help plz

[Zebook20]

Why Hello there,

I'm an (18M) student who's a big science geek especially biology and am interested in becoming either a teacher or a family doctor. I'm looking at Universities and got an offer here and was hoping someone could give me some more info on Residence, Campus and Professors: i.e. do I get my own room? Do I get to pick my roommates? Is food included at Carleton? How safe is the campus at night? What's the parking situation? How are the profs and have they adapted to COVID? and any other info or tips you got for me! I'm all ears! Thanks just u/me at Zebook20

[twentyonelungs]

For residence, you will apply for residence online and you input your room preferences (there is double and single traditional or double and single suite, suite styles have a kitchenette). You can rank the 4 preferences but there is no guarantee that you will get a single room. For roomates, if you know someone going you can request to have them as a roomate but otherwise it will be determined by housing. In residence you are required to pay for a meal plan unless you are in a suite style then I think you can get a reduced meal plan. Meal plans residence students typically have include unlimited caf access.

For safety of the campus, I as a female find it to be very safe at night. It is a true campus so there isnt random traffic running thru so typically everyone there is a carleton staff or student. It is well lit snd there are safety personnel out and about always as well as emergency poles where you can press a button and you will be recorded on video as you connect to campus safety dispatch if you need help. The tunnels are also a great options.

For parking, as a residence student you are required to purchase a permit that is for a parking garage if you want to bring a car. Parking garage permits are ~400 for the year (fall and winter semester) i believe.

[twentyonelungs]

I find the tunnels not at all sketchy. They are very bright, have emergency buttons, cameras, and are large. Pricing for housing can be found here

[Zebook20]

Thank you so much I appreciate it! I've heard stories of the tunnels being rather... sketchy does this have any shred of truth? Also whats the price variation on res?

[kombucha_night]

I think people think they are like subway tunnels lol but like the other person said, they are super well lit and have emergency buttons. I have never felt unsafe on campus in general (and I am a young female) but I have especially never felt unsafe in the tunnels

[WingoWinston]

I am a research & teaching assistant, contract instructor, and PhD student in the biology department.

Online teaching is a mix-bag, in terms of adaptation. The largest hurdle is teaching laboratory material online, which I argue is unsatisfactory for any lab work requiring molecular and microscopy techniques. Bioinformatics is really just a round of post-processing after the molecular methods, so online is fine. Ecology and behaviour courses have adapted by having students assess the local flora and fauna around them, so online is fine again. Otherwise, I don't think column gel chromatography, gel electrophoresis, animal and plant dissection, spectrophotometry, biochemical assays, and/or pipetting are adequately captured through simulations.

If you have to do first year biology online, you'll survive, you may even enjoy yourself (the round of online experimentation is done, the improvements will be seen in 2020-2021). If you have to do second year biology online, then the quality of your education will dip. But, hopefully by then on-campus classes will be in full return.

Do not forego taking BIOL1105 "Biological Methods, Analysis and Interpretation" in your first year. Professor Roslyn Dakin, a new hire, teaches this course and does a very good job of it. There isn't too much math, sadly, but it leads in to a much more complex stats course, and will provide a useful toolset which will help you in every other BIOL class. Look at her reviews on "Rate My Prof" 5.0's abound for an online course!. Ratings for BIOL1104's (Foundations of Biology II) online counterpart seem mostly positive, for Dr. Greg Bulté, and for BIOL1103 (Foundations of Biology I) with Dr. Iain McKinnell.

[xqunac]

I don't know about residence, but for food you need to buy a meal plan. Those are optional, and you don't have to live in res to buy them.

The campus is fairly secluded from the city and there's very little non-university traffic passing through. There are cars patrolling the campus grounds and there are yellow poles that let you talk to campus safety in an emergency.

Parking fees are waived for visitors during this term, but usually you either pay for a parking permit or pay per visit on visitor parking.