• OSAP,  summer

    summer money: pay for school, or buy a BIG STRAW HAT

    March 15, 2016

    Hi Aska! I plan on taking a Y course during the summer. How do I apply for OSAP during the summer session?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    what an apt and timely question!

    if you had OSAP in this Fall or Winter session, then you can apply for OSAP using this online form, which you can submit to enrolment services. the recommended deadline for that is March 31st, which is always sooner than

    if you did NOT receive OSAP in the Fall, then you’ll need to go to ontario.ca/osap in order to apply.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • psychology

    missi-psych-a

    March 15, 2016

    I’m a UTM student and wondering, is it still possible for me to get into the psychology program after 3rd year? I have taken PSY100 and 2 credits worth of second year psych courses. I’m only missing the stats course (which I’m planning on taking the first term of my 3rd year).

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    yes, it is still possible. however, depending on the exact program you’re applying to and whether you’ve already applied and been rejected once, the requirements to now try and get in will be different. you can see all the different requirements for each situation here. all of them require that you’ve taken PSY201H5, so taking stats in third year (or maybe even in the summer, if you can) is a good idea.

    the fact that you’ve taken 2.0 psych credits already is good news, though they do require a certain overall average in those courses for you to be eligible for the specialist (assuming you’re interested in the specialist). as far as i can tell, stats isn’t required to get in to the program, though it may be required to complete it.

    all in all, if you’re willing to possibly stay behind for an extra year or take some summer courses, and you manage to get into the program, you could be on track to finishing with a degree in psychology!

    if you have any more questions or the page i linked to doesn’t address your particular situation, i would recommend you contact the utm psychology office with your questions.

    best,

    aska

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  • breadth requirements

    wait what

    March 11, 2016

    Hola! I’m a 1st year student at York thinking about transferring to utm. I know uoft first years have to take certain courses before they can choose a major, but since I already have a major here at York, does it mean I’m exempted from meeting the breadth requirement? [First-Year Seminars (199 courses) are open only to newly-admitted, Faculty of Arts & Science students (3.5 credits or less).] If not, is there any way I can skip taking those courses? Cheers!

    ———————————————

    hola,

    i appreciate your upbeat tone and can-do attitude. i also appreciate the Hawaiian spin on your question. i do get the feeling, however, that you’re kind of just using a lot of uoft jargon without REALLY understanding what it means. and hey, i get that it’s confusing – if it was easy to understand, my job wouldn’t exist- but it’s making your question a little bit tricky to interpret.

    so, let me try and clear some of the confusion, at least: breadth requirements are a requirement that all faculty of arts & science students must fulfil in the course of their degree. the requirement is that you take a certain number of credits in each of five categories – or ‘breadths’ – of knowledge delineated by the faculty.

    you can fulfil the requirement either by taking 1.0 credit in 4 of the 5 breadths, or 0.5 credits in 3 of the breadths and 1.0 credit in the other 2. i know it’s confusing. read it over a few times if you have to.

    these breadth requirements have nothing to do with your program(s) (what you call a major, which means something different at york than it does here, but never mind that for now). the breadth requirements are the same regardless of your field of study. SO you can’t be exempted from the breadth requirements, but some of the transfer credits you get will almost certainly go towards filling some of those breadths you need to cover. for example, you may have taken a course at york that transfers over as 1.0 credit in the breadth 1 category. in that case, you would not be required to take any more credits in the breadth 1 category (though you would be welcome to do so, if you wanted to).

    next up: i’m not sure why you quoted that little piece on 199 courses. 199 courses are not mandatory. if you don’t want to take them, you don’t have to. in fact, if you come in as a second-year student (that is, you have more than 3.5 transfer credits) you won’t be eligible to take any 199 courses. but don’t worry, it’s a very small collection of courses, and not taking one shouldn’t affect your degree at all; in fact, most people don’t take on, because they’re so limited.

    also, utm doesn’t have 199 courses, so it’s even less relevant to you (though utm students are, of course, allowed to enrol in a certain number of downtown courses if they so choose).

    i hope that all helps. i have a feeling this post will result in more questions than understanding, so feel free to keep ’em coming. also, enrolment services is a great starting point if you have general questions about the university. the calendar is also a great resourse. good luck deciphering the maze of confusion that is uoft policy and procedure.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • architecture

    BRIDGING to daniels

    March 11, 2016

    hey aska!

