Web-based Graduate Admissions

Guide to Potential Applicants

Civil Engineering Department
University of Toronto
Table of Contents
1 — Overview 3
2 — Visibility and Stages of Applications 3
3 — The Steps Towards Admission 5
4 — New Account Registration 7
5 — The My Tasks Menu 8
6 — Tasks for Everyone 8
6.1 — Log out from the current session 8
6.2 — Update my contact information and password 8
6.3 — Review my important dates 8
1
7 — Tasks for Applicants 8
7.1 — Step one: Enter the basic information about yourself 8
7.2 — Step two: Provide contact information of your referees 13
7.3 — Step three: Entering grades 13
 7.4 — View your application 15
7.5 — Submit your application 16
7.6 — Review the status of your submitted application 16
7.7 — Delete your application 17
7.8 — Remind referees to send letters of reference 17
7.9 — View the list of faculty members in the department 17
7.10 — View the list of research labs in the department 18
8 — Acceptable Use Policy 19
9 — Privacy Policy 19
10 — Contact Us 20

Web-based Graduate Admissions

Guide to Potential Applicants
Civil Engineering Department
University of Toronto

1 — Overview
Thank you for considering to apply to the Department of Civil Engineering,
University of Toronto, and welcome to the web-based graduate admissions web
site. The web-based graduate admissions system in the Department of Civil
Engineering is carefully designed and implemented to streamline the process for
potential applicants, like you, to create and submit applications, as well as the
process for the faculty members to select and review them.
The objective is to replace the paper-based work flow by electronically storing all
the information related to applications.
Any new user who creates an account in the system automatically assumes the
role of an applicant. After you have created your new account and logged in, you
may create a new application, continue to complete all the information required
for an application, and submit an application. Once your application has been
submitted, you may check the status of the application on-line in the system.
After a positive decision of admission is made, you will be promptly notified by an
email message, and directed to accept or decline the offer on-line in the web-
based system. At any time, you may also view the profiles of all the faculty
members and research laboratories, and send reminders to referees.

*Important Note: This guide is specifically designed to help all potential

applicants who intend to use the web-based graduate admissions system to
apply to the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto. As an
applicant, you are strongly encouraged to read this guide in its entirety. Important
notes will be included in this guide, as well as helpful tips on how to best use the
system. While every effort has been made to make the system as easy to use as
possible, it is the responsibility of the applicant to use the system appropriately.
As the system is designed to streamline the admissions process, we believe that
it is worth the additional effort and time on your side.

2 — Visibility and Stages of Applications

Throughout the lifetime of your application, it may go through the following
stages.
1. Applications that are in preparation. Applications that have been started by you
and partially entered into the system database are not visible to either the faculty
members, or the graduate administrators. They are only visible to you, who
started the application, and who is in the process of completing such an
application. When you are satisfied that all required information has been entered
into the database, you may decide to submit the application. After submission, an
application may no longer be modified by you. At the time of submission, the
system performs sanity checks to make sure that all required information has
been entered, and that there does not exist obvious conflicts or mistakes. After
passing the sanity checks, an email message will be sent to you, and your
application is immediately visible to the graduate administrators, but not yet to
the faculty members for review.
2. Applications that have been submitted, waiting for letters of reference to arrive.
After your application has been submitted to the system and all sanity checks
have passed, the referees indicated by you in your application are immediately
and automatically contacted by the system for the letters of reference. The
applicant may also choose to use the system to remind referees via email
messages. As soon as a letter of reference has been received, the
corresponding applicant and referee will be contacted via email messages to
confirm the receipt of such a letter. Two letters of reference are required for an
application. An application will remain invisible to the faculty members for review,
when the system is waiting for the letters of reference to arrive.
3. Applications that are visible. After both letters of reference have been received
by the system, your application becomes visible to the departmental faculty for
review. A faculty member can search and sort all visible applications using a
variety of criteria, including GPA, country, name, visa status, and degrees. As it
may take time for referees to complete their letters of reference, it is strongly
advised that you submit your application on-line as early as possible, preferably
two weeks before the actual application deadline.
4. Applications that are visible, and the research interests of applicants and
faculty members match. Though faculty members can review all applications in
the system, not all applications can be acted upon. Each faculty member can
specify up to three research areas as his/her research interests in the profile.
You can also specify up to three research areas as your research interests in the
application. The system compares these two sets of research areas. If there exist
an overlapped area, the faculty member is able to indicate his/her interest in the
application, by either selecting the application for interview, or by making a
commitment to provide funding to support the admission of your application.

Each application in the system is in one of the following stages.

