This post probably wouldn’t have any kind of consistency.

Today I met someone who seems to have something I have never had/achieved. I never knew them before.

I still have the despair and anger I felt when I was on my way to my condo. Even though these emotions are the strongest proof of just how determined I am to turn the tables, but I’m aware that tomorrow & near future won’t change.

Yes, I’m having a depression.

I stopped seeing people like someone I met today, but I wanted to become like them. I’ve been writhed.

Probably some people in this university would experience this same issue, maybe or maybe not.

Hey everyone,

I’m currently in the middle of applying for Work-Study positions and I’ve hit the 20-application mark so far.

When I first started, I naively thought that Work-Study positions would be way less competitive compared to the regular job market outside school. Boy, was I wrong. It honestly feels just as brutal!

I wanted to ask the community about your actual experiences:

• How many applications did you end up submitting in total?
• How many interviews or offers did you actually get out of those?

I know people always talk about GPA, job fit, and tailoring your resume/cover letters to the current market trends, which makes total sense. But at the end of the day, still, it really feels like a sheer numbers game where applying to as many as possible is the safest bet.

Curious to hear what your stats were and if 20 applications is still rookie numbers. Any advice or reality checks are appreciated!

Hi everyone,

I’m a final-year undergraduate student planning my Fall 2026 and Winter 2027 schedule, and I’m hoping to get some realistic advice from those of you who have balanced a Work-Study RA position with a heavy and/or heavy-ish course load.

My primary goal is to protect my GPA for top-tier graduate school admissions (targeting UofT, Princeton, Cornell, Caltech, Cal) while gaining relevant research experience in future, but not in 2 years, and I’m worried about burning out cuz i'm resuming my studies after having a 2-yrs leave.

Here is my tentative course load: (Did not clarify my exact course codes for anonymity)

Fall 2026:

COG341/342H1 (Cog sci), PSY493H1 (Neuroscience), ANT204H1 (Elective), CS individual study (Year course)

Winter 2027:

(Cog sci Seminar), PSY490H1 (Neuroscience Seminar), COG498/499H1 (Cog sci Individual study), CS individual study (Year course)

I am aiming to secure a Work-Study RA position (roughly 10–15 hours per week) in a wet-lab or quantitative research setting.

Given that my 4th-year courses involve heavy-ish(?) workloads (I'm resuming my studies after 2024 Winter), independent research projects, and demanding exams, do you think adding a 10–15 hour/week RA position is doable without tanking my GPA?

If anyone has managed a similar course load alongside a Work-Study position, how did you manage your time, and was it worth for grad school apps? if it was, how much was it helpful?

Any insights or reality checks would be greatly appreciated!

I received a final approval for my research project from my research supervisor. But this is the first time taking this independent study course and I'm curious how others did

Hello, I'm concerned about the deadline issue about the independent study course application deadline (which was technically Yesterday, July 31th).

This professor replied late to my reply and still interested in my research project. We will have a meeting next wednesday.

Can I proceed the meeting or should I just cancel this meeting due to administration issue?

By the way another research project (which should be in this winter) discussion with another professor is already ongoing so I'm afraid I cannot do this in winter term cuz the department would NOT allow taking these two courses at the same term, unfortunately.

What should I do? Should I email this professor that we missed research course application course for this fall?

Hey everyone,

I'm currently navigating the process of securing a research supervisor.

Recently, I finally got my very first positive response offering to supervise my research, and I am honestly thrilled! However, while I'm super happy about this acceptance, I'm feeling a bit conflicted. Not only have I never actually taken any classes with this professor, but if I'm being honest, the customized research proposal I tailored for this professor's interests is somewhat less appealing to me compared to the proposals I sent out to other professors. Meanwhile, I'm still waiting to hear back from those other professors whose specific research topics I am personally much more drawn to.

I've reached out to about 25 professors so far, facing rejections or closures due to various reasons—such as sabbaticals, medical leaves, teaching streams, retirements, full lab capacities, or professors being too busy with conferences to take on students this term.

On top of that, I am dealing with a tight timeline: all project details and paperwork need to be sorted out through August so that everything can be fully approved by early September. I'm quite worried that if I start moving forward with this professor and discussing the details while waiting for others, backing out mid-way because I receive an acceptance from another professor who agreed to a research proposal I prefer much more could seriously damage my credibility with them and create awkwardness within the department.

For those of you who have successfully gone through this process—whether you've done an Independent Study, an ROP, secured an undergrad research position here, or even grad students who went through similar supervisor-selection dilemmas:

# 1. How did you handle the dilemma of getting an offer from a professor whose research you are less enthusiastic about, especially while weighing the tight August/Early September administrative deadline and the risk of backing out mid-discussions for a preferred offer?

