r/uwo • • Sep 09 '26

Moderator Update [Meta] Welcome to /r/uwo - 2026-27

5 Upvotes

Welcome new and returning Mustangs to the r/uwo subreddit!

This subreddit is entering its 17th year here on Reddit. Since 2010, we have grown to more than 45,000 subscribers and is in the top 5% of all subreddits on this site. This space has been a central point where prospective applicants, applicants, students, staff, faculty, and alumni can be informed about current events at Western, obtain answers to their questions about navigating life at Western, vent our frustrations, vocalize our opinions, share our dank memes, and provide support for one another. As long as Reddit is here, the mods will be here to maintain our community and will ensure it is as supportive and inclusive as possible.

As we enter a new academic year, we want to make you aware of a number of aspects to the subreddit.

1. Mental Health Resources

Attending to your mental health is our utmost priority. We have always pushed mental health support front and center. You will always find an extensive list of mental health resources and supports directly in the sidebar ➡️.

If you are in crisis, you can connect to appropriate resources here:
https://www.uwo.ca/health/crisis.html

Don't forget to tend to your physical health. Use your academic support resources. Learn about what you can do to maintain a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. Western has an extensive collection of wellness and well-being resources. It is always okay to ask for help.

2. r/uwo Rules

We enforce a small number of rules that apply to both posts and comments. These rules have been essential to maintaining a healthy subreddit. A full description of the rules and the reasoning can be found in the sidebar. In brief:

  1. Be Civil - Treat others exactly how you would like to be treated yourself. If your comment contains the word "you", it might be an indicator you need to carefully consider your wording.
  2. Use the search bar - The subreddit is not very useful if the same topic comes up again and again. There is more than a decade of history posted here. Repeat questions are acceptable, especially if your scenario is unique, but you are unlikely to receive any helpful advice if it's been answered a thousand times already. Some posts are so common the answer has been placed in the wiki.
  3. Only posts that concern UWO - Hopefully this is obvious. Don't forget that our sister subreddit at r/londonontario might be an alternative point where you will get some better responses.
  4. No advertising - We all have enough advertising in our lives as it is. Users do not take kindly to being spammed when they don't want to.
  5. No soliciting - Similar to above. No asking to buy or offering to sell anything.
  6. Better suited for other social media - There are some highly opinionated topics that degenerate into completely unnecessary back and forth debate. On a mostly static forum-based site, this makes the site harder to navigate and is more likely to get personal and eventually violate rule 1. If you are passionate about these discussions, it would be best to defer them to a more ephemeral environment that other social media platforms can provide
  7. No requesting to be DM'd - We want to encourage open and friendly discussion to ensure the subreddit can be useful to everyone. Asking to be DM'd shuts down the conversation very quickly and doesn't align with the spirit of this community.

These are just the rules that require special attention from the mods to ensure a healthy community. Of course, there will be content that does not violate these rules but still deserves some level of moderation. We all have a collective responsibility to help maintain this community and everyone has a role to play. That's where this community depends on you and your own moderation tools: Upvote content that needs more attention or content you want to see more of. Downvote content that we need less of. If there is content that the mods haven't addressed yet, be sure to report it so we can attend to it.

Here are some tips to ensure your posts and comments are visible and do not get downvoted or removed:

  • Follow the rules (of course)
  • Be generic to attract a wider audience. Specific questions about specific situations reduces the number of people who can relate
  • Provide context. Not everyone uses the same shorthand you do. Exactly which class are you referring to? What subject? What program? What building?
  • Be patient. Automod is purposely "sticky" to ensure bad actors do not sneak through the filters. If you think your post was placed on hold incorrectly, do not repost. We want your post to be visible. Simply ask the mods to release your post.
  • Bring the receipts. Support your statements with links to official sites and documentation.

Finally, please be mindful of reddit's content policy and practice good reddiquette.

3. Discord

We have a friendly relationship with our Discord communities. Discord is great for relaxed point-in-time back-and-forth discussions so we encourage you to join them!