1. Your application becomes visible automatically if both letters of reference have

been received. As soon as your application becomes visible, an email message
will be sent to you. Your application will be reviewed by the departmental faculty
as soon as it becomes visible.
2. Your application will be authenticated by the graduate administrators if one or
more of the faculty members have specified interests in the application. A faculty
member may select your application for a possible interview, or commit research
funding to support the admission of your application.
During the authentication process, at their discretion, the graduate administrators
may check if you have paid the application fee, and compare the course grades
submitted on-line by you to those in your original and official transcripts. The
graduate administrators may also choose to verify the authenticity of the letters of
reference by contacting your referees directly via email messages
or phone calls, or by using the official Web URL that you have provided.
3. If your application is deemed authentic after the authentication process is
successfully completed, it will enter the authenticated stage. After your
application is authenticated, an email message will be automatically sent to you,
including the list of faculty members interested in the application.
4. After a number of faculty members have committed research funding to
support an application, the graduate administrator or the graduate admissions
committee may decide to accept your application with an offer of admission, at
which time your application enters the accepted stage.
Only the graduate administrators or the graduate admissions committee have the
authority to make admission decisions. A faculty member does not have such
authority.
5. Upon receiving an offer, you may choose to respond with a positive or
negative response. In either case, your application is moved into the responded
stage. The faculty members who have committed funding to your application will
be notified of your decision via email messages. Your decision is also viewable in
the system, when your application is displayed. If your decision is positive,
the name of the faculty member that you have selected as your supervisor is also
displayed.
Each offer of admission is associated with a response deadline. If you do not
respond on-line before the response deadline expires, we assume that you have
declined the offer and the offer is withdrawn.
6. If no faculty members have expressed interest in your application, or if your
application does not meet the minimum admission standards, or for any other
reason that the graduate administrators the rejected stage, at which time an
appropriate email notice will be sent to you by the system.
3 — The Steps Towards Admission

The web-based graduate admissions system facilitates a list of steps towards

admission of your application.
Step 1. You are required to visit the web site of the School of Graduate Studies,
University of Toronto. The current URL of this web site is
https://apply.sgs.utoronto.ca. The purpose of the web site is to
collect basic information about your application, assign an SGS Application ID to
you, and collect the application fee of CAD $90.
As you submit your applicant profile, the SGS website will prompt you to make
arrangements for payment of the application fee. You may pay the application
fee on-line or off-line. The fee is payable online by credit card, or off-line by credit
card, certified cheque or money order. Cheques and money orders
should be made payable to the University of Toronto. If you pay off-line, you must
forward a hard copy of the Payment Form directly to the School of Graduate
Studies.
Step 2 (Required paper documents to be submitted as part of your
application). Once the process
in Step 1 is completed, your application will be entered into the official database
systems of the University of Toronto. At this point, you are required to print one
copy of the Application for Admission that you receive at the SGS graduate
applications web site. Sign the application and forward the following
directly to the Civil Engineering Graduate Office:
(1) Your signed Application for Admission form;
(2) An unofficial paper copy of the English facility (e.g., TOEFL) score report (if
applicable);
(3) Arrange for official (hard copy) transcripts to be submitted to the Civil
Engineering Graduate office, for all postsecondary programs completed,
attempted, or in progress. Transcripts must list the years of study,
courses taken and grades received. In cases where the program was completed,
the applicant must also provide proof of degree conferral. Applicants who
attend(ed) non-English speaking universities must have the universities provide
official transcripts and proof of degree conferral in the original language,
as well as in English. Universities must forward transcripts in sealed envelopes
bearing the institutional stamp or signature across the back flap directly to the
Civil Engineering Graduate Office.
(4) Submit a request to ETS to arrange for official score reports to be forwarded
directly to the School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto. The institutional
code for the University of Toronto is 0982 the departmental code for Civil
Engineering is 065.
The mailing address for the Civil Engineering Graduate Office is:
Department of Civil Engineering
Admissions Committee
35 St. George St. Rm. 105
Toronto, ON
Canada
M5S 1A4

Once you have arranged all the above paper documents to be submitted to the
Civil Graduate Office by surface mail, you may proceed to the Civil web-based
graduate admissions site, with your SGS ApplicationID ready.

