• computer science,  fees

    fees creepin’ up on us from behind

    August 12, 2015

    Hello again,
    I was just wondering if I could get your input on this. I am 4th year student at UTSC majoring in Mathematics, minoring in Computer Science and Statistics. I am pretty late but I was thinking about changing my minors to a Computer Science major.
    How much do you think it will cost in retroactive fees if I were to switch? And how much do you think OSAP would cover? I talked to several of my peers and they told me this enormous amount that they had to pay (when they switched into the program earlier). I really would like to switch, but I am scared it might be way too costly.

    Thank you!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    if you’re going into fourth year, you’ll be charged the deregulated computer science fee for your fourth year. you will also be charged retroactively for your second and third year, but it’s not as bad as you think:

    you will only be charged the difference between what you paid in your second and third years and the computer science fee (for each year). for simplicity’s sake, let’s say you paid $7000 in first year, and the computer science fee was $10 000. that means you would retroactively be charged $3000 for second and third year.

    you can take a look at the exact amount it will cost by checking the fee schedule for computer science and then subtracting your previous years’ fees from that amount, two times.

    so, it’s not as bad as it could be, but it’s still a lot of money.

    as for how much OSAP would cover: that all depends, and the answer is a bit complicated, so buckle in.

    OSAP will consider your higher fees when deciding how much funding to give you. however, the amount they give you may not be enough to cover what you need.

    also, OSAP does have a maximum amount that they give, meaning that it’s possible for you to max out. if your need exceeds that maximum amount, then you’ll have to turn to other ways to scrape the bucks together – typically, that’s UTAPS.

    you can use UTAPS’ funding estimator to figure how much you’re likely to get from them. if OSAP and UTAPS together still aren’t enough, you can appeal to OSAP.

    all that being said, we are coming up quite close to the deadline to register (August 17th for UTSC students), so i’d highly recommend you hightail it to your registrar’s office and talk about this with them right away. it’s also probably a good idea to talk with a financial aid advisor, to go over some of the finer points relating to OSAP, UTAPS and OSAP appeals.

    regardless of how much money you get from OSAP/UTAPS, you’re not going to get it right away. that’s a problem because your back balance needs to be paid off before you can defer using OSAP, so you’ll likely need to negotiate some kind of arrangement with your registrar’s office where they waive that requirement and manually register you, if possible.

    good luck with it.

    xoxo,

    aska

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  • OSAP

    observe ur deadlines, ppl

    August 12, 2015

    So I applied to OSAP later than the recommended deadline of June 30. I applied July 14. I checked all documents required that needed to be signed and printed, and there’s nothing that’s listed there to be done by me.

    It’s Aug 11, and my application has been on hold for about a week. Stating the following: “Your application is currently on hold and cannot be processed any further because your school must provide information about your program (e.g., course load) and education-related costs (e.g., tuition, compulsory fees, books and equipment). Your funding cannot be calculated without this information. The financial aid office at your school will send this information to the ministry electronically. Generally this information is provided by June. Check back then.”

    However, I applied later than…and now I can’t defer my fees on ROSI/ ACORN because I haven’t received an estimate.

    Also “Before your funding can be calculated, the financial aid office at your school must provide the ministry with information about your education-related costs such as tuition, compulsory fees, and book and equipment costs. The financial aid office will send this information electronically approximately four weeks from the date you submitted your OSAP application. If after this time period, information on your funding is not available, you may wish to follow up with your financial aid office.

    It’s been 4 weeks and nothing. I can’t afford to make a minimum payment and I know its my fault but applying late for OSAP isn’t new to me. Last year I applied even later, I applied July 19 and got my updated estimate on Aug 13.

    So my question…what’s going on? [ I will call registrar and find out-but I need some advice because I’m getting overly stressed over something like this] The deadline is Aug 18 to make minimum payment and September 1 to defer fees.

