I am currently a senior and plan to apply to U of T this fall. On U of T’s website, it says that if you are not admitted to your first choice, you will be considered for your second. Does this mean that if I apply for CS as my first choice, I can apply for cog sci as a second choice and be considered for that, should I not be admitted to CS? Or is this across faculties, like for example if I’m not admitted to arts and sciences, I could be considered for architecture? In the former case, do you think it would be better to apply for a relatively less competitive major, and then attempt to switch or add on the more competitive major, as U of T requires a double major?
CS and cog sci are in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Computer Science has its own admission stream, but cog sci does not. For cog sci, you’d have to apply to the humanities stream or the physical and mathematical sciences stream. If you’re not a Canadian resident, the website says "you will be considered for your first University of Toronto choice. In the event you are not admitted to your preferred program, you may be considered for alternate programs, space permitting. "
Applying to different faculties is different. If you are not a Canadian resident , the above applies. If you are a Canadian resident (applying with the OUAC 101 application), you can apply to more than one faculty and each faculty that you apply to will give you an answer.
Students wanting to switch into a computer science specialist or major must have a fairly high average in the 2 foundational CS courses. Students who were admitted under the CS stream also must meet a minimum average in the same two courses, but the cutoff is a little lower than for students who weren’t admitted in the CS stream.