{"id":6126,"date":"2014-01-13T12:25:26","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T17:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=6126"},"modified":"2019-08-17T15:07:49","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T19:07:49","slug":"a-smorgasbord-of-graduation-related-anxieties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=6126","title":{"rendered":"a smorgasbord of graduation-related anxieties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hey aska,<\/p>\n<p>First off, I just want to say that you&#8217;re awesome!<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, I want to ask about graduating. (I know by the time you see this, 2nd sem will probably have started but I would like your opinion anyway). I&#8217;m in fourth year and I had intended to graduate in June but that now seems highly unlikely if not impossible. I started the fall sem with 5 classes and ended with 2 and a late withdrawal. I have been going through depression, family issues, and an overall lack of motivation for school. In the winter sem, I&#8217;m scheduled to take 6 classes, which I fear will drive me insane but I want to get as many credits as I can given I flopped the fall sem and tuition is so darn expensive. If I keep and pass those 6 classes, I will have 19.5 credits (so close!). Now, my question is what are my chances of getting a course overload so that I could still graduate in June? I know 7 classes is crazy, but I don&#8217;t want to pay more tuition in summer school. Or should I just stick with what I have and take a half credit in summer to graduate in November?<\/p>\n<p>Given that most of my classes in the winter sem will be electives, should I take advantage of the credit no credit option and use them all? (that would leave me with only 3 courses in which I would get a mark). Are CNC a &#8220;bad&#8221; sign or negatively looked upon by potential professional or masters programs? Although, I have no current intention of applying to any future program, I want to keep my options open and not screw myself over. Especially since I&#8217;m in my last year, how would this be taken? Keep in mind that I already have a .5 CNC from 3rd yr, a LWD from 1st yr, and a recent .5 LWD this past sem. How will schools look at that LWD I got in 4th year? Did I forever ruin any chances to be accepted in a masters program, for example?<\/p>\n<p>P.S sorry for the long msg and thanks<\/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>thanks! it&#8217;s super cool that you think i&#8217;m awesome because i find validation through other people instead of having a healthy sense of self-esteem. it&#8217;s people like you who help me function, man. you should feel proud. (no but seriously, i&#8217;m glad i&#8217;ve been in any way amusing\/helpful to you. srs).<\/p>\n<p>alright, on to the <a href=\"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cartoonsteak.gif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">meat<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>this is just my honest opinion, but 7 courses is really a lot. i&#8217;d say you have a valid reason for wanting them, so you might be granted course overload. by the way, you have to go through the registrar&#8217;s office to do that, so if you have reasonably good grades and you explain about wanting to graduate in June, and if the courses you want to take aren&#8217;t all incredibly demanding, there&#8217;s a definite possibility you could be granted an overload.<\/p>\n<p>buuuuuut i wouldn&#8217;t advise it, especially in your last year. i understand that the financial aspect of it isn&#8217;t a small thing, but if you&#8217;re even contemplating the idea of some kind of graduate school in the future, you don&#8217;t want to screw yourself over especially in fourth year, which is in some cases the only year grad schools look at.<\/p>\n<p>personally, i&#8217;d take the last credit over the summer. if you can, maybe try to find a summer job to alleviate that cost. trust me, i completely empathize with <a href=\"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/somany.gif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how hella expensive<\/a> it is to pay for your education, but i think it&#8217;ll pay off in the long run.<\/p>\n<p>as for CR\/NCRs, they&#8217;re only really a problem if they&#8217;re actually requirements for a graduate or professional school. since all of the courses you want to use CR\/NCR on are electives, it shouldn&#8217;t prove to be too big of an issue. in fact, it might even be helpful if you think that using CR\/NCR will give you a higher overall GPA (something grad\/professional schools also look at). and if you&#8217;re gonna be taking 6 or even 7 courses i understand that making 1.5 CR\/NCR would definitely be helpful.<\/p>\n<p>HOWEVER i have to add the mandatory cautionary that credit\/no-credit isn&#8217;t a strategy, it&#8217;s a helping hand. if you think you&#8217;ll do really well in your electives and they&#8217;ll boost your GPA, then you might as well take them properly. who knows, down the line those marks might come in handy for a job application or something, and it&#8217;s a real hassle to get your mark released after you&#8217;ve made it credit\/no-credit already (trust me, i work in a uoft office &#8211; people have to jump through flaming hoops backwards to get CR\/NCR marks post-exams). also, if you use CR\/NCR on three courses all in one year, it might look a bit suspicious to a grad\/profession school, though i&#8217;d suggest you talk to any grad schools you might be interested in to make absolutely sure.<\/p>\n<p>as for the LWDs, they&#8217;re not great, and they definitely would affect something like a grad school application, but i wouldn&#8217;t say that they at all ruin your chances. obviously it depends on your overall GPA and the specific school in question, but if you&#8217;ve done well in the grad program&#8217;s prerequisites and you have a competitive average, i think you would still have a chance. especially since one of your LWDs was in first year, which is pretty much irrelevant for almost all grad\/professional schools.<\/p>\n<p>also, lots of grad schools have a written application component where you can make a personal statement. that gives you a third, non-marks based chance to prove yourself as a worthy candidate. finally, most grad schools allow you to write them a letter explaining why stuff like LWDs have happened, if there&#8217;s a specific reason (don&#8217;t do that as part of your personal statement tho that&#8217;s a big no-no).