    ALSO: DOES IT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE NAME OF MY PROGRAM? I LISTED “LIFE SCIENCES” THIS YEAR AND AS DID LAST YEAR BUT LAST YEAR’S APPLICATION SAYS UOFT ARTS AND SCIENCE [which I can’t list under osap so I manually ended up typing LIFE SCIENCES]

    Is it possible that I’m in limbo right now because I haven’t assigned the correct program name?

    thanks so much as always!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    it’s possible that it’s taking a bit longer for the application to go through because you typed ‘Life Sciences’ manually, instead of selecting it from a drop-down list.

    however, while that might be the case, you have no way of knowing for sure why your application is being held up. also, all the pending information that OSAP needs at this point has to come from enrolment services, so there’s no way of speeding up the process.

    my point is that the situation is almost entirely out of your hands now.

    what you can do is what you already intuited was a good idea: go to your registrar’s office ASAP. see if there’s a possibility that they will register you manually.

    however, without proof that you’ve been assessed for any funding from OSAP, they may not be able to help you. making a small payment (less than the minimum payment to register, but more than, like…$20) and proving to the office that you’ve made the payment may be enough for them – it’ll depend on the office and their policies.

    the problem is that they can’t just be registering people on good faith – they need some proof that you will be able to make a payment at some point. it’s a cold, hard world we live in.

    however, i would still talk with them about it right away to see what your options are.

    this is a really crappy situation, but y’all gotta remember: the university is a huge, bureaucratic institution. so is the provincial government. stuff takes a long time to be processed. it’s in your own interest to follow those recommended deadlines so you don’t get into sticky situations like this in the future.

    crossing my fingers that your funding estimate goes through,

    aska

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  • enrollment

    begging for classes

    August 11, 2015

    I’m waiting to be accepted into a course and the only open tutorial is during one of my other classes. If I get accepted could I beg someone to let me into the earlier tutorial so I don’t have to drop that class, and if so, who?

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

    hey there,

    maaaybe; kinda depends on the class, the department, your T.A., and your own luck. however, it’s really not something to count on. i would enrol in a backup course just in case begging doesn’t pan out for you.

    if you did go the begging route, you could beg the T.A. you’re with initially to transfer tutorials, but depending on the T.A., they may be totally unsympathetic to your cause. and that?is the main reason?I’m recommending backups.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • courses

    backs touching, uncomfortably close

    August 10, 2015

    i have a couple of back to back classes and im kind of in the scared first year mode rn, is there any space between classes like 10 mins in which i can sneakily sneak in?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    rest easy, my friend: i’m about to tell you about something that will change your life. it’s a little thing we here on the St. George campus like to call ‘uoft time.’

    this is a special method of timekeeping that takes place in a tiny, tiny timezone hemmed in by Bay and Spadina to the east and west, and Bloor and College to the north and south. a micro-timezone, if you will.

    in ‘uoft time,’ everything starts ten minutes after the advertised time. if you’re looking at the timetable and it says a class starts at ten, the class will actually start at ten past ten. it’ll finish right on the hour, though, so if you then have?another class that is advertised as starting at eleven, that one will actually start at ten past eleven.

    what that means is that even if you have back to back classes, you will always have ten minutes to get between one and the other. that usually guarantees enough time to get between your classes, no matter how far apart they may be.

    if you find that it takes you a bit longer than ten minutes – like twelve or thirteen, maybe – because you have not yet assumed the GRUMPY SPEEDWALK that is the preferred walk of veteran Torontonians, you can usually sneak out of your first class a couple of minutes early to give yourself a head start. most profs won’t mind, as long as you sit at the back of the class and leave very quietly.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • enrollment,  psychology

    the mad dash for courses CONTINUES

    August 10, 2015

    Hi! My name is [redacted]. I am a second year transfer student starting at Uoft this year. I want to pursue a Specialist Program in Psychology. I’ve already enrolled in almost every required course (including STA and 1FCE from second year Psychology courses). BUT, since I am not a first year student, I could not get in PSY100H1 and my rank on wait list is 312. Do you think there is any possibility I can get in this fall? Because if I don’t, I would have a huge delay in my studies, it would be like I am in first year, plus, I’d have the same problem to get in PSY100H1 next time? Any advice?

    Thank you in advance 🙂

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    you probably won’t be able to get into the F section of PSY100H1 with a spot that far down the waitlist. however, the winter section of PSY100H1 still has spots left – i would recommend enrolling in that one ASAP.

    even if you have other courses that conflict with PSY100H1 in the S session, i’d recommend shifting your schedule around to make room for the PSY100H1. you can’t apply to the psych specialist without having taken that course, so it’s really important you take it.

    the priority has dropped now, so add it as soon as you can. otherwise, your next best option would be taking it in the summer. and that would just suck.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • hard

    hard as the day is long

    August 10, 2015

    Ok so here’s the deal.. I have very good study habits (I never procrastinate etc) I had a 95% average in the 12th grade… I am taking a 5 course load first year for humanities… Everyone is saying I will fail with that many courses and that much reading. Is humanities really that killer ?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    again, refer to aska’s “hard” tag for generally unhelpful rants and musings about the nature of difficulty and how arbitrary that term is.

