Study Abroad at the University of Toronto, Canada !
Hi, I’m Hamish, I’m a 4th year chemistry student and I am studying abroad at the University of Toronto this academic year. I was fortunate to receive both the 600th Anniversary Scholarship and Turing Funding which enabled me to explore more of Canada outside of the city and make the most of my time abroad.
Living in Toronto
Being a big city, Toronto could not be more different from St Andrews. There is people and food from anywhere you could think of and so many places to go and explore. Some of my personal highlights have got to be the ice rinks open all over the city in the winter – which are free to use, going to Toronto Island in the summer to swim and in the winter to skate, and wandering around the city and all its different areas and architectures. Toronto is brilliantly placed to go and visit Niagara Falls, Montréal and Québec which have unique atmospheres and are so interesting with the blend of British, North American, and French culture.
Studying in Toronto
While Toronto is relatively culturally similar to the UK, the university is definitely different. The lecturing style is more casual, and will usually focus on what the lecturer is interested in. Assignments are often unique and interesting. For example, I was tasked with devising a chemical start-up to present to industry experts. Furthermore, the scale of the university (100,000 students across 3 campuses) means that the variety of courses offered here is incredibly broad. However, the scale has its downsides. Compared to St Andrews, the university doesn’t maintain as strong a community feel to it, and it’s easy to feel dwarfed. Despite this, I have made a whole host of wonderful friends from other exchange students, existing U of T students, and my flatmates, which has made my experience even better!
Hopefully I have provided an insight what it is like studying chemistry abroad and living in Canada! I have loved my experience abroad and would recommend it to anyone. Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions about my experience!
If you would like to talk to Hamish about his experience in more depth, please reach out to [email protected] and we can put you in touch!