Step 3. You are required to visit the web-based graduate admissions site of the
Department of Civil Engineering. The current URL of this web site is:
https://gradapply.engineering.utoronto.ca/CIV/login.php (click on the link to visit
the web site directly) In this web site, you register for a new account, start an
application on-line, and enter all the required information in the application. The
data entry process is divided into three stages. The first stage collects
basic information in your application. The second stage includes the contact
information of two referees. The final stage requires you to enter all your raw
course grades (including undergraduate and graduate courses, when applicable).
Once all the required information has been entered in the system
and deemed correct, you may submit the application to the Department. Your
application is finalized immediately after submission, and cannot be further
modified by anyone. Do not send email messages to the Civil Graduate Office
regarding modifying an application after submission, as even the
graduate administrators are not able to help you to modify your application.
Step 4. After your application is submitted, you will receive an email of
confirmation, and both of your referees will be immediately invited to submit a
letter of reference. At any time after this confirmation, you may revisit the web
site to view the submitted application, to remind the referees, or to check the
status of the application. Whenever a letter of reference has been uploaded, you
will be notified. Your corresponding email address may be changed at any time in
the system. Your application will be carefully reviewed by the departmental
faculty after it is visible.
Step 5. An email message will be sent to you when your application is
authenticated by the graduate administrator, with a list of faculty members who
have expressed interests (including interviews and funding commitments) in your
application.
Step 6. After the application is authenticated, you are strongly encouraged to
contact the faculty members who are interested in your application for a selection
interview. After possible interviews, funding commitments may be made by the
faculty members, and admission decisions will be made by the graduate
administrators.
Step 7. A email offer of admission will be sent to you when an application is
accepted by the graduate administrators, with a list of faculty members who have
committed funding.
Step 8. You are then presented an opportunity to respond, by a specific
response deadline, to accept or decline the offer of admission. If you choose to
accept the offer, you should specify a faculty member as your thesis supervisor,
selected from the list of faculty members who have committed funding.
The response deadline is specified in the offer of admission. If the deadline
expires and you have not responded, the offer is withdrawn as we believe you
have declined the offer. You may indicate your decision, including the selection
of your supervisor, directly in the on-line graduate admissions system.
Step 9. If you have accepted the offer, the faculty member who you have
selected as your thesis supervisor will be notified with an email message of your
decision. All other faculty members, if any, who have committed funding to
support your application will also be informed with email messages
of your decision. The stage of your application moves forward to the final stage
— responded — after a decision is made on your side. A final email message will
be sent to you to welcome you to the department and to the University of
Toronto.

4 — New Account Registration

To register for a new account, you should click the “Potential applicant? Please
register“ link on the main page. You are then taken to the new account
registration page, where you are required to enter some basic mandatory
information, such as your full name, email address, affiliation, and your contact
phone number. To register, please fill out the form and click the “Register” button.
Your email address is used for all future communication with you, so please
carefully select an appropriate and reliable one. All the information entered in this
form may be changed in the future at any time after you log in.
After successful registration, your initial account password will be generated and
sent to the email address specified by you. Your initial password can be changed
upon first login. If you have forgottten your password, enter your email address
without a password, and then click the “Reset my password” button on the main
page. A new password will be generated and sent to you by email. Your existing
password will not be retrieved, but instead will be overwritten by the new
password generated by the system.
Important note on the choice of web browsers. The current implementation of the
system supports three major web browsers: Internet Explorer 6, Safari, and
Mozilla Firefox. Though we do not officially support other minor browsers such as
Opera and MyIE, we note that the browser that has been confirmed not to work
correctly is Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2. Please do not use this browser as your
choice. It is highly recommended that you use one of the three supported web
browsers.
5 — The My Tasks Menu
Upon logging in, you are shown the My Tasks menu. The menu is tabbed. The
“As Everyone” menu contains all the tasks that are available to any user of the
system. The “As Applicants” menu contains all the tasks available only to the
applicants. For your security and protection, your login session will automatically
expire after 90 minutes of inactivity, and you are required to log in again. For the
security of the web site, all your activities in the system will be logged during your
login session. Important note: Do not use the Back and Refresh buttons in your
browser. They may lead to unpredictable results, since some of the query data
may be reposted to the system. Instead, use the My Tasks link at the top-right
corner of the page to get to the My Tasks menu first, and then use the desired
feature.

6 — Tasks for Everyone

6.1 — Log out from the current session
You may use this task to log out from the system, and to terminate your current
active session. You may also log out by using the Logout link at the top-right
corner of each page.

6.2 — Update my contact information and password

Your contact information and password in the web-based graduate admissions
system may be updated in this task. It includes your full name, affiliation, contact
email address, contact phone number, and account password. If you choose to
change your email address, you will be required to log in using your new email
address the next time you try to log in.

6.3 — Review my important dates

In this task, you may review all the important deadlines related to starting and
submitting your application. These deadlines are strictly enforced by the system.
Before the first day of starting an application, you will not be presented the tasks
to start an application. Similarly, after the application deadline expires, the
system will remove all the links for you to submit your application. Please
observe these deadlines very carefully. No late submissions will be accepted.

7 — Tasks for Applicants

7.1 — Step one: Enter the basic information about yourself
The process of entering your application is divided into three steps. In the first
step, basic information about yourself will be collected. In the second step, you
will be asked to provide contact information of two references. In the final step,
detailed information about your grades will be collected. Depending
on the complexity of your background, this process may take as long as a few
hours to complete. All the information collected in this process will be used to
evaluate your application among other applicants, so we think it is worth the
additional time and efforts on your side. In this first step, you are required to enter
some basic information about yourself and your background. Before you submit
your application, you may come back later to continue the process and to
modify the existing information that you have entered. You are responsible to
enter correct and accurate information in the process.
Important Note: Please visit the on-line graduate admissions web site of the
School of Graduate Studies (https://apply.sgs.utoronto.ca) before you proceed to
use this feature to start entering information in your application. After you
complete all the steps required at the School of Graduate Studies web
site, including the payment of the application fee, you will receive an SGS
Application ID. This ID will be required in the Civil on-line Graduate Admissions
system, in Part 1 of this step.

Part 1: Basic information about yourself.

