Originally Posted by SciMania

Are you sure you're talking about York? It's so deserted, in the middle of nowhere, and the campus is horrendously large and ugly. Mac's campus is soooo much nicer!!

Also, York has more serious strikes than Mac, for example that TA strike that lasted soooo long.

I can see how the lecture recordings and exams would be useful though.

I agree on the large part, that sucks. However, they have a parking lot next to almost every single building lol, made it much easier to see that majority of your courses are right next to where you park. Even the whole bus loop thing, it's right in the heart of campus, while we have our GO stop out in the corner.

That TA strike did suck. On the bright side, lots of York friends say they don't have any major negotiations coming up, so no other strike is imminent.

But look at Mac, in the next few months, we have the sessional profs negotiations, the TAs again, and god knows what else.

Major point is the lecture recordings + past exams/tests/materials. I just love that. Helps soooo damn much with studying. If some shit school opened up tomorrow with the most ugly campus and went on strike once a year, but provided recorded lectures/GOOD slides/past exams + resources, I would transfer in a heartbeat.

Originally Posted by HerbalMeds

I guess the grass is always greener? I've found York to be much more enjoyable than Mac. The campus, the area it's in, the hotties everywhere
.

Jane & Finch, good one

Originally Posted by Mahratta

Jane & Finch, good one

I was thinking more along the lines of York being like 10-20min from downtown Toronto, whereas Hamilton is 1.5 hrs away.

Originally Posted by HerbalMeds

I was thinking more along the lines of York being like 10-20min from downtown Toronto, whereas Hamilton is 1.5 hrs away.

Are we talking transportation or driving?
Driving.. downtown to York is about 30 minutes on a good day, same thing with Hamilton, sometimes even less.
Transportation.. about 45 minutes from York and around an hour and 15 mins from Hamilton.
It's actually not all that close.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Are we talking transportation or driving?
Driving.. downtown to York is about 30 minutes on a good day, same thing with Hamilton, sometimes even less.
Transportation.. about 45 minutes from York and around an hour and 15 mins from Hamilton.
It's actually not all that close.

Driving from Hamilton to downtown Toronto is 30minutes? What?

I take the 407 regularly just so I can go 160km/h and it still takes me close to an hour.

And I also take took the bus regularly from Hamilton to downtown Toronto, and that was a solid 1 hour 30min. In fact you can go to GO's website and confirm it there if you want.

Originally Posted by HerbalMeds

Driving from Hamilton to downtown Toronto is 30minutes? What?

I take the 407 regularly just so I can go 160km/h and it still takes me close to an hour.

And I also take took the bus regularly from Hamilton to downtown Toronto, and that was a solid 1 hour 30min. In fact you can go to GO's website and confirm it there if you want.

I just had a trip to downtown Toronto today from Mac, and it took about 1 hour to get there and 45 mins to get back. This is all by bus by the way.

Originally Posted by Parminder S

I just had a trip to downtown Toronto today from Mac, and it took about 1 hour to get there and 45 mins to get back. This is all by bus by the way.

Ahhh I was looking at Mac to York, which takes about 1.5 hours.

Nonetheless, takes me about 1/4 to 1/2 the time depending on traffic to go from York to downtown Toronto.

Originally Posted by HerbalMeds

Driving from Hamilton to downtown Toronto is 30minutes? What?

I take the 407 regularly just so I can go 160km/h and it still takes me close to an hour.

And I also take took the bus regularly from Hamilton to downtown Toronto, and that was a solid 1 hour 30min. In fact you can go to GO's website and confirm it there if you want.

Yeah. Well for me anyway. It takes me like 45-55 minutes from North York to Hamilton, and that's like a 20 minute drive from downtown. On the 407 and it takes you an hour from downtown? That's just odd.
I take the bus everytime I'm going home, but I guess you're right it could take an hour and a half, depending on traffic.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Yeah. Well for me anyway. It takes me like 45-55 minutes from North York to Hamilton, and that's like a 20 minute drive from downtown. On the 407 and it takes you an hour from downtown? That's just odd.
I take the bus everytime I'm going home, but I guess you're right it could take an hour and a half, depending on traffic.

Hamilton --> Downtown Toronto (i.e. Union Station) = < 1 hr

Hamilton --> York U = ~1.5 hrs but that's only because the bus makes multiple other stops (Burlington, Oakville, Brampton, Sq 1...then finally York)

Originally Posted by SciMania

Hamilton --> Downtown Toronto (i.e. Union Station) = < 1 hr

Hamilton --> York U = ~1.5 hrs but that's only because the bus makes multiple other stops (Burlington, Oakville, Brampton, Sq 1...then finally York)

That's what I meant. But I wasn't mentioning Hamilton to York U, I was comparing York U to downtown T.O and Hamilton to downtown T.O.

Hi there,

Someone please help me out and give me some honest advice...

I am in 2nd Year at UofT studying life sciences, and my cGPA is suffering. Everyone says that 1st year is the hardest, and it will get better from there. GPA-wise, nothing has changed. I am still obtaining poor grades, with no improvement from first year. Every so often I plunge into depression and question myself. Life is brutal.

I'm considering transferring to McMaster for Fall 2011 to start off as a completely clean slate... especially since McMaster doesn't consider any transfer marks. I've always known that McMaster has a better community, and I had been accepted there in high school. Back then, I was held back in Toronto for some personal reasons. Now that I have a chance, I really want to make the right decision once and for all... both for my current academic career and for my future.

Should I make the transfer and start anew from Level 1? If anyone is willing to give me some insight on my situation, I would be very grateful. For anyone who has actually experienced this transfer process, I would love to speak to you about it!

Application deadlines are just around the corner!! Any help and/ or comments would really be appreciated! Many thanks in advance!!

If U care about the Student/University Experience UofT might not be the place to go

Originally Posted by Gooners

If U care about the Student/University Experience UofT might not be the place to go

They are looking to transfer to McMaster from UofT...

I can't answer your question though, I don't know anything about transferring. You could give the academic advisors at McMaster a call: http://www.science.mcmaster. ca/mai...ml#associa te

You could also talk to your advisors at UofT for more information.

this may be too late BUT.

I did 2 years at UTSG and was in the TOX specialist program (so I wasn't doing badly at UofT). I hated living at home, and was envious of my friends that got to go away for school. For me, part of university meant leaving home and becoming independent, but because my parents were so keen on me going to UTSG, I had to stay at home. Finally after 2nd year I convinced them to let me transfer... and here's what happened...

1.I had to take 2nd year courses, because I was placed in the BIO program at mac.. and at UofT, I didn't take too many bio courses.. so I fell a year behind. But if you're transferring after 1st year, you won't fall behind.

2. There was certain things that I just wasn't use to: short answer tests (everything at UTSG was MC), shit loads of assignments (I hardly had any assignments at U of T, it was just studying), maintaining a lab notebook, writing FULL lab reports.


3. There's a TON of group work at mac along with the assignments. So if you're not studying for a test, you're working on several assignments at the same time.

4. It was hard to integrate because everyone had already formed their groups of friends from first year rez, but gradually over time, I made friends with my housemates.

5. It's much harder to come across past tests/exams at mac than it is at U of T (where some courses even sell their past tests), so for me, I often went into midterms and exams at mac not really knowing what to expect, so initially, my marks did take a dive.

Coming to mac probably won't boost your GPA< as it didn't boost mine.. except this year where I worked my ass off.
Am I glad that I came to mac?.... Let's just say the grass is always greener on the other side.