    I’m nearing the end of my second semester in socsci, having been a transfer?student from art fundamentals at sheridan college, but I’m hating it. I?know I missed the deadline to apply to transfer to visual studies at u of?t, but as the Daniels site is a little confusing, I was hoping you could?help me answer a few questions!

    The reason I’m thinking of transferring to Daniels after second year of?socsci is because A. I’m miserable in socsci, and it’s reflected in my?grades right now, and B. currently, my top art school (york’s BDes)?wouldn’t take me with my u of t grades.

    I know most art programs base a good like, 80 percent of the application on?the portfolio, but I get the feeling that doesn’t ring true for U of T. Am?I right?

    I’ll end this semester with about 3.0 or 4.0 credits. If I take “easier”?classes next year to bring my GPA up while still staying under 10.0 credits?to transfer, will that help?

    Also, I’m trying to gauge the likelihood that I’ll get some of my credits?from Sheridan College transferred, like a first year 2D design, or a life?drawing class?

    Ps. What’s with this “One Idea” thing? Is it the same every year, like?should I be preparing my answer to this years question so I’ve got it ready?when I apply to transfer?

    Wow this was longer than expected, sorry and thanks for any help!

    – sad and covered in paint

    ???????????????

    hey there,

    i feel like one day daniels is gonna up and revamp their whole website and it’s gonna be the best, most user-friendly website in all of uoft, and all these posts throwing shade at it are gonna make no sense. i await that day patiently.

    firstly: uoft doesn’t ask for a portfolio. they base admission on your CGPA and most recent AGPA, and your One Idea supplementary application. the One Idea application is not a portfolio (quote: “The One Idea supplementary application is not a portfolio“), and you shouldn’t treat it as such. it is very much an essay used to assess your?potential for success in the daniels program, rather than a measure of how successful you’ve already been.

    as far as i’m concerned, there are no “easier” or “harder” classes, per se. if you pick classes where you think you’ll do well, and then you?do do well (don’t you dare laugh that i just said ‘do do’), well that can only help your chances. just as long as you make sure to stay under the 10.0 credit mark, you should be fine. if you have any questions about how your uoft credits will transfer over from one faculty to another, you can look here.

    if you’d like to know what transfer credit you’re likely to get for your sheridan courses, transfer explorer is the place to go. it may just be my favourite uoft website in the ‘explorer’ suite (no shade, @degree explorer). you just type in your sheridan courses, and it spits out any possible transfer credits at uoft. just remember, it’s not a guarantee, just a prediction of the most likely outcome.

    i feel like the One Idea question is the same every?year, but to be honest with you i haven’t been paying enough attention to the daniels applications to be certain. what i would do is start preparing your answer when?the next application cycle opens, probably around October next year. definitely do not leave it to the last minute like this person.

    best of luck with your application!

    aska

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  • pharmacy

    big pharma(pplication)

    March 9, 2016

    Hi, I’m in my second year and taking CHM247, I don’t need the course for any of my majors / minors but it’s required for pharmacy school. Would I still be able to cr/ncr it even though the course is needed for grad school?

