Whenever I tell people what I'm studying their reaction is amusing. Both of my majors have long-winded names and they aren't directly related. I study Peace, Conflict and Justice (PCJ) at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Literature and Critical Theory at Victoria College. See what I mean.
Planning which courses to take was overwhelming at first because I had so many prerequisites to track and mandatory courses to enroll in. For years, I was making horribly unorganized notes on my phone about which classes to take. And then a friend of mine showed me Degree Explorer. My favourite tool is the Planner, a calendar that allows you to test which courses can help you fulfill your degree requirements — and it even updates your progress bar to show you what is, in theory, complete.
Using Degree Explorer helped me figure out which classes fulfilled requirements in both my fields of studies. I was able to learn that there were many sociology classes that satisfied both of my majors, so back in spring, I had created a whole plan on which classes to take in the summer, fall and winter; a whole path to graduation was saved in my Planner.
It was also a great way to figure out how to finish U of T's breadth requirements. There are a few ways to complete it and there's a whole basket of classes students can take, but some were more useful to my studies than others. For example, I took a breadth 5 class on Controversies in Earth Science which taught me how to make geological maps. One year later when I was in my Environmental Justice course for my PCJ program, I was able to make a map (that was very well-received) for my final project.
Planning the path to graduation can be stressful and confusing. The Degree Explorer tool was a great way to get ahead independently and on my own timeline.
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