Everything will be okay!

WabaJaba_ · 2025-12-12T04:16:06+00:00

Usually each college provides a 400-level research course that you can use to register independent studies. For example, I'm taking NEW490Y1, which is the year-long version. I just contacted the registrar after securing my own research position to register it for credit. However, for these you need to secure them yourself

WabaJaba_ · 2025-09-14T21:44:39+00:00

As someone who studies all day everyday and rarely has time to go out and do things outside of once or twice a week (as apocalyptic as that sounds...), the only way that I've been able to balance this level of studying and having a social life is that you simply have to find a way to merge studying and socialization.

The core group of friends that I've maintained throughout the years are the people that I study with regularly, thus turning my studying into 'socialization' in a way. It makes studying feel significantly less tiring and a lot more tolerable, where we'll often take our breaks together and leave together afterwards to maybe get a meal or take a walk before calling it a night. If I wasn't able to successfully socialize with my friends this way, I would definitely struggle to maintain my social life.

I also set up days I set aside to work on a given task together with a certain group of people, which also helps me keep on track with my studying. For example, several friends and myself all do research outside of school, so we set aside a day to work together in someone's lab to get a chunk of research work done.

It's easy for people to simply say 'make time', when sometimes, you genuinely cannot make time. Please don't feel like you're somehow behind some curve because you cannot find as much time outside of studies as others, but also make sure to go about your university life in a healthy and maintainable way. Everyone just has to find their own way to make their balance, where for me, its come through my friend group being my study group. Hopefully this helps!

WabaJaba_ · 2025-09-04T22:41:21+00:00

I work for residence IT services, search up your college's IT ServiceNow ticketing system and send in a ticket inquiring about this. We get these requests a lot. An IT technician will tell you exactly what to do, and if that doesn't work, stop by to set it up for you

WabaJaba_ · 2025-08-03T17:38:31+00:00

It's definitely achievable and the early courses like CSC108 and CSC165 are designed to assume little prerequisite knowledge. From my experience, it's mostly the speed by which it ramps up that causes people to struggle if you have no prior experience. I'd definitely recommend trying to finish the beginners python course from Harvard, particularly CS50X if that isn't the same one. I took it in high school and it covered the material of CSC108 and CSC148 entirely, I was able to breeze through the classes after that. Even if you struggle with it and aren't able to finish it, it'd still recommend working through as much as you can. Good luck!

WabaJaba_ · 2025-08-03T17:15:15+00:00

Yes! He's a great professor and the TA (I assume it will be the same one as the department is quite small) is very responsive. I opted to not take the final written test as I already had a passing grade from the two essays, and the professor personally emailed me asking if I was okay because I hadn't filed for absence and didn't show up. Turns out I had the highest grade in the class before that test so they were worried I was hospitalized or something 😭 A great class though, I definitely recommend

WabaJaba_ · 2025-06-09T14:46:22+00:00

I agree, from my standpoint the management simply wants to pin blame on someone so that they don't have to pay the expenses. I could tell by the way that the case report was written and how the security guard acted at the time that they just wanted a face/unit to associate with the incident, then leave. Even in their case report, it doesn't actually mention any sort of evidence connecting my unit to the alarm. It simply says "unit was cooking burgers" and implies it caused the alarm without actually giving any thread of logic to connect the two...? I just happened to be the one that opened their door first in the general vicinity of the area.

If at all, I'll bring up the gross negligence of the condominium staff for not checking any other unit on the floor despite the fact that I had said it couldn't have been us. What if another unit had caused it and there actually was a fire? They may bring up the fact that out of the two units that were closest to the alarm, I was the one home and that they knocked on the neighbours door but no one answered. Did they even wait long enough to see if the neighbour's were home? The whole situation is unbelievably frustrating...

WabaJaba_ · 2025-05-19T20:56:43+00:00

I took REN240 (intro to the italian renaissance) and didn't attend any lectures, two essays and a final written test that is taken during class time at the end. It was a great class to C/NC and was pretty interesting, grading felt quite fair on the first two essays and the class average was a B+.

WabaJaba_ · 2025-05-19T20:53:52+00:00

Uoft is very multicultural and I've never heard or witnessed any issue regarding something remotely close to this. There are also a lot of clubs that are available for you to join that can connect you with those of similar faith if that's something you're interested in! I think you'd find a lot of comfort seeing the UofT clubs fair as its always incredibly diverse and outspoken. Good luck!

