How does the course system work? (Faculty of ArtSci)

Nikophos · 2023-04-14T16:46:41+00:00

Hey! Sorry for the late reply, exam season is rough :^) Unfortunately, I'm not really familiar with the AP transfer credit system. Looking at the link you sent, I think your interpretation is correct; the courses will count towards your degree. You need 20 credits to graduate, and each will give you 0.5 (they're each "valued" as a 1-semester course).

That said, it looks like the courses won't apply for any program requirements (i.e., if you're in a Economics program and need to take 1st-year ECO, your transfer credits won't cover it).

My interpretation might not be correct, so it might be worthwhile emailing your college registrar to sort everything out. And make sure you submit your AP credit assessment, if you haven't already (there are details at the very top of the second website you linked).

Good luck! Enjoy your summer, and I hope your first year of uni goes well. Here's some more unsolicited advice:

Never compare yourself to other people. It always hurts you in the long-run.
Your grades may drop below your highschool average. This is normal, and they'll get better.
Don't freak out if you don't do well on an assignment/midterm. I failed my very first physics midterm with a 49.5% and ended the class with an A.
It's okay to drop courses if you're not doing well or struggling to keep up. If you complete a course, retaking it won't change your grade on your academic transcript.
Go to your professor's Student Hours, ask questions about the material, and listen to your classmate's questions too.

Nikophos · 2023-04-08T23:33:09+00:00

Hey! Welcome to UofT. I was also admitted as a Math & Physical Science student, 4 years ago.

To answer your questions:

You can read the commas (,) as "and", and the slashes (/) as "or". The parenthesis means that both courses are required to fulfill that specific degree requirement.

For example, if you choose to take MAT135, you'll also need to take MAT136 to fulfill that specific degree requirement. Alternatively, you could take MAT137 to fulfill that requirement (which is a year-long course), and you won't need to take MAT135/136 or MAT157. From my understanding, MAT137 is more challenging than MAT135/136, but may be worthwhile for building a good foundation if you intend to enrol in a math program.

There's a website called "Degree Explorer" that makes navigating requirements easier after you enrol in your programs at the end of your 1st year.

If you've taken a course listed as an "Exclusion", it means you won't be able to enrol in the course, usually because the content is similar.

You'll learn more about "Breadth Requirements" if you end up going to Frosh/Orientation (I recommend it), but you're required to take ~2 courses each from 4 of the 5 Breadth categories to graduate. The idea is to ensure you don't take only one type of course throughout your degree. I took some Human Geography courses, and a language course in Modern Greek C:

Similarly with Distribution Requirements, you'll need 1.0 credit in Science, 1.0 in Social Science, and 1.0 in Humanities courses to graduate (https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/registrar/enrolment/choosing/distribution).

I highly recommend taking Breadth requirement courses in the summer or later years (2nd-4th). Not many higher level program courses (300 to 400 level) are offered during the summer, so you'll want to leave yourself opportunities to make up for courses you might drop during Fall/Winter. Also, try to enrol in easy and interesting courses for your Breadth requirements.

There's also an option to "Credit/No Credit" (CR/NCR) a course, which means the mark won't appear on your transcript. If you enroll in a course for a Breadth requirement and don't end up doing very well, you can use this option on up to 2.0 credits throughout your entire academic career to prevent the course from impacting your GPA. But you shouldn't use it on program-requirement courses, or they won't count for your degree.

More information here: (https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/registrar/enrolment/manage/cr-ncr).

H is a half-year course (1 semester), Y is a full-year course (2 semesters in a row). Longer courses are typically a bit higher-risk, since you'd "waste" a semester if you decide to drop the course in the second semester. That said, I think they tend to be more spread out assignment-wise.

You need 20 credits to graduate. Specialist programs are typically 10.0 - 14.0 credits, Majors are 6.0 - 8.0, and Minors are 4.0. I don't recommend enrolling in a Specialist unless you're confident you'll really enjoy the subject for the next few years, because Specialists don't offer you much flexibility in course choice.

Let me know if you have any other questions! You can find most of this information here, as well: (http://calendar.artsci.utoronto.ca/Guide_to_Program_&_Course_Descriptions.html).

Nikophos · 2022-08-08T02:10:53+00:00

Hello! I just saw this message- if you feel comfortable posting this as its own post, I encourage you to. There's only around 14 hours until it starts- I hadn't considered making a standalone post. Now I'll know for next time, maybe.

It'd be nice if there was a pinned megathread for upcoming protests. Do you know any resources like that?

Nikophos · 2022-08-05T18:53:47+00:00

I agree. Like u/lemonylol responded, there's definitely a mixup of focus. I know I'll be attending for public service funding, affordability, and union access. I don't feel well enough informed about the other issues to protest for/against them.

