Student review [#25184] for Sociology and Criminology and Criminal Justice IE
at University of Toronto - UofT

Uoft in Canada is notorious for high achieving students, competitiveness, and the toughest scales of bell curve grading. If you have a near perfect GPA, uoft is the school for you. Not to sound discouraging, but from personal experience I have had peers suspended for not being able to academically keep up. Be wise and clear when selecting a major/specialization. Keep in mind that the standard of teaching is very research based. In fact, it is what is categorized as a “ research based school”. By all means, apply to this school if you anticipate pursuing graduate schooling. If not, you are frankly better off doing a specialized degree at York, Ryerson. If you have plans of doing only a Bachelor of Arts at uoft, without the intention of pursuing graduate schooling; Don’t. Save your money, go to a university that offers the same BA for much lower tuition costs. Another thing, consider costs, and more importantly mental health support provided by other universities.

Something I did not particularly like; although there is a community, it’s often hard to make friends due to the competitiveness and competition among peers. That’s not to say you won’t make friends. You will, but “choose” wisely.

All this to say, personally, my academic path benefited from going to Uoft, but I do believe that you can receive similar education without the competition/ the long nights/ the tough grading scale at a university like York or Ryerson or Western. Nonetheless, I do recommend Uoft IF you are pursuing higher specialized education. After my HBA (3 majors – criminology, political science and sociology) at UofT, I pursued a specialized certification in legal research at UofT and went on to pursue my JD at UofT (although currently on academic leave). My academic journey doesn’t end there.