{"id":29473,"date":"2026-04-28T16:59:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=29473"},"modified":"2026-04-28T16:59:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:59:34","slug":"the-gutter-called-your-grades-arent-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=29473","title":{"rendered":"the gutter called, your grades aren’t there"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello, currently a grade 12 student in my final semester and\u00a0<\/span>I’ve<\/span>\u00a0already been accepted to the other 2 campuses, life sciences for\u00a0<\/span>scarborough<\/span>\u00a0and Forensic. Currently panicking my mind with admission to the St George Campus for Life Sciences as with my first semester finals (83.3%) and 2nd semester mid-terms combined (86.7%), my average looks to be in the gutter with an 85% average currently. Since there will be 2 final rounds of admission in\u00a0<\/span>may<\/span>, I felt like my chances are on the bleak<\/span>\u00a0side.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

heyyo,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

well\u00a0I’ve\u00a0heard about a lot of things being \u201cin the gutter\u201d but for some reason,\u00a0i\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0heard someone say that about having an 85% average in grade 12.\u00a0weird, huh?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

maaaaybe that\u2019s ’cause an 85 is absolutely not in the gutter! that’s already solid enough for many many programs and is even within the range for utsg life sci, <\/span>which is mid-high 80s<\/span><\/a>. i also wanna point out that your marks have even improved in second semester, which may help you out too.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

another thing i gotta wonder is if the averages you gave me are only for your top six classes, or if they\u2019re you\u2019re overall averages? for utsg life sci, and assuming you\u2019re in ontario, admission average is determined by looking at your marks for eng4u, mcv4u, and your top four 4u\/m courses that aren\u2019t english or calculus. if you gave me your overall average, you may be in an even better position than you think. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and even if you don\u2019t get in to utsg life sci… there\u2019s so many other awesome paths forward. for one, it\u2019s great that you got into utm and utsc! forensics sounds pretty cool to me, and if that\u2019s something you want to pursue specifically, utm might be the better choice anyways because utsg doesn’t have a forensics program. if you end up at utm or utsc but think that being downtown is more your thing, you could always take courses at utsg as well. you’d just have to take a shuttle (utm) or a bus and subway (utsc), which kinda sucks, but it\u2019s worth it if you want your big-city moment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

there’s also the possibility of getting an alternate offer, which means you might get an admission to another utsg category (like humanities) instead of life sci. while you may think that being subjected to studying philosophy or international relations for 4+ years sounds like actual hell (i’m allowed to say this because one of my programs is in the humanities), fear not:<\/span>\u00a0you can take programs outside your admission category<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as long as you meet the\u00a0<\/span>prereqs<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

i’m not sure when the april admissions round happened so you might\u2019ve been accepted in the time between when you submitted this question and the time i’m writing this, in which case, congrats! but also, man, i guess you didn’t need me after all…<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

but if\u00a0that\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0happen, just know that plenty of people get\u00a0admitted\u00a0in\u00a0may. you still definitely\u00a0have a shot at\u00a0utsg\u00a0and even if that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0work out, you have some great options in\u00a0utm\u00a0or\u00a0utsc.\u00a0stay\u00a0strong and believe.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

cheers,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

aska<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello, currently a grade 12 student in my final semester and\u00a0I’ve\u00a0already been accepted to the other 2 campuses, life sciences for\u00a0scarborough\u00a0and Forensic. Currently panicking my mind with admission to the St George Campus for Life Sciences as with my first semester finals (83.3%) and 2nd semester mid-terms combined (86.7%), my average looks to be in the gutter with an 85% average currently. Since there will be 2 final rounds of admission in\u00a0may, I felt like my chances are on the bleak\u00a0side.\u00a0 heyyo,\u00a0 well\u00a0I’ve\u00a0heard about a lot of things being \u201cin the gutter\u201d but for some reason,\u00a0i\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0heard someone say that about having an 85% average in grade 12.\u00a0weird, huh?\u00a0 maaaaybe that\u2019s ’cause an 85 is absolutely not in the gutter! that’s already solid enough for many many programs and is even within the range for utsg life sci, which is mid-high 80s. i also wanna point out that your marks have even improved in second semester, which may help you out too.\u00a0 another thing i gotta wonder is if the averages you gave me are only for your top six classes, or if they\u2019re you\u2019re overall averages? for utsg life sci, and assuming you\u2019re in ontario, admission average is determined by looking at your marks for eng4u, mcv4u, and your top four 4u\/m courses that aren\u2019t english or calculus. if you gave me your overall average, you may be in an even better position than you think. \u00a0 and even if you don\u2019t get in to utsg life sci… there\u2019s so many other awesome paths forward. for one, it\u2019s great that you got into utm and utsc! forensics sounds pretty cool to me, and if that\u2019s something you want to pursue specifically, utm might be the better choice anyways because utsg doesn’t have a forensics program. if you end up at utm or utsc but think that being downtown is more your thing, you could always take courses at utsg as well. you’d just have to take a shuttle (utm) or a bus and subway (utsc), which kinda sucks, but it\u2019s worth it if you want your big-city moment.\u00a0 there’s also the possibility of getting an alternate offer, which means you might get an admission to another utsg category (like humanities) instead of life sci. while you may think that being subjected to studying philosophy or international relations for 4+ years sounds like actual hell (i’m allowed to say this because one of my programs is in the humanities), fear not:\u00a0you can take programs outside your admission category\u00a0as long as you meet the\u00a0prereqs.\u00a0\u00a0 i’m not sure when the april admissions round happened so you might\u2019ve been accepted in the time between when you submitted this question and the time i’m writing this, in which case, congrats! but also, man, i guess you didn’t need me after all…\u00a0 but if\u00a0that\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0happen, just know that plenty of people get\u00a0admitted\u00a0in\u00a0may. you still definitely\u00a0have a shot at\u00a0utsg\u00a0and even if that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0work out, you have some great options in\u00a0utm\u00a0or\u00a0utsc.\u00a0stay\u00a0strong and believe.\u00a0 cheers,\u00a0 aska\u00a0<\/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":[10,245,110,30,120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions","category-getting-into-u-of-t","category-life-science","category-utm","category-utsc"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29473","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=29473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29474,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29473\/revisions\/29474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}