{"id":26274,"date":"2020-11-25T00:02:07","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T05:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=26274"},"modified":"2020-11-25T00:02:07","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T05:02:07","slug":"u-of-t-needs-a-sorting-hat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=26274","title":{"rendered":"u of t needs a sorting hat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">Hello. I\u2019m an international first-year applicant and I was trying to rank colleges and I couldn\u2019t find the one that fit me best. I\u2019m looking for something with a nice clean residence and most importantly, a place where I can make a lot of friends and meet nice people. I would say it would be nice to have good food but a meal plan isn\u2019t necessary. I\u2019ll tell you what i found about all the colleges so you can help me pick out a fit for me.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">1. I ruled out St.Michael\u2019s because I heard that it\u2019s very religious<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">2. I also ruled out Trinity because from what I\u2019ve heard, I wouldn\u2019t be able to get along with the students there<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">3. I ruled out Victoria because I heard all the students there are artsy and that it\u2019s far from the rest of the campus<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">That leaves the other 4<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">New College seems like a nice place, but I\u2019m not sure how the students there are like and whether I\u2019ll be able to get along with them or not.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I don\u2019t know much about University College other than the place looks nice and the people seem to be outgoing. I heard the food is bad though and I don\u2019t know much about the residences there.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Woodsworth seems to have a great residence, but I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll be able to make friends there because I heard it\u2019s mostly mature students and upper-year students.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I also don\u2019t know much about Innis and its residences.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Please respond as soon as possible. Thank You.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">hey there,<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">sorry it took me a while to get to this! for future reference, it can usually take up to 14 days for questions to get answered on here\u2014 for more urgent questions, i usually recommend that you contact the appropriate u of t office, for example <a href=\"https:\/\/www.utoronto.ca\/contacts\">admissions.<\/a><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">anyway, someone really ought to create a sorting test for colleges because this question comes up a TON.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/JDAVoX2QSjtWU\/giphy.gif\" width=\"399\" height=\"205\" \/><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">here&#8217;s what little disorganized wisdom i can offer you, if you haven&#8217;t submitted your application already:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"auto\">if you&#8217;re interested in good food, new college has the best dining hall on campus, hands down. but if you can cook, innis and woodsworth are good choices as well because their residences are equipped with full kitchens and there&#8217;s no mandatory meal plan\u2014 meaning you can choose what you eat, when you eat it, and how much you spend.<\/li>\n<li dir=\"auto\">it&#8217;s true that woodsworth has a great residence! their study rooms have gorgeous views and if you luck out, so will your dorm room. i wouldn&#8217;t worry too much about woodsworth being mostly mature\/upper-year students, because this is the first time that i&#8217;m hearing about that as a problem. there will be plenty of first-years at woodsworth for you to mingle with!<\/li>\n<li dir=\"auto\">if you&#8217;d like to be super close with one or two roommates (assuming COVID-19 is in the past by your first year), UC and new college offer a classic dorm experience. if you&#8217;d like to mingle with a slightly larger group of 4-5 students in a more apartment-style setting, i&#8217;d choose either innis or woodsworth. in my experience, the classic dorm experience does tend to be more social, whereas the apartment-style experience offers you more privacy and independence.<\/li>\n<li dir=\"auto\">i don&#8217;t know much about UC&#8217;s food or residences either\u2014 which probably just means that the UC res experience isn&#8217;t particularly remarkable. if things are really bad or really good on campus, you tend to hear about them.