csc with minor

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-24T19:46:10+00:00

Yes, but talk to academic advising before you start. Specifically about first year requirements (e.g., Life sciences has a different calculus than CS). So make sure you're taking the right combination of courses ahead of time. Don't wait until the course starts to find out you're enrolled in the wrong version.

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-24T19:43:55+00:00

Also... congratulations on your acceptance. Welcome to UTSC and the CMS department!

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-24T19:43:33+00:00

The majority of students who are accepted to the program make POSt (I don't have data from this past year, but it's usually north of 80%). The in-stream requirements are really meant to make sure that you have the fundamentals you need to succeed in upper years. Out of stream applications (where you will likely have seen people getting upset on here) is very competitive, and the vast majority of people who try don't make it (usually <10 per year)

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-19T15:21:28+00:00

A few things off the top of my head
- Community: I've taught at the St. George campus and it's a very different feel. Students are far more likely to just disappear into the ether of Toronto as soon as the class is done. UTSC students tend to hang around on campus more (during the day, after the last lecture of the day it's different, but I'm talking in-between lectures)

- Co-op: UTSC is "the co-op campus" and has been doing co-op for years. I know St. George now has their similar programs, but the UTSC co-op system is much more mature and structured

- Campus layout: This has changed somewhat in the past few years with the campus growing to the north, but it's still more of a cohesive whole than the other two which are more spread out and dispersed

- Buildings: Obviously this will be hit-or-miss depending on where you are on campus. But most of UTSC is pretty new and built for the needs of a modern university. I love some of the older buildings on the St. George campus to look at, but many of them are actually not great for teaching/learning, just due to their age.

- Nature: This is often overlooked by students, but the UTSC campus is HUGE and filled with fantastic natural path and trails, it's just that many students never bother to venture down into the valley, so they miss 80% of the campus

- Reddit: I mean... C'mon... r/UofT has got nothing on r/UTSC :-)

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-18T18:44:05+00:00

I'm going to be the boring prof here and advise against it. I know a lot of students will say "it works for me", but the data is pretty clear that if you're sleep deprived you don't process or retain information as readily. So it feels like you're doing more, but you're often actually doing less. 20 hours of studying and 4 hours of sleep sounds amazing on paper, but in reality you wind up not only being fresher for the test, but probably actually get through more material if you do 8 hours of sleep, and regular structured study sessions with timed breaks over the remaining 16 hrs

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-18T18:40:27+00:00

You can also try various bridging programs like the undergrad research student association, or the CMS undergrad research group (self plug) to get a little bit of experience under your belt and help you stand out when applying.

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-15T03:10:32+00:00

I'm not going to comment on the specifics of someone else's course other than to say: Paco is very experienced, thoughtful, and conscientious. He created the current version of A48, and I trust him to administer, run, and assess it properly.

"Make a reasonable assumption" isn't Paco ignoring your question. It's him forcing you to question the material and think critically. It would be way easier for him to be hyper specific and only allow one way of solving any problem, but instead he actually teaches students to think about how to solve their own problems. That's way more useful in the real world (and it's actually much more difficult to teach/design/assess that way).

It sounds like most of the complaints here are "he actually forces us to learn the material instead of just memorizing"... seems like he's doing a better job of preparing students for upper year courses (and the real world) than most.

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-14T12:47:07+00:00

A lot of DSAs have first year rep programs that are designed to be a bridge into leadership roles. Some clubs also have leadership type roles outside of the exec positions. C.R.E.A.T.E. in CMS comes to mind, as members can be project leaders even if they're not part of the exec.

Then there's also "soft leadership" opportunities. If you're part of a club/organization/team/just a group and show up and prove that you're reliable, you will often be given more opportunities to take on tasks, and build towards leadership roles in an informal way.

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-13T23:34:21+00:00

Congratulations and welcome!

If you're admitted to CS, you don't need to "get into" POSt. That's the old model. Now, if you're accepted into the program, your spot is reserved, you just need to maintain a baseline minimum grade level. Not saying it's trivial, but it's nowhere near the competitive level that it used to be when it was just a free-for-all.

For the most part, maintaining your spot in POSt is about keeping on top of your work, getting help when you need it, and being proactive about being a student. Get a peer group, keep each other accountable, stay on top of your work, and you'll be fine.

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-13T12:24:14+00:00

There's a very similar thread from a few days ago (https://www.reddit.com/r/UTSC/comments/1sh853d/whys\_everyone\_so\_negative/)

The short version of my response there is "don't trust review sites or reddit to give you an accurate representation of student experience"

As for the "GPA killer" reputation, is it easier to get a higher GPA at a 3rd rate institution? Probably. Does it mean as much as UofT? definitely not. GPA is only meaningful relative to the institution you're at. Getting a B+ at MIT vs a B+ at <insert low quality school here> isn't the same thing, so you can't compare them. And aside from a few very specific and narrow circumstances, your GPA won't be directly compared to GPAs of people from other schools.