    Thanks in advance

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    i can’t find anything on the leslie dan website (i’m assuming you’re talking about leslie dan, and not any other pharmacy school) that says they need a specific mark for CHM247. however, they do require that you’ve taken the course, and usually professional schools won’t ask for a specific course if they don’t want to actually see how well you did.

    also, the section on CGPA says that if “a student has opted for a CR/NCR, where a letter or percentage grade would normally be reported, the actual percentage or letter grade that is reported in the student record system will be calculated into the cumulative average.” so really, there’s almost no point in CR/NCR’ing it, unless you’re applying to other schools where the CR/NCR will hold, because they will see your actual mark anyway.

    finally, while this isn’t a strict ban on credit/no-credit, i would take the warning seriously: the faculty says that “[a]ny failed/repeated subjects, grades below class averages, history of withdrawal, Credit designation, etc., may influence the final decision on the application.”

    cheers,

    aska

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  • admissions,  first year

    sharing life advice (or, giving old people a sense of purpose)

    March 4, 2016

    Hi aska, first off you are hilarious and I have spent the past hour just reading your answers to various questions.

    I have a few questions today to ask. I am a grade 11 student and i want to apply to the UTSC International Development Arts Co-Op program. However I have not taken any advanced levels of math apart from workplace to get my final required math credit. In grade 12 I will be taking 6 different social sciences courses. How do you think the lack of math will affect my application because from what i’ve heard it is quite a competitive program? Also, how does the year at U of T work, when do semesters start and end?

    Mostly, I am just worried that I won’t get accepted to this program and then if I do that the workload will quite literally kill me. Any advice for preparing myself for university and U of T would be nice.

    Thank You

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    ME? hilarious? in this economy??? as a taxpayer, i find that irresponsible and unacceptable.

    if your top 6 4U/M courses (including English) are strong, then i don’t think that the lack of math will affect your application, since IDS does not require calculus. as with this person, that only is my best guess, but i don’t know for sure because UNFORTUNATELY, i am not responsible for admitting students. if i was, punny stream-of-consciousness personal essays would probably determine whether or not people got into their programs. and i know rotman and computer science would have a problem with that.

    the one thing i will caution you, though, is that MGEA01H3 and MGEA05H3 are required for the IDS specialist. neither of these courses require calculus, but “algebra and graphs are used extensively,” and that kind of thing is not covered in workplace math. if i were you, i would consider taking grade 11 mixed math, or perhaps even functions, so you can have a basic understanding of this kind of mathematics before you’re thrown into it in first year.

    UTSC is a strictly semesterly campus. the fall semester goes from September-December (with exams in December), the winter semester goes from January-April (with exams in April), and the summer semester goes from May-August (with exams in June and August for half-credit courses, and August for courses worth 1.0 credit).

    my advice for preparation is that you 1) really do consider doing as much math as you can stomach. it will help you in the long run. 2) some people have good experiences at university and some people have not-so-good experiences, but i think that the following advice is helpful for pretty much anybody:

    • do not feel like you have to only do school while you’re in school. lots of first-years drop extra-curriculars, jobs, and hobbies in first year because they feel like they need more time to adjust to school and can’t do as much as they did in grade 12. it is true that you’ll need to use first year to adjust to university, but i’ve found that getting involved makes it easier to adjust, not more difficult. you can always drop things if you’ve taken on too much, but don’t hesitate to even try. getting involved helps you feel like you’re part of a community, which can make you feel more invested in your school work – and that’s good, not bad, for your academics.
    • sometimes you will fall asleep on your commute. don’t beat yourself up about it. you can’t always be doing readings on the train/bus.
    • ask questions!!!!! no one else knows what the heck they’re doing, either. you will not look stupid if you ask a question. this applies for classes but also just generally: if you have a question about university policy/procedure, ask it. do not just listen to what your friends are saying, because they are probably wrong. ask your registrar’s office. Google things. double check stuff.
    • take pride in your work. university is hard. you are doing a great job – even if sometimes it doesn’t feel like it.
    • plan ahead. listen, if you got through high school without an agenda or a calendar and you think you can pull the same thing in university, you are wrong. you will 100% for certain be more successful if you have some method by which to schedule your time, so find one that works for you, pronto.
    • let your plans change. medical school and law school are not the only options for your future. there are lots of challenging, fulfilling, well-paying, well-respected jobs that you’ve never heard of and that YOU CAN LOVE. and no one will think you are a failure for doing them. they will think you are an adult.
    • don’t give up. you will get a mark that you never got in high school. maybe you will get a lot of marks that you didn’t get in high school. firstly, that does not signal the end of your university career – first year does not have to foreshadow your second, third and fourth years. secondly: even if you do decide to leave, or transfer, or take a break from school, you are not giving up. as long as you are doing what’s right for you, you’re doing alright.
    • con hall classes suck, but they’re not forever.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • trinity college

