Why UofT?
I decided to go to the University of Toronto (UofT) to work on my Degree Project, i.e. the Bachelor’s Thesis during my sixth and final semester at Karolinska Institutet. This decision was motivated by various factors. From the academic perspective, I wanted to get some exposure to a different research environment and see how teaching style would be different in North America. From the personal perspective, I wanted a change from having lived and studied in Sweden for many years and to try making friends and experiences in a new context.
I chose UofT because it is one of the top universities in the world for life sciences and biomedicine. It is also associated with various hospitals, making a lot of the research directly related to clinical medicine and human health. At the time, I was also considering pursuing a master’s or PhD at UofT, so I thought going there for an exchange would be a good experience to help me make future career choices.
Information about the exchange
The information I received regarding the exchange semester from KI and UofT was relevant but occasionally too general. Figuring out how a semester-long thesis fit into the UofT course system, choosing the extra courses, and determining credit transfer procedures were all aspects I had a lot of communication with both universities about. Roughly speaking, the logistics looked like this:
1. Choose a campus: UofT has three campuses: St. George, Mississauga, and Scarborough. I was initially registered at Mississauga but contacted my exchange coordinator to change it to St. George. I chose the St. George campus because it had more faculty members that focused on my interest in molecular genetics.
2. Minimum credits & courses: There are different requirements for the minimum number of courses and credits required depending on the campus chosen. In my case, the Faculty of Arts and Science at St. George required me to complete 3-5 courses and complete 1.5-2.5 credits. Each semester-long course is worth 0.5 credits.
3. My decisions: Since my primary focus was my thesis, I chose to do the minimum 3 courses. Choosing the three courses was the next big step.
Choosing courses
UofT is a big university with hundreds of courses, so it is difficult to peruse the whole list and select what I wanted to do. Eventually, I came up with this strategy:
1. Get familiar with the course naming and classification system: Let’s take an example – MGY472H1S.
o MGY: The name of the department. Here, it is Molecular Genetics & Microbiology.
o 472: The level of the course. 100-199 are first-year courses, 200-299 are second-year courses, 300-399 are third-year courses, and 400-499 are fourth-year courses.
o H: “Half”, meaning it lasts for half the year (one semester). If there is a Y in this position, it means that the course lasts for a year.
o 1: is the code for the campus. 1 = St. George, 2 =
o S: the semester. S=Second/Winter semester. F = First/Fall semester. Y =
2. Search the list of departments and find those that match your interests. Then, consider the courses these departments offer. I narrowed it down to MGY (Molecular Genetics and Microbiology), CSB (Cells and Systems Biology), and BCB (Bioinformatics and Computational Biology).
3. Search the Academic Calendar for courses offered by these departments. You can add filters for level (I only looked at 400 and above), duration (Half year), campus (St. George), and semester (Winter).
At UofT, at least 0.5 of your credits (and one of your courses) will be dedicated to your thesis. Any research work exchange students do at UofT must be through what is called an Independent Research course. These courses are either…
· Offered through the department you are interested in. I did MGY482H
· Offered by the college you are enrolled in.
· Offered as a research opportunity programme
Vaccines and pre-work prep
My worked at the Wilson Lab under the Department of Molecular Genetics. This lab was also affiliated with and located at the Peter Gilgan Research Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Given that I was on hospital premises, I had to be up to date with several vaccines, tests, and safety training modules. All staff had to have completed a Tuberculosis test and various standard vaccines.
Visas
Whether you will require a visa during your exchange will depend on your country of citizenship, how long you’re travelling, if you plan to work during your studies, etc. As an Indian citizen travelling to study for five months who was not going to be working in Canada, it was sufficient for me to get a Visitor’s Visa for studies.
Your passport will have to be submitted once the visa is granted (so that it can get the visa on its pages), so it’s not a great idea to plan any big trips while your visa is processing.