In this part, please enter the following information:
1. SGS Application ID that you have obtained previously at the School of
Graduate Studies web site;
2. Your gender;
3. Your legal status in Canada;
4. Whether or not you are a native English speaker. If you are a nonnative
English speaker and you satisfy one of the following requirements (4.1/4.2/4.3),
choose “Native English Speaker.”
4.1. Nonnative speakers who hold degrees or diplomas from post-secondary
institutions in English-speaking countries (e.g., the United States, Canada,
England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) and who have successfully completed
at least a two-year course of study in which English was the language of
instruction.
4.2. Transfer students from institutions in the United States or Canada whose
academic course work was favorably evaluated in relation to its demands and
duration.
4.3. Nonnative speakers who have taken the TOEFL test within the past two
years and who have successfully pursued academic work at schools where
English was the language of instruction in an English-speaking country for a
specified period of two years or longer.
5. Your date of birth;
6. Your country of citizenship;
7. Your fax number (optional);
8. Some urgent contact information to find you in an emergency, such as your
cell phone number or the contact information of your friend or relative (Note: this
is mandatory information);
9. The degree program that you would like to apply for. In the Department of Civil
Engineering, three graduate degree programs are offered. The Master of
Engineering degree is a course-only terminal degree, and does not include a
thesis. The Master of Applied Science degree is a regular Master’s degree that
includes a Master’s thesis. The Doctor of Philosophy degree requires the Master
of Applied Science degree (which requires a thesis), or its equivalent in other
universities.
10. The starting month of the program you seek to apply for. A September start
implies that you seek admission to the Fall 2007 term, while a January start
implies that you seek admission to the Winter 2008 term (This is only for M.Eng
applicants.)
11. You may optionally include information about any external financial
scholarships that you have already applied for. For Example: NSERC
scholarships for domestic applicants, and/or Ontario Graduate Scholarships
(OGS).

Part 2: The research areas of your interests.

You are able to choose up to three research areas that match your research
interests in your graduate studies. These research interests are used to decide if
a faculty member can act upon your application.
A faculty member can express his/her interests in your application only when
there exists an overlap between the research interests of you and the faculty
member. Otherwise, the faculty member can view the application and make
comments, but cannot select your application for interviews, or commit
funding to support your application. You do not have to make a choice for all the
three research areas. You can leave the drop-down list in its state as (Choose
one), which will be shown to faculty members as unspecified. For each of these
research areas, an optional match priority level can be chosen:
Best match for my research, Excellent match for my research, Good match for
my research. If you do not wish to make this choice, No preferences can always
be chosen. The match priority levels may be used to signal strong interests in
one or a few research areas. If you have authored or co-authored any research
publications, you may enter the total number of your publications in this section
as well. This field, however, is optional. If you wish to provide a detailed
list of your publications, you may provide them in your CV, which can be
uploaded to the system in this stage, but completely optional.

Part 3: Your degrees and GPAs.

In this part, for each of the degrees that you have earned in the past or you will
earn soon, please enter the following information:
1. The title of the degree (such as “Bachelor of Engineering”);
2. The name of the department or degree program (such as “Civil Engineering”);
3. The name of the university or college from which you have obtained the
degree (such as “University of Toronto”). You should first try to select from the
drop-down list of university names. If your university is not on the list, please
enter its official name in English in the text box;
4. The enrollment and graduation dates. If you do not remember the day of the
month, just enter 1. These dates need to be consistent with your official
transcripts;
5. Your Grade Point Average (GPA), which is the weighted average of your raw
course grades without any conversion, the weights are usually the course credits;
6. The maximum grade in the university. For example, it may be 20 (Iran) or 100
(China). The maximum grade must be a positive number. Please enter 100 if this
degree is a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto, as we require
percentage grades be entered for University of Toronto students.
7. Information of the person responsible for issuing your transcript. This includes
his/her name, complete business mailing address, position, email address,
business telephone number, and fax number. This information is used to verify
the authenticity of your transcript. All the information above is mandatory.
Please note: If you have more than one degree, they should to be chronologically
ordered, and fitted into First degree, Second degree, Third degree, and Fourth
degree sections. If you have more than four degrees, please provide additional
degree information in your CV.
Tips for computing GPAs in each of your degrees:
1. Please use caution when computing your GPA. Your GPA may be checked
before we deem your application authentic.
2. Please do not convert any of your raw course grades. Instead, you should
compute your GPA using the formula: SUM(grade * weight / maxGrade) /
SUM(weight), while weight reflects credits you receive for the course, and
maxGrade reflects the maximum grade achievable for the course.
3. For a particular course, if you receive both a letter grade and a numerical
grade on your official transcripts, please enter your numerical grade, and use
your numerical grade to compute your GPA.
4. For a particular course, if you receive only a letter grade, please use the
following conversion table to convert the letter grade to a numerical grade:
Letter Grade Numerical Grade Maximum Grade
A+ 4.0- 4.0
A 4.0 -4.0
A- 3.7- 4.0
B+ 3.3 -4.0
B 3.0 -4.0
B- 2.7 -4.0
C+ 2.3 -4.0
C 2.0 -4.0
C- 1.7- 4.0
D+ 1.3- 4.0
D 1.0- 4.0
D- 0.7- 4.0
F 0.0 -4.0

Letter Grade,Numerical Grade, Maximum Grade

Pass 1.0-1.0
Fail 0.0-1.0

*If your transcripts are from CAIRO UNIVERSITY and do not have numerical or
letter grades associated with your courses, please use the following chart.
Distinction = A
Very Good = B
Good = C
Pass = D

Part 4: Your standardized test scores (if applicable or available).

