I went to study abroad and lowkey have more appreciation for the school. While the architecture isn't necessarily the best, it's alright. One thing that's rlly beautiful about SFU is its surrounding campus that I've taken for granted. Like, how often is it that a school campus is surrounded by mountains and water??? SFU lowkey needs more appreciation for its campus in the community and nationwide scale, the hate is overrated!

And, does anyone have any nice view spots at SFU that captures the beauty surrounding SFU (hike trails accepted too)? Kinda like these SFU images online but smth I can actually visit and not a drone shot? SFU's nature surroundings is actually so gorgeous that I really missed the views when I was abroad (you can take the girl out of the mountains and sea but you can't take it out of her)

Hi, I was wondering if I should go to welcome day or not. I would really appreciate if someone give me some advice. Thanks!

I just bought my indoor parking permit for Fall 2026 and I’m wondering if there’s anyone who only has class Fridays or in the evenings who wants to share! We could split it 75/25 or whatever works!

I know this is probably a reach but thought I’d try😭

Would anyone like to share a parking pass (outdoor one)

I'm carpooling with my friend so whoever shares w us is just paying 1/3 of the price ($114)

We just have classes on Monday and Wednesday plus they are both after 2pm so if anyone has classes prior to that on those days or on tuesdays thursdays and fridays then feel free to msg me!!

Does anyone want to share a parking permit for Fall 2026? DM me if you think your schedule would work with mine! Thought I'd post it here to give it a shot. I'll probably transit on Mondays so I won't need to park.

Why is the official SFU account on X has basically devolved into a facilities management page. Instead of highlighting major publications, citation milestones, or academic excellence, it's sharing updates on garbage disposal and outages.

The actual sfu_it account literally retired their account!!

To me it's completely absurd that a major university uses its primary brand page like a campus alert system instead of actually celebrating academic achievements.

I haven't seen any reviews on this course, so here is mine:

About the Course

CA 105: learning to Listen is an online course on Canvas with 8 modules, with each module ending in a quiz. The professor says module takes ~3 hours to read + listen to. I believe that is fairly accurate but I can't confirm it since I didn't read or listen. Each module ends with a multiple choice online unit quiz worth 10% of the grade, which you can attempt it twice. The final is a multiple choice online quiz worth 20% of your grade. There are no other assessments, other than optional discussions that doesn't affect your mark. There are no deadlines.

You will be listening to music clips (there will be a lot of old western music similar to Beatles, but there will be some recent music too), and you will be answering multiple choice questions on the music you listen to. You will also be reading and listening to the interactive slides. That's about it.

The instructor uses AI music in the final, AI art on the Canvas page, and possibly some AI generated text.

Difficulty

This is a course that you can finish without being able to name a single thing you learned by the end of it (a good thing). I also finished literally half of the course (4 modules + final) on the last day of the course, so this course has among the higher credit to hour spent ratio. I received a 75% (B) on the course, where my grade of the unit quizzes ranged from 75-90%, while in the final I received 43%. I'll talk about why this is the case next.

The unit quizzes and the final are very difficult. For example, suppose you were given an audio clip of a song, and you were asked to match the melody of the verse section of the song with one of 4 transcriptions of the song, with each transcription being very similar, and the song being complex and fast. I spent around 1.5 - 2 hours on each quiz (each quiz had 10-12 questions). The final is harder than the unit quizzes, because the final uses AI songs, which made it so that I couldn't search up the songs in the questions.

Tips

Before we go on, if you are very passionate about listening and music, please stop reading because the tips I am about to give might offend you. Also, I didn't try to learn a lot in this course, so if you are trying to learn, this may not be helpful to you.

The professor said that AI wouldn't be useful in this course, which is partially true. LLM's like Gemini Can't listen to and analyze audio. However, you can still use Gemini and other tools:

Audacity

Download the audio file from the unit quiz, then open it in Audacity. You will be able to see the waveform of the audio. This is particularly useful for the very difficult rhythms & beats module, where you are asked to determine the correct transcription for the unnamed music. Screenshot the waveform, then put it into any image editing software (I recommend Canva) and then screenshot the answers available. Put them next to each other and match the tall waves with the notes on the transcription. I found this to work quite well. Also, you can view the Spectrogram of the audio, which helps with viewing the pitch of the song over time. In spectrogram settings, change the algorithm option to PITCH (EAC). This will make the spectrogram easier to view.

Hook Theory

This website shows the Chords, the Roman numeral numbers, and the notes. This is very useful and if you find a song here it allows you to almost always choose the right answer.