4. User flair

Flair up! It helps the conversation along when users can see a bit more about who you are and what your background is. In the sidebar, we have bootstrapped a number of common flairs representing the 11 faculties, 2 affiliates, and other common roles for you. You can modify the text to something that suits your situation even better if you'd like (eg. your graduation year, your specialization, etc.)

5. New for 2026-27

The 2026 Reddit Survey is still open. It will remain open for another month or so. The survey will help shape the future of the subreddit. Key results of the survey will be posted after it closes.

In response to the survey, it is probable there will be a few changes and a simplification of the subreddit rules so there is less confusion about what is acceptable and what is not.

Also, the r/uwo subreddit is in need of new moderators. Across Canadian university subreddits, we have an unusually low number of moderators. Given the size of our community and the amount of activity we get, about 4 moderators would be ideal. Expect to hear more about this soon.

6. Disclaimer

Finally, a reminder that this subreddit is completely community run and supported. We are not supported by, managed by, officially affiliated with, or an official representation of Western the institution. This includes all the mods and any users who may claim to be staff or faculty. Official information can only be found on Western's site or will come from officially verified users.

If you represent a unit or department at Western and want to have your username flagged as the "official" representation of your area, please message the mods so we can work it out.

Was anything missed? Do you have questions for the mods? Do you have any recommendations for improvements? Comment below.

All the best for the new year!


r/uwo • • May 04 '26

Moderator Update [Meta] /r/uwo Survey

8 Upvotes

Another school year completed and the preparation for September begins. This applies to r/uwo as well. The time for review is now so we are prepared for an influx of new students in September.

In an effort to maintain healthy and positive communities, Reddit provides an option to allow subreddits to opt-in to community surveys. Completing the survey allows moderators to judge what elements of the subreddit are working well and which elements require improvement.

Unfortunately, the community surveys feature is only available to subreddits with a particular level of engagement. Given the cyclical nature of this subreddit, we fall short of the criteria and therefore are not permitted to send out a community survey through Reddit.

However, there is nothing preventing us from creating an internal survey ourselves. In fact, this has been done before. The last survey was over 8 years ago. Given how much culture has changed since then, it is a good time to launch a new one.

So I've done exactly that.

2026 Reddit Survey

The survey is basically a mirror of the Reddit community surveys with some r/uwo customizations and is completely anonymous. All questions are optional. For most questions, you will have the opportunity to provide your comments and suggestions in case you wish to provide more thorough feedback. The final question is completely open feedback. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

Assuming a useful number of responses, I'll share some of the results and, if appropriate, some future plans.

I've left the comment section open below for discussion but remember to share your comments in the survey so they can be included in the analysis.


r/uwo • • 10h ago

❔ Course Question❔ Should i skip a week in school for lunar new yr

8 Upvotes

lunar new yr celebrations gon start at feb5th, but reading week is feb13th to 21st. Is it worth it to dip for a week before reading week to visit family in china?

for context im in first yr cs, and sem2 i have math1600 micro macro cs1020 cs1027.


r/uwo • • 11h ago

Discussion Why are some nursing students so cocky?

11 Upvotes

Basically the question in the title, more so catered towards first years, just feel like a lot of them have a superiority complex where they feel like they’re better than others and know more than their peers and want to make it known that they know more


r/uwo • • 15h ago

❔ Program Question❔ Brescia School of Nutrition

8 Upvotes

Are there any students who are currently in their undergrad at Brescia School of Nutrition? How do you like it? What is your experience so far? 😊


r/uwo • • 16h ago

📰 Current Events 📰 Here's what Gen Z thinks it will take to get more young people out to the polls

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cbc.ca
10 Upvotes

r/uwo • • 8h ago

❔ Question❔ Webwork

2 Upvotes

Is webwork working for anyone else? Course doesn’t matter. Just trying to see if it’s just me.


r/uwo • • 10h ago

❔ Course Question❔ Tips for crime and punishment 2301

3 Upvotes

Any help would really help !!


