UTSC Good or Bad?...

This is gonna be my first year going to university... From all the comments that my friends gave me overall they all said UTSC is good because of their new facilities? St, George didn't accept me.. Otherwise I would've went there.

I also want to ask.. if anyone knows.. When do the book lists come out? on site? Also... easy to transfer to St. George from UTSC or no?

get good grades then you can transfer to St George no problem just make sure you have the requirements to get into the program you want

UTSC= no social life from what i hear

Well, according to the internet tubes...

UofT Scarborough:
It's not a university. It's highschool in disguise. With an emphasis on the crazy and exciting dating scene. Except maybe uglier. Strange but true fact: The architectural style of UTSC is Brutalist Industrialist. Translation? Its brutally ugly. The garden sculptures look like torture devices, and the school resembles a converted prison. You can tell that U of T gave this place the leftovers of the other campuses. Hell in some spots you guys have cubicles in former closets! UTSC is notorious for its ghetto reputation but is a school that truly has flavour. Its populus is perhaps the single most multicultural campus of them all (although once again lots of brown ppl here too). And for the most part they all get along regardless of ethnicities. This may be the one university where assimilation is virtually unheard of. The down side? Highschool cliquishness thrives here and after a while! seeing ENYCE and SEAN JOHN every two seconds starts to wear a little thin.For gods sake ppl your 21 pull up your damn pants! Oh yeh and those cubicles seem to sustain a secret graffiti dialogue culture that really should be studied. What the hell does 'Syndicate' mean anyway?? Stating the obvious: UTSC's secret insecurities arise from the fact that academically they are NOTHING when compared to St. George and they know it!

http://forums.studentawards.com/View...essageID=51939

got TONS of friends at UTSC -- they all say social life lacks. Most people attending the school are commuters, and don't hang around campus than they need to. I have heard good things about their academic and co-op support though. So there's a plus for you.

There's lots of pros and cons, and only talking to a few students there will solve that (only those with extreme opinions, like the cut/paste above, will take the effort to write them out). I'd suggest you keep open-minded, go to Orientation and other starting events, meet people and find out for yourself.

But to sum it up quick: they've built numerous new buildings around the old brutalist one, added lots of new facilities/pros to the university, are expanding tremendously, and definately (saw a comment higher about this) have academics on-par if not > than st. george. + co-op.

Yeah, I'd agree on that.

The new management building looks pretty nice.

dont let "new facilities" fool you. UTSC is still crap.

Lets break it down. (oh and search the forums for my other utsc posts on why utsc sucks)

Negatives

- No social life
- its a commuter campus meaning very few facilities (no pool, poor gym equipment, poor arts/music space, poor meeting areas, poor hangout space, THERE IS A LARGE DEFICIT OF STUDY SPACE, science facilities are about as good as a lab in the 1960s... i could go on)
- students on average get LOWER grades here than else where because the marking is more difficult. dont let this fool you though, you are not in a harder program or getting a better education than elsewhere. You are actually getting a worse education and being marked harder.
- poor extracurricular events/opportunities/organization
- is like a high school more than a college or university. I think niagara college in welland (worst place to live in the world after waterdown and port colborne) is probably a better school than UTSC
-the "fun" of being in university ends in a week (frosh week if you are stupid enough to actually go away to school and live on res at utsc) or 2 days if you live in scarborough.

Positives
+ the co-op program



st george is a few minutes away, commute there instead of utsc. dont waste your time, money or life like i did.

It IS more like a high school than a post secondary institution....

one big reason is that people already have "cliques" coming into UTSC from high school...

and it doesnt help that the buildings are lined with lockers

I actually go to UTSC right now for the BBA Co-op program; entering my 4th year actually. Here's what I have to say about it.

It's a commuter school, and the campus life is definitely limited. However, the people are generally very nice, helpful, and open... much easier to meet new people. And because the campus itself does not offer much, it's pretty much the only way you'd have a social life... networking. What I'm getting at is that you don't need an amazing campus life to have a good university life; so perhaps that should alleviate some concerns.

The down right peeving thing about being at UTSC, for example, is if you are in a deregulated program. You'll be paying the same tuition fees as the similar program at St. George (BBA vs. BCom), and although they tell you that you will be able to access all the facilities that St.George students have, the fact that they are all located at St. George makes that "access" a little bit more difficult. A lot of the students (if not half) within the BBA program are in the Co-op program and many would probably have preferred studying at St. George more so than UTSC but they stuck the Co-op program out in Scarborough. Granted, it's easier to get in to a similar/same program as St.George @ UTSC (entrance grades wise)... but that does not exactly apply to Co-op programs. So in a way, UofT themselves created this inconvenience.

