{"id":5939,"date":"2013-11-28T13:16:49","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T18:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=5939"},"modified":"2019-08-17T15:36:52","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T19:36:52","slug":"the-british-patterned-education-system-hurts-my-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=5939","title":{"rendered":"the british-patterned education system hurts my head."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HI, I recently applied to UofT for Maths\/physics specialist degree. I just have a few questions&#8230;I did my A-levels in maths, physics and chemistry and achieved A, B and C respectively. Since my school did not offer Further Mathematics, I retook the last year and finished Further maths A-level (B) and retook some physics modules as well. So basically I completed my A-level in 3 years&#8230;sigh..but thats not all&#8230;i am on my gap year now and have applied for September 2014 intake.. soo long story short:1. Are my grade enough for the Maths\/physics degree? A,B,B,C2. will the retake and the gap year affect my chances greatly? 3. How should i send my documents to the uni? i emailed them about it but didnt get the answer i was looking for. Should i just photocopy my originals and enclose a letter from my head teacher for the validity of my certificates?Thank you soo much \ud83d\ude42 Also please refer me to the colleges posts&#8230;i have chosen Vic and University college&#8230;any views? Social scene, people, late night parties \ud83d\ude1b but above all the FOOD \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p>hey there,<\/p>\n<p>i hope you international folk know that when you babble on about sixth form and A-levels and GCSEs and whatnot, most of us north americans have no idea what you&#8217;re talking about. fortunately i consider myself kind of a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to international education systems, so i&#8217;ll give this my best shot (and fail completely probably lol but i do my best).<\/p>\n<p>for the program you&#8217;re considering, the cutoffs haven&#8217;t been published anywhere. the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adm.utoronto.ca\/admissions\/?selections.domain=ADM&amp;selections.name=SUBPAGE1&amp;selections%5B%5D=2D222222222222222222222222222222&amp;selections%5B%5D=&amp;selections%5B%5D=&amp;selections%5B%5D=2222222GB22222222222222222222222&amp;selections%5B%5D=22222222222222B22222222222222222&amp;selections%5B%5D=&amp;selections%5B%5D=222222222222222222E2222222222222&amp;selections%5B%5D=&amp;submit=Go+find+my+Admission+Information\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">admissions site<\/a> for uoft says you need three different a-levels. it doesn&#8217;t specifically cite any marks, but generally, A&#8217;s and B&#8217;s are what&#8217;s deemed acceptable from the british-patterned system. however, international students are really looked at on a case-by-case basis, so i&#8217;d say you should still go right ahead and apply. i&#8217;d also advise you to mail a letter to enrolment services explaining about the C, if there&#8217;s any particular reason or extenuating circumstance behind it. there should be an opportunity to do that when you apply.<\/p>\n<p>speaking of applying (the MOST fun and exciting process -.-) you should follow the <a href=\"http:\/\/webapp.ouac.on.ca\/webapp\/base.d2w\/report?ident=MAIN_DSP&amp;merchant_rn=16230&amp;action_id=choose\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ouac 105f <\/a>form in order to apply. it&#8217;ll get all your personal information and academic history and will probably prompt you to send your transcript physically to the university. as for whether you need a letter from your head teacher or any additional documentation, just keep <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adm.utoronto.ca\/contact-information\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">e-mailing enrolment services<\/a> until they give you an answer &#8211; only they know what specific documents they need.<\/p>\n<p>the gap year shouldn&#8217;t impact the admission decision at all.<\/p>\n<p>finally &#8211; the age-old college question rears its ugly head once more! you should know that if you&#8217;re choosing between vic and uc, vic will only consider you if you rank it first, whereas uc doesn&#8217;t care, so i&#8217;d recommend ranking vic as number one and uc number two. as for my views, they&#8217;re both lovely places. i have a class in uc this semester and i never fail to be amazed at how old and grandiose (and friCKIN HUGE) it is. if you don&#8217;t mind walking a lot and occasionally getting lost for a million years, uc&#8217;s great (think hogwarts&#8217; shifting staircases).<\/p>\n<p>on the other hand, vic has some pretty old, fancy buildings too. it has a really modern library, which is cool. if you really want to know about the colleges&#8217; personalities, i would recommend reading their student papers &#8211; here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucgargoyle.