Congrats! You’re going to Trinity, or within 2 weeks of being here, “Trin.” The college system at U of T can be a bit confusing when you first get here in terms of understanding how your experience with your college meshes with your life in the grander scheme of thing.
One of the questions people ask all the time is if you have to go to Trin to be an IR student. The answer is no. (By the way, probably over half of you who think they’re going to be IR majors will not be IR majors by next year. Don’t worry about it.) You also don’t have to go to be a New College student to do a minor in Buddhism Psychology and Mental Health (it’s a real minor) or go to Woodsworth to be a criminology major.
Just because a program is housed at a certain college doesn’t really mean anything in terms of your own college affiliation, and as such don’t feel limited. Though it might mean if you’re majoring in book and media studies that you spend a lot of time at St. Mike’s. Have fun. Same goes with participating and going to other events at other colleges.
In my first year, I was part of Vic One in the Pearson stream, which a great experience. The One programs are pretty great experiences, and the Pearson stream which was geared towards history and political science students wasn’t necessarily the best fit considering what I’m studying now, but I learned a lot. Through Vic One, I actually helped start a club at Vic (Equal Voice), which is an organization that works to have more women in parliament. I’ve also contributed an article to The Mike (SMC’s paper) and was in a play by UC (university college) Follies. Often there are opportunities like in theatre or through people you know, to participate in events and organizations at other colleges which you should feel free to take advantage of. This is probably a bit unusual compared to most people, but if you’re someone who really wants to audition for Company run by VCDS (Victoria College Drama Society) or want to take a first year class at New College, just do it.
The other thing about being at Trin, means that you pay program fees to the college and that you can go to our friendly registrar’s office for anything you need. You can also drop by the dean’s office in St. Hilda’s for any questions about student life or anything really! It also means that you get to tell everyone that their quad sucks compared to ours.
And here’s a Mean Girls clip to demonstrate how we feel about people using the JCR who don’t go to Trin.
By: Karthy Chin
TO TRINITY AND BEYOND 