    here’s the abridged version, in case you can’t be bothered: university affects people in different ways. high school will never be a perfect indicator of potential for success in university.

    there are so many non-academic things that can affect your first year (e.g. homesickness, loneliness, getting over-involved, being under-involved and isolated, not liking your program, dealing with friendship/relationship troubles, adjusting to a new city/the big city/a new country, just genuinely not enjoying the whole university experience etc.) that it’s really impossible to perfectly predict how well you’re going to do.

    THAT BEING SAID, a 95% is a very good average. good on you. if you continue to use the same study habits in first year that you had in grade 12, and if you feel a genuine interest and motivation to do well in your first year courses, you will very likely have a successful first year.

    sidenote: taking 5.0 credits is the standard (see “Number of Courses Taken (‘Course Load’)“). 6.0 would be a stretch, but 5.0 is normal. if you feel you’re pushing yourself too hard, you can always drop down to 4.0 or even 3.0, but most people have a 5.0 course load, so don’t feel like you’re attempting anything superhuman.

    assuming you take 5.0 credits, a humanities course load in first year is generally about 15 hours of class per week. if you dedicate 2 hours of outside study to every hour of lecture, that comes out to about 20 hours. altogether, you should be spending about 35 hours per week on school. if you can commit to that, you should be okay.

    i’m no oracle, but i’m not too worried for you. if you’re excited for your studies, if you work hard, and if you engage deeply with the campus (by making friends, getting involved, seeking help when you need it, exploring the city, committing to your academics), you’ll be alright.

    all the best,

    aska

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  • alcohol,  campus,  partying

    staying safe is staying great

    August 10, 2015

    I have three night classes at uoft psych, women and gender and anthropology… I’m a little worried walking from the buildings to the subway when it gets dark being a tiny female… Is there any tips to stay safe? And is it pretty busy at night?

    ———————————————

    hey,

    i’m no overenthusiastic women’s self-defense coach from a 90s sitcom, but as a veteran commuter, i do have a few tips that have worked out well for me:

    1. when you’re walking, be present.

    be aware of your surroundings when you walk. if you’re staring down at the ground and shuffling along, you’ll be less aware, which is unsafe. walk like you could eat a bear at the slightest provocation. walk like you’ve killed a man with your thumb. walk like a murderess.

    2. walk with a friend.

    if you’re leaving an evening class, chances are there will be other people heading to the subway station like you. meet a couple of them and walk together. it may even blossom into a friendship – even if it doesn’t, you won’t have to walk with them for more than ten minutes.

    3. if you have to walk alone but you feel very uncomfortable with it, consider using walksmart. this is campus police’s service which allows students to request patrollers to walk with you wherever you need to go on campus.

    4. try and stay in well-lit areas.

    Queen’s Park tends to get a bit dodgy at night, but ever since they put up lights, it’s been a lot less daunting to cross. most other places on campus are well-lit, but if you can avoid going into an unlit field or back alley, then do that.

    5. familiarize yourself with the emergency phones and where they are located on campus.

    6. put campus police’s emergency and non-emergency numbers into your phone, so you can call them quickly should you ever need to.

    7. get to know the campus.

    as well as generally needing to know where you’re going so you can get to class and lunch and your casual origami club meetings, being confident in where you’re going will help you look and feel more confident when you’re walking around campus at night, too.

    8. don’t do stupid s#!t.

    this may seem obvious to you, but bad things tend to happen when you do bad things. not doing bad things will keep you a lot safer in most situations.

    firstly, and above all, you should NOT DRINK UNDERAGE. I DON’T CARE IF YOUR FRIENDS ARE DOING IT. DON’T DO IT. you think you can handle the alcohol – you can’t. you’re not going to look cool. you’re going to look very, very dumb. trust me.

    however, if you must drink (which you shouldn’t):

    DO go dancing/drinking/partying with friends you trust not to abandon you, vomiting, on the side of the road.

    DO have emergency numbers in your phone, as per #6.

    DO NOT get blackout drunk in an anonymous location in the city. know where you are at all times. don’t drink past your limit.