And to all those who complain about the grading scheme and such;
Yes, I've seen instances where grading seemed unfair because only 15 people were in the class and only 2 are allowed to receive A's... and being the 3rd best, I was stuck with a B+. You'd argue, most likely, that if the class was 30 people, you would have been able to get an A. That's failed logic because 30 people means those 2 who were better than you now becomes 4. You're still 5th or 6th... You'd still get that B+.
There are also instances where the average deviation of the grades are so miniscule, 90% of the class ends up getting C+'s but the average still works out to a B- (standard for a 2nd year+ course) because a few managed to get A's and push the average up enough for it to be so. Or instances where everyone relatively got the same grade (very very little deviation overall) and no one got higher than a B+ and lower than a C+.

But amidst all this apparent unfairness and seemingly "harder" grading... it's really not that unfair. Its very fair in fact. Whether it's a hard course or an easy course, if you're good at what you do... you'd still be good at what you do here or anywhere else. Complaining is for those who sit on the border between straight A students and B students who sometimes squeeze in to get A's and sometimes fall short and end up with B+'s. And if you're in that group of students I outlined, do you really have the right to complain? You're certainly not the best in the class... only the best should get those A+'s consistently.

All-in-all though, the people there outweigh many of the negatives. There's more to a school than just it's facilities and inconveniences... and that's the people you'll meet and work with. If you can find yourself a good bunch of people, I can't see it any worse or better than any other school/campus out there. I mean, logically speaking, if the campus life is that good... it just means there's really no where else to go, so that's where everyone hangs out rather than elsewhere. No? I don't think a "good campus life" can substitute a good nightlife district downtown or a place to shop.

To all of the people telling me to commute to St. George.. I would've went there but they rejected me.. and gave me UTM and UTSC.. I picked UTSC.

I guess I should have to find out for myself.. instead of reading about how much it really sucks..

And if its that hard of marking.. then chances of me transferring back downtown are pretty low then? o.o

EDIT: Nice read... for Dibble's post.. Thanks for your time.. "unless" You just save that copy and paste it whenever someone asks for pro's and con's at UTSC O_O...

Good or bad, it's for you to make!

Originally Posted by Noob1ee

Good or bad, it's for you to make!

Yea.. kind of figured that .. from hearing a lot negatives from people on this forum. The only reason why i posted this.. was to hear every1 else's opinion.. Because yesterday.. as I was reading.. i saw lots of negative feedback on UTSC.. and decided to post this thread.. hopefully hearing some positives.. but not that many

Positives I've heard from my friend in 4th year management co-op:

1) the co-op staff are EXTREMELY helpful. very approchable and make sure you get the job you want
2) the management program has a good reputation with employers (my employer included)

Originally Posted by gzajay

Positives I've heard from my friend in 4th year management co-op:

1) the co-op staff are EXTREMELY helpful. very approchable and make sure you get the job you want
2) the management program has a good reputation with employers (my employer included)

Well, to correct you... It's getting 'Better'
They cater well to those who are aiming for a career in Accounting or Marketing, but they lack connections with Investment/Banking related companies. In fact, the one coordinator who looks after all investment/banking positions said so himself and it's also quite obvious from the list of jobs they post up.

Also, in terms of our management program having a good reputation... it's half and half. A lot of the current student base is made up of those whose primary language is not english. If yours is, however, then you'd have a very large advantage over many who may be competiting for the same job as you. A large abundance of people in coop who can't seem to be able to speak english during say... interviews... may not come off too well.

However, I've had a generally positive experience with them. Though, like I said, majoring in Finance and trying to land a coop job is extremely hard unless you apply for those listed outside of the coop database.

Originally Posted by Nguyenmon

To all of the people telling me to commute to St. George.. I would've went there but they rejected me.. and gave me UTM and UTSC.. I picked UTSC.

I guess I should have to find out for myself.. instead of reading about how much it really sucks..

And if its that hard of marking.. then chances of me transferring back downtown are pretty low then? o.o

EDIT: Nice read... for Dibble's post.. Thanks for your time.. "unless" You just save that copy and paste it whenever someone asks for pro's and con's at UTSC O_O...

Glad you found my post helpful :P

P.S. I should consider saving a copy incase someone does ask again.