r/uwo • • 14h ago

❔ Question❔ final exam schedule

4 Upvotes

hey, does anyone know when the final exam schedule will come out this year? i think it came out around the same time last year. im thinking it may be after reading week cuz idk if the exam schedule people are working rn, but hopefully it comes out soon! thanks for any info.


r/uwo • • 17h ago

❔ Course Question❔ Classics 2500 Midterm #1

4 Upvotes

What is the best way to prepare for this midterm? Any areas in particular on the lecture notes and readings that I should focus on? Is it very memorization based, and how important are years?


r/uwo • • 10h ago

❔ Course Question❔ bio 3597: regulation of gene expression TEST 1

1 Upvotes

anyone who took this course last year, what can we expect? are the test questions similar to the quizzes where it is just a knowledge check, or are they more application focused? is it possible to get a 90 if you do flashcards? thanks!


r/uwo • • 1d ago

❔ Course Question❔ MOS 2310 Finance - Midterm 1

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39 Upvotes

Is anybody taking this class right now? I've been super sick and didn't want to get others sick too and so missed the last couple lectures. Now I'm being punished for it.

Can anybody tell me about the midterm? And does anybody have notes on the last couple classes?


r/uwo • • 11h ago

❔ Course Question❔ Healthsci 1002 Tutorials

1 Upvotes

I'm taking healthsci 1002 next semester, and i'm wondering if attendance at the tutorials is mandatory? thanks!!


r/uwo • • 21h ago

Graduate Prospective International Student

5 Upvotes

Hey yall. I’m an American looking into to an UWO graduate program. Is there anything I should absolutely know? I don’t know that I’ll have time to visit every school I’m applying to. If I’m coming from a big city is London gonna feel small? Any tips are appreciated!

Edit: I figure I should add that I’m black so diversity is an important thing that I’m considering.


r/uwo • • 17h ago

Advice Gym question (on campus or get off campus membership)

2 Upvotes

Looking for advice on what to do I’ve been starting up a workout program again and I’ve been mostly doing at home versions of the workouts because I’ve been worried about going to the rec centre and I’m not being able to use the equipment I need I live walking distance to it, but I also live walking distance to a fit4less.

Would it be better to get a membership to Fit4Less? Or to just try the rec centre.


r/uwo • • 15h ago

❔ Question❔ western blue

1 Upvotes

so im gonna assume I didn't get in because I haven't gotten an interview yet...


r/uwo • • 15h ago

❔ Course Question❔ Should I withdraw from Health Sci 1111?

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I’m currently in med sci at Western and I’m taking Health Sci 1111, but I don’t actually need this course for my program.

Since it’s reading week, I’m trying to decide whether I should withdraw from it now or just stick it out. If I drop it at this point, I believe it’ll show up as a withdrawal on my transcript. How bad does that actually look for future healthcare grad school applications, like med or other professional programs?

I know I’d lose the credit, but could I make it up by taking a summer course or an extra course next semester? Or would it be better to just finish 1111?
I’ve heard the midterm isn’t too bad, but the final is brutal, and I’m worried that it could bring down my GPA. I don’t want to risk my grades over a course I don’t even need, but I’m also worried about having a withdrawal on my transcript.

What should I do?


r/uwo • • 1d ago

Discussion Hear me out

49 Upvotes

Is this a safe space to share about how I was basically ousted from my grad program because of intense alienation and lowk bullying from my classmates? And how the school ignored me when I tried to come forward with a 30 page document highlighting evidence and examples?

If so I’ll share, I don’t wanna trauma dump - it’s more so thinking about it now and realizing the tomfoolery of this school


r/uwo • • 18h ago

Graduate Grad student bursary notification

1 Upvotes

Wondering if anyone got notification of whether or not they got a grad student bursary?

I applied right on the first day the applications for the bursary/work study opened on the student centre/student financials website, but haven't heard back at all.

