Discover Engineering

Always make sure your cell phone is charged. It’s no fun being stuck on campus with a dead cell and no access to your phone book. If you have room in your backpack and are forgetful, bring your charger with you, as there are plenty of places to recharge on campus. You can also keep a small contact list of all your most important phone numbers in your bag at all times.

Never leave your bag or laptop unattended when you’re studying. Exercise caution: if you need to run to the washroom, pack everything up and take it with you.

Each area of Residence will be supervised by a Don, who is a senior student hired and trained to help you have a good experience in Residence. She or he will be there to support you with anything that may come up, like feeling homesick or having problems with your roommates. When you have a concern, don’t hesitate to stop by the Don’s room to chat. They also know about all the resources available to students at U of T, so they can help you find solutions to any issue.

Your Residence Don and Residence Council will organize events to help you de-stress, learn something new, get to know the city better, and get to know your fellow residence students. These events are fun, typically free, and usually have free food!

Familiarize yourself with your textbooks early. Read the table of contents and the preface of the book early on. Always skim the assigned reading before and after lectures. Look for helpful diagrams. Correlate your lecture to the text, and pick out the important points from each section. Find the problems that apply to the concepts focused on in lecture, and work through them.

Study wisely. Spending more time studying isn’t always better. You need to make the time you spend studying worthwhile. I’ve heard Prof. McCahan relate Engineering to learning how to play the piano. You’ll only perform well if you practice. Rather than just reading through your textbook, spend time practicing problems. Focus on the priorities in the course. If you get stuck on a problem, don’t work backwards from the answer. Ask someone to help you get over your sticky spot. Take breaks, and don’t study when you are too tired. Your brain needs time to recharge and to store the information you feed it.