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">university college&#8217;s<\/a> and here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/thestrand.ca\/issuu-content\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vic&#8217;s<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>as to parties and food, all colleges have that. you can&#8217;t put this many twenty-somethings in one place without those things, or they&#8217;d wither and die. seriously.<\/p>\n<p>finally, here are some useful tags for stalking: <a href=\"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?cat=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">college<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?cat=17\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">uc<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?cat=19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vic<\/a><\/p>\n<p>best of luck,<\/p>\n<p>aska<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HI, I recently applied to UofT for Maths\/physics specialist degree. I just have a few questions&#8230;I did my A-levels in maths, physics and chemistry and achieved A, B and C respectively. Since my school did not offer Further Mathematics, I retook the last year and finished Further maths A-level (B) and retook some physics modules as well. So basically I completed my A-level in 3 years&#8230;sigh..but thats not all&#8230;i am on my gap year now and have applied for September 2014 intake.. soo long story short:1. Are my grade enough for the Maths\/physics degree? A,B,B,C2. will the retake and the gap year affect my chances greatly? 3. How should i send my documents to the uni? i emailed them about it but didnt get the answer i was looking for. Should i just photocopy my originals and enclose a letter from my head teacher for the validity of my certificates?Thank you soo much \ud83d\ude42 Also please refer me to the colleges posts&#8230;i have chosen Vic and University college&#8230;any views? Social scene, people, late night parties \ud83d\ude1b but above all the FOOD \ud83d\ude42 \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 hey there, i hope you international folk know that when you babble on about sixth form and A-levels and GCSEs and whatnot, most of us north americans have no idea what you&#8217;re talking about. fortunately i consider myself kind of a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to international education systems, so i&#8217;ll give this my best shot (and fail completely probably lol but i do my best). for the program you&#8217;re considering, the cutoffs haven&#8217;t been published anywhere. the admissions site for uoft says you need three different a-levels. it doesn&#8217;t specifically cite any marks, but generally, A&#8217;s and B&#8217;s are what&#8217;s deemed acceptable from the british-patterned system. however, international students are really looked at on a case-by-case basis, so i&#8217;d say you should still go right ahead and apply. i&#8217;d also advise you to mail a letter to enrolment services explaining about the C, if there&#8217;s any particular reason or extenuating circumstance behind it. there should be an opportunity to do that when you apply. speaking of applying (the MOST fun and exciting process -.-) you should follow the ouac 105f form in order to apply. it&#8217;ll get all your personal information and academic history and will probably prompt you to send your transcript physically to the university. as for whether you need a letter from your head teacher or any additional documentation, just keep e-mailing enrolment services until they give you an answer &#8211; only they know what specific documents they need. the gap year shouldn&#8217;t impact the admission decision at all. finally &#8211; the age-old college question rears its ugly head once more! you should know that if you&#8217;re choosing between vic and uc, vic will only consider you if you rank it first, whereas uc doesn&#8217;t care, so i&#8217;d recommend ranking vic as number one and uc number two. as for my views, they&#8217;re both lovely places. i have a class in uc this semester and i never fail to be amazed at how old and grandiose (and friCKIN HUGE) it is. if you don&#8217;t mind walking a lot and occasionally getting lost for a million years, uc&#8217;s great (think hogwarts&#8217; shifting staircases). on the other hand, vic has some pretty old, fancy buildings too. it has a really modern library, which is cool. if you really want to know about the colleges&#8217; personalities, i would recommend reading their student papers &#8211; here&#8217;s university college&#8217;s and here&#8217;s vic&#8217;s. as to parties and food, all colleges have that. you can&#8217;t put this many twenty-somethings in one place without those things, or they&#8217;d wither and die. seriously. finally, here are some useful tags for stalking: college, uc, vic best of luck, 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":[10,8,148,17,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions","category-colleges","category-international-students","category-university","category-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5939","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=5939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}