<\/li>\n<li dir=\"auto\">i will say that UC has some really <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uc.utoronto.ca\/students-student-spaces-places-services-our-community\">great clubs and associations<\/a>\u2014 UC is a bit of a larger community compared to colleges like trin and innis, so that means there&#8217;s more variety in the student life there. UC also has several student lounges, one of which serves free cookies on weekdays during a regular academic year. not all colleges are that lucky.<\/li>\n<li dir=\"auto\">during a regular academic year, woodsworth has free pancakes every wednesday for all students!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/l2JHZKNio4EjY6iqY\/giphy.gif\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"auto\">in terms of student spirit out of your remaining four choices, i&#8217;d say that innis and UC students tend to be prouder of their college affiliation, in comparison to woodsworth and new students. i&#8217;ve heard that few woodsworth students care very much about their college, but then again i&#8217;ve never been a woodsworth student so i wouldn&#8217;t know.<\/li>\n<li dir=\"auto\">innis is the smallest of your remaining four colleges, and i&#8217;d say it probably has the most tight-knit community of them as well. i&#8217;m a bit biased here, but innis is known for being welcoming and wholesome, if that&#8217;s something you&#8217;re into :&#8217;)<\/li>\n<li dir=\"auto\">if you&#8217;re worried about proximity to the heart of campus, UC and new are certainly more central than innis and woodsworth are. woodsworth can actually be pretty far, too\u2014 it&#8217;s the furthest north of all the colleges on st. george.\u00a0 but i wouldn&#8217;t worry about this factor too much\u2014 even in the snow, a few extra minutes of walking won&#8217;t hurt you too much, and you&#8217;ll barely notice after a while. plus, the likelihood is that you&#8217;ll have classes all over campus anyway, so you&#8217;ll usually be far from something.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div dir=\"auto\">if you&#8217;ve already submitted your application, or if you&#8217;re still stuck after reading this post, try not to worry too much! at the end of the day, your college is most important for administrative purposes (it determines what <a href=\"https:\/\/future.utoronto.ca\/current-students\/registrars\/\">registrar&#8217;s office<\/a> you visit, some of the scholarships you&#8217;re eligible for, etc.).<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">if you&#8217;re looking to make good friends and meet new people, i&#8217;d say that&#8217;s possible at every college, even the ones you&#8217;ve ruled out. the most important thing, i&#8217;d say, is to put yourself out there. attend events, say hi to new people, ask them if they want to study together sometime or hit up a free food event with you. add them on social media and stay in touch. plenty of students are looking for new friends in your first year, and if you&#8217;re approachable and confident enough, i can see you thriving socially no matter what community you get dropped into.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/26tPghhb310muUkEw\/giphy.gif\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/div>\n<p>&#8230; and honestly, if you want a clean residence, that&#8217;s going to depend more on the roommate you end up with (which is more or less out of your control). even apartment-style dorms can get messy if you live with messy people. trin, though, is a little special for one particular reason: they get a free weekly cleaning service. lol. because of course they do.<\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">be Boundless,<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">aska<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello. I\u2019m an international first-year applicant and I was trying to rank colleges and I couldn\u2019t find the one that fit me best. I\u2019m looking for something with a nice clean residence and most importantly, a place where I can make a lot of friends and meet nice people. I would say it would be nice to have good food but a meal plan isn\u2019t necessary. I\u2019ll tell you what i found about all the colleges so you can help me pick out a fit for me. 1. I ruled out St.Michael\u2019s because I heard that it\u2019s very religious 2. I also ruled out Trinity because from what I\u2019ve heard, I wouldn\u2019t be able to get along with the students there 3. I ruled out Victoria because I heard all the students there are artsy and that it\u2019s far from the rest of the campus That leaves the other 4 New College seems like a nice place, but I\u2019m not sure how the students there are like and whether I\u2019ll be able to get along with them or not. I don\u2019t know much about University College other than the place looks nice and the people seem to be outgoing. I heard the food is bad though and I don\u2019t know much about the residences there. Woodsworth seems to have a great residence, but I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll be able to make friends there because I heard it\u2019s mostly mature students and upper-year students. I also don\u2019t know much about Innis and its residences. Please respond as soon as possible. Thank