<\/p>\n<p>i hope that&#8217;s been somewhat useful to you! best of luck, man, hope it goes smashingly, and congrats on graduating. you lucky butt. grr.<\/p>\n<p>aska<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey aska, First off, I just want to say that you&#8217;re awesome! Secondly, I want to ask about graduating. (I know by the time you see this, 2nd sem will probably have started but I would like your opinion anyway). I&#8217;m in fourth year and I had intended to graduate in June but that now seems highly unlikely if not impossible. I started the fall sem with 5 classes and ended with 2 and a late withdrawal. I have been going through depression, family issues, and an overall lack of motivation for school. In the winter sem, I&#8217;m scheduled to take 6 classes, which I fear will drive me insane but I want to get as many credits as I can given I flopped the fall sem and tuition is so darn expensive. If I keep and pass those 6 classes, I will have 19.5 credits (so close!). Now, my question is what are my chances of getting a course overload so that I could still graduate in June? I know 7 classes is crazy, but I don&#8217;t want to pay more tuition in summer school. Or should I just stick with what I have and take a half credit in summer to graduate in November? Given that most of my classes in the winter sem will be electives, should I take advantage of the credit no credit option and use them all? (that would leave me with only 3 courses in which I would get a mark). Are CNC a &#8220;bad&#8221; sign or negatively looked upon by potential professional or masters programs? Although, I have no current intention of applying to any future program, I want to keep my options open and not screw myself over. Especially since I&#8217;m in my last year, how would this be taken? Keep in mind that I already have a .5 CNC from 3rd yr, a LWD from 1st yr, and a recent .5 LWD this past sem. How will schools look at that LWD I got in 4th year? Did I forever ruin any chances to be accepted in a masters program, for example? P.S sorry for the long msg and thanks \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 hey there, thanks! it&#8217;s super cool that you think i&#8217;m awesome because i find validation through other people instead of having a healthy sense of self-esteem. it&#8217;s people like you who help me function, man. you should feel proud. (no but seriously, i&#8217;m glad i&#8217;ve been in any way amusing\/helpful to you. srs). alright, on to the meat. this is just my honest opinion, but 7 courses is really a lot. i&#8217;d say you have a valid reason for wanting them, so you might be granted course overload. by the way, you have to go through the registrar&#8217;s office to do that, so if you have reasonably good grades and you explain about wanting to graduate in June, and if the courses you want to take aren&#8217;t all incredibly demanding, there&#8217;s a definite possibility you could be granted an overload. buuuuuut i wouldn&#8217;t advise it, especially in your last year. i understand that the financial aspect of it isn&#8217;t a small thing, but if you&#8217;re even contemplating the idea of some kind of graduate school in the future, you don&#8217;t want to screw yourself over especially in fourth year, which is in some cases the only year grad schools look at. personally, i&#8217;d take the last credit over the summer. if you can, maybe try to find a summer job to alleviate that cost. trust me, i completely empathize with how hella expensive it is to pay for your education, but i think it&#8217;ll pay off in the long run. as for CR\/NCRs, they&#8217;re only really a problem if they&#8217;re actually requirements for a graduate or professional school. since all of the courses you want to use CR\/NCR on are electives, it shouldn&#8217;t prove to be too big of an issue. in fact, it might even be helpful if you think that using CR\/NCR will give you a higher overall GPA (something grad\/professional schools also look at). and if you&#8217;re gonna be taking 6 or even 7 courses i understand that making 1.5 CR\/NCR would definitely be helpful. HOWEVER i have to add the mandatory cautionary that credit\/no-credit isn&#8217;t a strategy, it&#8217;s a helping hand. if you think you&#8217;ll do really well in your electives and they&#8217;ll boost your GPA, then you might as well take them properly. who knows, down the line those marks might come in handy for a job application or something, and it&#8217;s a real hassle to get your mark released after you&#8217;ve made it credit\/no-credit already (trust me, i work in a uoft office &#8211; people have to jump through flaming hoops backwards to get CR\/NCR marks post-exams). also, if you use CR\/NCR on three courses all in one year, it might look a bit suspicious to a grad\/profession school, though i&#8217;d suggest you talk to any grad schools you might be interested in to make absolutely sure. as for the LWDs, they&#8217;re not great, and they definitely would affect something like a grad school application, but i wouldn&#8217;t say that they at all ruin your chances. obviously it depends on your overall GPA and the specific school in question, but if you&#8217;ve done well in the grad program&#8217;s prerequisites and you have a competitive average, i think you would still have a chance. especially since one of your LWDs was in first year, which is pretty much irrelevant for almost all grad\/professional schools. also, lots of grad schools have a written application component where you can make a personal statement. that gives you a third, non-marks based chance to prove yourself as a worthy candidate. finally, most grad schools allow you to write them a letter explaining why stuff like LWDs have happened, if there&#8217;s a specific reason (don&#8217;t do that as part of your personal statement tho that&#8217;s a big no-no). i hope that&#8217;s been somewhat useful to you! best of luck, man, hope it goes smashingly, and congrats on graduating. you lucky butt. grr. 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":[227,150,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-course-overload","category-crncr","category-graduation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126","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=6126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}