# 2. Is it normal or acceptable to take a little bit of time to respond to the first offer, and if you continued discussions with the first professor while waiting, how did you handle it if a preferred professor or a better research offer came along later?

Would really appreciate any insights or shared experiences from anyone who has been through this. Thanks!

As a returning student, I'm returning to Toronto this week & planning to study in the UofT library before resuming my studies this fall. Can I use UofT wifi as a returning student?

I'm gonna take it this winter, which is my last term before graduation. This course is not mandatory for my program requirement, but i'm taking it for grad school. This would be my third seminar course (I mean if i take it & the course titled "Seminar"), wondering if i can get advice & opinions on PSY490 with Martin Ralph? I(Pls dont say just google it but i wanna talk to someone & ask more questions about the course mechanics, you know)

* How is the workload and difficulty? I've heard his courses are notoriously hard, but i wanna know what happened inside the course.

* Was the workload manageable?

* How difficult was the course overall?

* Was it quite demanding?

* Was it difficult to get a high grade?

* Is there anything you wish you had known before taking it?

I’m currently waitlisted for a PSY400 lvl course. My current rank is 26, and the total class size is 55. Am I doomed? A PhD student will be teaching this course, and I don't like other alternatives at all :(

Hi everyone,

I am a final-year undergraduate student in Canada preparing for my final semester this coming Winter. I am currently trying to secure a supervisor for an Independent Study course. Since this is my absolute last opportunity to graduate on time and strategically manage my course load, I am feeling a bit anxious about the administrative timeline. I would deeply appreciate any insights or reality checks from professors who regularly supervise undergraduate independent research.

To protect the anonymity of my project, I won't go into specific details, but I have already completely filled out the official Independent Study Application Form on my own. This includes a fully structured research proposal, a detailed weekly timeline, and a clear evaluation/marking scheme.

I deliberately designed the methodology to utilize pre-validated, open-source datasets to ensure zero participant recruitment bottlenecks, meaning it requires no lab engineering resources or programming infrastructure. My goal was to make it entirely self-contained so that, technically, a supervisor would only need to review my asynchronous research logs and sign off on the grading. In the proposal, I included their publications in the primary reading list for this course, high interests and why my research aligns with their research.

I have actively looked through my department directory and previous instructors, but I am running into a lot of structural dead ends:

Professor A: On sabbatical (in upcoming academic year: 2026/2027).

Professor B: Declined because they are in the teaching stream and cannot supervise independent studies this term. (However, they kindly praised the proposal as "highly competitive and interesting.")

Professors C & D: Sent comprehensive emails with my proposal, transcript, and resume attached. It has been exactly 1-2 week, and I haven't heard back yet.

Other Faculty: Either recently retired, on medical/maternal leave, or already maxed out supervising other students.

Because of these constraints, I am running out of viable options in my specific stream, which adds to the stress of waiting. I fully understand that it is the middle of the summer break and that faculty are incredibly busy with conferences, grants, and their own research, making email response times naturally slower.

If you were a professor in this position, or if you have guided students through this, I would be incredibly grateful for your perspective on the following:

Is 2 week too soon to follow up during the summer? Given that faculty are technically not on contract or are focused heavily on research right now, what is a respectful waiting period before sending a gentle reminder? Should I wait few more weeks? I'm wondering some of them could ghost me for this research inquiry.

Should I start reaching out to 5th or 6th backup professors right now, or is that overkill? Since my options within my exact research stream are almost depleted, expanding my search would mean pitching to professors slightly outside my immediate area of interest. But also I don't wanna backfire the situation because I know professors have a meeting and what if they say: Hey, did you receive a research proposal? Yeah I did too. Did you?

-> This is bad for my reputation towards them, I think.

I really want to get this administrative hurdle cleared before the semester kicks off so I can finalize my graduation requirements. Thank you so much for your time, your hard work over the summer, and any advice you can share!

Hi everyone,

I am a final-year undergraduate student in Canada preparing for my final semester this coming Winter. I am currently trying to secure a supervisor for an Independent Study course. Since this is my absolute last opportunity to graduate on time and strategically manage my course load, I am feeling a bit anxious about the administrative timeline. I would deeply appreciate any insights or reality checks from professors who regularly supervise undergraduate independent research.

To protect the anonymity of my project, I won't go into specific details, but I have already completely filled out the official Independent Study Application Form on my own. This includes a fully structured research proposal, a detailed weekly timeline, and a clear evaluation/marking scheme.

