no really it’s great… i love it). if you’re still willing to tolerate some math courses, commerce-related minors like economics, math, or stats, have courses which overlap with commerce requirements that could help you complete your program faster rather than starting in something completely new.

    honestly, your university path is still pretty wide open, so don’t feel like you have to decide everything now. the world is your oyster – a terrifying kind of oyster. and how do you really go about figuring it all out anyway? it’ll be different for everyone, but i’d recommend looking into mentorship programs or events like career nights or program Q&As with upper years or alumni. lots of student associations organize these, and you could also attend more general ones within your college, too. it’s a pretty low commitment way to learn about what these fields/programs are actually like. you can also get more personalized advice from your registrar.

    best of luck!

    aska

  • admissions,  prospective student,  science,  St. George

    hope in the face of gr 12 calculus

    Hi! So, my top 6 average before I took calculus was a 91, then I got a 60 on my midterm and now my average is an 86. Overall, I took 8 courses this year and most were low 90s with the exception of an 85 and an 88. I’ve completely given up on being accepted into material sci because I doubt they’ll accept me because of my calculus mark, but do I still have a chance for LifeSci? This is about stg campus btw. Please help!!


    hello there!

    a stem kiddo — we love to see it. i gather that your top six average is 86 now including calculus, which was a 60. it’s a tricky situation because your average is technically still in the running for both programs, but they both require calculus.

    just so you know, you won’t actually be admitted for specific programs like material sci in first year, btw. you would have to enter the physical and mathematical sciences stream in the first year, and then apply for the material sciences POSt (specific majors, minors, stuff like that) afterwards. complicated, i know.

    physical and mathematical sciences requires a top 6 average of mid to high 80s, including grade 12 english and calculus, and so does lifesci. they do both recommend mid to high 80s in english and calc though, and it’s kind of hard to say how strict the admissions office is with that requirement.

    i know a few friends who’ve gotten into lifesci with a few marks in the 70s, so i’d say you’ve still have a shot, especially since you did well overall and in your other courses. lifesci is also known to be a huge first year stream, which does improve your chances.

    if you do end up getting into lifesci, a cool thing about utsg arts and sciences is that you can apply to pretty much any program in the faculty for second year. there are some exceptions that are much more competitive, like computer science or rotman commerce, but as long as you take the high school prereqs and do well in the required first year courses, you can still get into materials science or any other program that you might find interesting!

    good luck! hope that helps!

    aska

  • admissions,  prospective student,  repeating course

    second chances: technically possible, probably hard

    So I failes my advanced functions class and I am retaking it. Am I still gonna get accepted if I have a repeat? I know that Rotman does not count MHF4U but how about Scarborough and Mississauga. Will they accept?


    hello hello,

    so from the utm, utsc, and utsg admissions websites it looks like all of them have the same somewhat vague stance against repeated courses, which is basically that generally they’ll allow it but “urge you to do as well as possible on your first attempt” (and that’s word for word on all three sites — a lot of repetition there, ironically).

    so while a repeated course won’t take you out of the running, it’ll probably be an uphill battle especially for more competitive programs, and students without repeated courses might be given greater preference. to be honest it’ll be really important to try and ace the course this time around to show that ultimately you can do well (yeah i know, no pressure or anything…)

    utm was also kind enough to specify that they’ll only take the highest grades of the repeated courses, but the others weren’t as clear, so as with many admissions-related things, it’s kind of a black box.

    you could also apply for special consideration if you have proof of any extenuating circumstances that affected the first time you took the course. no, i’m not gonna link all that for all three campuses but i promise it’s out there and it’s a thing. google is your best friend 😉

    oh also, interestingly, rotman allows repeated courses too, though i was under the impression that they didn’t for some time. like all the others, they also “urge you to do well on your first attempt” and all that, and they do prefer candidates without repeated courses. but as you mentioned they don’t require advanced functions, just calculus and vectors, so hopefully that all goes well in case you’re interested in applying.

    best of luck,

    aska

  • internal transfer,  Transferring

    goodbye uoft, hello… uoft

    I am an internal transfer student and I have accepted my offer. The conditions are: have CGPA above 2.7 and maintain my current academic standing and if I am currently enroll, do not have any misconduct notes on my final transcript. My question is I dropped 2 winter session courses after I accepted my offer since I don’t need them anymore. I still have 4 winter session courses left. Is this action going to affect my offer?


    hey there,

    if those are all the conditions on your offer, i’d say you’re in the clear. there aren’t any specific requirement on courseload in the uoft internal transfer criteria in the first place, and although they might’ve considered that during admissions in a more ~holistic~ way, i doubt that even uoft would be petty enough to go back and check that after you’ve been accepted.

