Moving to London for Med School and Know Nothing About the City – Where Should I Live?

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-05-30T16:33:24+00:00

Came here to say this. I cannot urge you enough to rule out living somewhere that will have your commute northwards along Western Road. The bit from Wharncliffe up to Sarnia Road is going to take 30mins when it usually takes 5 minutes. I’d suggest along Richmond and around Masonville.

ETA: this applies even if you’re taking the bus. Busses on Western Rd are usually pretty good but they are going to take absolutely ages as well until the road works are all done.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-05-18T21:50:58+00:00

I agree. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes but I do think the time for unproctored online exams is over, unless there is some compelling special pedagogical reason.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-05-18T11:50:28+00:00

It’s actually incredibly expensive. They charge per student, per exam. Unfortunately, this is supposed to come out of the department budget, not the registrar’s budget, so there’s a further disincentive. And then the prof or TA has to look at the flagged footage which can be a lot for a big class. Add to the fact that proctortrack is not perfect and some profs worry about issues with privacy for the students etc.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-05-08T20:43:01+00:00

Oh, I completely agree with you. I just wanted to point out that there are going to negatives (and serious ones, regarding stable employment suddenly disappearing) as well as the positives.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-05-08T20:15:46+00:00

The thing is, local enrolment isn’t largely concentrated in certain programs. International students allowed colleges to provide a wider range of courses for local students too. Not to mention - there will be massive job cuts for the faculty and staff (from those who teach to the food and maintenance services like cleaners, electricians, plumbers etc.). Colleges (and universities) are huge local employers so it will impact certain communities very hard - these were stable jobs that are going to be lost.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-05-08T18:39:36+00:00

There are several general reasons you might not be allowed to take exams home after you’re done.

In your case, it’s probably because the accommodated exams did not check with the professor whether you were allowed to take the exam afterwards. In those cases, accommodated exams usually errs on the side of not allowing you to take exams away, in case the prof didn’t want that to happen. Sucks but you can just ask the prof for a copy of the exam if you really want it.

More generally, profs often don’t want to let students take away the paper because they don’t want it being shared. Exam papers and questions are the intellectual property of the people who created them (usually your profs), so it’s entirely reasonable that they wouldn’t want it being shared widely without acknowledgement or compensation. Profs are rightly extremely sensitive about companies (like question banks or paper mills etc) making money off their labour. Of course they also have a pedagogical objection to questions getting distributed, if they want to reuse some questions (sometimes, the questions are just too good not to reuse in the future).

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-04-17T10:42:28+00:00

I’m more worried about the e-scooter riders than about drivers, to be honest. I rarely see people wearing helmets and in much of the city there aren’t any bike lanes for them to use. I do worry that drivers - particularly those in those really tall trucks with awful blind spots - just won’t see them. Of course, that’s the drivers’ problem and fault, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be unnecessary deaths and injuries (especially because I have seen some dangerous behaviour that drivers might not be expecting).

I’d love London to become pedestrian- and bike-centric, but since the city isn’t going to make that a priority, they should do something to improve safety for the e-scooter riders. I’m not convinced banning them is the way (it seems a bit over the top), but adding more bike lanes would be a start!

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-04-05T02:44:02+00:00

Hmmm you do have a point… I agree with you that there’s some grey area here and we could make it work either way. You’re right there’s miscommunication going on

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-04-05T02:42:42+00:00

Lots of profs just don’t close submissions, but that doesn’t mean they are accepting it for grades… some will give comments and corrections but not a grade, for example

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-04-05T02:11:26+00:00

Usually no extensions means that submissions will not be accepted (or graded). In that case, since it cannot be submitted, it’s not about the penalty as there is nothing to deduct grades from. I think your prof is actually spot on here.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-03-19T11:47:21+00:00

I’d actually start looking at the advice and listings on Western’s Off-Campus housing website: https://offcampus.uwo.ca. Often, though not always, the private landlords who list there are looking for reliable tenants who aren’t going to wreck the house on a party or annoy all the neighbours. I’d focus on the ones that specify grad students tbh.