    sa(late)rrae

    March 2, 2016

    Ok hello! I’ve ranked Trinity #1 at U of T. I’m a Canadian student (from BC) studying abroad so it’s not necessary for me to do the whole supplemental application (despite the strong recommendation trin stresses on). I missed the deadline to submit the supplemental application and am considering doing it now (nearly 2 weeks after I’m supposed to have finished it). Is there a point to this? Or will it just make me look like a bad candidate since I’ve submitted it so late? Have you met anyone that hasn’t done their supp app but got in? Thanks!!!!! Xxxxxxx

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    i gave a call to the folks at the trinity college registrar’s office (who are actually so lovely, by the way, so shout out to them), and the short answer is: if you didn’t submit it, it’s not something to pull your hair out over.

    basically, you can still submit it after the deadline. it’s just that they might already have looked at your application and made an admission decision, so then your supplemental application would not be factored into that decision. if you do decide to submit your supplemental app. late, you are running that risk.

    it’s been a while since you sent this question (that’s an oopsie on my part), so at this point i’d say it’s almost certainly too late. HOWEVER, there’s no need give up your dreams of high tables and blacks cloaks yet – there is a possibility that you’ll be admitted on marks alone. some people truly are that smart. i mean, i wasn’t. but i hear some people are.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • financial aid,  summer

    OSAP, probation, OSAP probation

    March 2, 2016

    Hi Aska,

    A year ago, I ended up on academic probation. I was able to get off it and have been very slowly increasing my GPA since then. This year, I applied for OSAP and was told it would be the last time. That’s understandable as I’ve been a repeat offender. Anyways this year, I ended up dropping courses to save my GPA from going down. While I was taking four courses in the fall, I ended up using an LWD on one of them. This winter, I dropped two out of my four courses (so I am now a part-timer). I know what a stupid way to waste of money and time. SO because it doesn’t really matter at this point as I will not be getting anymore OSAP, is there a need for me to tell the financial office that I dropped courses?

    On another note, is there a minimum GPA requirement to take UTSG courses in the summer? And do you know if they have posted their possible summer courses?

    Thanks

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    if you were getting full-time OSAP and you’ve now dropped to a part-time course load, then yes, you should get in touch with enrolment services/your divisionally appropriate financial aid office. you need to communicate to OSAP that you’re now on a part-time course load so that the amount of aid you’re receiving can be adjusted appropriately. enrolment services can fill you in on the details about exactly how you should go about doing that, but it typically involves writing a letter to OSAP explaining why you dropped down below a 60% course load.

    there is no minimum GPA to take courses in general. if you’re on probation, you do need to make sure that you make it out of that semester with a CGPA above 1.50 to get yourself off probation.

    finally, the preliminary summer schedule is available now for your eager eyeballs to peruse!

    best,

    aska

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  • admissions

    U or M

    March 2, 2016

    Hi aska! So I know that UofT accepts both U and M level courses as a part of your top six (I’ve applied to Humanities, so my only prerequisite is U level English), but I was wondering if they would prioritize accepting students with more U level courses since they’re technically supposed to be “””harder”””.