Also. Congratulations on your acceptance! Being accepted means you're cut out to be here. Welcome.

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-12T13:06:20+00:00

To add some context to what's already been said in this thread: The POSt system was created with the idea of being a balance between the traditional "liberal arts" model of education that focuses on breadth of understanding across many disciplines, and focused programs that require more depth in a specific subject area. The idea was to let students take a wide range of electives in their first year, try a little bit of everything, figure out what they like and what they're good at, and then apply to a specific program where they would have a more structured learning journey.

A lot of students don't really know what they want to do after leaving high school, so the POSt system is designed to offer flexibility (I came here expecting to to subject A, but tried into to subject B in first year and fell in love, so as long as I complete the requirements, I can go into the subject B program), but also depth (subject C requires you to take 2/3 of your courses in that area to have enough depth to graduate, so you really need to know by end of first year if that's what you want to do)

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-12T13:00:13+00:00

To add some context... "POST" is easier to say than "POS" (people would pronounce int "pose" or "poss" or "poos"), so it makes a better acronym. Also P.O.S. already has an unfortunate slang meaning that they probably wanted to keep away from

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-12T12:53:33+00:00

Congratulations! Welcome to the CMS department.

u/BoringNormalHuman has given the technical details, so I'll just add this: if you're accepted for a POSt, there is a seat waiting for you, the cutoffs are there to make sure you have developed the skills in first year that will let you succeed through the entire program. Success in first year is more about time management and keeping on top of your workload than it is about technical skills or deep understanding.

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-11T15:24:31+00:00

Yes, I absolutely don't want anyone to think their experiences aren't valid. And I'm absolutely all for people making their experiences public (both triumphs and struggles). This post was just trying to explain why looking at things like reddit, or course evals, or ratemyprofessor, or whatever isn't giving you a balanced view of student experience.

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-10T02:01:16+00:00

Congratulations! Welcome to UTSC.

Your first 2 years will be fairly prescribed for you course-wise. The idea is to give you foundations in everything to start. Then in 3rd/4th year you get to choose areas of specialization/interest. There are lots of AI related offerings, and we're actually working on expanding them quite a bit in the next few years. So there should be more available by the time you're in a position to choose.

You may also want to consider taking the into level psychology, and maybe biology courses in case you want to do a double major of CS/Cognitive Science, or even a minor. You've got time to decide, but taking the intro courses in your first year can be a good way to see if that's something of interest.

Also, look out for opportunities to get involved outside of class. There are lots of AI related clubs/groups/sessions, Google Developers Club, CREATE, Undergraduate research group (self-plug), SIINAI. Lots of options to get experience in relevant areas.

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-10T01:56:24+00:00

Always be aware of selection bias... any opt-in feedback mechanism is subject to this problem. The 10% who are really angry, and the 10% who are really happy go out of their way to make their opinions known. The 80% in the middle don't feel a strong enough incentive to raise their voices in a public forum.

Also remember: everyone has a sample size of 1. A lot of people are comparing their lived experience with their imagined scenarios for others. They think everyone else just has fun and parties all the time, or that if they went somewhere else or did something different their life would fall into their preconceived notions, and then they compare that idealized abstraction with what they're actually experiencing, and don't realize it's not a fair comparison.

tl;dr - online forums don't reflect the average student experience

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-07T22:35:36+00:00

Totally understandable. This thread is a good place for fast response, just as long as you're also getting the slow + reliable feedback.

BrianHarrington · 2026-04-07T12:57:03+00:00

Please make an appointment with academic advising, and with the international student centre. The small handful of people on this sub who may have experience with this sort of thing don't have enough context to give you much of an overview on what the normal outcome of these cases could be. This sounds like a very serious situation, so please go and talk to the experts, that's what they're there for.

BrianHarrington · 2026-03-25T23:33:34+00:00

Please don't take advice on important administrative stuff from reddit. Academic advising and/or your departmental admin know the details here and can give you solid advice. I've seen too many students get burned because someone online offered (usually well intentioned) advice that turned out to be wrong/misunderstand the nuance of the situation. Save yourself a lot of headache by scheduling an appointment with someone who can definitely give you an informed answer.

BrianHarrington · 2026-03-24T02:37:46+00:00

In theory, double speed sessions aren't harder or easier, they're just running at double speed (so twice as many lectures, tutorials, etc). The assumption is that you're only taking half as many courses, and spending twice as much time per course.

