Coming to a new country and culture, and even coming to university for the first time can be very challenging.  It takes a lot of courage to make a big change in your life, so congratulations!

There are many aspects that make coming to university difficult, and it’s okay if you feel some or all of them:

• being away from family and friends
• living on your own for the first time
• dealing with a different academic system than back home
• Canadian weather
• taking care of your health and well-being

When you first get here, the excitement of the new experience can last for several weeks, but after that, the newness wears off and you can start to feel the symptoms of culture shock.  Did you know that you can feel culture shock both physically and emotionally? and see transition trouble academically?

Physical symptoms	Emotional symptoms	Academic symptoms
Too much or too little sleep	Loneliness, homesickness, idealizing home	Difficulty understanding when your professor is lecturing
Eating too much or too little appetite	Being irritable, hostile or withdrawing socially	Difficulty reading assigned texts quickly or understanding what you’ve read
Getting colds or sicknesses often	Negative stereotyping Canadian people	Being afraid to take classes where essay-writing is needed
Upset stomach	Excessive concern for your health & safety	Doing poorly on tests or assignments
Being very tired or having low energy	Having low self-esteem, low confidence, feeling unimportant	Failing classes
Headaches	Feeling disappointment, helplessness or hopelessness	Receiving pre-probation, probation or suspension notification from the Registrar’s Office

Don’t worry! There are lots of great people and services on campus to help you.  The important thing to remember is that you need to reach out and talk to someone!

You can make an appointment to talk to a friendly ISC Advisor to talk about your situation and we can discuss services and options available to you.

Help yourself transition

Some of the things that you can do to help yourself transition to U of T and lessen these symptoms are:

• Develop a support network. Friends notice when you’re feeling sad or alone, and you can talk to them about how you feel. Making friends at school, where you practice religious worship, or at a cultural community centre is one of the best ways to get support when you need it most.
  
  
• Get involved at UTSC. Whether you work, volunteer, belong to a Departmental Association, club, team or informal study group , studies show that you’re more likely to do well in school and enjoy your time here more! Consider volunteering or working for the ISC or Department of Student Life.
  
  
• Ask questions. In Canada, if you don’t understand something or want to voice your opinion, you’re welcome to do so in a respectful manner. You can ask questions during appropriate class times, during professor’s office hours, at social events on campus, or in a staff member’s office. At U of T, there’s lots of help waiting for you…you just need to ask!
  
  
• Be patient! Sometimes it just takes a bit of time to understand the way things work in a new culture or in a new academic system. When you’re asking questions, practicing what you’ve learned, and taking care of yourself, you’ll get accustomed to UTSC in no time!