askastudent - your student life specialists

admissions, applying for U of T, keeners, music

kids these days

December 3, 2018

Hello I’m a grade 11 student stressing about post secondary. I am interested in the music program at uoft but am scared that my grades are not good enough because 2 of them are were mid-high 80s. Should I be concerned?

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hi!

jeez, are you saying that your two LOWEST marks are mid-high 80s? wow. kids these days.

so, i scoured the internet for information re: admission requirements for the faculty of music. according to this link, they don’t list any academic grade averages. they do, however, say that you need to have completed RCM level 8 theory with at least a 60%.

there are also other requirements that you need for the music faculty, but i can’t really tell you what the specific requirements are because you haven’t told me what program specifically you’re interested in! kids these days.

anyways, you can check out the faculty of music’s application info page to see what the specific requirements are for the program you’re interested in.

hope this helps! good luck, catherine keener!

xoxo,

aska

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OSAP

(non)answers all around

November 26, 2018

Will OSAP punish me if I explain to them the desire to go to grad school and require funding for a fifth year but instead of taking those pre-grad school courses I use the funding to complete another minor? One of the financial advisors told me OSAP doesn’t look back but another advisor frowned upon my idea.

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hi!

unfortunately, i have no effin’ clue.

it really sucks that you’re getting conflicting information, and now i’m being no help. sorry ’bout that!

i suggest that you get in contact with enrollment services, since they’re the financial aid experts on campus. they should be able to give you a more definitive answer.

i hope this (non) answer helps! good luck!

xoxo,

aska

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mental health

it’s okay to cry

November 12, 2018

What are your top 10 places to go on campus to cry? I’m fed up of getting weird looks when I sit in the middle of a cafeteria sobbing

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hi!

not sure if i have a top 10. though personally, i like a good washroom cry. a nice, deep, soothing robarts stacks washroom cry. i also kinda love crying in the lester b pearson garden for peace and understanding, which is located by ej pratt library, but that’s more of a scenic seasonal cry.

on a more serious note, mental health is something that sometimes gets thrown out the window once the semester gets too busy. and while everyone cries and it’s okay to cry, just know that if there’s other stuff at play here, there are on-campus resources that you can access. there’s health and wellness’ mental health services. some services that they offer include: individual therapy, group therapy, and on location counselling.

hope this helps!

xoxo,

aska

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rotman

not so all-knowing now, are we?

November 2, 2018

I’m currently in my second year in Accounting Specialist, but I’ve been thinking about switching to the Finance Specialist at the end of the year instead. If I want to switch during the appropriate Subject Post Request Period, do they recalculate your GPA and see if you meet the cutoff for that specialist program? I’m scared after this year my GPA will drop and I will not be able switch and get in.

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hi!

oh god, a rotman question.

i’m not really familiar with the rotman requirements, but i’ll do my best. that being said, it might be a good idea to get in touch with your college registrar or one of the academic advisers at rotman just to get some more definitive answers.

as to whether or not they’d recalculate your gpa… i’m unsure. this link only lists specific marks that you need in specific courses, not any GPA cut-off. so, i assume that they would only be looking at those specific marks. in that case, then only the marks you got when you took those courses will be looked at. however, the part that i’m looking at only applies to people applying to rotman who aren’t already in rotman. so…. yeah, probably not the most relevant info.

that’s just my ignorant assumption, though. i really think that you should get in touch with someone more knowledgeable than me just because rotman is so confusing and insular. also, the information doesn’t seem as accessible as some of the other departments or faculties.

(live footage of me looking for answers)

hope this helped (somewhat).

xoxo,

aska

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academic success, chem

does anything make sense anymore

October 29, 2018

Hi,
I recently got my midterm mark back from CHM135 and as expected I did horrible. I got a 39.22% (it’s my fault for slacking off full-time). Apparently the labs are “easy marks” but I’ve gotten a 79% on my first one and my friend told me that it’s pretty bad. I’ve never really been good at labs, but I’m willing to improve.