Thanks


r/uwo • • 1d ago

Discussion Western “Lore”

79 Upvotes

While surfing this subreddit, it has come to my attention that this place has a lot of key major events (which is not surprising, but it seems more impactful to student life than I would expect). Obviously, I wouldn’t know much about it as an international student (heck, I didn’t even know what frats were before coming here). I read about some O Week incident from 2021. Don’t know the details, but it got me curious. Maybe you guys could help me learn about some major “incidents” or events from the last… 15 years or so?


r/uwo • • 1d ago

Discussion story time / AITA?

10 Upvotes

Context: my class was maybe 10-15 students max. I was one of, if not the youngest in my cohort too. Everyone else was late 20s, early 30s, 40s. For the sake of privacy I won’t name names and I’ll try to keep it as general as possible so I don’t get my ass handed to me (bc I swear western has me unofficially blacklisted bc of this). I recognize as I wrote this that I could have avoided parts of this by keeping my mouth shut and staying true to my morals but alas, here we are. Idk what I get from posting this but would love to hear people’s thoughts.

So awhile back I started a program at Westerns faculty of ed. I was super excited going in - this program was everything I thought I wanted. However, I went into it after being heavily involved in undergrad and so I wanted to keep my head down and focus on the work rather than the social aspect of uni. HOWEVER - very important to note that I was never “opposed” to friendship or social stuff. I just knew what my priority was but it never impacted how I approached others. I’d like to think I was pleasant and civil with my classmates. I wouldn’t do much outside of class time but I’d still chat here and there, would go out of my way to sit next to new people every week, that kind of thing.

I start getting close to two people in my class. We would study together, hangout outside of class, help each other with homework/research/general life stuff. I was also the only one who drove at the time so we’d carpool - which I didn’t mind because these people were cool and I thought we were hitting it off. It was nice because we were in a program that required us to be “on” all the time. Sometimes we’d disagree with some of the discussions in class and we would debrief them together and share our genuine thoughts. Which, again, I thought was really great. For example, I shared about my confusion/lack of understanding regarding pronouns (I’ve come a long way, pls don’t cancel me). This was only between us three. I thought it was a safe space. They both AGREED with me and one of them even made a joke about it so I was like omg ok I’m safe.

Or so I thought. The mistake I made here was joining in on the offensive jokes. Thinking back this is the part I wish I could change because it was all very mean girl energy on our end and I said some unnecessary things as “jokes” about other people’s appearances. Nothing derogatory or major - just unnecessary. But you kinda get lost in the groupchat hype and by that point in the semester we’d all had used the gc to complain about school, people, etc. Idk if it was wanting to fit in, or thinking I was okay to act this way because of what the other two were saying in the gc, regardless of why, what I said is on me and I accept that.

As the semester went on, we (the three of us) collectively started getting a bit fatigued because the topics in class were very much lacking critical thinking about what’s actually wrong with the education system and why things don’t change. It was one of those things where everyone was agreeing with one another and you can tell there’s no meaningful discussion going. Now, I’m in no way “right wing.” I’d consider myself more moderate but regardless, I made an effort to bring up that perspective and how sometimes change doesn’t happen bc both sides are siloed or something like that. Mind you I am not white, I have a learning disability, and I was curious about my sexuality at the time. So even though I prefaced that I was just bringing this up because those people exist and we should talk about it, I suddenly became the most racist, sexist, homophobic, and ableist person they’ve ever met.

From there it just kinda snowballed. One of the two people I was getting close to completely dropped me and joined the rest of the class in ganging up on me. I kid you not there was one class where everyone was sitting on side and I was on the other. I would be getting shade thrown at me during class discussions, I was getting removed on socials, I was removed from the class groupchat, and I still tried to stay professional and above it. I did try to talk to my thesis supervisor but they kinda brushed it off and told me to go to the student misconduct office but I didn’t want to turn it into something bigger. So I stopped participating in class, stopped reacting, just fully tried to keep my head down so I wouldn’t make it worse for myself.

Now my last straw was during a presentation when I was texting a friend of mine who wasn’t even at western. She had sent me a meme and I kinda giggled softly to myself. My classmate stops the presentation, stares me dead in the eye, and calls me out in front of everyone asking if I found something funny.

