Can you relate?

As you count down the days to starting your academic journey in Ontario, you might be wondering about what you can do before leaving your current place of residence. This section will focus on the tasks and research that you can prioritize prior to your departure to make the transition to your new location and learning institution a lot smoother.

A word of caution as you do your research and information-gathering: It is an unfortunate reality that international students can be targeted by third-party organizations, tutoring companies, or agents that claim to represent Canadian institutions, but do not have such connections. Be especially wary of any service that requires you to pay additional fees to access support or ask you to share personal information that your institution should already have access to (e.g. your student number).

Please also keep in mind your college or university will likely have specialized teams that can support you with finding academic resources and offering the best advice.

Also get into the habit of fact-checking what you hear or read from others (e.g. Facebook groups or Reddit threads) by carefully cross-referencing this with what is written on official websites and in communications that are directly from your institution. For instance, if you are receiving advice from fellow student peers or a student organization, make sure they are affiliated with your college or university.

Finally, if you decide to make use of academic services (such as academic tutoring), start with your institution’s offerings or suggestions first instead of paying out-of-pocket for a third-party, for-profit service.