I’m extremely anxious about the next midterm and the exam. Is it still possible to pass the course with a 60-65%? (How do I calculate how much I should get for next assessments to get this mark?).

Thank you.

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hi!

oh man, we’ve all been there. it’s tough, but you’ll get through it.

a great tool that i’ve used in the past to figure my sh*t out is this grade calculator. basically, you just enter the marks that you currently have and how much the assignments are worth, and it’ll calculate that you currently have in the course. there is also an option to see what you’d need to get on the rest of the assignments in order to achieve a certain mark and an option to see what your final course mark would be if you got a certain average on the rest of the assignments. i hope that makes sense. it’s hard to explain. just check out the link above.

i highly suggest going to your prof/ TA’s office hours to discuss strategies for success. i know that that’s super intimidating and scary, but trust me, it’s worth it. it’s always a good idea to talk to the people who’re actually grading you to get a sense of how you could get better grades. profs/ TAs are always happy to see students and to help them out.

you should also check out the academic success centre. they’re a great on-campus resource that is sadly and criminally underused. you can make appointments with learning strategists, attend workshops, and meet up with peer mentors– all of which can help you improve your grades and help you become more…. academically successful.

i hope this helps you out! good luck!

xoxo,

aska

PS- don’t forget that the last day to drop or CR/NCR any F courses without academic penalty is november 5th!!

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first year, seminars

seminars, first year, exams, oh my!

October 24, 2018

Hey!

I am currently enrolled in VIC108H1 it is a VIC first-year course. I am enrolled in VIC110H1 in the winter term, I am also enrolled in a first-year seminar course (CCR199H1) in the winter term. I just wanted to make sure I am allowed to take these courses. I read somewhere that said you have a limit. Hopefully, you guys answer before the winter term! also, when is the December exam schedule coming out? Will it be emailed to everyone?

Thank you so much!

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hi!

surprise, a relatively quick response!

according to this link about the first year seminars, you can take both first-year seminars and vic one hundred courses, but you can only take up to one full credit (1 FCE) of either. since each of the courses you’ve listed above is worth 0.5 FCE, you’re currently in a total of 1.5 FCE. this means that you need to drop one of the seminars you’re enrolled in for the winter term so that you are only in 1 FCE total.

the december exam schedule is usually posted online on the faculty of arts and sciences’ website. i’m not totally sure when it’s posted, but it’s usually around sometime soon-ish? don’t quote me on that.

don’t worry about missing it, though. profs will usually highlight in class when and where the exam is, if there is one. if your prof doesn’t bring it up, i’m sure SOMEONE on facebook or whatever will share the link. people always freak the eff out when the exam schedule is posted.

hope that helps, good luck!

xoxo,

aska

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admissions, life science, math

you gotta math no matter what

October 15, 2018

Hello!
I am currently a high school student in grade 12 and considering Nursing at UofT. I’ve noticed one of the prerequisites for nursing is life sciences. And to take life sciences, I need to have advanced functions and/or calculus and vectors. The thing is, I was a little late in realizing this and I am taking data management (MDM4U) this year only because I took college math in grade 11 and therefore don’t have the requirements to take advanced fuctions/calculus (MHF4U/MCV4U respectively) in grade 12.
Do you know if UofT makes any exceptions to these situations? Would I be able to take some sort of introductory course or something during first-year? I am open to options!