I deliberately designed the methodology to utilize pre-validated, open-source datasets to ensure zero participant recruitment bottlenecks, meaning it requires no lab engineering resources or programming infrastructure. My goal was to make it entirely self-contained so that, technically, a supervisor would only need to review my asynchronous research logs and sign off on the grading. In the proposal, I included their publications in the primary reading list for this course, high interests and why my research aligns with their research.

I have actively looked through my department directory and previous instructors, but I am running into a lot of structural dead ends:

Professor A: On sabbatical (in upcoming academic year: 2026/2027).

Professor B: Declined because they are in the teaching stream and cannot supervise independent studies this term. (However, they kindly praised the proposal as "highly competitive and interesting.")

Professors C & D: Sent comprehensive emails with my proposal, transcript, and resume attached. It has been exactly 1-2 week, and I haven't heard back yet.

Other Faculty: Either recently retired, on medical/maternal leave, or already maxed out supervising other students.

Because of these constraints, I am running out of viable options in my specific stream, which adds to the stress of waiting. I fully understand that it is the middle of the summer break and that faculty are incredibly busy with conferences, grants, and their own research, making email response times naturally slower.

If you were a professor in this position, or if you have guided students through this, I would be incredibly grateful for your perspective on the following:

Is 2 week too soon to follow up during the summer? Given that faculty are technically not on contract or are focused heavily on research right now, what is a respectful waiting period before sending a gentle reminder? Should I wait few more weeks? I'm wondering some of them could ghost me for this research inquiry.

Should I start reaching out to 5th or 6th backup professors right now, or is that overkill? Since my options within my exact research stream are almost depleted, expanding my search would mean pitching to professors slightly outside my immediate area of interest. But also I don't wanna backfire the situation because I know professors have a meeting and what if they say: Hey, did you receive a research proposal? Yeah I did too. Did you?

-> This is bad for my reputation towards them, I think.

I really want to get this administrative hurdle cleared before the semester kicks off so I can finalize my graduation requirements. Thank you so much for your time, your hard work over the summer, and any advice you can share!

Hi everyone,

I’m a final-year Cognitive Science student preparing for my upcoming final semester, and I'm currently trying to secure a supervisor for COG498/499H1 (Independent Study). Since this is my absolute last chance to graduate on time and manage my course load strategically, I’m feeling a bit anxious about the timeline and would love to hear from anyone who has successfully taken COG498/499H1 or any independent research courses before.

To protect the anonymity of my project, I won't go into specific details, but I have already completely filled out the official Independent Study Application Form on my own. This includes a fully structured research proposal, a weekly timeline, and an evaluation/marking scheme. I deliberately designed the methodology to utilize open-source datasets so that it requires zero participant recruitment and won't drain any lab engineering resources or programming infrastructure. Technically, the supervisor just needs to review my asynchronous research logs and sign off on the grading.

Despite having a solid, highly feasible proposal ready to go, here is my current status with the professors I've reached out to so far:

• Professor A: Emailed, but found out they are currently on sabbatical.
• Professor B: Emailed, but they declined because they are in the teaching stream and cannot supervise independent studies this term. This professor praised me that my research is highly competitive and interesting.
• Professor C & D: Sent comprehensive emails with my transcript and resume attached. It has been exactly 1 week since I contacted them, and I haven't heard back yet. (Professor C is the one that Professor A recommended.)

To be honest, I’ve already combed through the department directory, but there are very few viable options left for me to contact. For the other potential professors whose courses I’ve previously taken, they all have their own situational constraints that make supervision impossible this term—some are already maxed out supervising other students, some are on medical/maternal leave, and others have recently retired. Because of these dead ends, I am effectively running out of potential supervisors in my specific stream, which makes my current waiting situation even more stressful.

Since it's the middle of the summer break, I know professors are incredibly busy with conferences, grants, and their own research, so their response time is naturally slower.

My questions for those who have been through this process are:

1. How many professors did you have to contact before finally securing a supervisor for an independent study? Should I start writing emails to a 5th or 6th backup professor right now, or is that overkill?
2. How long is the standard waiting period during the summer before it’s considered acceptable to send a gentle follow-up/reminder email? Is 1-2 week too soon, or should I wait a few more weeks?

I really want to get this administrative hurdle cleared before the semester kicks off so I can lock down my schedule. Any insights, reality checks, or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much in advance!

I'm considering ANT204, RLG205, SOC210, PHL273 for my last semester.

Any easy course (I know, this school is tough, so 'relatively') focused on project, quizzes or essays (with no final exam)? I don't wanna make myself exhausted with tough tests on my last semester😭

Or any other easy 300+ courses from critical equity courses focused on project, quizzes or essays would be appreciated 😭😭