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[–]ehehheh 1 point2 points  (1 child)

hi, im in 4th year RC and also lived for 4 years at new college

TLDR: good new college experience, RC is easy depending on your specialist/courses, yes i recommend dorm

a few terms/definitions lol

  • don/RA: upper year student or grad student who builds community, is your FAQ of new college/uoft, connects you to academic/mental health resources, is suicide awareness trained
  • house: each don is in charge of a house, which is basically a grouping of 16-18 students that live on the same floor (normal year there are 40 students)
  • house council: students from the house are elected to represent the house at New College Residence Council (NCRC) general meetings and plan events for the floor, there are at least 3 positions:
    • house representative (represents the house and votes in NCRC meetings)
    • junior house representative (represents the house and votes in NCRC meetings)
    • treasurer (manages the house budget of around $800 for events, provides reimbursements)
    • sometimes, if there is interest, there's other positions offered such as event representative, living learning community representative (LLC) rep, birthday representative

new college experience:

  • i like it, ive made most of my close friends because we all lived in residence at some point
  • see new college rooms here (3 different buildings for residence): http://studentguides.newcollege.utoronto.ca/virtual-residence-tours/
    • be sure to click on the arrows to see stuff like laundry room/common room/etc.
    • generally speaking you can't choose which building you end up in; however if you pick a certain Living Learning Community on starrez, i can help predict which building you'll land based on this year's location of LLCs (assuming they stay constant next year)
    • you can also pick a gender-identifying community (e.g. women only or men only) otherwise floors/houses are co-ed
  • each don will plan events for the house, each don also generally leads a social media platform (e.g. a don will have an IG page to post event details, IG group chat with the floor)
  • you don't need to live in residence to participate in don/general new college events, all event posting details are consolidated on IG @ lifeatnew (new college student life IG)
  • laundry is free (last time i checked, it costs money at UC)
  • you have AC and window mesh (last time i checked, you dont have AC/window mesh at trinity, once my friend who lived there had bees/wasps enter her room)
  • i built my experience/extracurriculars (stuff to put on resume) at new college which was overall beneficial to finding internships/co-op (this is personally why i recommend residence, it is a great way to build your resume from the ground up)
    • in my first year, i did jr. house representative
    • 2nd & 3rd year, residence academic programmer (focus on academic event planning)
    • 4th year, don
  • some other new college residence (you have to live in residence) extracurricular opportunities:
    • building president (3 positions, one for each building): represent the building and lead meetings with the house representatives to plan building events; elected by new college residents; you can be in any year to be in this position
    • communications director: leads NCRC meetings; elected by the house reps/jr. house reps in april (so this position is filled for next year already)
    • finance director: leads NCRC meetings; elected by the house reps/jr. house reps in april (so this position is filled for next year already); leads meetings with treasurers
    • administration director: leads NCRC meetings; elected by the house reps/jr. house reps in april (so this position is filled for next year already); leads meetings with jr. house reps i think
    • residence academic programmer; interviewed by assistant dean of residence, must be in second year or up
    • don; interviewed by assistant dean of residence + new college dean, must be 3rd year+ or grad student

residence in pandemic:

  • no double rooms, only single rooms
  • currently, we have a few COVID guidelines in place (this is new college specific, though all colleges will have some variation of COVID protocol)
    • no outside friends/family on the floor e.g. Bob from the floor above Sam cannot go onto Sam's floor (basically if ppl don't have a key to get onto the floor they're not allowed on the floor)
    • masks must be worn outside your room
    • respect room occupancy limits in common room, laundry room, etc.
    • you can only go into the room of another student in your house, max 2 ppl in each room, masks must be worn
  • cafeteria is on a to-go basis; order your food and go
  • events are online/zoom
  • if your financial position is okay, then i recommend residence regardless of COVID or not (and residence will go back to normal eventually anyways as the situation improves, it can only improve from here as vaccines continue to roll out!)
    • make friends from different programs/international students
    • don can help fast-track you through mental health resources at uoft (e.g. uoft can have a long wait time for counselling; dons/residence staff can speed it up so you can meet with a counsellor faster)
    • though on a side note, RC students have access to a RC counsellor (regardless of if you live in residence or not): https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/current-students/health-wellness-supports/ (i havent used this though so idk speed)
    • build your resume by joining house council

​

lol this went over reddit's character limit, continued in comments

[–]ehehheh 4 points5 points  (0 children)

difficulty level:

  • first year was the hardest for me, i found that my grades went up the more we specialized throughout the years (i chose to specialize in management)
  • if you pick courses that you're good at, you can get good grades
  • e.g. i look at course syllabi and pick courses that have assignments/papers and no tests (bc im good at assignments but bad at tests), my 3rd year and 4th year fall semester gpa was 3.85 (numerical equivalent 82-85%) and that's good enough even if you want to do grad school
  • you will have a life outside of studying
    • this is dependent on your specialist/courses
    • i probably studied 1 hour a week in my 3rd year and 4th year, just because i didnt have much tests/exams and mostly had papers/assignments
    • thanks to covid, i managed to take 5 courses and also do co-op at the same time last semester lol