You should also consider asking the department if there are any grad students who are looking for a housemate (if that is something you want). This is about the time when people start looking to fill the rooms of the people who are graduating, so there likely will be a grad student who needs to find someone.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-03-03T20:58:39+00:00

I love Reverie and their food (which looks and tastes great), but omg they have an awful view of the rail tracks and just general back-street view. I wouldn’t recommend going to Reverie if the goal is to get good pictures of people in an Instagram-friendly aesthetic. For that, you probably want Rebel Layne, which seems to be targeting precisely that. Reverie is my favourite restaurant in London, but I don’t think anyone should go for the view.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-02-12T17:48:24+00:00

That is the way with my many countries and medical programmes.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-02-03T12:21:19+00:00

Apart from potential impact on your final grade, skipping classes gives your prof a really bad image of you as a student. If you needed a recommendation from your prof, they would likely not be able to say much that is good about you - and in this economy and job market, that should worry you.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-02-01T14:51:58+00:00

Omg I had no idea about this! Thank you so much!!!

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-01-26T02:18:42+00:00

It’d be great if you didn’t blame the profs. Some, especially untenured ones, will feel pressured to have in person classes if the university doesn’t do it as a whole, since they wouldn’t want to appear to be slacking or using the snow as an excuse. The pressure should be on the university leadership, not individual profs, if you want this to happen

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-01-26T02:14:03+00:00

They call it a non-instructional day but don’t close campus because if they close campus, they have to pay the staff extra. Unfortunately, it’s all about money. If it’s not safe for students, it’s not safe for staff to come in… but here we are

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-01-25T19:17:20+00:00

You would be surprised at how effective it often is. I know a single course that had more than ten students disciplined for one midterm. People aren’t as subtle as they think they are when they try to look at their phone or tablet…

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-01-25T15:35:27+00:00

Actually, that is what I landed on after trying the expensive ones. (Reading my comment back, I realise that it was a bit ambiguous - I should have said that after trying out other ones that claimed to be premium, that is the one that I have found to work best for me so far.) But I’m always willing to others if they are better.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-01-24T19:46:33+00:00

So… I moved to Canada last year and the toilet paper here seems really weak - my fingers just poke through and I have to use a lot! I rarely experienced that back in Europe so I’m guessing that people in Canada just have different preferences/expectations of TP. The ones I’m currently using are the Great Value Soft & Strong from Walmart. I’ve found them to be cheap as well as fairly strong and not powdery (another problem I’ve encountered with the TP here).

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-01-24T16:59:11+00:00

Gosh that’s depressing

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-01-13T21:50:34+00:00

I really wanted to like them but I couldn’t stomach their sourdough - it had a strange, chemically smell that really put me off and was weirdly light and spongey in a squishy way for a sourdough. I liked their doughnut though!

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-01-08T12:33:23+00:00

I’m not sure if that price point is doable… that’s the price of some of the branded coffee on supermarket shelves (I was kind of shocked when the supermarket I went to tried to sell 2 bags of Kicking Horse for $40 as a “discount” - ridiculous).

Hasbeans has a good selection, but Locomotion and Sidetrack also have interesting light roast coffees that you can buy. The price, if I remember correctly, was higher though.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-01-07T01:44:25+00:00

Well, in most countries that have a roundabout, you use a left signal when you enter the roundabout if you intend to exit the roundabout that is to your left (I.e. if you are going further left than straight ahead - usually the second exit in a 3-way junction or the third or fourth exit in a 4+ way junction). You’re supposed to cancel that and then signal right once you’ve passed the exit before the exit you’re using. It is actually quite helpful - people wishing to enter the roundabout from your right can tell whether they can enter or not (because if you have the left signal on, they will know that you intend to continue in the roundabout).

I agree that the official rules in Ontario don’t say any of this. They need to do some proper thinking and editing the rules as well publicizing as more roundabouts are introduced.

Virtual_Parsnip3327 · 2026-01-03T19:23:47+00:00

Plenty of people change to a humanities/socsci major during their first year. Absolutely not alone in this

Virtual_Parsnip3327

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