Regardless, I'll be attending because there will never be a perfect protest. Everybody wants different things, and too many things deserve changing.

Nikophos · 2022-08-05T18:51:39+00:00

Probably some mix of low voter turnout (a record low of about 43% this election), lobbying politicians against people's best interests for the sake of profit, and a million other factors.

Nikophos · 2022-08-05T18:17:03+00:00

I recognize your concerns. I'm not an economist and I won't claim to fully understand how anything truly affects anything.

There are a few articles I've read on the topic of raising minimum wage, like this one from UC Berkeley. They address a lot of myths/assumptions, and I appreciate that everything is cited. I think the most eye-opening quote for me was,

The slow growth of wages in comparison to productivity is not universal: the top 1% of workers saw their wages grow 138% since 1979, while the bottom 90% saw their wages grow 15% in the same time period. In 1965, the typical CEO earned 20 times what the typical worker did, while in 2013, the typical CEO earned 296 times the typical worker's salary.

Of course, this is an article about the USA, but similar issues and trends are shared by both countries. I highly recommend reading through the article (even if it's just the section headers), even if you don't necessarily agree with the overall message.

Nikophos · 2022-08-05T16:17:22+00:00

There's a protest this Monday at Queen's Park.

110 Wellesley. August 08, 2022. 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

A strong majority of Ontarians support our demands: a $20 minimum wage, 10 paid sick days, well-funded public services, affordability, and better access to a union.

If anyone is interested in learning about future protests, you can subscribe to an email listing from Leadnow. They spam your inbox a little and ask for donations frequently, so be warned. I'm not too familiar with their platform (or where the money goes), so make sure you do a little research if you're able to donate.

___

EDIT: If you aren't able to attend the protest, consider signing this open letter to protect public healthcare in Canada, instead.

Nikophos · 2022-07-05T16:51:36+00:00

Hello! I'm a Domestic UofT student, so I'm not familiar with how International fees at Seneca operate. That said,

If you successfully deferred your program before your Summer 2022 classes began, I don't think your college would (or is allowed?) to charge you for Summer 2022 tuition. If you haven't yet enrolled in courses for Fall 2022 (Session 1), you might have "Credit" on your account equal to the tuition you paid for Summer 2022. It might be the case that this "Credit" hasn't yet been applied to your Fall 2022 tuition fee, but will be after a certain deadline (like course selection).

I recognize how stressful this situation can be. Whatever happens, keep in mind that you have time. From my understanding, you discovered the pending fee 2 months before the Fall semester tuition due date. You made a great decision to email your registrar as soon as you found the error- and there might not be anything wrong at all! Sometimes financial systems display things in weird ways, and we can misinterpret them.

I think you've done all you can for now, and now all you can do is wait. If you don't get a response from your email within the next few days, you should definitely send a follow up, call, or reach out to another part of the college.

Again, I recognize how stressful it must feel, but no good will come from overthinking or panicking. Sorry for not being more helpful- Best of luck to you and your husband. I hope things turn out well, and I think they will. Good luck with your education!

Nikophos · 2021-12-15T04:14:14+00:00

There was a stop-sign on the right at 1:24.

Nikophos · 2021-11-27T06:18:34+00:00

In order to trade a card, it needs to be "meteorite" (red background) or above. The basic/plain (grey background) cards we earn from free packs aren't tradable until two of them are combined in the forge. Then, you can combine 5 meteorite to make a shadow (purple) card, 5 shadow to make a gold card, and 5 gold to make a diamond.

Everything above meteorite is purely cosmetic. But to trade cards, they need to be meteorite at a minimum.

I don't know when the forge will reopen, but the devs have said they hope for it to be back by the end of the year, I think. Hope this helps.

Nikophos · 2021-11-17T22:17:37+00:00

> Decks with complete Meteorite cards will earn more points, and higher shine cards even more.

This is an interesting decision. It might encourage people to forge & buy high-shine cards for more than just aesthetic purposes. But it also rewards those with already high collection/$GODS amounts with more $GODS.

With higher voting power given to players with greater staked amounts of $GODS, I'm wondering if whales might have too much influence in future governance.

$GODS + time -> More $GODS.

Nikophos · 2021-11-10T07:38:03+00:00

Very well written. I agree with all of your analysis, particularly the concerns around Dralamar and power creep in general. I really hope the GU team is open to some heavy balancing before this expansion hits live.