I’ve searched the internet high and low for answers but it seems like I’m the only one with this problem 🙁

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hi!

whoa! a grade 12 student thinking about their POST GRAD ambitious? damn, i’m in third year and i barely know what i’m doing with my undergrad. but good on ya.

let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though. i’m only going to address the whole getting into life sciences thing in my response.

so, unfortunately, if you don’t have grade 12 calculus and vectors, you will not be admitted into the life sciences stream. you can check out this link to see the specific grade and course requirements for each admission stream.

something that you could possibly, maybe, potentially do is to apply for u of t under a different admission stream, like humanities or social sciences, that only requires grade 12 english. the admission categories (life science, humanities, etc.) are only really important in first year (you actually declare your majors/minors/specialist after first year) and you can take courses outside of your admission stream (ie. a humanities student could take life sci courses).

i don’t know if this is necessarily the best option, though. basically, students who are in a certain admission category get first dibs (or priority) on courses that are associated with that category. so, life science students would get first dibs on life science courses. this means that even if you wanted to take those courses, you might not get into them because you wouldn’t have first dibs as a non-life science student. also, most life science programs require some sort of first year math course and the prerequisite for those first year calculus courses is… high school calculus.

unfortunately… you’re gonna have to do grade 12 calculus at some point some how if you wanna do life sci here. i’m sorry, i wish i could’ve told you otherwise, but we here at askastudent are committed to the truth.

good luck.

xoxo,

aska

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courses, fees, Flat Fees, part-time

how much time is full time?

October 12, 2018

I go to the st george campus. Currently I’m only registered in two F courses, two S courses, and two Y courses. Acorn says my course load is 2.0 a semester. I was wonder what the minimum full time student course load is? I can only seem to find the maximum limit. If I drop one of my year long courses, will i still be a full time student?

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hi!

the maximum course for the F or S sessions is 3.0 each (which means you’d be in a total of 6 FCEs the whole year).

there isn’t really, technically a minimal amount of courses. you could take just 0.5 FCE and still be a student. the minimum course load to still be a full time student, however, is 3.0 FCE. it’s a little tricky to find (information at u of t isn’t super accessible, unfortunately). you can take a look at this fees schedule (scroll down to the third page) and you can see that part time status begins at 2.5FCE and full time status begins at 3.0FCE during the fall/winter session.

so, if you dropped a Y course, you would still be considered a full time student because you’d have (if i’m doing the math correctly) 3.0FCE left.

something that you should be aware of though, and you can see it from that fees chart, is that if you’re enrolled in 3.5 FCE or less, you are eligible to be charged per course.

what does that mean?

basically, everyone is charged a flat program fee at the beginning of the year. but if you’re taking less courses, you can be charged for every individual course you take separately. basically… cheaper tuition yay!

to switch from program fees to per course fees, go to this link, sign in with your utorid, and follow the instructions. if, for whatever reason, you can’t do it online, get in touch with your registrar’s office and they should be able to do it for you.

good luck!

xoxo,

aska

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profs

no guarantees

September 24, 2018

Odds of prof letting me skip assignments and tests for an out of country wedding? How would I ask the prof lol

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hi!

that’s something that you’d have to talk to the prof directly about. it’s totally at the discretion of the prof, so i can’t really say whether or not they’d let you “skip.”

i suggest that you bring it up to your prof as early as possible (IN PERSON) and see if you can work out an agreement. there are no guarantees, especially if you want to fully skip assignments, but they may be able to work out some sort of accommodation for you, like extensions for assignments. i just wanna stress again, that it’s totally up to the prof and that there are no guarantees either way. hopefully, your prof(s) will be nice and accommodating.

i hope this helps! good luck with your prof.

xoxo,

aska

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OSAP

we’re all confused together

September 24, 2018

if I pay my minimum fee myself because osap hasn’t processed yet, will they reimburse me? hasn’t osap policy changed so it goes directly to the school? I can manage to scrounge up enough to pay the minimum fee but I’m scared they wont reimburse me

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hi!

first, let me apologize for how late this response is. i’m not sure if this will still be relevant to you since the minimum fee deadline has passed, but i’ll answer anyways for future reference.

you’re right; OSAP will now go to u of t directly and be applied to whatever outstanding fees that you have for that specific term. whatever is left over after it’s paid u of t will be sent to the bank account that OSAP has on file. so, you should be reimbursed if you paid your fall fees out of pocket.

according to enrollment services’ OSAP FAQ page, they will only “use the account balance for fall 2018 to calculate the amount of OSAP to send to u of t in september.” if you’ve “already paid your fall tuition and fees before your OSAP is received, your OSAP would not be redirected” to u of t. the info is pretty hard to find and their wording is really really confusing, so i don’t blame any confusion you may have. to be honest, it took me multiple read-throughs to get what they were saying. (to the tune of that high school musical song: we’re all confused together!)

if you have any other OSAP related questions or if you’re still confused about what i laid out above, you should get in contact with enrollment services.

i hope this helps, and sorry again for the delay!

xoxo,

aska

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quercus

que-what-cus?

