Welcome Guide for Graduate Students

Carefully review your entire admission package. If you accept the offer, you should sign, date, scan and upload the Admissions Confirmation Form to the SGS application system.

Your offer may include requirements that you need to satisfy before you can start your studies (i.e. conditions). If you have conditions on your admission offer, make sure you satisfy them as soon as possible.

For Clearing Admission Conditions and Sending Official Transcripts

Most admission offer letters include a condition indicating that your institution(s) must send us your official transcript(s).

Sending Official Transcripts Electronically (preferred):

If your institution can produce an official transcript electronically, request that they  email it to:

• MASc & PhD applicants: Joan Chen at gradassist.chemeng@utoronto.ca
• MEng applicants: Sarah Johns at mengprograms.chemeng@utoronto.ca

Sending Official Transcripts on Paper:

If your institution can only produce an official transcript on paper, request that they mail it to:

Graduate Office
Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry
200 College Street
Toronto, ON, Canada
M5S 3E5
416-946-3427

You will need to enable your JOINid to access many University of Toronto (U of T) services. Your JOINid was sent to you via email from SGS. If you cannot locate it, contact SGS at admissions.sgs@utoronto.ca.

For the most current information on applying for a study permit and entering Canada, visit the Canada.ca website.

Helpful resources:

• Estimated application processing times
• Studying in Canada
• Visiting/entering Canada

The Centre for International Experience (CIE) provides detailed information about applying for a study permit. They also provide workshops and information sessions on various immigration topics – for details, see the CIE website. You can also contact one of our Immigration Advisors at: isa.cie@utoronto.ca or 1-416-978-2038.

For information about the Student Direct Stream (SDS), prepaying your fees, and proof of payment, see the Student Accounts website.

MEng (professional-stream) students typically self-fund their educational expenses, but there are sometimes awards available to them. Check our MEng Award & Scholarship webpage for details about any awards currently available for MEng students.

MASc and PhD (research-stream) students receiving a funding package will be provided basic information in their offer of admission, and further details will be provided in your Funding Summary at the end of September. Also see How funding works: research-stream students and Chemical Engineering Graduate Financial Support.

Award and Financial Aid Resources

• Database of all university scholarships, see Award Explorer
• SGS’s list of major graduate awards (search for “professional master”)
• SGS’s list of external funding resources available to graduate students
• Financial aid for graduate students

Budgeting Resources

U of T resources for calculating your expenses while studying:

• Financial planning calculator
• Living Expenses in Toronto

Campus Job Resources

Common sources of on campus jobs open to U of T students:

• Campus jobs and Work Study, see Career Learning Network
• Teaching Assistant positions, see Chemical Engineering Postings, U of T Postings, Collective Agreement

ChemE students live both in residence and off-campus.

On-Campus

There are two graduate student residences on campus, Graduate House and Massey College. If you want to live in residence, make sure you apply early! Housing Services can help you with your application.

For students with dependants, Student Family Housing offers housing for student couples and families from all over the world.

Off-Campus

If you prefer to live off-campus, start your search with Housing Services. They maintain a list of off-campus housing, URent: Finding a Place, plus many workshops and resources that can help you to find a place to rent in Toronto. You need your enabled JOINid to register for Housing Services events.

While you do not need your TCard (U of T student card) until closer to September, you can avoid long lines and wait times by getting your TCard early. Students starting in Fall term can get their TCard in early May.

After you have your TCard, you will also be able to activate your UTORid and get access to all U of T services, such as UTmail+ (U of T student email and software access), the libraries, and more.

You are registered once you have:

• cleared your admission conditions, and
• paid or deferred your fees (allow up to 2 weeks processing time)

Those who pay their fees before clearing conditions will not be registered automatically. If you are in this situation, contact Joan Chen, gradassist.chemeng@utoronto.ca, and request to be registered manually.

You can confirm your registration status on your ACORN dashboard, under Degree Registration Status. If the status is “REG”, it means that your payment was received and that you are registered.

Deferring fees (aka registering without making a fee payment):

• MASc and PhD students entering their program can defer their fees on ACORN.

• MEng students may be able to defer their fees if they are receiving:
  • Ontario Student Assistance Plan (OSAP) loan
  • Other provincial government loan
  • US government loan
  • University funding package (major award, research stipend, or teaching stipend)

Making fee payments: Your fees invoice is available on ACORN in mid-July. Make sure that you pay your fees on time to meet the Fall registration deadline. Fee payments are not accepted on campus. Please allow 7-10 business days for your fee payment to be processed by the University.  You can make payments as follows:

• Credit card on ACORN (all students)
• Canadian financial institution, in person or online (domestic students)
• Convera (international students outside of Canada)

ChemE students add their own courses on ACORN. Students are encouraged to take courses from other departments in addition to those offered by ChemE. The enrollment date that we provide on our website is the earliest date that you may add ChemE courses and those offered by other departments.

Links to ChemE timetable and other departments:

• ChemE course timetable
• Engineering Departments and Institutes
• Physical and Life Science Divisions

Any student who will receive a research assistantship (funds from a supervisor's research accounts), teaching assistantship, must complete and submit payroll forms to the department.  Prior to submitting these forms, you will need a Social Insurance Number (SIN) Card.  Please contact the Payroll Officer, payroll.chemeng@utoronto.ca, with any inquiries regarding payroll.

Students receiving a scholarship, fellowship are strongly encouraged to add bank account information in ACORN so that payments can be deposited directly into your bank account.  Without bank account information in ACORN, payments are made by cheque and take up to a month to reach the recipient.

Note:  Direct deposit payment can only be made to Canadian bank accounts.  If you cannot set up a Canadian bank account because you are studying remotely from a location outside Canada, please contact Iliana Sztainbok, grad.chemeng@utoronto.ca.

MASc and PhD students are required to complete Safety Training at the beginning of their studies.  You will be automatically registered in the Safety Training course (CHE2222H) on ACORN.  Details on when training takes place and how to access materials will be provided closer to the start of the Fall session.

MEng students who are completing an MEng project must complete Safety Training before starting their project. If you are not completing an MEng project, we also encourage you to complete Safety Training, but it is not required. However, if you enrol into Safety Training, you must complete it. If you do not complete it, you will have an "IPR" on your transcript and this will cause problems when you request to graduate.

For details, refer to the Safety Training information on our website.

Once you activate your JOINid, you can log into ACORN and update your contact information.  Please make sure that your information is updated as soon as possible.  This includes your mailing and/or permanent address, phone number, email address.  Note that you will need to manually enter your utoronto.ca email address on ACORN once you have set it up.