• internal transfer,  Transferring

    come to the dark side

    August 21, 2022

    I am a utsc student looking to transfer to utsg, and I only have 4.0 credits with a decent gpa. I also took most of my courses here at utsg, so I just wanna ask does the university look at how many courses you have taken when considering transfer, and what are my odds.

    hi there,

    from what i’ve seen, gpa is the main factor for transferring campuses. courseload doesn’t seem to matter much (if at all) based on what i’ve been able to find after 30 solid minutes of googling, ctr-f-ing and opening way too many tabs, so i think you’re safe there. overall, if your cgpa is decent enough to pass utsg’s cutoff of a 2.7 or B average, i think it’s definitely worth a shot!

    Go For It GIFfrom Go For It GIFs

    (i have no clue why there’s a gif specifically of motivational jane goodall in front of a uoft banner, but hey, it works)

    as for your odds, well, only the admissions officers really know that. but if you’d like some guidance through this whole process, i’d suggest getting in touch with your registrar!

    good luck,

    aska

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  • courses,  current student,  forensic science,  wait list

    more waitlist woes…

    August 15, 2022

    If there is a waitlist of 40+ people for an fsc course, do you think it’ll be offered in summer? Its fsc316 and it was only offered once in summer in 2021. FSC minors need it too but they only offer a few spots and the majors and specialists take those:(

    hey there,

    first of all, that’s a friggin cool program! although i must admit i had to look up fsc to realize that it wasn’t french (fsl) but actually FORENSIC SCIENCE  like woah.

    to be honest, i don’t really know, but since this course hasn’t really been offered in previous summers, i wouldn’t bank on it happening this year. i mean sure, it might, but that probably depends on a lot of different factors, and just because a course has a long waitlist doesn’t mean they’ll offer more sessions of it.

    No Workaholics GIFfrom No GIFs

    i did do some digging into the fsc minor though, and according to the utm academic calendar, it seems that fsc316 isn’t actually required. i don’t wanna be that guy going ‘ok but do you need that course’, but you might wanna take another look at what exactly is required for your program, in case you could take a different course instead? for example, the utm calendar lists fsc316 as part of list of a bunch of courses, and out of those, you’re supposed to take 0.5 FCEs — so any other half year course on there should do!

    however, if you’ve now developed an emotional attachment to getting into this course — i understand.

    I Need It GIFfrom Dallas Buyers Club GIFs

    assuming you’re in third year right now, so one possible strat is to try getting into the course in your fourth year, since you’ll have higher priority in course selections. that could get tricky though if the course has other types of priority enrolment for specialists/majors etc, so if you’re hoping to go down this route, i’d recommend emailing your department or the course instructor to ask about their process for this. another potential issue is that this may throw a wrench in some of your fourth year course plans, if fsc316 is a prereq for anything else you’re interested in.

    if you do end up really needing the course, i’d also recommend asking your registrar for tips. for example, 4th year arts and science students at utsg get a special lil dean’s promise that we can invoke to get into mandatory courses that are required to graduate, and although i’m not sure if utm has a similar thing, it doesn’t hurt to ask around and see if there’s anything else you could do.

    best of luck!

    aska

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  • current student,  major,  programs

    emailing the program director might make you feel like a karen but it’s ok… just be nice

    August 10, 2022

    hi there! I recently got declined from my major and wanted to try again in the second request period. I was wondering if it was worth emailing the program director to introduce myself and outline reasons to be in the program. Is it worth it and do you think it would help/hurt my chances? Thank youuu

    hey there,

    honestly, you beat me to this — usually i do recommend for people to try emailing their departments about stuff like program admissions or course waitlists, because they’ll be able to give the most accurate answer.

    i really don’t think it’d hurt your chances, as long as you do it in a courteous way. in the best case scenario, it could get the department to take second look at your file and perhaps improve your chances, and in the worst case scenario, you’d get a no, as in, “this doesn’t count, we’re still gonna review your application the normal way”, or no response (fair enough, i’m sure they get a loooot of emails…) but from my experience no one would hold it against you for sending a brief friendly email.

