Highschool

[Guest DxRShawndx]

Hi, I was wondering what Grade Average would I need from Highschool to get in UofT.

 

Then I would like to know is University of Toronto hard? I also heard a rumour that the professors there really dont care about anything.

[Guest Ian Wong]

There's a lot of old messages about U of T here that you should probably visit. Just scroll down and check out some of the previous messages. I didn't go to U of T, so I can't really answer your questions, but at most big universities, the profs in general aren't too concerned about undergrad students and their well-being.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest ML]

According to the UT recruiter that came by my school, you'll need low 80's for sciences, 76% for commerce, and like mid-low 70's for arts.

However, those numbers only guarantee your acceptance to the University of Toronto, and may not grant you acceptance into the college of your choice, since some colleges require higher grades than others.

For instance, you have in the 90's to get into Trinity College's Life Science stream, and you also need to send in a personal profile. However, for UT Scarborough or Erindale, you can probably get into those with the bare minimum grades(depending on your program of study).

 

Peace

[Guest Been There]

Last year Life Sci cutoffs were as follows:

 

St George - 83

Scar. - 77-78

Erindale - don't know but propbably same as scar

 

Queens - 80

 

Western - mid 70s for Health Sci

 

Mac - high 80s for Health Sci, 80 for Sci I

 

keep in mind that some cutoffs may seem lower than others but they might have more pre-requisites. For example, Queens has a lower cutoff than UofT St. George but Toronto only asks for English and Calc. Queens and Mac have the most prereqs needed. Also keep in mind that Scar needs English, Calc and one other math (Finite or Algeo).

[Guest DxRShawndx]

These are my marks:

English: 78

Biology:80

Chemistry:80

Calculus:80

Open Subject:90

Open Subject:85

Open Subject:83

Open Subject:85

 

Will I be accepted in UofT

My Average of the 8 Subjects are 82 Percent.

Do I pick my best six?

 

Please Help me

[Guest been there]

you should be ok even though cutoffs increase every year. Take your english mark, your calculus mark and your best 4 other subjects. That eill be your average. You should be fine. About 83.5. You'll get in. I assume you want to get into St. George otherwise you'll get in for sure at Scar or Erindale. So you've already decided it's going to be UofT eh? well you'll probably get early acceptance which is in March. I'm assuming you're semestered right?

 

Sometimes cutoffs are not totally honest. For example, for business your calc MUST be above 70. It doesn't matter if overall your average is higher than cutoff. I don't know if Life Sci has any course that they value above the rest...I doubt it. You should be fine. If by some miracle you don't get in first round, you'll definitely get in by June with those marks. Don't worry.

[Guest been there]

if you want profs that care about students DON'T go to UofT even in Scar and Erindale, smaller highschool type campuses, you are just a number although in small classes it's better. Life sci courses? a few hundred to a thousand in your class such as bio and chem. Lectures are useless and online notes crap. You basically teach yourself at big universities.

 

Bigger class sizes also mean another thing: greater competition. everybody had an A average in high school. Everybody wants dental or med. It's tough. Life Sci averages are typically 50s in every course. Every test. It's very easy to fall behind because there is nobody to push you but yourself and profs don't care. Tutorials don't really help you other than giving you more assigments and tests ontop of your usual ones

 

But you have good grades. Very good ones so you should be fine.

[Guest cheech10]

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration.

 

Yeah classes are huge and you don't get a lot of attention, but it is University and I don't know how much more attention students get elsewhere. And although we UofT students like to think our school was by far the hardest and we would have done a lot better elsewhere, I think this is really just arrogance and our marks wouldn't have been that much higher.

 

Lectures and online notes are crap? No way. I've gotten through 2.5 years relying SOLELY on class notes. Seriously, my textbooks were almost never opened. Profs only ask from material that they cover (well, almost always) so the lectures actually give you a much higher yield than textbooks or other sources of info.

 

Oh, and one of the most important resources at UofT is the collection of old tests. Familiarize yourself with the trick questions profs ask, since they almost never ask straightforward questions. The question style might be the one thing that makes UofT difficult, but get used to it and courses will be a breeze.

 

As for competition, yeah it's a little daunting the first couple years, but you learn to ignore it or thrive on it depending on your personality. Don't think it'll be easy, study hard, keep up with the work from day one, and things will fall into place. And you don't have to fight the competition or take notice of it. Some of the students with the highest marks chill in the back of the class and don't totally freak over mark or rank. So you can chill if it's your style, trust me.

 

Course averages: it's funny, but looking back over my transcript, ALL of my Life Sci courses have a C or C+ average; no 50's here. The two exceptions are PHY180, with a B- average, and MAT137, which had a D+ average but is for Comp Sci majors. MAT 135, the life sci equivalent, did have a C average. So I don't know where these 50's were happening, but they weren't in my courses )except for individual test averages here and there, but there were tests with 70 averages too that made up for it).

 

As for tutorials, here I'll agree; for the most part they are useless. But they are there, usually as Q&A sessions, in case you need clarification. Make use of them if you need, or ignore as you see fit.

 

Basically, UofT can be hard if you let it. But if you put in the work and get used to the UofT style tricks, you'll be fine. I've managed a 3.99 GPA and a friend of mine has 3.98, despite all the difficulties we associate with UofT. So don't lose heart, great marks are certainly possible! Good luck!

[Guest Julio]

I'm in 3rd year at U of T. I have to agree with cheech10; it's really not as bad as everyone seems to think. The profs for most courses, like BIO150, are actually quite good. Having said that, the classes are large and you won't get to know any profs in the 1st couple of years. However, the multiple choice format for most 1st and 2nd courses offers the opportunity of get really high marks if you know your stuff, and the style of questions that is asked. I've found that an A+ in an arts course is much harder to attain than the same in a chem or bio course.

 

That's where, as cheech10 said, the old tests come in...they're your best friend. Most profs recycle questions, or at least use the same style. It's tough to keep on top of things, but if you work at it every day and don't leave it to the last minute, high marks are possible. Cheech10 has 3.99 at U of T, so do I, and I know there are more, so don't let the bad reputation influence you too much.

[Guest been there]

UofT is hard but I didn't mean that high marks are impossible. If that were the case, nobody from there would get into med, correct?

 

I know a few people in first year who have 4.0 GPAs. I have 4.0 in a few courses. Just make sure you take at least one course in your 5 that you are good at and enjoy to bring up your GPA. Although most Life Sci students take calc, chem, bio, physics with either psych or soc first year.