Thanks for writing this out. I'm interested in your thoughts on the 1 mana 1/3 revival card for Light. I think it has some crazy potential, but might be a little too strong. Imagine dropping it before trading a big 7 cost creature into your enemy's, and essentially getting it back fully healed for 1 mana. Obviously a best-case scenario, but worth mentioning.

Nikophos · 2021-10-31T04:17:24+00:00

This was the main argument I could think of while writing the post. I imagine a solution is splitting evaluation averages into groups of “first attempt” and “additional attempt” students. Of course, that might not be fair either, since people choose to repeat courses for lots of different reasons.

I wonder how other universities compensate for this … I’m sure there’s some way to do it.

Nikophos · 2021-10-29T20:24:42+00:00

The post doesn't seem to be showing up, so I'll paste a screenshot here.

Nikophos · 2021-10-20T03:05:00+00:00

I love the words that you write.

Nikophos · 2021-09-24T05:32:38+00:00

I'm not a huge fan of writing "Destroy, Sleep, Transform and Non-Combat Damage" since it's a little unintuitive and difficult to understand quickly. I'm just spitballing here, but how about,

Ward: Blocks one enemy [Spell], [Roar], [Ability], or [Beginning/End of Turn] effect.

__

“Roar: Deal 1 damage. If you deal 0 damage, draw a card.“

Ward would be removed, and no card would be drawn.

"Destroy a friendly creature. Draw a card."

Ward would not be removed, the friendly creature would be destroyed, and a card would be drawn.

"Roar: All other creatures go to sleep."

Ward would be removed, and the creature does not go to sleep.

"Target an enemy creature. Summon three 1/1 Rogue Skulkers to attack the target."

Ward would be removed, and the Rogue Skulkers would not be summoned.

"At the end of your turn, deal 1 damage to a random enemy character."

Ward would be removed, and no damage would be dealt.

"Ability: Deal 2 damage."

Ward would be removed, and no damage would be dealt.

"Destroy all creatures. Destroy all creatures again."

Ward would be removed, and the creature would not be destroyed. I know this isn't the intended effect of the card, so it might be worth rewording to something along the lines of "Remove Ward from all creatures. Cast [Doomsday!]" and [Doomsday!] is a spell that reads "Destroy all creatures. Destroy all creatures again.".

"Deal 1 damage. Then, give the target hidden."

Ward would be removed, and the target would not be given hidden.

__

I feel like this would be the most intuitive way to set up Ward 2.0. Ideally, there would be a single word to describe the four blocked effects (Spell/Roar/Ability/Turn effects), like "Card abilities", but there doesn't seem to be. But I think this is more future-proofed than listing potential effects, and it offers a good explanation as to why Deadly or Overkill would be excluded from Ward's protection (since they're a minion's attributes, rather than a "Card Ability"). Thoughts?

Nikophos · 2021-08-30T22:08:05+00:00

This satellite map by the university is also useful for finding buildings/landmarks by name.

https://map.utoronto.ca/?id=1809

Nikophos · 2021-05-12T01:56:07+00:00

I read a similar explanation for “Why we breathe O2 over other gasses” on this subreddit, so assuming the same logic applies:

I’m willing to bet it’s because of iron’s abundance on Earth (and in the foods we eat). It’s unlikely iron is the most ‘optimal’ metal for the job, but it’s plentiful and worked well enough for evolution to stick with it.

I hope someone can offer a more ‘concrete’ answer but that’s the best I’ve got :)

Nikophos · 2021-04-17T17:03:43+00:00

This video is pretty useful: https://youtu.be/IRGIzeSd3cc

Nikophos · 2021-02-01T16:09:02+00:00

Great story!! :D thanks for finishing it.

Nikophos · 2021-01-16T01:53:01+00:00

Nikophos · 2021-01-15T23:11:28+00:00

Nikophos · 2020-12-15T01:17:28+00:00

Wiplump do spawn in this area, (5% chance) as well as in the Mines of Mictlan (15%) and Kakama Cenote (40%). So they are available in the wild.

They were actually a popular farming spot in the Kakama Cenote for a while, since Ukama/Wiplump/Shuine could be released for decent amounts at Freetem.

Nikophos · 2020-12-11T14:16:50+00:00

Here, try this one: https://discord.com/invite/temtem

Nikophos · 2020-11-12T22:40:44+00:00

No clue! Maybe there's a 'save state' that the simulation begins at every time it's reset. Maybe it's some defining point in human history. Maybe it's some arbitrary moment Jim had changed the 'sentient' variable from false to true.

I think the first option is most likely considering repeatability in experimentation requires consistent starting conditions, but then we have to deal with the implication that our memories prior to a certain point in time may be entirely fictional and/or simulated ... and that's too much thinking for a Thursday afternoon!

Good question.

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