    Harry Potter Letters GIFfrom Harry Potter GIFs

    also, i’m assuming that the major you’re applying to doesn’t have a supplementary application already, so that your email is actually adding something above and beyond. but if it does, you should probably hold off on the email so that you’re not just bombarding the department with multiple versions of “reasons i should get into [insert competitive major]” because, well, they know, or will eventually after reading your application.

    other than that, try to be respectful — and imo, that also includes being respectful of time. a straightforward email describing your interest in the program (you can back this up by mentioning a few relevant future goals/extracurricular involvement) and marks from prereqs will get the point across.

    it might also help to end off on a specific question/concern you might have, like asking for feedback to improve your application, or if there were truly extenuating circumstances (cliche, i know… try “unprecedented times”? “never-before encountered conditions”?) that affected your application, this could be your chance to explain things — not in a guilt-trippy way of course, but more to show that despite all this, you’re still very interested, and would like to know if you still have a chance/what you could do to make up for it, etc.

    anyway, i hope this post has had the effect of helping you in some way (besides making you overthink about email etiquette).

    best of luck!

    aska

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  • 12 distinct credits,  current student,  life science,  programs

    all my homies hate the 12 distinct credits rule

    August 3, 2022

    hi! i ended up switching programs after first year so figuring out requirements has been crazy. i’m aiming for a human bio major with two minors, psych and imm. the issue is that the immunology minor doesn’t have a lot of required classes and almost all of the listed ones are also in the hmb program. how does this work with the distinct courses thing? thank you for any help!

    hey there,

    ok, maybe “hate” is too harsh a word but let’s face it, it’s just confusing.

    i also wanna preface this post by saying i am so sorry for the late response… the blog post backlog has been real, but hopefully this still helps someone out there :’)

    so anyway, back to that pesky 12 distinct credits rule. the whole idea is that your program requirements should add up to at least 12 different FCEs. for example, the human bio major is 8.0 FCEs. if all of the 4.0 FCEs in your imm minor end up overlapping with human bio, then you’d need to make sure to take 4.0 FCEs in your psych minor that are all distinct from your human bio/imm courses — that would get you to 12 distinct credits.

    of course, psych probably also overlaps with human bio/imm/other life sci programs, so it might not be possible to get 12 distinct credits just by meeting the minimum requirements of the programs. for example, even if you take your 8.0 FCEs for human bio and they all overlap with imm, you could take a few more eligible hmb or imm courses beyond the overlapping ones in order to fulfill 12 distinct FCEs for your program courses. alternatively, you could try to enrol in a different combination of programs to make it easier to get those distinct credits.

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    i know this all sounds incredibly convoluted, which is probably why utsc has a whole worksheet on the rule. personally, i’ve just planned things out on degree explorer which helps to just lay out all your program courses so that you can count them all up and make sure that they add up to at least 12.0 FCEs total.

    hope that helps!

    aska

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  • admissions,  conditional offer,  Transferring

    i am once again asking you to ask enrolment services

    August 3, 2022

    [Asking for a Friend] He’s a transfer student from UK and failed a course during his spring term. Will his admission offer be revoked by UT? Is there any way to prevent this?

    hi there,

    Queen Elizabeth The Second England GIFfrom Queen Elizabeth The Second GIFs

    so… i’m a bit confused. is your friend in high school and transferred from the uk to canada? is he transfering to uoft from a university in the uk? or neither? i have so many questions.

    anyway, i’ll just assume it’s one of those two… if your friend’s in a canadian high school (although similar criteria apply for international schools, like in the uk), it’s possible that his offer will be revoked, especially if the course is a prerequisite for the program he was accepted for.

    conditional offers made before your final marks are out will usually have requirements to maintain your marks, but they can be super vague. unfortunately, i can’t say if uoft will rescind his offer but i’d recommend contacting enrolment services directly to ask, if you haven’t heard from them already.

    if the offer gets rescinded, your friend might be able to further explain his situation to the admissions office to see if any exceptions can be made, or if they would accept a retake of the course in summer school, private school, or any other options available to him.

    if your friend’s transferring from a university/college, the failed course could also be an issue since conditional offers for transfers do emphasize your cgpa and overall academic performance. again, prerequisites probably matter the most, but you’d also have to pass the cgpa cutoff which is generally around a B average, according to the requirements. to be safe though, i’d still recommend asking enrolment services.

    Bernie Sanders Opinion GIFfrom Bernie Sanders GIFs

    it might seem like i’m just outsourcing every other question to enrolments services at this point, which… well. just trust me, they know best.

    good luck (to your friend, that is) and hope that helps!

    aska

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  • current student,  major,  programs

    major changes

    August 2, 2022

    Can you change or decide to double major in your 3rd year?

    hey there,

    yup, speaking from experience, you definitely can. honestly, this is probably one of the most redeeming qualities of POSt (especially for us indecisive students).

