For new university students the academic world is probably rather confusing, partly because it is large, complex, and uses terminology that secondary school students have not likely encountered. Here’s my quick reference guide to some of that jargon. It’s somewhat specific to Waterloo, but many North American universities use something similar. (In the interest of brevity, I’ll gloss over some details and hope that my colleagues don’t mind.) Continue reading
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Pre-University Homework
For those who just finished high school and are starting university in September, here is some homework to complete over the summer. It’s specifically for those starting Waterloo Engineering, but might be useful for other programs and universities too. It’s not compulsory, and you won’t get any marks for it. But if you do it, you’ll find yourself ahead of the class and much less stressed in September/October and beyond. Continue reading
Who > Where
The Bank of Montreal (BMO) recently released an interesting survey (summarized here) that ranks the qualities that business leaders look for when hiring new grads from college and university. Basically, the ranking is: Personality traits > Skill set > Work experience > References > Degree/school.
Not particularly surprising. Nobody is going to hire someone whose personality is a “bad fit” for their organization, no matter what their degree says or how great their reference letters are. Likewise, a great fit with good experience and skills will get snapped up even if their degree is from the University of Neverheardofit.
I didn’t see any details, but I would assume that this ranking is based on an interview process. How else would one determine the “personality traits”? So what about the earlier stages of a job search, when employers are deciding who to interview? I suspect the ranking remains similar but without the personality traits, i.e. Skill set > Work experience > References > Degree/school. At least, that’s what I usually look for in the hiring I’ve been involved with.
The take-home message? If you’re working on building your career, focus on the top three things (personality, skills, experience). For the degree and school, do whatever works best for you and your situation, because it probably doesn’t matter all that much in the long term. Just my opinion anyways.
Engineering Failure Rates
We typically get a few questions each year about our failure rate. I’m never quite sure why people ask, or what they are expecting. Do they want to hear that the failure rate is high, so they are convinced it’s a tough (and therefore good) program? Or maybe they don’t want the failure rate to be high, because they are concerned that they won’t be successful? I’m not sure what the motivation for the question is, but anyways let’s examine failure rates. Continue reading
Decision Analysis for Your Offers
At this time of year, applicants have often received two or more offers to a university program so the next step is to decide which one to accept. You could just randomly pick one, or survey your friends and family to see which one is the most recommended. But scientists and engineers tend to prefer more evidence-based and rational methods for choosing things, what is sometimes refered to as “decision analysis”. Most engineering programs introduce this, either formally or informally, at some point because engineers frequently have to decide from among several alternatives. Let’s illustrate it, as applied to the problem of selecting a university offer. Continue reading
Management Engineering Design Projects 2013
It’s that time of year when lots of examples of engineering design projects are available, and I recently found the ones from our Management Engineering program. They have quite a nice project brochure, with projects ranging from optimal hydroelectric generation, to hospital emergency department staffing, and financial trading strategies. A common theme among these projects is the use of mathematical tools for rational analysis and decision-making.
Why No Early Engineering Offer?
Last week (week of February 19th 2013) we finished processing our first round of offers for applicants who are Ontario high school students. Some of the processes were described in an earlier post, How to Get an Early Offer. But to summarize, we took the data we had at that point and made enough offers to fill about 1/3 of our available spaces in each program. These are applications where we have enough data and it’s clear that they are competitive, based on previous years experience. We are relatively conservative and don’t give out too many offers, since we want to leave lots of spaces for a fair competition in the final round in May. Some universities give out a lot more offers and earlier, but that’s simply a matter of less competition and so they have that flexibility. Continue reading
Boosting Grades at Summer School
While working through our application and admission data, we see quite a few applicants who have done a required course at summer school, especially among Ontario residents. (It doesn’t seem to be so common in other provinces. I wonder why?) We know that the theory/rumour is that you can get higher grades at summer school and thereby boost your admission average and chances of acceptance into the more competitive programs. We also hear concerns from other applicants and parents that this is an unfair advantage, because some are unable to attend summer school for various reasons. Currently we don’t penalize applicants taking summer school courses (unless it is to repeat a required course), but maybe we should? Since we like evidence-based decision-making, let’s use some data to see if summer school does give a significant advantage. Continue reading
Communicating With E-Mail
Another great set of suggestions. I would add that poor communication skills may be noted in an applicant’s file and have negative consequences.
Dear Readers,
Effective communication via electronic mail is crucial to the admissions process. There are times when a personal telephone call is not convenient, (see Miss Admissions post: Phone Impressions Have Lasting Impact), perhaps you are contacting a University in a different time zone, or you have just one or two burning admissions questions.
Let us take a moment to review e-mail etiquette, to insure that the admissions office sees you, the potential applicant, in the best possible light.
1. Do not use text-speak. While Miss Admissions acknowledges our day-to-day informal communications may include clever abbreviations and acronyms that save our text-weary thumbs from overuse- Admissions representatives will not be impressed! Rather they will be LOL-(ing) and thinking “R U siris?” Keep in mind that some text-speak is regional, like all slang, and you may be insulting the reader rather than astounding them with your language skills.
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Phone Impressions Have Lasting Impact
Very wise advice here!
Dear Readers,
I am often asked when, exactly, does the admissions process begin. There is one correct answer to this question.
The college admission process begins with your very first contact with a college or university. This may happen in several ways- you may visit a college website, meet a recruiter at an event or counseling session, perhaps you made a phone call or sent an email to an admissions officer. These first impressions are more important than you may think, and may indeed have an impact on your application.
It is extremely unfortunate that with the advent of the age of information, many of us have lost valuable social skills. Miss Admissions and her recruitment and admissions colleagues have noticed an alarming trend in terrible telephone and electronic mail communications. What is even worse, is that applicants have no idea that they are missing a valuable opportunity to make…
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A Professor in Waterloo Engineering 