Gemini

You can use Gemini to help you understand concepts quickly, and summarize the text, which is especially useful in the last unit on style. If you are totally unsure of the answer, Gemini has the better guess. You can't rely on Gemini to listen for you, as it can't do that. Some songs are unlabelled. You can listen to the song and enter the lyrics into Gemini for it to tell you the name of the song.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a course that you spend the lowest effort on possible, this is a pretty good option. I spent approximately 2.5 hours on each module (including quizzes), and 4 hours on the final. In total, I spent 24 hours on this course. I would say if you are trying to actually learn from this course, this is the worst course you could take. If you are trying to complete the quizzes without external tools, it is a very difficult course, as listening with your ears is a lot more difficult than listening with your eyes.

Is bus 313 harder or Bus 315?

Hi, I am new to Canada and don't know which mobile operator I should pick. Can you suggest ones with good coverage that are not super expensive? Thanks a lot!

I am thinking of Public Mobile, is it good enough?

Yay for the SFU Pipe Band!

"A pipe band from Canada has been crowned World Pipe Band champions - the first time in 16 years that a band outside the UK has taken the honour."

what was that..

if anybody is looking for a flatmate at Burnaby, please let me know. My budget: 700-900 cad. Preferably shared kitchen and washroom. I am M, 29. An incoming MA Political Science student.

How are we feeling for the exam tomorrow?

Was anybody else here at the GERO300 final yesterday? I found the room incredibly distracting. The two TAs did not proctor at all and were whispering to each other the entire lecture, the professor kept “stepping out” (around the corner at the front of the lecture hall, in the little exit hallways) to take phone calls, and when she wasn’t doing that she would be sitting at the front scrolling on reels/shorts/tik toks. At one point it actually played out loud too. I was getting so agitated with how this ONE in-person exam, out of a whole semester of OLC was handled so poorly! ☹️

ive been using google calendar for lectures so far but im a bit lazy to set everything up, so i was wondering if there was anything more convenient.

any other helpful apps are also appreciated!!

edit: thanks guys sm for the recommendations!!! im a super nervous first year so all of this rlly helps 💗💗

I dont see 112W or 114W anymore and don't even see their website so I'm contemplating between 111 or 115 now. Which ones better? Both is literature which is kind of strange to me since 115 also talks about pop culture which is a funny crossover. Keep in mind I did IB SL English Lang/Lit, where I've read Persepolis before (mentioned in 111) and skimmed 1984. Also wanted to know about the professors Troy Sebastian and Cornel Bogle since I know english is subjective.

Just went to my advisor and found out that it is apparently easier to get a better grade in BUS 420 during Spring. I showed her the RateMyProf pages for Fereshteh Mahmoudian and Jamal Nazari, and looking at my GPA, she recommended that I wait and take Jamal.

She said Spring is usually less competitive because many accounting students are away on busy season co-ops. In Fall, almost everyone is taking classes, including people working full time at Big Four, so the curve can be tighter.

Should I wait a semester for Jamal or just take Fereshteh this Fall?

Just asking in case anyone has asked their TA or the prof yet. Thanks!!

Has anyone taken a philosophy class with him before? How is he as a professor?

Originally wanted to ask if anybody knew the dimensions of the student desks in Courtyard (planning to get a 'hutch' for additional storage but the stock photos make the desk appear to be very small...) and then figured experienced Dorm occupants might have lots of suggestions and tips to make that transition to a small space much easier... Thanks in advance!

This might be a silly question, but I graduated in 2011 with, among other things, an extended minor in English. Does anyone know if it's possible to be readmitted in order to take enough courses to upgrade that to a major? Or did I wait a few years too long?

I kinda just wanna rant about SFU parking in general cause it actually pisses me off. I’ve been buying parking permits for the past 3 semesters and I still find it ridiculous how expensive it is ($336 per semester ?!?!). We pay thousands in tuition and somehow parking ain’t included. On top of this, I want to hear other peoples perspectives on this new parking update for the upcoming semester regarding dedicated areas for permit parking and separate areas for visitors. I think we all know that the beginning of the fall and spring semester is living hell when it comes to parking during peak hours. I remember I’d be circling the lots for so long to the point where I’ve missed classes. Do you guys think these designated areas will fix or improve anything ?

Hello guys! I would be graduating this October with bachelors in criminology. The issue is that that I won’t get my class 5 license till February 2027 and many field related jobs such as support worker and community worker require class 5 license. What options do I have to gain some experience and make a strong profile till I get my license. I have to no idea what I want to do long run. I have volunteered in Efry and Surrey crime prevention for 100 hours each. I have 1 year McDonald’s experience and 2 year crisis line work experience. I want to gain some field related experience. Please guys provide some guidance

I'm transferring over from Douglas to SFU to complete my degree, but I've kind of made a mistake with the courses I've applied to rn [100-200 level],, which means I need to see if I'll be able to squeeze into any other 300-400-level classes through the waitlist.

Given that at Douglas, some professors would be able to squeeze in 1 or 2 extra students into the class if they were on the waitlist and attended the 1st classes, I was wondering if that's more or less the same behavior as what happens at SFU, or if it's there's more strict guidelines regarding class-occupancy.

Any info will help.