It’s the academic new year, and our new and returning students are starting classes this week. I won’t be returning to class, since I’ve already been teaching courses for the past 12 months straight and am now going into a “non-teaching term”. Time to catch up on paperwork, side projects, research funding applications and various other things.
For Engineering admissions, we are starting to gear up for the 2016 cycle and getting things ready. We have the first major event of the recruiting cycle, the Ontario Universities’ Fair coming up on September 25-27. I wrote a post last year about doing some preparation before attending that event, to make the best use of your time.
Soon I’ll update some information for future posts on what’s going on for Waterloo Engineering admissions.
A Professor in Waterloo Engineering 
Hi Professor Anderson,
I hope to see you at OUF, I will be flying in from Vancouver, to spend all day Sunday at the fair. My goal is to have at least one good conversation with at least one faculty member from at least 10 different universities’, so any suggestions you can provide for good questions to ask faculty would be greatly appreciated (as you’ve written before, the questions listed on the OUF web site are not very helpful). Your suggestions for co-op related questions are great, and from my past experiences at OUF I’ve learned that Co-op office staff and students are very good at answering these questions. However, I’m more curious about your suggestions for questions for faculty, questions that tap into their distinct, unique (and varied) perspectives as leaders who shape the academic experience of undergrads.
Regards,
Philip Varghese
Yes maybe we will meet there! Questions for faculty regarding undergrad students: 1) what sort of opportunities are there for research experience?, 2) are there courses where project-based learning is used?, 3) how do you encourage student engagement with the course materials?, 4) what are some typical upper year design projects that you supervise, and are there opportunities to interact with industry? Those would be some questions that could lead to interesting insights.
When do the applications open? Also, is applying earlier rather than later a good idea?
Thanks!
I think applications are open now. There is no particular difference for timing of application, as long as it’s before the deadlines.
I’m considering applying for electrical engineering as a (I believe) a mature student. I’ve just started taking the prerequisites from ILC (Independent Learning Centre). From what I recall, you take the 5 prerequisites and a 6th course for the admission average.
How is the online courses from ILC viewed for admission?
What would they use for the 6th course? I was at the end of the OAC high school system. Would they use a current grade 11 chem (prerequisite to grade 12 chem), a previous OAC, grade 12 or 11?
Thanks for all your posts! I’ve been reading a lot of them.
ILC courses are fine for the 5 required courses. In cases like this, a 6th course is unnecessary.
Wouldn’t they generate an (admission) average from 6 courses? Which is likely better for me, as a 6th course would be higher than my average, thanks to English. I’m doing SCH3U since I never took chemistry, so was curious if they would use that or a previous OAC (or either). Or even something else like double-weight the highest 4U course.
The 6th course would have to be a recent 4U or 4M course, so SCH3U doesn’t count. If you took a 6th course we would use it, but it’s not necessary and we would base the average on the 5 required.