    Because of various course-scheduling conflicts and certain courses no longer being offered at my school, I am only taking two grade 12 U courses (English and Philosophy) and the rest of them are M (all drama and music courses). I got 95% in English (ENG4U1) first semester, and knowing my teachers and how I’ve been doing so far I’m guessing my final top 6 average at the end of the year will be above 90, but I’m just worried that I’d be at a disadvantage because I’m not taking many U level courses….

    Thanks for any help you can offer!!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    this is one of those admissions questions that i won’t be able to give you an exact answer to, not because i don’t want to, but because i don’t have the answer. unfortunately, you’ll just have to make your peace with that.

    i am inclined to say that because you are entering into the humanities and Grade 12 English is typically the only required course for the humanities, it shouldn’t impact your application too much. at a lot of high schools, drama and music are only offered at the M level, and so if you want to take those courses, you don’t really have the opportunity to take them at the U level.

    your M courses shouldn’t put you at a disadvantage when entering first year, since many first-year humanities courses are in areas that simply aren’t taught in high school. that means everyone is encountering it for the first time. and if it shouldn’t impact your studies, then it stands to reason that it also shouldn’t impact your application.

    SO my logic would be that as long as your GPA is competitive and it includes prerequisites, you should be fine.

    if you’d like some more nuanced information, i’d recommend you talk to enrolment services. they can give you the lowdown.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • courses

    how extra

    March 2, 2016

    Hi there! Out of curiosity, what will show on a transcript if you fail a course already designated as EXTRA (e.g. say this course is your 7th 100-level FCE)? Thanks in advance!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    yes, it shows up on your transcript, and yes, the mark also shows up on your transcript. however, the course has an ‘EXT’ next to it and the mark will not count towards your GPA or 20.0 degree credits.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • frosh,  subject POST,  UTM

    short and sweet

    March 1, 2016

    Hey aska.
    Ok I have a ton of questions so I’m just going get straight to it.

    1. So at this moment I’m not sure if I want to do a specialist, double major or a major and two minors. Is there one that is necessary/recommended for grad school? Also I know you can apply to as many Posts as you want but can I apply to the same one. For example can I apply for a human biology specialist and major and then decide after which one to do? Also Is it possible to do 2 majors and a minor or 3 majors or a specialist and a major? I want to go to grad school but Im not sure if I want to do bio, chem or physics cause I just love them all. *sigh*

    2. I’m a first year student right now and I want to take some classes at UTM next semester that are part of my program so how do I do that? Do I have to speak to my registrar? Is there a limit on the # of classes I can take?

    3. Me and my friends all became friends in frosh so we were like “we should all be frosh leaders next year!!!!” So i want to know how do we become frosh leaders? What’s the process and where do we apply? We’re at St mikes BTW.

    Thanks homie G

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    1. nope. yep. yep, nope, yep. take a look at these programs maybe.
    2. all you gotta do is sign up for them on acorn and then find a way to get out there for class.
    3. applications typically open around April/May. i would recommend keeping an eye on these channels so you’ll know when applications are out. interviews/the application process generally happens through SMCSU, in collaboration with the Dean’s Office.

    cheers my home slice,

    aska

    P.S. thank you for specifying what college your from – that made answering your question UNBELIEVABLY EASIER. let this be a lesson to all those who might be tempted to send in VAGUE QUESTIONS that force me to make SWEEPING GENERALIZATIONS that just don’t help out anybody.

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  • Transferring

    goodbye uoft, hello…uoft

    March 1, 2016

    Is it possible to change what program I?ve applied for in an Internal Transfer Application after I have already submitted the application?

    Thank you in advance ?

