New Year, new semester!

Wow, it’s already January 2012 and the first semester of my last year just flew by!  I’m glad that my courses are over and that they went well but what does the new semester hold in store for me?  Will my test dates and due dates overlap? Is the course I chose actually the course I wanted to take?  Do I have enough money saved up for coffee this semester?  All are very important questions.

The second half of the school year has begun at the University of Toronto Mississauga and I’m excited about my courses this semester.  I am enrolled in microbiology, thermodynamics and kinetics, animal physiology, and the biology of human sexuality.  I made sure that I attended all my classes the first week to ensure that the courses were of interest.  At the end of each one of those classes, I made sure to go through my syllabus and record all test and due dates – that way, I would always know what to do for the upcoming weeks.  This is a practice I began using in my second semester of first year after I almost missed a test!  That was before I discovered the wonders of coffee and decided to put my head down on my desk in the library but dozed off…

The courses I am enrolled in this semester are ones I have a personal interest in and want to take, as well as program requirements. They will classify me according to my programs: a biology major and math and chemistry minor.

I’m lucky to have planned ahead and figured out what courses I wanted to take.  Sometimes what you want to take doesn’t fit into your schedule with all your courses so you have to take some courses at other times, like in another semester or another year entirely.

As a student at UTM I am glad to know that I have the freedom to make changes to my course schedule two weeks into each semester.  There have been times when I’ve wanted to see how a course is so I have enrolled and attended the lectures knowing that I can drop the course with no academic or financial penalty.  UTM even gives all its students the ability to go so far as to change their program(s) of study – we just need to have the required courses and GPA for the program.

Since I’m pleased with my courses and they satisfy my program requirements, all that’s left for me to do is move into the Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Center, aka the UTM library.  That’s right, I said move into the library.  Does that sound odd to you?  Well it shouldn’t.  Where else would you study?!

Come to UofT Mississauga! …and its library!

Arvind Singh is a fourth year student working toward an Honours Bachelor of Science with a Major in Biology and a Double Minor in Chemistry and Mathematics. He plays rugby and boxes. These days, you are most likely to find Arvind in the library.