    DO NOT mix drinks – it’s dangerous because you could underestimate how much alcohol you’ve ingested, since different drinks have different alcohol content.

    finally: i know it might seem a little counterproductive to say this after giving all those tips, but don’t be super worried. the campus is safe. as long as you exercise reasonable caution, and especially if you do everything i listed, you can consider yourself safe and secure on campus.

    xoxo,

    aska

    P.S. i know the title doesn’t rhyme. shut up. art doesn’t have to rhyme.

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  • course conflicts,  exams,  petition

    just don’t do it, man

    August 7, 2015

    if I have a course conflict and those two courses also have an exam conflict, can I be allowed to take the exams at different times or bc I scheduled in a conflict will I not be allowed to? thanx

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    nah. general rule is: if you knowingly put yourself in a conflict, you knowingly accept that there is a possibility that you will have test and exam conflicts. if you have a test conflict, you can always ask one of the professors if you can write their test at another time. if they’re merciful, they might accommodate you – but they’re under no obligation to do so.

    as for exams, an exam conflict can only be resolved with a petition. if you submit a petition to reschedule an exam because you’re in a course conflict, you can expect that the Faculty probably won’t be so understanding in your request.

    basically: if you can avoid the conflict, do it.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • wait list

    war is hell…and then there’s course enrolment.

    August 7, 2015

    I’m a first-year, and to be honest during our course enrolment on July 30, as a first year, I didn’t understand why people were freaking out about course enrolment in general. It’s August 7 today, and I think I understand now why upper years compare it to the hunger games. Anyway, moving on with my question… I got waitlisted for two courses that I really need (both fall and winter bios). If I’m ranked 17 and 26 right now… please be honest with me… do I have any chances of getting in?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    it all depends on the course size. the rule of thumb is that if your spot on the wait list is within 10% of the total number of spots in the course, you have a very good chance of getting in.

    if by “both fall and winter bios,” you mean BIO120 and BIO130, that means you’re 17 on a wait list for a course of 1520 students and 26 on a wait list for a course with 1324 spots. that puts you at 1% and 2%*,respectively.

    which means you’re probably getting into the courses. but, you know, never say never – it’s a good idea to have backups just in case. i wouldn’t tear my hair out over it – plenty of time for that when midterms roll around.

    cheers,

    aska

    * these were supposed to be milk puns. i’m not so sure they work.

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  • dean's list,  UTM

    #UTM #dean’s list ok this better come up on google now

    August 7, 2015

    Hi, Is there a dean’s list for UTM? I have a 3.5+ gpa after finishing first year (5.0 credits) but heard nothing about the “dean’s list”. Is it a UTSG thing only?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    nope, it definitely exists for UTM too. hang tight, though – as far as i know, St. George students haven’t received their Dean’s List letters yet either, so you might hear about yours later on in the summer.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • first year,  frosh

    first week, burst leak

    August 6, 2015

    What’s the first week of uni going to be like? (incoming first year currently freaking out)

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    it’s almost certainly going to be great. i don’t want to invalidate your freak-out (by all means, get all the panicking out of your system now; better to do it in August than in December), but you will almost certainly have a great time and feel silly that you were so worried.

    that said, the look of your first week will depend largely on two factors: 1) whether you’ll be participating in frosh week and 2) whether you’ll be living in residence.

    if you’re doing frosh, your first week will be a whirlwind of group activities that will include lots of chanting, singing, dancing and running around campus. frosh activities will vary slightly depending on your college/faculty, but they have all been conceived of with the same idea: to make students feel more comfortable with each other and the campus, and to get excited students about school.

    here are the websites for each college’s (and the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering’s) orientation weeks, so you can take a further look: innis college, new college, st. michael’s college, trinity college, university college, victoria college, woodsworth college, engineering.

    if you’ll be living on residence, your first week will be a VERY INTENSE one filled with rapid friendship-making, get-to-know-you activities on your floor, and – obviously – moving in. it’s like this bizarre combination of frosh week and camp.

    if you’re participating in neither of those things, you will still have a VERY BUSY first week. here is a list of tasks every student should do before school starts:

    1. get your TCard, if you haven’t already.

    also, get any cards you may need for commuting, e.g. Presto card, GO Student ID, Metropass, TTC Student ID, tokens.