    The Good Place Indecisive GIFfrom The Good Place GIFs

    you can switch between programs in the “program change groups” directly on acorn without any application or approval (see the list here), and for other programs you can try to request the change on acorn or contact the department for approval.

    program changes are usually available on acorn in march/april and july/august each year. in fact, this year’s program change deadline is august 23rd, so if you already have a program in mind, you might even be able to get it done this summer!

    of course, the success of your program change may depend on the courses and programs you’ve completed so far, and how related they are to the programs you’re switching into. competitive programs would also still be evaluating you by their POSt criteria.

    anyways, hope this helps. be free! go find the program of your dreams!

    It Is Not Too Late To Change Your Mind Still A Chance GIFfrom It Is Not Too Late To Change Your Mind GIFs

    good luck,

    aska

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  • current student,  OSAP,  UTAPS

    utaps got ur back

    July 25, 2022

    Hello, do you know if my grades impact the amount of UTAPS I could get? Or does UTAPS only look at my OSAP application and financial situation? How do they count the UTAPS amount? Thanks!

    hi there,

    from what i know, utaps is based on your osap application and does not depend on grades. other bursaries/awards might look at your marks, but utaps really is based on need, and typically pays out any amount of your financial need (calculated by the government) that wasn’t covered by osap.

    the one potential exception is if you’re failing a lot of courses. usually, for undergrads, osap requires you to pass 1.5 FCEs per term, or 3.0 FCEs for every two terms. dropping below that would put you on osap probation, which means that if you miss the requirements again in the next year, you’ll be restricted from getting more osap. this could also affect your utaps application, but in this case i think utaps would probably be the least of your concerns… so if this is you (or if you’d just like some more support in general) it’d be best to just get advice from your registrar.

    anyway, enough of the spiraling osap hypotheticals. if you’d still like to read more, here’s some info about osap and utaps, including a utaps estimator.

    good luck, and i hope you get that bag!

    Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes GIFfrom Bugs Bunny GIFs

    aska

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  • colleges,  prospective student,  university-college

    commuter’s guide to colleges

    July 22, 2022

    sorry if you’ve been asked this before, but I just got accepted to University College (Humanities) does the college mean anything if you’re a commuter? like how does it work? can I still use services like libraries at other colleges? does the college actually mean anything i’m kinda confused?

    hi, hello and welcome!

    ah yes, the age-old question of “i’m a commuter and does college actually mean anything”… (and also on that note, does anything even actually mean anything? but i digress.)

    as a commuter, your college doesn’t really matter as much but it does come in handy for some admin stuff, student life, and pretending you’re in a hogwarts house.

    Harry Potter Excited GIFfrom Harry Potter GIFs

    it’s not really a restrictive thing, but more like a way for uoft to somewhat organize the absolute barrage of artsci kids here, imo. you’ll get access to pretty much all the other college libraries and buildings on campus, except for some dining halls which have been restricted to their own college’s student during covid. fun fact, uc also has their own commuter student centre with a kitchenette and lounge. i’m not sure how much people actually use these student centres, but i did drop by once for an event and there were free donuts, so that’s one positive review.

    Boy Kid GIFfrom Boy GIFs

    your college registrar is also pretty imporant (the uc one is here!). they would be your go-to for admin things like academic and financial advising, getting transcripts, paperwork, stuff like that. other nice college perks include writing centres, mentorship opportunities, and some scholarships and awards (uc has a bunch of annual writing awards which are pretty cool). uc is also one of the colleges which offers independent research courses for their students, if that’s something you’re into.

    there are also lots of college-based clubs and events. most are open to all students, except for frosh, which is organized by college and also basically the loudest, most obnoxious poster child for “college things”. but honestly, if you’re not staying on res it’s really up to you how much you’d like to get involved with your college. you can parade around campus bleeding uc red and chanting to your heart’s content, and you’re also free to just… not (i mean, there’s nothing stopping you from literally just leaving). or, more likely, it’ll be something in between, and you’ll get to know your college in a way that works for you 🙂

    hope that helps,

    aska

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  • admissions,  criminology,  prospective student

    the psych/philosophy to criminology student pipeline??

