How an onboarding process has already made me regret my Graduate Studies.

Preamble:

My enthusiasm for attending the University of Toronto, recognized as Canada's best, remains high. I look forward to learning from exceptional professors, immersing myself in the university culture, and building a strong professional network. That said, the support systems in place have not met the standards I experienced during my User Experience Design program at Wilfrid Laurier University.

I wonder how the issues faced can be possible as someone who understands the processes to a degree, and I do personally do know professors that have taught at several Universities.

For context, due to financial constraints, I've decided to live in Cambridge and commute to Toronto for my classes. To minimize commuting time and costs, I initially aimed to condense my coursework into as few days as possible. However, a nearby free accommodation offer has slightly altered this plan. While grateful for the accommodation, my hosts prefer that I don't stay there full-time so I still needed to condense my time in Toronto.

The university sent several emails post-acceptance on March 15th, detailing required actions. These were straightforward and easily completed. Unfortunately, issues began to arise in mid-July.

July 22nd and beyond, the start of the bad Experience:

On July 22nd, the Faculty of Information released enrolment procedures for graduate programs. Unexpectedly, course information was presented in PDF and spreadsheet formats, lacking the visual clarity I anticipated.

This year brought curricular changes. The removal of mandatory introductory courses, INF1005 and INF1006, was neutral for me. However, the introduction of four professional requirements—Critical Perspectives, Technical, Managerial, and Professional Values—has caused complications. Students must now select at least one course fulfilling each requirement. As approximately half of all courses meet these criteria unevenly, the university has inadvertently steered students towards specific courses without considering the potential issues regarding a forced enrolment surge.

The situation is further compounded by the complex prerequisite structure of higher-level courses, often requiring completion of multiple preceding courses. When combined with the rigid professional requirements, constructing a desired course schedule becomes an arduous task. As a student paying $12,000 annually, I expected greater flexibility. While a list of electives was provided, many are inaccessible due to the professional requirement mandates and the need to prioritize foundational courses. This system hinders the pursuit of specialized, advanced coursework that truly differentiates students.

After this new slate of requirements I spent a considerable amount of time going through the courses that are of interest, making my own visual schedule in Google Sheets.

I had to pay attention to:

• Required courses in Fall first year to allow: required Courses in Winter first year which will make possible: doing the required courses in year two
• Achieving the Professional Requirements
• Still keeping true, to some degree, what I want to focus my efforts on during my studies to make the most impact
• Hopefully keeping my days on Campus to, at max, 3 days a week.

The course enrolment process, which began at 6:00 AM on July 29th, was a catastrophic failure. The Acorn system was agonizingly slow, and to my astonishment, all required courses were filled by 6:30 AM. This is unacceptable, as these courses are mandatory for program completion and progression. Specifically, INF1602 is a critical prerequisite for a sequential chain of courses culminating in a final required course. The inability to enrol in this foundational course jeopardized my timely graduation.

There was panic on my end, did I miss a step or not pay some hidden fee? No, the University of Toronto sent out an email detailing the situation and it amounted to one thing:

• They opened, without restriction, enrolment to all people in any concentration.
  • People enrolled in whatever they felt like regardless of their own concentrations requirements.
    • I have to focus on this above point for a second because, again, if I am unable to take certain courses in my very first term I cannot Graduate on time, so how was it like in other concentrations? Were students negligent or oblivious of what is required? 
  • Some core courses in differing concentrations are suggested elective courses for other concentrations. Absence of any restriction meant a majority of those who could enrol are taking my core courses as electives, keeping people that have it as a requirement, out.

The university responded by locking down the entire enrolment system and initiating a review of student course selections, particularly those required for program completion. Students taking core courses as electives were to be removed, and enrolment was to reopen with restrictions on August 7th at 6:00 AM. As of yesterday, I’ve managed to enrol or wait-list necessary courses and am awaiting the outcome. The enrolment will be locked again a week after it opening for another review and then reopened without restrictions.

This may take months, as I am having issues with the winter term course selection, but this entire process has been dreadful.

The most pressing questions are:

• Why were the courses that are mandatory for people to take open for people to take as electives without restriction?
  • You know your enrolment numbers, in general, and how many seats each mandatory course needs to have allotted for people who need them. Why create such a situation when it is possible to know, when someone hits enrol, that it is a course they need or a course that is an elective?

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