If your language of instruction is not English or you are not a “native English
speaker”, you are required to provide your TOEFL and TWE score report. In this
part, you may provide your TOEFL, TWE, TSE, GRE, and GRE Subject test
scores, if you have any. For foreign students whose language of instruction is not
English, only the TOEFL and TWE scores are required. The others are optional,
but if you do choose to provide your scores here, please send unofficial
photocopies of your test score reports to the Civil Engineering
Graduate Office for authentication purposes. With respect to GRE General test
scores, please enter the total score of all three sections, do not send us your
copies of your GRE score.
Important Note: Applicants should forward a paper copy of the TOEFL score
report to the Civil Graduate Office, along with the Application for Admission. The
Department also requires that official score reports be forwarded directly from
ETS to the School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto. The
institutional code for the University of Toronto is 0982, the Departmental Code is
065.

Part 5: Your Statement of Intent.

In this part, you are asked to enter or modify your Statement of Intent in a text
form, as plain text. Your Statement of Intent should not be longer than 1000
words. You may use standard HTML tags <b>, <i>, <u> to enter bold, italic and
underlined characters. Other HTML tags are not allowed. The words in this
Statement of Intent may be searched by faculty members reviewing your
application.
Tip: The Statement of Intent is fully searchable by the faculty members reviewing
your application. If you are interested in one or a few faculty members, you may
include their names in the Statement of Intent, helping them to find you. You may
also include your specific research interests in the Statement of Intent, including
important keywords, so that faculty members searching for the same key- words
may find you quickly. You may also wish to have your Statement of Intent ready
off-line in a separate text editor or word processor before you proceed to enter
them in this part, since the active session will automatically expire after 90
minutes of inactivity.

Part 6: Your CV.

This part is optional. You may upload your CV in this part as an Adobe PDF
document, or replace it later with a new version. If you have additional
information that you wish to include in your application, such as copies of
previous awards or research papers, you may also include them in your CV as
additional pages. You are, however, only allowed to upload one Adobe PDF
document. Important note: Please upload a CV document that conforms to the
Adobe PDF standard. It is recommended that you use Adobe Distiller in Windows
or ps2pdf in UNIX to generate your final PDF submission. Please also make sure
that the file size of your CV document is less than 4 MB.
Tip: As it may be a time-consuming process, it is strongly advised that you
prepare your Statement of Intent, your CV and calculate your GPAs off-line,
before you start to enter any information in this step. This is because that the
system will time out after 90 minutes of inactivity. If you take too long, you
risk losing the data you have entered when the system logs you out
automatically. When you click the Update my application button, the information
you have entered will be checked for correctness and completeness. If there are
problems, they will be marked and pointed out in red letters. You are advised to
enter accurate information for all the mandatory fields. If sanity checks are
not passed, your information will not be stored in the system. After you have
completed this step and before you submit your application, you may always
come back and modify the information that you have entered.

7.2 — Step two: Provide contact information of your referees

The second step collects the contact information of your referees. It may only be
started after you have finished entering information in the first step. However, any
time before submitting the application, you may revisit the first step to modify any
information you have entered. For both referees, you are required provide their
first and last name, email address, title, affiliation and phone number. The email
address will be used to contact the referee for a letter of reference. The phone
number may be used to contact the referee as well. Please note that referee
email addresses should not be freely available email addresses, such as
gmail.com or hotmail.com. The system will check the email address against a list
of free email domains. Please note that the affiliation of a referee should also
include the department or group that the referee is affiliated with.
For each of your referees, it is highly recommended, though optional, that you
also provide the URL of a web site that verifies the authenticity of the referee’s
affiliation and email address. It can be the referee’s official public web page, the
official public web page of the department or group that the referee is affiliated to,
or a web URL linking to a research paper or public document, that verifies the
affiliation and email address of the referee. You may use Google or MSN Live
search tools to assist you. This information is helpful in authenticating the
reference letter provided by the referee.