You. \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 hey there, sorry it took me a while to get to this! for future reference, it can usually take up to 14 days for questions to get answered on here\u2014 for more urgent questions, i usually recommend that you contact the appropriate u of t office, for example admissions. anyway, someone really ought to create a sorting test for colleges because this question comes up a TON. here&#8217;s what little disorganized wisdom i can offer you, if you haven&#8217;t submitted your application already: if you&#8217;re interested in good food, new college has the best dining hall on campus, hands down. but if you can cook, innis and woodsworth are good choices as well because their residences are equipped with full kitchens and there&#8217;s no mandatory meal plan\u2014 meaning you can choose what you eat, when you eat it, and how much you spend. it&#8217;s true that woodsworth has a great residence! their study rooms have gorgeous views and if you luck out, so will your dorm room. i wouldn&#8217;t worry too much about woodsworth being mostly mature\/upper-year students, because this is the first time that i&#8217;m hearing about that as a problem. there will be plenty of first-years at woodsworth for you to mingle with! if you&#8217;d like to be super close with one or two roommates (assuming COVID-19 is in the past by your first year), UC and new college offer a classic dorm experience. if you&#8217;d like to mingle with a slightly larger group of 4-5 students in a more apartment-style setting, i&#8217;d choose either innis or woodsworth. in my experience, the classic dorm experience does tend to be more social, whereas the apartment-style experience offers you more privacy and independence. i don&#8217;t know much about UC&#8217;s food or residences either\u2014 which probably just means that the UC res experience isn&#8217;t particularly remarkable. if things are really bad or really good on campus, you tend to hear about them. i will say that UC has some really great clubs and associations\u2014 UC is a bit of a larger community compared to colleges like trin and innis, so that means there&#8217;s more variety in the student life there. UC also has several student lounges, one of which serves free cookies on weekdays during a regular academic year. not all colleges are that lucky. during a regular academic year, woodsworth has free pancakes every wednesday for all students! in terms of student spirit out of your remaining four choices, i&#8217;d say that innis and UC students tend to be prouder of their college affiliation, in comparison to woodsworth and new students. i&#8217;ve heard that few woodsworth students care very much about their college, but then again i&#8217;ve never been a woodsworth student so i wouldn&#8217;t know. innis is the smallest of your remaining four colleges, and i&#8217;d say it probably has the most tight-knit community of them as well. i&#8217;m a bit biased here, but innis is known for being welcoming and wholesome, if that&#8217;s something you&#8217;re into :&#8217;) if you&#8217;re worried about proximity to the heart of campus, UC and new are certainly more central than innis and woodsworth are. woodsworth can actually be pretty far, too\u2014 it&#8217;s the furthest north of all the colleges on st. george.\u00a0 but i wouldn&#8217;t worry about this factor too much\u2014 even in the snow, a few extra minutes of walking won&#8217;t hurt you too much, and you&#8217;ll barely notice after a while. plus, the likelihood is that you&#8217;ll have classes all over campus anyway, so you&#8217;ll usually be far from something. if you&#8217;ve already submitted your application, or if you&#8217;re still stuck after reading this post, try not to worry too much! at the end of the day, your college is most important for administrative purposes (it determines what registrar&#8217;s office you visit, some of the scholarships you&#8217;re eligible for, etc.). if you&#8217;re looking to make good friends and meet new people, i&#8217;d say that&#8217;s possible at every college, even the ones you&#8217;ve ruled out. the most important thing, i&#8217;d say, is to put yourself out there. attend events, say hi to new people, ask them if they want to study together sometime or hit up a free food event with you. add them on social media and stay in touch. plenty of students are looking for new friends in your first year, and if you&#8217;re approachable and confident enough, i can see you thriving socially no matter what community you get dropped into. &#8230; and honestly, if you want a clean residence, that&#8217;s going to depend more on the roommate you end up with (which is more or less out of your control). even apartment-style dorms can get messy if you live with messy people. trin, though, is a little special for one particular reason: they get a free weekly cleaning service. lol. because of course they do. be Boundless, aska<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colleges"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}