I am a high school rising senior considering applying to U of T from the U.S.(Michigan). I am unfamiliar with U of Tand have some questions.
- What are the differences between the colleges at U of T?
- How exactly does admission work? Would I have to write an essay or be interviewed? I heard it is based solely on GPA and test scores. I have a 4.00 unweighted (Valedictorian) and a 30 ACT (I plan on re-taking). Is that competitive for admission?
- Do I have to decide on a major or can I switch after admitted? I would probably apply bio or undeclared (pre-med).
- Can I still get into top graduate schools in the U.S. and if I do undergraduate at U of T?
- I heard U of T is very hard and has large classes. Is this only a problem freshman year like at state schools in the U.S. or do large class sizes persist throughout the other 3 years of college?
- What is the reputation of U of T in Canada and the states. I do not care about prestige only job prospects.
For bio or pre-med, you would apply to the life science program under the Faculty of Arts and Science. To do this , you would use a OUAC 105 application. You can switch your major at any time. However, you would be unable to transfer to engineering and unlikely to transfer into commerce as those are different faculties. At U of T, you’d be required to do 2 majors or one specialist. There are a couple of other combinations including minors that I don’t recall right now.
The life science program would require that you have taken calculus. Your admission would depend on your grades in calculus, English and your next 4 highest courses. You should submit your SAT or ACT scores as well as any AP or SAT II scores that are good. There is no interview or essays required.
There are 7 colleges. http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/futurestudents/colleges/index_html A couple of the colleges, Trinity and Victoria, will require you to write essays to be admitted. They are also 2 of the colleges that will not admit you unless you rank them as first on your college selection form.
The largest lecture hall on campus seats 1300. You might have a first year Bio lecture there, but that can be avoided if you wish. When you select your courses, you can see how many seats each section has, so you can select one with 1300 seats, or you can select one with 300. The upper year courses generally have much fewer seats. The median for upper year courses is probably around 60 seats. First year courses, like biology, will also have weekly tutorials which are led by a TA, and those have a maximum of 24 seats. So, I would say that U of T is like the big state schools in the US.
Yes, you can get into top US grad schools from U of T.
Since you are in Michigan, I would recommend that you attend U of T’s fall campus day which is held on a Saturday in September or October. You can tour the different colleges and there a bunch of sessions about various topics of interest to students who are applying. http://www.electronicinfo.ca/universities/toronto-st-george/events/79
I recommend applying as early as possible eg around November.
Good luck!
I don’t know much about the colleges at U of T. Hopefully someone else can answer.
Regarding admissions, Ontario has some sort of common application (OUAC 105) for the many schools in the province which I am not familiar with. An unweighted 4.0 should be sufficient at any university in Canada, and Toronto is slightly easier to get into than McGill (and possibly Queens) just because it is so large. 30 ACT is probably enough (one daughter got into McGill with 1410 SAT (out of 1600), which I think is pretty close to equivalent). I am not sure whether Toronto will require an essay but you probably will be fine either way. Yes, your GPA makes you very competitive for admission to any university in Canada.
I do know someone who switched majors during her first year at a different Canadian university. Waterloo when I checked (a few years back) didn’t even let you declare a major until after your first year. I would be very surprised if you had any trouble changing major at least through the end of the first year. Of course, if you change major then you change what courses you need for graduation, and you might need to catch up depending upon what you switch from and what you switch to.
I know someone who did their bachelor’s at Toronto and their master’s at Stanford. I used to know someone else who did their bachelor’s at Toronto and their master’s and PhD at Princeton. It appears that the top universities in the US do indeed know how strong Toronto is.
U of T is an academically very demanding university. It has been said that the top US schools are harder to into and easier to graduate from. The top Canadian schools are easier to get into and harder to graduate from. Regardless, I do know a few people who seem to be able to pull off very high GPAs at Canadian schools. They generally need to work very hard to do so. U of T does have a strong reputation. My biggest concern if you are premed is that it is very difficult to pull off a high GPA at U of T.
We have found admissions to be very helpful at a range of schools in Canada, and I did at one point talk to admissions at U of T and I found them very helpful also. You should feel free to ask them questions. Email should work fine.
There are multiple other very good schools in Canada. You might want to check the Maclean’s magazine university rankings. Universities in Ontario may be on average a bit more expensive for international students than most other Canadian universities (I am assuming that you are not a Canadian citizen nor Canadian permanent resident), but less than the sticker price at most US schools other than in-state publics.