7.3 — Step three: Entering grades

The final step for entering an application may be the most time-consuming one.
In this step, you are asked to provide detailed information about your course
grades. You do not have to complete this step all at once. If you so choose, you
can save the grades you have entered so far at any time and come back later to
complete the process.
You can enter three types of grades:
1. Percentage grades (e.g., Grade = 91, Max Grade = 100; or Grade = 17.5, Max
Grade = 20).
2. Grade point values (e.g., Grade = 3.3, Max Grade = 4.0).
3. Letter grades: A, B, C, D, pass, fail (e.g., Grade = B+, Max Grade = A+; or
Grade = pass, Max Grade = pass). All letter grades will be automatically
translated into grade point values ranging from 0 to 4.0 based on University of
Toronto standards, shown in the previous table in Section 7.1. You should only
enter letter grades if you have not received any percentage grades (numerical
grades) in your official transcripts for the course.
To enter your course grades, you first select a degree using the drop-down list
next to the label Degree. If you have only specified one degree in Step 1, there
will not be a drop-down list.
You then select a semester or term, by using the drop-down list next to the label
Semester or term: If you cannot find an exact match to your transcripts, find the
best match possible.
Then you proceed to specify the year of that semester or term, and specify the
year (as in 2001) in the text box next to the label Year: Finally, you enter all the
courses you have taken in the year, semester/term, and degree you have
specified.
At any time, you can click the Update my grades button to save the current
grades that you have entered. You can also change the degree, semester/term
and year specification, and then click the “Retrieve my grades” button, to retrieve
the grades that you have entered for that particular degree, semester/term and
year. All the grades that you have entered are viewable in the My Tasks - As
Applicants - View my application task.
Tip: If you first click the button Update my grades without entering any courses,
but after you have specified the degree, semester/term and year information, the
maximum grade column will be automatically filled with the maximum grade that
you have specified in Step 1 for that particular degree.

Important notes about entering grades (please read in entirety):

1. Regardless of the type of grades you enter, it is mandatory that you enter the
raw grades from your official transcripts. You do not perform any grade
conversions yourself. Similarly, the course titles should be identical to the ones
shown in your transcripts. It is strongly advised that you have a copy of your
transcripts ready before you start to enter grades. If you have entered incorrect
information when compared to your official transcripts, including missing courses,
incorrect grades and incorrect course titles, it may have a significantly negative
impact on the authenticity of your application.
2. You have to enter grades for all the courses on your transcripts for all the
degrees that you have earned or expected to earn, before you may officially
submit your application on-line. If a course is in progress and you do not have a
grade yet, enter the letter I (as in In progress), and the maximum grade for that
course. If you fail to include all the courses, or if you enter grades that are in-
consistent with your official transcripts, it may significantly affect the integrity and
outcome of your application.
3. When entering your courses, you need to enter the title of the course as
shown in the English translation of your transcripts, the amount of credits/weights
(or equivalent) for that course, your grade obtained in the course, and the
maximum grade for that course.
4. Special note to applicants with University of Toronto undergraduate degrees:
University of Toronto transcripts provide two raw grades for each course: a
percentage grade out of 100 and a letter grade out of 4.0. You are required to (1)
enter percentage grades in Step 3; (2) enter 100 as the maximum grade in Step
1, and (3) enter the corresponding GPA out of 100.
5. Applicants must provide official (hard copy) transcripts for all post-secondary
programs completed, attempted, or in progress. Transcripts must list the years of
study, courses taken and grades received. In cases where the program was
completed, the applicant must also provide proof of degree conferral.
Applicants who attend(ed) non-English speaking universities must have the
universities provide official transcripts and proof of degree conferral in the original
language, as well as in English. Universities must forward transcripts in sealed
envelopes bearing the institutional stamp or signature across the back flap
directly to the Civil Graduate Office:

Department of Civil Engineering

Admissions Committee
35 St. George St., Rm. 105
Toronto, ON
Canada
M5S 1A4

The Civil Graduate Office will contact university registrars to verify the
authenticity of all academic
documents.

7.4 — View your application

In the task View my application, you are able to view all the information you have
entered so far as part of your application. In addition to the traditional web-based
viewing, you can click on the link
“You can also download a printer friendly version of your application by clicking
here.” at the top of the page to download a printer-friendly Adobe PDF document.
This document includes all the information you have entered in a standard
format, the same format that the faculty members may download and print as
well.
Please note: If your CV is in a non-standard PDF format that does not conform to
the Adobe PDF standard, you may not be able to download a printer friendly
version of your application from the system. This is due to the possibility that the
system may fail to merge your CV to the end of the generated application PDF. If
you fail to download a printer-friendly PDF document, please consider
resubmitting a CV document that conforms to the Adobe PDF standard.
Tip: If you discovered that the printer-friendly version of your application (or your
CV) that you have just downloaded does not reflect your most recent changes,
you may need to clear the cache of your Internet browser, and then try again.

7.5 — Submit your application

You use the task “Submit my application” to submit your application. Before the
submission proceeds, the system automatically performs a series of sanity
checks on the data you have entered. If there are problems, the system will
explain the problems to you in a warning text box, and will not allow you to
proceed with the submission. For example, if you are not a native English
speaker, and you do not provide TOEFL scores, the system does not allow you
to proceed. As another example, if the calculated GPA from your raw course
grades does not match the GPA you have entered in Step 1, you will not be
allowed to proceed. If all sanity checks are passed, you will be brought to the
submission page, where your basic contact information, including your name,
email address, affiliation and phone number, will be displayed. You will be
presented a button labeled “Submit my application”. Once you click this button,
there will be no more confirmation pages asking you to confirm. Your application
will be submitted and finalized, and you will no longer be able to modify the
application. You may still view your application at any time.
Important note: Always proofread your application before final submission. Make
sure all details are included. It is a good idea to print the printer-friendly PDF
document that the system has generated, and read from the printout. Be cautious
before you submit.
As soon as your application has been submitted, email messages will be sent to
both of your referees to invite them to submit a letter of reference. As they may
take some time to write the letter of reference, it is highly recommended that you
submit your application at least two weeks before the application
deadline.

