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Next week, more than 80,000 students from around the world help launch the University of Toronto’s 186th school year across its three campuses. For many, it’s another year of possibilities and challenges as they work towards their degree. But for more than 14,000 incoming first-year students, it’s a big step.

“Being in university is certainly very different from being in high school, but your experience of it depends on how you make it,” said Chesarahmia DojoSoeandy, an award-winning alumna who graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from U of T last June. She begins a Master of Science degree with the University of Toronto Pharmaceutical Sciences this September.

Dojosoeandy was the first in her family to pursue an academic career in the sciences making it “quite challenging to navigate” her program.

“But through my studies and through the different opportunities available at U of T, I was able to educate myself about the steps that I should take to reach my goal and to connect with so many amazing people that have helped me get to where I am today,” she said.

Today’s new students are part of a diverse cohort of U of T undergrads 65,000 strong, making up a portion of Toronto’s population large enough to fill both the Roger’s Centre and the Air Canada Centre.

These undergraduates are plugging into a network of experts comprising more than 11,000 faculty, 6,000 staff, 150 librarians and 15,000 graduate students, all available to share advice and experiences as undergrads pursue their degrees.

Students| Fall 2012

“U of T's course planning tools like are wonderful, as are your department's undergraduate coordinators,” says Emma Cancelliere, an alumna from the Biological Anthropology program who convocated last June. Cancelliere is going on to graduate studies at the New York Consortium of Evolutionary Primatology. “When in doubt, send them an email or drop by their offices, because there is literally nobody who knows more about the courses you'll need to take than they do!”

And for the more book-minded learner, starting a program at U of T means gaining access to the third-largest library system in the world (behind Harvard and Yale), as students have more than 44 libraries and 21 million holdings at their disposal.

“Study hard and play harder,” advises recent grad Oloruntobi Ogunbiyi, who graduated from U of T’s Computer Science program last June, and now works at Toronto startup, DivNotes. “It would be impossible to work hard if you can't reward yourself for doing so. Find a hobby, join a student club— enjoy your time at U of T!”