    July 5, 2022

    Hi! I am considering pursuing the criminology program at this university. However, I have questions about the prerequisites. I took 2 psychology courses and a philosophy course. Do they take the marks of the 2 psych courses to make one average? Also could we, for instance, use our marks from one psych course and our marks from one SOC class to calculate an average with the other psych? course?

    hi there,

    well first of all, that’s a lot of psychology courses! at least for high school, which i assume that’s what you’re talking about, but then again that was a while ago… anyway. the first thing i do have to kind of clear up is whether those courses you’ve listed are from grade 12 or previous years.

    that’s because uoft usually calculates your average from your top grade 12 courses, including any mandatory required courses for your admission category. in ontario, for example, that would be your top six grade 12 courses. for criminology, you’d be applying for the sociology admissions category, which just lists english as a required course.

    the courses are all treated separately, so if your philosophy and two psychology courses were taken in grade 12, and were among your highest marks (other than english, which has to be included), then they would all be included as individual courses to calculate your average.

    so to be clear, your admission average is going to end up being the average of a bunch of your top grade 12 courses, which may or may not include all your philosophy and psychology courses, although english would be mandatory.

    anyway, i hope that helps and wish you all the best in your future criminological endeavours.

    Bye Wave GIFfrom Bye GIFs

    aska

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  • courses,  current student,  minor

    a minor issue

    July 5, 2022

    do i have to take every course required for a minor in my first year to be able to declare it?

    hey there,

    probably not. most minors that i know of are open enrolment and only require at least 4.0 FCEs completed by the time you apply. other than that, there are no restrictions on the year that you complete the program courses, as long as you complete them all by the time you graduate. although courses might be 100-level or listed as “first year”, in most cases those are kind of just recommended, not required.

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    some exceptions would be the computer science minor, for example, where students in the CMP1 stream would need to complete the required courses in their first year, but even for out of stream students, there isn’t really any restriction on having to complete courses in a certain year, you’d just need to have them ready by the time you apply for POSt.

    you can search up the minors you’re interested in on the artsci calendar or email the department to see if there are other restrictions.

    hope that helps!

    aska

     

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  • academic offense,  current student

    academic misconduct: second time’s not the charm

    June 25, 2022

    I have been charged for unauthorized coloration during the final exam and got a warning as a result, but a month later, I’ve been charged for the second academic offense because they said they find similarities in my midterm exam in the same course. Is it possible to let them combine this into one case? Because I thought the second offense need to happen after the first offence not before.

    hi there,

    after some digging around, i haven’t been able to find anything on how first vs second offenses are technically defined. it’s possible that your second offense doesn’t necessarily need to have occured after your first offense, it might also be based on the order of when they were noticed by the instructor and reported.

    in any case i don’t think it’s common to combine multiple offenses into one case if these were two separate instances of misconduct. then again, the info i have is mostly limited to the code of conduct published on uoft’s website, and there might be other nitty gritty details i’m not familiar with.

    i’d recommend reaching out to downtown legal services asap as they frequently provide help to uoft students on academic offense cases and will definitely know more about Actual Law Things™ to help you out, including the details on whether this would count as a second offense, and what you can do next.

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    sorry i couldn’t be of more help with the first vs second offense stuff (i do have my limits you know), but if you ever need other support on this or other things you can always reach out to your registrar too, to get one-on-one advising (also anything you share with them won’t be used against you in academic offense cases).

    best of luck,

    aska

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  • courses,  current student,  enrollment,  tutorials

    i am confusion

    June 23, 2022

    im so confused should i enroll in lectures or tutorials help please!!

    hi confused (sorry i had to),

    me too. i’m confused too.

    i’m gonna assume you’re starting first year in september (or have otherwise avoided enrolling in any lectures or tutorials this year somehow??) so here’s a quick rundown of how lectures and tutorials,work. lectures (LEC) are the actual “classes” you’ll be attending, while tutorials (TUT) are smaller workshops, Q & As or problem solving sessions. there are also practicals (PRA) which are things like labs for science students.

    you’d have to enroll in everything your course requires, so if a course says it has lectures and tutorials, then yeah, you’d have to enroll in both on acorn. (and yes, they’d both be mandatory, unless the instructor says otherwise.)

    Both Good Housekeeping GIFfrom Both GIFs


    if you’re at utsg you can check the artsci timetable to see if they offer lectures/practicals/tutorials. you can also search up your courses on acorn right now and there’ll be options to add lectures or tutorials if they’re available.

    just as a heads up, i’ve also had some profs who held tutorials at times that were actually different from the ones on acorn, or added optional tutorials outside of class time which you wouldn’t have to enroll on acorn either, but usually the lecture/tutorial schedule follows what’s on acorn.

    hope that helps,

    aska

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