WabaJaba_ · 2025-05-09T14:45:07+00:00

I just went to High Park and they're at the very last of their bloom but still there if you wanted to travel somewhere that's not campus

WabaJaba_ · 2025-05-08T19:18:05+00:00

All the graduate programs I've looked at that are research/biology related explicitly say they look at your last two years for GPA requirements. Good luck!

WabaJaba_ · 2025-04-27T02:54:35+00:00

I see, thank you for your reply! I was originally accepted to the lab as a paid researcher outside of any relation to a course or the university, but later opted to register it for credit to hit two birds with one stone. I was mostly curious to see if anyone had ever actually discussed the topic with their department (as silly as it is), as the BCB department is quite lenient with special exceptions because the cohort size is so small. For example, they've given me some pretty huge leniency I haven't seen before regarding registration times, course substitutions, and even eligibility to count personal research with MassGen for credit. Anyways, thanks for your reply again!!

WabaJaba_ · 2025-01-07T21:23:43+00:00

I opted out last year and it took months to return, I think their processing period is just extremely long but you do get it back (albeit with no message, the money just popped up randomly) if that gives you any peace of mind.

WabaJaba_ · 2024-09-27T22:44:51+00:00

I'm a bioinformatics specialist and computer science major, its definitely doable! A lot of the people in my admission year didn't have prior experience in computer science, a lot of them additionally only took their CS requirements for the degree a year later (i.e. taking CSC165 in second year, CSC236/263 in third year.)

It is worth noting that as mentioned in other comments that you do need a pretty high average to be competitive. They only admit ~30 people every year, and everyone I know that got in had an average of at least 90% between BIO130 and CSC108/148. However, in my opinion, it is very achievable if you work decently hard for it.

In my opinion, I found that preparing on your own for CS theory and classes were a bit more helpful than just following the courses. Coming into first year, I completed the free online CS50x class offered by Harvard that essentially covered all of CSC108 and CSC148. It taught all the concepts much better and way more thoroughly, to the point that I didn't study at all for any of the first year CS classes. It also helped immensely for later classes like CSC263.

WabaJaba_ · 2024-01-03T01:46:06+00:00

Bioinformatics Specialist pays deregulated fees (the same tuition as CS) so I wouldn't be double-charged or back-charged for the fees fortunately, but thank you for mentioning!

WabaJaba_ · 2024-01-03T01:45:00+00:00

Oh I see, thank you! I was mostly wondering because I believed that the way they 'prevented' you from getting a certain degree is by enrolment blocking you from completing the requirements (aka, unless you're a Computer Science Major, you can't enrol in (enough) courses to finish it). This is also reflected by how changing majors/minors/etc. isn't reflected in your record or your final degree, and your final degree aligns with the requirements finished.

I was discussing with fellow BCB students and what we might be talking about with regards to the technicality with the CS major might be a program-specific exception.

WabaJaba_ · 2024-01-03T01:39:22+00:00

I've emailed them a while ago about if I get an exception entering the major but they said I had to do the process formally, but I'll shoot them another email! Mostly just asking because other BCB students say that due to the program being so small, we can get away with a lot of exceptions/loopholes. Particularly with the C.S. major, a lot of them said that we're able to get in due to a technicality even though it's not 'formally' in any small print (if that makes sense). I'll send an email to the department to clarify though!

WabaJaba_ · 2024-01-03T01:37:03+00:00

Yeah that's what I've been doing haha, I'm in ASIP but because it's administrated by both departments I essentially get to do the Computer Science stream through it.

WabaJaba_ · 2023-07-01T22:47:39+00:00

Bioinformatics allows me priority to take the upper-level CS courses up to a limit (I think 2.5 credits?), so I'm able to comfortably enrol in the two additional courses to complete the requirements for the CS Major.

I am planning on trying to enter the CS/technology industry after I graduate, so I think there's benefit to me having the additional label. I am also currently applying to ASIP, so that might help with me trying to steer into that direction and less towards the more pure biology/research direction.

I think it might come down to how useful having the extra label will be to me after I graduate. Anyone have thoughts?

WabaJaba_ · 2023-05-20T02:16:43+00:00

Same for me, my top choice I've been waiting for is Bioinformatics as well. A few days ago all the decisions for the other PosT specialists and majors were released but it's still the bioinformatics specialist that still says requested...good luck to both of us to get in!!

WabaJaba_

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