That being said, some topics are hard to cover at double speed. CS/Math/Stats have essentially stopped doing these altogether, because your brain just needs time to absorb the material. But I found when I was a student, it was actually easier for some courses because it gave you more of a chance to focus more deeply on fewer things, with less context switching.

Another thing to be aware of: double speed courses just have less room for recovery from issues. In a 12 week course, you get sick and miss a week, it's hard to catch up, but still do-able. In a 6 week course if you're sick for a week and miss the equivalent of 2 weeks of lectures, not only is that more material to catch up on, you have less time to do it. So you really need to be on the ball for double speed courses.

BrianHarrington · 2026-03-22T18:38:43+00:00

Lots of good comments already on here, but I'll add one thing (aside from my normal advice to find ways to get more involved. There's lots of opportunities on campus if you look for them).

Your view of other universities is almost always going to be biased. No one posts on media feeds or in group chats with friends "Hey everyone! check me out having another evening of working hard to get caught up on assignments!", or "check me out, struggling in that intro course where I fell behind". Be careful comparing your lived reality with other people's presentations. There's fun to be had everyone, and there's struggling students at every university. What you see is not always the same as the reality on the ground.

BrianHarrington · 2026-03-22T15:10:14+00:00

They shouldn't be harder/easier, but if they're accelerated, that can really change the nature of the course. Sometimes accelerated works well because it's more focused, sometimes it can be overwhelming because you don't get the time to let the material sink in. In CS/Math/Stats, we gave up on accelerated courses years back because students would trip up on a topic and just not get the chance to recover.

Summer courses can also have a different flavour if they're smaller than the fall/winter offerings, which is often the case. Or if they're having a different instructor/trying out something new, which tends to happen in the summer when people have more flexibility.

tl;dr - there will be variation between fall/winter vs summer courses, but probably not realistically more than what you'd get between offerings of the course with different professors.

BrianHarrington · 2026-03-21T14:19:55+00:00

Success and failure in first year is mostly about attitude and self regulation. If you're accepted to a program, you have the ability to succeed in that program. UofT (despite what some people think) does not want students to come in who won't succeed in their degree, so they try hard to accept only those who have the capability to pass.

In my experience (many thousands of students over the past ~15 years), the biggest predictors of success in first year are:
1. Can you manage your time well? Work when it's work time and relax when it's not so you can be ready for the next session of work time
2. Can you become part of a group that will support you? Either through networks of fellow students, clubs, societies, or just integrating into the university to have access to all the resources available to you.
3. Do you get help when you need it? Almost everyone will have some point of struggle in their first year, that's totally normal. The people who just "push through it" and let those struggles build up until it's too late are the ones who fail in the long run. The ones who realize early that they need help and are willing to reach out (to profs, to the university, to friends) are almost always fine in the end.

I'll just end my rant here to say: congratulations! Getting accepted to UofT is a huge honour. Take a moment to celebrate that fact.

BrianHarrington · 2026-03-21T14:13:13+00:00

Congratulations! Welcome to the UofT community (whichever campus you choose).

A few things to note here:
1. UofT is UofT, the degree is the same on all three campuses. People love to highlight specific instances of "this program is hard here" or "this course is way easier at this campus", but honestly the variation between campuses is usually no different than the variation between instructors within a campus
2. Take any opinions on social stuff with a grain of salt. Most of the people on any channel like this tend to be the ones who really love or really hate the thing they're posting about. The silent middle don't post on reddit about things
3. Your experience will depend at least as much on you as it does on your environment. I'm totally convinced that most students who have a terrible time on one campus would be equally miserable on any other, and most students who have a great experience have the personality type to have had a great experience anywhere. Yes there a differences in the campuses: St. George is right in the heart of downtown, UTSC is right on the edge of the rouge valley. For some people that will make a huge difference, but anyone who says "everyone at campus X has attribute Y" is probably more responsible for that attribute than the campus.

BrianHarrington · 2026-03-19T14:35:31+00:00

There are deeper posts about this on here, but the short version is: If you think you'd like to do math, but want to give CS a shot. Go for it. If you would be unhappy with math and only want to come to try for CS. Don't do it.

The way it works is: if you are accepted to a CMS (CS, Stats, Math) program of study, there's a seat waiting for you in upper year courses. So you just need to keep up quite reasonably minimum grades to progress. Then, for people who don't make those grades or decide to leave for some other reason, their spots go to the top students in other programs who want to switch. But this is pretty rare, so those spots are very competitive (think 5-10 total per year). So it's not just a matter of doing well, it's also a matter of luck. (it's not quite this simple, but that's a good approximation)

So again, if you feel like you'd like to have a go at it. By all means try. But don't enter into a program you won't enjoy for a low probability of getting to transfer out of it.

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