<p>Hi all,
I'm a U.S. highschool student applying to U of T. The Canadian process is quite different than the US one, and although I managed to get through the application for McGill, I'm stuck on U of T. </p>
<p>Can someone tell me:
Within the faculty of Arts & Sciences, I can only select ONE program. (They don't require a decision about your major, just your program). I'm not sure yet which I want to do. Can I change this later, once I've been accepted? </p>
<p>Any other advice for this process?
Thanks,
Smiling Toast</p>
<p>I don’t think you can change it once you’ve been accepted. You can probably change it after the first semester or something but I’m not sure. Just pick whatever field you plan on going into</p>
<p>What program are you thinking about going into? Also if you call the admissions office I’m sure they can help, I’m from the US also and the admissions counselors have been really helpful</p>
<p>At UofT you declare your POST (Major, minor or specialist) after your first year. THEORETICALLY regardless of what program you are in you can take just about any freshman course in Arts and Science as long as you have the highschool prerequisites. However space is limited in these classes and people in the department the course is offered to have first dibs on seats in courses offered by the department (ie. students in life sciences would be able to register for BIO150Y1- introduction to biology- before students in philosophy). Since different majors require different freshman year courses to be completed for you to enter that major it is really best that you apply to the department that has the major you want, since many of the freshman courses that are required for a lot of majors (ie. BIO150 is required for all life science majors) will fill up really fast with departmental students and their may not be any spaces left when registration opens to students outside of the department. This means that if you end up wanting to take a major in a department different then the one you applied to you may have to take some of these courses over the summer if you cant get in during the year (because there is not enough space).</p>
<p>In short, applying to a department in and of itself doesn’t lock you into anything but it does determine what priority you are for having access to certain freshman courses, which are in turn important for fulfilling requirements to declare a certain major.</p>
<p>Also:
Do you have any AP credits? Because for some courses if you score a 4 or a 5 on your final AP exam, Uoft will count it as a credit or half credit course (a 4 year degree is 20 credits a 1 semester course is 1/2 credits.) For example I took AP biology and scored a 5 on the exam so when I was in UofT i was given 1 credit with no grade attached (BIO***Y) as a stand in for BIO150. However not all AP credits can substitute for a full credit freshman course (eg. AP chemistry can give you 1/2 credit-you do not need to take CHM138H1- organic chemistry but you still have to take the other chemistry half credit course CHM139-physical chemistry). Other AP courses don’t count for credits. You should contact the admissions department to which of your AP credits (if you are taking any) can be substituted for freshman courses. This could make it easier for you to explore different courses outside of your department because you may have some of the perquisite courses filled with AP credits. This could also potentially make it easier if you do end up deciding on a major outside of your department if you already have an AP credit that can substitute for a course requirement for you intended major (eg. if you are in the physics program but you decide after one semester you want to do a major in biology you could use an AP chemistry credit to substitute for the CHM138, use an AP bio credit to substitute for BIO150Y and then only have to worry about fulfilling the CHM139 requirement.
Remember though you can ONLY apply an AP credit if you score a 4 or 5 on the exam. 3 or less and uoft doesn’t count it.</p>
<p>By the way what department you are attached to only matters up until you declare and are accepted into a major (some majors have minimum gpa requirements as well). Afterwords your course priority is solely based on what your major is.</p>
<p>*FYI a course with an H as the last letter (eg. CHM138H1) is a 1 semester course and is half a credit. A course with a Y as the last letter (eg. BIO150Y1) is a 2 semester (full year) course worth 1 credit.</p>
<p>I’m currently a senior. Last year I took APUSH and AP Politics & Gov. I got a five on both.