September 21, 2018

why does uoft call canvas quercus?

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hi!

good question. aside from being super difficult to pronounce (so far this semester, i’ve heard profs say “quirk-us”, “quick-us”, “queue-kiss”, and MORE!), the name means seemingly nothing. unlike good ol’ easy to pronounce and meaningful blackboard/ portal (RIP).

anyways, according to this nifty video from the academic toolbox renewal website, quercus is pronounced “kwhere-kus” and it is the latin word for the oak tree. and as we know, u of t is really into oak tress; it’s on our crest and our student web services is named after a crucial part of the oak tree (ACORN). i guess renaming the academic toolbox something that is oak tree is just the natural progression of the brand?

hope this enlightens you!

xoxo,

aska

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programs

POSt to play

September 19, 2018

Do you have to choose a program second year or can I still be undeclared

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hi!

once you complete 4.0FCE, you must choose a program of study. in general, this happens at the end of your first year. if you don’t enrol in a valid POSt combo (ie. a specialist, two majors, or a major and two minors) after finishing 4.0FCE, ACORN won’t let you add courses. which is a big time uh-oh.

if you finish 4.0 credits, but you haven’t completed the requirements for your desired POSt, you can add yourself into a placeholder type 1 (the kind with no application or specific course requirements) program. as i mentioned before, if you’re not in a valid POSt combo you won’t be able to add courses. by adding yourself into the placeholder POSt, you’ll be able to add courses on ACORN, avoiding the big uh-oh.

now you may be thinking “but aska, now that i’m in this fake POSt, do i have to take courses in that POSt?” no you don’t! adding the fake POSt just ensures that you can add courses. basically, you can take the courses you ACTUALLY want, finish the requirements for the POSt you ACTUALLY want, then drop the fake POSt after. no harm, no foul.

i hope this all makes sense, it can be a little hard to follow.

xoxo,

aska

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email, odds are that won't be asked again

askanI.T.

September 17, 2018

Hellooo, how do I add my utoronto email to Apple’s Mail app? I read the FAQ on the u of t library site but I can’t find my configuration number.

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hi!

do i look like I.T. to you? yes, i literally live in front of my computer and yes, i do seem like an omnipotent all-knowing/ all-seeing tech god, but i am NOT I.T.! sorry for getting so heated, maybe it’s that #millenial thing of being treated as tech support by my older family members that has made me bitter towards anyone who asks for tech help from me. but i shouldn’t have taken it out on you, and i apologize for that.

SO! you wanna put your utoronto email onto your phone. that’s a good idea, tbh, so you won’t miss any announcements from profs or u of t in general.

i’m not sure what FAQ you were looking at, but this page that i found from the info commons help desk provides a step-by-step guide to adding the u of t email service to your ios device– without the “configuration number” whatever that is. that should work, but i know that the u of t email service sometimes just…. doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. if it doesn’t work, you could talk to the people at the info commons help desk. they’re located on the first floor of robarts library.

another thing that you could do, though this wouldn’t get your utoronto email to the mail app, is to download the outlook app. since the utoronto email is run through microsoft outlook, you could sign in through outlook directly. i personally don’t do this (i have my utoronto email linked to the mail app), but it’s definitely a possibility. i know a lot of people who do this because they find apple’s mail app ugly or less intuitive or whatever. it’s all about your preference.

i hope this helps. good luck!

xoxo,

aska

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