I felt so bad in the moment because they probably thought I was laughing at them which I genuinely was not. But that didn’t help my case in terms of everyone thinking I was the devil and the whispers started for the rest of class. I felt so bad that I even texted them after class to apologize and explain but was left on read.

So the semester finally ends, I come back home and on a random July morning I get an email that a student misconduct case had been filed against me by a few of my classmates (one of whom was of the two people I got close to). I was being told that I was creating a hostile environment for my classmates and my professors (which was false because I had six professors that year and I have it in writing from all six that I was a great students and pleasant to have in class), that I was being racist/sexist/homophobic and they had PROOF. The proof? The “friend” from the gc screenshotted the “jokes” I made and shared them, conveniently leaving out what they had said. Atp I was acc so sad bc how could the same person I would drive to school and home everyday, support personally and academically, I’d cook for them when they missed home, weren’t feeling well, and confided in about the stuff i was dealing with that year turn on me so harshly when behind closed doors they were agreeing with me?

I called my new thesis supervisor (other one dipped) and explain what was going on and how I had tried to come forward and was dismissed, how it’s not at all what they’re trying to paint me as, and how I was the one who was being alienated the entire year. My thesis supervisor was shocked and very apologetic but didn’t know what to do bc it had been happening for so long. I sent them the 30 page document with screenshots, letters and comments from profs, attempts at trying to create connections, anything I could put together. They encouraged me to send it to the misconduct officer and when I did, the reply I got was along the lines of “you’re still the problem.” Which I think was crazy because what I shared dispelled everything I was accused of.

I told the officer that I was prepared to take full responsibility for the shitty jokes and comments I’d made, but that the rest of what I was accused of was completely false and I didn’t appreciate how their office had essentially decided I was guilty before even hearing what I had to say. Like I tried to come forward way before any of this came out BECAUSE I felt targeted. Then when it happens and I tell you I’m being targeted you choose to ignore me because of strength in numbers regardless of the evidence? Crazy.

Anyways the stress of it became too much and I was clearly fighting a battle that I was going to lose because of the misconduct officer’s bias against me from the start and whatever my classmates fabricated against me. So I left my program as a result. I reapplied twice (after they’d all graduated) and was rejected even though I received a full ride scholarship the first time I got in. My applications the second and third time were even stronger than my first initial application so that’s why I think I’m unofficially blacklisted.


r/uwo • • 1d ago

❔ Course Question❔ tips for classics 2200 greek and roman myths

3 Upvotes

how much reading do we gotta do to do well on the december midterm 😥


r/uwo • • 1d ago

❔ Course Question❔ Dental School requirements

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6 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I'm applying to Schulich Dentistry from UofA and I'm stuck on a course load question.

Schulich requires three academic years, each with at least 30 credit hours (5.0 credits) completed during Fall and Winter. On my transcript for Fall 2023 + Winter 2024, I took 30 units total, but one course (BIOL 107, 3 units) shows a grade of A with grade points, 0.0 units passed, and a remark of "A3". This is because I took the course in AP in high school and I still did it in university.

I emailed admissions and got the general policy back, which says courses need a weight on the transcript and the distribution of credits doesn't matter, but it doesn't say whether "completed" means taken or passed. I've sent a follow-up with my exact situation. It says on my transcript 30 units but I’ll attach it for reference.

Has anyone dealt with something similar, like a repeated course, duplicate credit, or odd transcript remark, and how did Schulich treat it? Any experience with how they count course load would be really appreciated. Thanks!


r/uwo • • 1d ago

Advice gym advice

3 Upvotes

stupid question but where do you keep your stuff when working out? i’ve never been to the gym before but i want to start so im just making sure, there are locker rooms right?


r/uwo • • 1d ago

❔ Question❔ Osap covering exchange

6 Upvotes

I want to apply to do an exchange term for next year and I know osap can be used towards that but if people know or had experience with this, is it really a bit that they can give or is it usually a good amount? I’m trying to rank my choices and just want to pick a place that is doable financially with osap. Thanks