    ???????????????

    hey there,

    not usually. according to enrolment services, you can only make changes to program choice by the deadline to submit your application, which was Februrary 8th for the faculty of arts & science. i’d recommend you contact enrolment services and see what they can do for you, because they do spend a lot of time/paperwork making sure you are admitted into the program you request.

    if all else fails, it’s always possible?to get into another program after you’re admitted, assuming it’s 1) not rotman and 2) you have all the correct prerequisites.

    let’s say you applied to biology, and you get in. that means you’ll be entering uoft in a biology specialist. let’s say you want to do an ecology and evolutionary biology specialist instead. what you would do (once you’ve been accepted to uoft) is go in to ACORN and change your subject POSt (program of study). you can only do this from april-september, so make sure to do it in good time.

    now, i did give a pretty simplified example. you may want to do a combination of POSts, and the POSt that you want to get into may not accept you automatically. the examples i gave are both type 1 POSts: that means that there are really no admission requirements, and the POSt has unlimited enrolment. so if you apply on time, you’re in no matter what.

    the program(s) you’re interested in, however, may be type 2’s (they have certain academic requirements you must meet in order to be accepted), type 2L’s (they have academic requirements but meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission) or type 3’s (academic requirements, meeting them does not guarantee admission, AND they require a supplementary application outside of ACORN). you can see which type(s) the POSt(s) you’re interested in is/are here.

    if you did NOT apply to an arts & science program, i would recommend contacting the relevant office for further information – UTM’s registrar’s office, UTSC’s office of admission and student recruitment, the engineering undergraduate admissions office for the faculty of applied science and engineering, etc.

    if you have any further questions about this process, don’t hesitate to e-mail me, or contact the registrar’s office at the college/faculty/campus where you’ve been admitted.

    good luck!

    aska

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  • computer science

    how much can you really trust reddit

    February 26, 2016

    I have a couple of things I would like to clarify as I go forward in my Comp Sci education. So according to this
    https://www.reddit.com/r/UofT/comments/40txeo/important_changes_to_cs_post_in_2016/ some things have changed this year for people like myself who look to enroll in the CS POST. So I am in my fourth semester here at UTSG doing whatever I can to get into the CS POST since around last year. Basically first and second semester I took last year I went through csc108, csc148, and csc165. All fine and dandy. However, I didn’t do so hot in csc165 at all (52%) and I went through csc148 very uneasy with this in the back of my mind. So I did all of 148 outright to the end but dropped it because I had the option to from the TA strike that occurred. So I “retook” 148 last semester and did fairly well, falling just shy of an 80. Now I also have 165 enrolled this semester as an EXTRA course (so labeled EXT on my acorn/rosi). Now with this change that has taken place as mentioned in the Reddit post, and knowing that I am still a student in the Faculty of Arts & Science CMP1 according to my rosi, if I just do basically what I did with 148 and get a solid grade in 165 close to around 75-80 range, will I get accepted once I apply as the CS update implies?

    Thanks if you respond and thanks for running such an awesome resource.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    the important distinction made in the reddit post you cite is between people admitted into the university in the computer science stream, and everyone else.

    if you were admitted out of high school (or wherever you were before uoft) into computer science, then yes. the way that i read the e-mail quoted is like this: if you meet those minimum requirements, you would definitely be admitted into the specialist or major (whichever you applied to).

    if you were admitted into another stream though (life science, physical/mathematical science, social science or humanities), then the POSt would still be competitive. that means that achieving the minimum required marks will not be enough to be admitted. you’ll have to achieve a mark high enough that you earn one of the limited spots in the POSt.

    so far, so good – i do have an important caveat for you, though. since i’m not in comp. sci. and i never received the e-mail that the reddit post quotes, i have no way of verifying whether it is real. i mean, it seems like a remarkably specific thing to make up, but i still can’t confirm it, because i can’t find the same information anywhere in the calendar or on the comp. sci. website.

    what i would recommend is that you verify the information with the computer science undergraduate office. they can also advise you about any nuances that may not be entirely evident (or mentioned at all) in that e-mail. they’re also good just for some general advice about moving forward. all around, it’s probably a good idea to stop in or call for a chat.

    cheers,

    aska

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