    the only scenario that i think might possibly be problematic is if you dropped a course that was a required prereq for entering the program you applied to, since you do need the required high school or university prereqs to transfer. but i’d assume that’s not the case since you said you don’t need those courses anymore. so basically, you’re freeee! take the offer and run! they can’t possibly take it back – unless your cgpa drops and/or your academic standing changes, so just be careful of that.

    good luck!

    aska

  • prereqs,  prospective student,  psychology,  subject POST

    throwback to the psych major era

    hi aska, i’m a grade 12 hs student who got accepted into uoftstg for social science. i’m looking to major in psych, and i failed to realize that uoft doesn’t offer a psych BA. my problem is is that i don’t have the gr 12 prerequisites of calc or bio. my question is: uoft’s social science page they state, “at the end of your first year, you can combine programs outside of your own admission category” does this mean i can double major and enrol in the psych program despite of my missing prerecs?


    hello there young one,

    congrats on your acceptance! so after the barrage of psych major questions we got last semester, i’m prepared — this post from december is all about high school prereqs for psych at uoft and pretty much answers your question i think… (done. that’s it. that’s the post. do i just… go now?)

    but in the spirit of recycling, lemme hash out some of the main things about high school prereqs here… and some other things. basically, after first year, you’ll have to apply for your POSt, which is just uoft’s fancy name for your specific program, which doesn’t have to be within your admissions stream. you can definitely mix and match and jump around different majors/minors/specialists in all different areas of uoft arts and science. but preqrequisites are prerequisites, and the psych programs all list gr. 12 calc and bio as prereqs so chances are you’ll have to get those credits in order to be accepted. you should definitely email the psych department just to check (psy.undergrad@utoronto.ca) with them first, though.

    if you do have to complete those prerequisites, you could try to take them in the summer before university, or through night school/online options if they’re offered by your school board.

    they should be completed by the end of your first year at the latest, because that’s around the time you typically apply for POSt — although you should also confirm that with the department just in case they ask for the prereqs following a different timeline. hope that helps!

    best of luck,

    aska

  • certificate,  current student

    (almost) certified conflict manager in da house

    Does anyone know how to access the conflict management certificate from EDS210H5 • Communication and Conflict Resolution at UTM? This course was with Dr. Liz (Elizabeth) Coulson. I couldn’t find it on acorn at all!


    hello hello,

    well this is new – in fact, it’s so new, you’ve earned yourself a brand new blog category… congrats :0

    i’ve never heard of the conflict management certificate or seen certificates available on acorn. maybe it’s like a certification that appears on your transcript? they offer something like that in utm french studies, for example. you could check your unofficial transcript on acorn under academic history to see if it’s been added there.

    i hope that works, but if it doesn’t, well, unfortunately this is probably a conflict that i can’t resolve. but you could try asking classmates from that course or even good ol’ dr. coulson herself. they’d probably know. i mean, someone’s gotta know… right? anybody? help us. please.

    anyhow, good luck, and have a lovely reading week!

    aska

  • admissions,  cegep,  prospective student

    r score why r u so confusing

    Hello! Im currently a quebec cegep student looking to go into life sciences / animal physiology at U of T and would like some advice on admissions. I struggled quite a bit in calculus this year and my cal 1 grade is only a 72… I was wondering if this is way to low for getting accepted and if its recommended that I retake this course. I’m very worried about this right now so any advice on this or admissions in general is greaaaatly appreciated!!


    hey there,

    i’m so sorry for the long wait on this one, but hopefully this still helps.

    according to the admissions website, cegep students need an r score of mid-20s or higher – specifically, utsg arts and science has an r score cutoff of 26. it does mention that they will see your full transcript with the actual percentage marks, but i’m not sure if there’s a specific cutoff for that.

    you’re probably familiar with the cegep r score, so hopefully that magic number 26 means something to you because frankly after digging around a bit i still don’t really know what it really translates to in terms of a percentage. i mean, you got a 72, but did you really, compared to the course average and then comparing your school to all the other schools… quebec really went all out with this whole scoring thing and tbh it’s just too much stats for me.

    hopefully you already know your r score by the time you apply, which will give you a much better idea. if not, it might help to generally follow the recommended grades for the equivalent grade 12 high school subjects? it’s not a perfect comparison since cegep courses might be harder (?) but uoft life sciences recommends mid to high 80s in high school english and calculus.

    based on that, i’d say the safest plan is to retake calc if possible, and aim for a higher mark in the 80s just in case. but then again, if all of your other marks are in the 80s-90s and you are generally at or above the course average, it also doesn’t hurt to try and apply. although 70s might be on the lower side for calc, i don’t think it’s necessarily a dealbreaker, especially if you have a good average overall.

    best of luck!

    aska