7.6 — Review the status of your submitted application

You may use this task to review the status of your application at any time after it
has been submitted. Initially, the system is waiting for the letters of reference
from the referees. Whenever a letter of reference has been submitted, you will be
notified by email. As soon as the application reaches a new stage, including
visible, authenticated, accepted, or rejected, this page will reflect the new stage
with a descriptive message, and the content of a recent email message sent to
you, which may include more details, such as a list of faculty members.
After you have reached the accepted stage, you will need to use this task to
accept or decline your offer of admission, before the response deadline expires.
In the page, the email offer of admission that has been sent to you will be
displayed, after a brief congratulatory message. Below the content of the
email message, you are presented with a drop-down list of the names of faculty
members, from which you are responsible to choose one as your thesis
supervisor, should you decide to accept the offer. If you decide to accept the
offer, click the button labeled I accept this admission offer. Otherwise, click
the button I decline the admission offer. If you decline the offer, a confirmation
dialog box will be displayed, with the question Do you wish to decline the offer?,
and two choices, Cancel and OK. If you choose Cancel, you will be brought back
to the page. Otherwise, you have successfully declined the offer. After you have
responded to an offer of admission, your decision will be shown when you check
the status of your application again using this task. The content of the
confirmation email message will also be shown in the same page. If you have
chosen to accept the offer, the name of your intended thesis supervisor is shown
as well.

7.7 — Delete your application

If all of the following conditions hold, the Delete my application link will appear in
the As Applicants section of the My Tasks menu.
1. The important date of starting an application has passed;
2. The first step, “Enter the basic information about myself,” has been
successfully completed with all the required information;
3. The application has not been submitted yet.
This feature helps you to delete all the information you have entered in your
application so far from the system. If you choose to use this feature, the
information you have entered will be deleted permanently from the system. After
deleting your application, you may start a new application again by going through
the three steps.
Please use caution when using this feature. You will be asked to confirm your
action twice, once in a confirmation web page, and the second time in a dialog.

7.8 — Remind referees to send letters of reference

In this task, you are presented with the list of referees, along with their email
addresses, who have still not submitted a letter of reference in support for your
application. You are presented with an opportunity to do any of the following.
1. Click the name of the referee. As soon as you click the name of a referee, the
system will automatically send an email reminder to remind the referee to submit
a letter of reference. The email reminder is generated and sent by the system.
2. Click the email address of the referee. In this case, use your favorite email
client to write your own email message to remind the referee.

7.9 — View the list of faculty members in the department

You may use this task to view a list of all the faculty members in the department.
The name, email address, link to a personal web page, and the research group
of a faculty member is shown in the list.
With this list, you may perform any of the following tasks:
1. You may click the external link labeled URL to directly visit the personal web
page of a faculty member.
2. You may click the email address of a faculty member to compose an email
message.
3. You may click the name of a faculty member to view his/her profile in the web-
based graduate admissions system.

The profile of a faculty member in the system includes the following pieces of
information.
1. Research group. A faculty member is primarily affiliated with one of the nine
research groups in the department. This information is displayed to you in the
profile, but not used anywhere else in the system.
2. Research areas. A faculty member can choose up to three research areas
that match his/her research interests. These research interests are used to
decide if a faculty member can act upon an application, such as yours. A faculty
member can express his/her interests in an application only when there exists an
overlap between the research interests of the applicant and the faculty member.
Otherwise, the faculty member can view the application and make comments.
The faculty member does not have to make a choice for all the three research
areas. He/she can leave the drop-down list in its state as (Choose one), which
will be shown to you as unspecified. For each of these research areas, an
optional match priority level can be chosen:
Best match for my research, Excellent match for my research, Good match for
my research.
If one does not wish to make this choice, No preferences can always be chosen.
These priority levels are not used in the system.
8. Web page. This is presented to you as a hyperlink to the personal web page
of the faculty member. The web page URL is optional for the faculty member to
specify. If left blank, this field will not be shown to you.
9. Office location. The office location of the faculty member. It is optional, and if
left blank, the field will not be shown to you.
10. Cell phone number for urgent contact. This is an optional field for the
faculty member to enter an alternative phone number if he/she prefers to be
contacted in urgent situations by the applicants.
If left blank, the field will not be shown to you.
11. Description of my research. A faculty member can, optionally, enter a few
paragraphs to describe his/her research interests. The description is optional,
and if not entered, the field will not be shown to you.
A faculty member is able to update his/her profile in the system at any time. If
you are interested in a particular faculty member, you may check again after a
period of time to see if there is any additional information made available in
his/her profile.

