Interviewer: So what were you talking about you're- double cohort? Speaker: Yeah, and I was talking about the double cohorts and they were saying like, "Oh yeah, I think they're going-to raise the standard-." No, she said- she didn't say, "I think," she said, "Yeah, they're going to raise the stan-- the accep-- the number of people they're going to accept for each programme.

Speaker: I'm more like, humanities, and not really sciences and stuff, so, it wasn't really- I didn't really enjoy it, and plus it made fast-tracking a lot more difficult. Like I had decided in grade nine that I was going to do it, because- Interviewer: The whole double-cohort thing? Speaker: Yeah, I had heard about the double-cohort, so I was-like, "You-know what? It would just be easier." And I knew I could do it so it wasn't that big a deal. But um, like I didn't have time to- 'cause they- in later years, you had to take- they- they gave more prerequisites ...

Interviewer: But like yeah, I- don't-know, your frosh week won't be as much fun I guess. Speaker: But this year is the double cohort, so everybody's all worried about admissions and things like that. We were planning the prom, the, grad night, and that too was.

Interviewer: You know Jalal, he wants to be a math professor. You two should go at it. You two should be the first math professors. That's what you want to be right? A math professor? Speaker: Or like a math teacher. The thing is, with U-of-T, I have the double cohort, right there, and I think that sucks. And if I'd applied to it this year, then there would have, I could have.

And uh so every year I take one- one or two courses that are a year-ahead, so you-know more than uh fast-tracking, because uh they don't really let you do that now, well with the double-cohort and what-not, but uh I 'm just kind-of trying to keep my options open, 'cause uh from what I hear, you hand in your top six uh your M marks-

... when I was in high- school, um, cause you were like, you have, you take different classes but you generally see the same people all the time because um, there was only like forty people in my grade and then when I graduated, there was a hundred-and-fifty cause of double-cohort but then, there were lots of cliques there so I- I- I got to know so many people. And at the beginning, like in grade nine and ten, I'd be close to one person for one week and then, close to another person the second week.

... the sense that people are stepping over on other people's backs to get what they need or want and um that didn't happen. There wasn't any of that um I- I had an imaginary sense of competition just- just because like the double-cohort and everything but um, there- there was never really any like um stepping over other people's backs or anything like that.

Interviewer: Are there a lot of rookies on the team? Speaker: Uh actually there are this year because of the double-cohort but I have to say there's probably about like seven or eight which is a lot compared to like last year, I think the turnover was two so.

Yeah, even though I lived so close I missed a lot of school and that wasn't very good considering well mainly my last year because it was the whole double cohort and I'd probably should have been--went to school more often. But now I 'm going to school in Mississauga. I am actually going more often which is kind-of a surprise because it's so far.

Speaker: And then school started and then I guess it was all- all the concern about double- cohort year oh, how am I going to get into university et-cetera, et-cetera so all this worrying and panic and I found that mm people generally around me were very unhappy, people were always stressed out about marks ...

Interviewer: And how do you feel about double cohort and grade thirteen being over and Speaker: I don't know um, they already started the double cohort right? Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Um, well we're the only cla-- the g-- country or province or that had it so I think it was bound to happen. It was just unfortunate for the students who got trapped in the-

Speaker: ... I obviously didn't get into the downtown campus right? For that couple of percent. Interviewer: Yeah sheer numbers right? Speaker: Well yeah because of the double-cohort right two grades going- whereas you-know in previous years I'm sure I would've gotten accepted. Interviewer: Right. What do you feel about them stopping grade-thirteen? What do you think of that? Speaker: I'm just a little upset that you-know it's my year you-know ...

Speaker: I made that decision. I stayed in res my first year. Interviewer: How was it? Speaker: Ah, it was fun (laughs)- Interviewer: (inc) Speaker: Um, I was in the double cohort so we had the grade twelves and the O-A-C's graduating at the same time- Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: So there was twice the amount of people graduating. Interviewer: Wow- Speaker: (Laughs) So, um, that meant there were less rooms in residence.

... but you need a certain amount of grade like courses, you need a certain amount of credits to graduate at all and I just n-- ended up being in that category because it was so messed up. And there was so many of us, double-cohort people, trying to get into school. I just- I didn't bother trying to get into school. One- partly because of the double-cohort and people were scarring the pants off me being like, "You're not going to get into the school you want 'cause you're competing with thousands and thousands more people than you were before."