This year I’m taking AP English Lit and AP Psychology. </p>
<p>I’m also a little confused about the Scarborough Campus. What’s the advantage? Who applies there?</p>
<p>I plan on taking Chinese for all four years of college (I’ve been taking it since I was a freshman in highschool) but I don’t really want to make it my major. I’m really interested in languages, so I was thinking linguistics or something. I’m also fascinated by psychology and neuroscience. </p>
<p>I’m applying to McGill, too. I think part of what makes this so confusing is the two schools have similar–but not identical–application processes. And neither is very similar to what most US schools do. So sorry if I’m asking stupid questions!!</p>
<p>I know the University of Toronto has a strong reputation for linguistics, communications theory and cognitive science. The Cognitive science department was especially booming when I left. UofT also is the university that founded the “Toronto School of Communications theory” which is still very influential in the field. [Toronto</a> School of communication theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_School_of_communication_theory]Toronto”>Toronto School of communication theory - Wikipedia)
Toronto also has partnerships with the Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) nearby, and many undergraduates in psychology or neuroscience work there.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about McGill’s linguistics program but I know that they probably have the best neuroscience and psychology departments in Canada and that McGill was where they first mapped the functions of the human brain (See Wilder Penfield). McGill also has the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (one of the 6 teaching hospitals associated with the university) which is one of the greatest centers of neurological research in North America, and is where Dr. Penfield performed his famous research. It also has trained Nobel laureates such as David H. Hubel, India’s first neurosurgeon: Jacob Chandy, Yi-Cheng Zhao who went on to open the first neuroscience departments in Chinese universities and John S. Meyer who was a major figure in the history of neuroscience research in Japan.</p>
<p>Both these universities are particularly strong in areas which you are interested in (both are broadly viewed as science universities with an emphasis on medicine and medical research ranging from psychology to physiology.</p>
<p>Anyway the Scarborough campus is a satellite campus of uoft (the other satellite is the Mississauga campus). It is a true uoft campus and the degree granted at the end is a university of Toronto diploma. It isn’t like a state university system in the US, the satellite campuses ARE part of uoft and do carry the prestige of the university. The advantage is that the satellites are in the suburbs of Toronto rather than the min campus (St. George) which is right downtown so it is probably cheaper housing. They are also smaller campuses (10 000-15 000 students vs 45 000 at St. George). Another advantage is that admissions is generally slightly (but only SLIGHTLY) easier because many applicants have a bias for picking the main campus, and sometimes the program requirements differ slightly between the campuses (eg. St. George wants high school U-level calculus for Canadian applicants to the life sciences department, but Scarborough life sciences will accept students without highschool calculus, if they agree to enroll in a summer university run calculus program, which is the equivalent to high school calculus. </p>
<p>As to the applications at UofT and McGill, it has been a while since I wrote an undergrad application and even then it was through the Ontario University Application Center (OUAC) which handles applications for Ontario students. However both McGill and Toronto have pretty painless applications, they mainly just care about grades and scores and they don’t generally have an essay section so it shouldn’t be too bad. Your best bet for help on the specifics of the application process is to phone or email the admissions department of either of these universities as they are both quite helpful, and both of them have plenty of experience of dealing with American applicants. Again it is probably a good idea to contact the admissions departments at both uoft and McGill anyway to see what your AP credits are worth.</p>
<p>Hi! Im also applying to UofT but as an international student from England, would anyone happen to know how to send transcripts in this case? The OUAC wasn’t very helpful…</p>
<p>@ pur1995
As an international student I believe you want to submit an OUAC 105F application. I believe that attaching your transcripts should be part of your OUAC application, are they not? [All</a> Other Undergraduate Applicants (OUAC 105) | Ontario Universities’ Application Centre](<a href=“http://www.ouac.on.ca/ouac-105/]All”>105 - Home | Ontario Universities' Application Centre)</p>
<p>These are the deadlines for submitting your application to various departments:</p>
<p>January 15 - Architecture, Landscape, and Design (including International Foundation Program); Music</p>
<p>January 31 - Applied Science and Engineering; Faculty of Arts and Science, U of T St. George; International Foundation Program (Faculty of Arts and Science and Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering); Kinesiology & Physical Education; Nursing; U of T Mississauga; U of T Scarborough</p>
<p>Thanks @NamelessStatistic . I’ve filled out the OUAC 105F application but as an international applicant it won’t let me use it to attach my transcripts (as i’m not from an Ontario high school) which i find weird seeing as its an international application…</p>
<p>That’s strange, I am sorry I cannot be more help but as an Ontario student my transcripts were automatically uploaded so I really am not in the greatest position to help you. You are sure it is the you filled out the 105F and not the 105D which is for Canadians? Your best bet is to email the admission department at uoft, they will be able to help you.</p>
<p>Hi GUys!!
Im an international student from India and I am interested in applying to UofT for fall 2014. I want to know what are would be my chances if I apply with the following stats—
SAT I-1850/2400(I dont know if they consider this)
School Rank- top 5%
ECs- swimming, chess, debate, theatre, community service, NCC.(I know that they dont make a lot of difference, but still…)
Intended Major- Electrical and Computer Engineering
Let me know about other requirements as an International Student.
Please ppl, chance me for UofT and University of Waterloo.
Thank in Advance!!</p>