Student review [#28510] for Biology
at University of Toronto - UofT

Overall I really enjoyed my time at U of T but I think it took all 4 years for me to come to that conclusion. Adjusting to such an academically rigorous environment as an international first gen student was definitely one of the biggest challenges at first, since in some cases it feels like you’re expected to know how everything works at a university like this. I mainly experienced this feeling in my 1st and 2nd years where the work seemed overwhelmingly difficult and resources seemed inaccessible but U of T did also provide a community that helped me through that. Taking advantage of the U of T resources from 1st year would’ve made a huge difference for me because things are hard but there is help. In my program in particular I was surprised at how much most professors wanted to help me and see me succeed especially since in my mind they’re experts with busy lives and careers. Classes became more fun when I focused on getting the most out of them. I do think something can be done about prerequisite courses though because I thought I wouldn’t make it at first because of how long it took me to be able to do courses I enjoyed, did well in, and chose (3rd year). I think student life would be better if students didn’t feel like they have to perform 100% of the time and if things were less competitive. In my program it sometimes felt like no matter how hard I studied I’d still not do well in the exams and to this day I don’t know why but I know that wasn’t uncommon especially after my 2nd year 1st semester where 4 of my 5 courses had a class average of C. It was difficult since the school is huge but after finding a community student life became way better (club, residence, sports, etc) because there were people to relate to and learn how to ‘adult’ with. I also really loved how diverse the U of T community is because I got to learn so much from people and share culture. As a black student though I do wish U of T had the same supports they have now as they did when I first started (a bigger effort was only made to consider the black student experience after the 2020 BLM protests). I’m glad to chose to come to U of T and I’m excited for my future career in research especially with how many research opportunities I was able to access through U of T. I will say though that with my degree it seems necessary to do a second degree to secure a stable and long-term job of a certain pay grade.