7.10 — View the list of research labs in the department

A research laboratory (or “research lab”) represents a group of faculty members
in the department that are willing to accept students without making a decision on
who may be the thesis supervisor in the research lab. Usually, such a decision is
made after the applicant has started the degree program. In some cases, co-
supervision by more than one faculty member in the research lab is a possibility
as well.
In this feature, you may view the profiles of all such research labs. In each
research lab, you may be able to view its name, the primary research group in
Civil Engineering that it belongs to, the research areas that it is interested in, the
faculty members that belong to the research lab, as well as a description of its
research interests.

8 — Acceptable Use Policy

By submitting data to and using the services of the Web-based Graduate
Admissions system, you agree to the following:
You agree to read the corresponding Guides in the Online Help section of the
system, before proceeding to use the system.
If you are an applicant seeking admission, you agree to be responsible for the
correctness and accuracy of all the information you have provided in your
application, and use every caution to ensure that such information that you will
submit or have submitted in the system corresponds to its official
sources, such as original transcripts available from the university. You agree to
be responsible for the authenticity of the contact information of all your referees,
and do not engage in activities leading to fraudulent evaluation results and/or the
letters of reference from the referees.
You perform all the tasks in this system manually, and do not use automated
services and software to use the services and links throughout this web site. You
do not use any mechanisms or tools to circumvent security and access control
protections to obtain unauthorized access to any data, information, documents or
services in this system. You do not engage or participate in the use of automated
robots to abuse the system of new account registration. You do not engage or
participate in any Denial of Service attacks with the purpose of interfering with
normal operations of the system.
The system keeps extensive logistics of normal activities, including your IP
address. If you are found to have violated this Acceptable Use Policy, at any
time, either in the process of making admission decisions or after the decisions
are made, you will be deemed unacceptable to the University of Toronto,
and actions will be taken to reject your application, withdraw the offer of
admission that may have sent to you, or expel you from the graduate program if
you have already enrolled in such a program at the University of Toronto.
If you do not agree to this Acceptable Use Policy, you are advised not to proceed
to use the system further.

9 — Privacy Policy
In the Web-based Graduate Admissions system that you are currently using, we
strive to develop innovative services to better serve our users, including potential
applicants, referees, faculty members and graduate administrators. We
recognize that privacy is an important issue, so we design and operate
our services with the protection of your privacy in mind. This Privacy Policy
outlines the types of personal information we gather when you use our services,
as well as some of the steps we take to safeguard it.
The following principles apply to the personally identifying information we ask for
and that you provide. “Personally identifying information” is information that
individually identifies you, such as your name, phone number, and email
address.
Data collection
Due to the nature of our services, we require you to register for an account. We
ask you for some personal information in order to create an account (including
your name, email address and a password for your account), and we will use that
information to provide the service. If you decide to apply for graduate admissions
by submitting an application, we collect more detailed personal information such
as your educational background and course grades.
Cookies
Upon your first visit to our system, a cookie is sent to your computer that uniquely
identifies your browser. A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters
that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. We only use cookies to
track the identifier of the active session that you are engaging, and do not use
cookies to track any usage trends or personal information. Most browsers are
initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies
or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, our system will not be
functional unless you start to accept cookies from this web site.
Information sharing and access
Under any circumstances, we do not rent or sell your personally identifying
information to other companies or individuals. Your referees do not have access
to any information you have provided in your application, with the exception of
your name and email address. Only the graduate administrators and faculty
members in the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto,
have access to the application that you have submitted, as well as the letters of
reference that your referees have submitted. If you do not choose to submit your
application, the information that you have provided will not be accessible by the
graduate administrators and faculty members. If you prefer to delete all the
information in your application without submitting the application, you may do so
by using the “Delete my application” feature available to you.
Information security
We make every effort to take appropriate security measures to protect against
unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of
data. We take advantage of the state-of-the art web and server-side technologies
for this purpose. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact
us any time by using the information available in the Contact Us section at the
bottom of each page.

10 — Contact Us
If you still have questions after you have carefully read this document, you may
contact us at the following email addresses:

1. grad.anomalies@gradapply.engineering.utoronto.ca
All technical questions about any outages or technical problems, such as the
application not accepting your SGS # etc. in the on-line graduate admissions
system, or anywhere in the web server with the URL
https://gradapply.engineering.utoronto.ca, should be sent to this email address
(all non-technical questions that are not related to the web site will be
ignored, if sent to this address)

2. graduateadmissions@civ.utoronto.ca
All other inquiries related to Civil Engineering Graduate Admissions should be
directed to this email address.

Important note: Please note that any questions that you have about the School
of Graduate Studies web site (https://apply.sgs.utoronto.ca) should be sent to the
contact addresses in the School of Graduate Studies application. Technical
problems in the SGS web site are beyond our control.
Good luck in your graduate application!

1 This document is last updated on May 29th, 2007.