    2. buy your books (most will be available at the UofT bookstore, though you may have to resort to other options like Bob Miller).

    every September, the controversy over whether it’s worth it to actually buy course books flares up again, like a recurring rash.

    on the one hand, they cost an arm and a leg, and you will cry when you see your balance by the end of of your shopping spree. plus, everyone on Facebook and Twitter is promoting sites where you can find everything you need (maybe) for FREE!

    on the other hand, you’re not so sure about the free/cheap options because they might not be the right edition, you kind of want a physical copy, you want to be able to set these books on your bookshelf to make you look smart later on, etc. etc.

    if you’re unsure about any of your books, the best thing to do is wait until the first class. then you can ask how essential it is that you own a certain edition.

    you can also wait it out and only buy the books when it becomes apparent that you will actually need them. some courses will rely more heavily on books than others, and there’s nothing wrong with just waiting and feeling it out.

    3. practise the route between your classes.

    it’s one thing to be able to point out all your classes on a map. it’s another to actually make the trek between, say, Northrop Frye and New College, slogging across Queen’s Park, manoeuvring past the giant plant pots next to Sid Smith, and figuring out exactly how much time you need to get between those two places.

    most of your classes won’t be back-to-back, so you should also identify convenient food and washroom stops in your vicinity for times when you have a break between classes.

    again: make sure to do this before classes actually begin. that way, you’ll be confident about your route when school starts.

    4. if you’re thinking of getting involved on campus (and you really should, in one way or another), then you should stop by UTSU’s Clubs Fair on September 9th. find out what kind of stuff is out there, and maybe even sign up for one or two clubs that interest you!

    5. if you think you will need it, look into support services on campus.

    – Accessibility Services takes a notoriously long time to process applications, so sign up for them before classes start, if you can.

    – Drop by CAPS and see what they’re all about. familiarize yourself with the process of booking an appointment.

    – identify academic success tools: your registrar’s office, the UofT libraries that will be closest to you on campus, the Academic Success Centre, the math aid centres, and your college’s writing centre.

    and that’s aska’s guide to having a great first week! i really do hope you enjoy your initiation into the wild ride that is UofT. stop back in sometime and tell me how it went.

    cheers for now,

    aska

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  • enrollment

    the one time in the year you have to be up for 6am

    August 5, 2015

    you may not have realized it since you’ve been hyperventilating into a brown paper bag ever since your first day of course enrolment, but this Friday, August 7th is an important day.

    remember back when you were doing course enrolment, and you came across a bunch of courses that ACORN wouldn’t let you enrol in, and you were really frustrated and you cried on your keyboard and you considered throwing your computer on the ground but hey, that’s an old laptop and any kind of rough handling is liable to send it into a thousand pieces that you don’t have the money to put back together?

    well, odds are that those courses had a priority attached to them. a priority is a type of enrolment indicator that allows a certain set of students to enrol in a course first. after they get a chance to sign up, the course opens up to everyone in the Faculty. as long as there are spaces left, anyone can enrol.

    this Friday, August 7th, at 6am is the day the priority drops and courses open up to everybody. if you’ve been sadly eyeing a course as it fills up steadily without you, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE to get in while there are still spots left.

    you can check to see if the courses you’re interested in have a priority by looking at?the timetable. if there’s a ‘P’ under ‘Enrolment Indicator,’ then August 7th at 6am is your time to shine.

    if there’s a P*, you’ll have to wait a little longer – August 12th at 6am.

    godspeed and good fortune, my friends,

    aska

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  • admissions,  residence,  subject POST

    application for what

    August 5, 2015

    hi aska! I want to know when is the exact date when application starts?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    application for what, my friend? there’s about a billion things you can apply for at this university. there’s so much stuff you can apply for that the institution is grinding out these obsessive, application-writing machines, people who are never satisfied and are always looking for new things to add to their resume. it’s like school creates within you this pathological dissatisfaction with your current situation, so you always want more, NEED more –

    but i digress. here are a few common application timelines:

    application for admission to the Faculty of Arts & Science: unfortunately, i can’t find a specific opening date for this one. it opens in the Fall (that’s as specific as the uoft admissions website gets, but OUAC’s 105 applications open in mid-September and you can take a look at the timeline for 101 applications on page 3 of this document), and closes January 30th (in 2015).

    application for residence: opens when you receive your JOINid (shortly after you apply) and you can log into MyRes, and closes March 31st (in 2015).

    deadline to apply for a type 2/3 subject POSt: opens April 1st, closes August 30th.

    deadline to enrol in a type 1 subject POSt: opens April 1st, closes September 27th.

    deadline to bring aska snacks: never. always feel free to bring snacks. aska accepts donations year-round.

    cheers,

    aska

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