University of British Columbia

thanks

having been through almost an entire engineering degree at UBC, i agree with almost all of this.

first year engineering at UBC is pretty tough. much harder than high school in the sense that you will need to study for MANY more hours to do anywhere near as well on exams. the following years may have become harder, but 1st year prepared me for them. high school did not prepare me for first year so it was quite a shock to start. you'll quickly learn how to study/do homework efficiently for engineering courses, though. don't bother doing problem sets you don't have the answer keys to. it's a waste of your time and effort (but the answer keys can almost always be found online)

PHYS 153 was a BITCH and by far my worst course in first year. survive. get your hands on the solutions to mastering physics, understand them, and survive. that is all I have to say.

engineering students at UBC need to work way harder on average than students in any other faculty to achieve comparable grades. for this reason, I do believe it is the most difficult faculty at the university (at least in first year), but obviously I haven't been in any other to be able to verify.

in my year, mechanical engineering was the most difficult to get into, followed by engineering physics (which is a mandatory 5-year program which essentially grants you 2 undergraduate degrees at its conclusion). every single student in my 2nd year mech class was there on their 1st choice. i would be surprised if it was different now, although from my perception all the biggest nerds go into EngPhys. domestic students with a UBC entrance average above 90% are guaranteed their first choice in 2nd year engineering specialization if they maintain a minimum C average. sadly, international students are not granted the same perk.

if all you want is to ski a ton and get any engineering degree, batten down the hatches and survive first year, then go into integrated engineering, mining engineering ($$$), civil engineering,or geological engineering. mechanical, engineering physics, electrical, computer, and materials may be somewhat more time consuming in the later years so watch out! i suppose it all depends on your level of brilliance though! good luck everyone applying.

there's money in mining? i though petroleum and electrical are where the money is. but what do i know

Yeah, Mechanical is still really hard to get into, but not as hard as previous years. Reason being is that last year they raised the Presidents Entrance Scholarship guaranteed specialization to 95% in highschool and 75% in first year, so people with lower grades weren't taking up spots in Mech anymore.
This year with a surprise twist, theyve gotten rid of Presidents Entrance Scholarship altogether, so from what we've heard, there is no more guaranteed program placement.

Yea that would be sick!

Thank you (can'trememberyourname), I really really do want to go there, gonna start working harder at it right now.

I'll be sending in my app sometime soon.

Ya i talked to an advisor person during first term about second year program choices and such, and from my understanding there isn't any guaranteed program placement, and ya she said eng phys and mech are the most competitive to get in to. Although generally most people get their first choices.

Also, the degree from UBCO is NOT identical to the degree from UBCvan, ubco degree is almost the same but says 'conferred in kelowna'. That is according to my friend who got his degree from ubco last year

When the admission person came to my school she said it was the same degree i wondering if it changed or if she used clever wording to get around that statment

Does anyone understand how major entrance scholarships / scholarships to UBC work out as a whole? What kind of average do you need / what do they look for in a student?

It's closer to an 85. You have to write a short essay with it as well. It's a very good business school but isn't in the same category as Western Ivey or Queens Commerce.

For entrance? Not a short essay, 6, 200 word answers to buttfucking questions along with 5, 50 word activities statements that have more importance then your mark (unless you are %95 and above, from what I have gathered)

The major entrance scholarships are pretty hard to get. I had a 97 average, had a bunch of achievements, captained my school's soccer  team and did quite a bit of volunteer work, and still didn't get  even the lowest tier one. When you apply for it, UBC limits the amount of stuff you can put to a page. So it's not about how many achievements/volunteer work you have, it's more about what kind they are.
You also have to write an essay limited to about one page. The only person I know who's gotten it had been selected to work at Triumph(Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics) over the summer, and the professor he worked with liked him so much, that they are continuing to work together on a small particle accelerator. But he's one of the higher examples who got the bigger scholarship.

That stuff is standard for applying to any ubc program now as far as i understand, not only for sauder

It's not really demanding at all compared to most applications. I wrote it during happy hour at a bar with wifi.

50 words was way too short IMO. I found it really difficult to condense the information I had to fit the spaces.

i do agree with all of this. but it doesn't make anything i said wrong, actually ;)

It's basically impossible, but if you have like a 99% average and have cured cancer you'll get a 60,000 scholarship. I don't understanding why UBC won't make the scholarships smaller so more people can get one.

I had like a 96% entrance average and I only got a "Chancellor's Scholarship", which is, in UBC's words, "a non-monetary award".

*Chancellors Designation

I got that too, and I felt like it was a "hahaha you're smart and here's a piece of nice looking paper in a nice folder for your effort"

And it was our year where they decided to stop giving out the smaller ones based on grades.
Just our luck..

looks real awesome there, ill visit when i go out west for college visits this spring, anybody know the acceptance rate? i cant seem to find it, kind of new to this college search stuff hah

well fuck me..

Yea it is, but I think general admission only has 4 questions, don't know about sciences, but I know there are 2 that are only on the sauder one. 

@Mander I'm super super jealous you find it that easy to do, I don't what it is I find it so hard to condense it down to 200 words I guess and find the right things to say

@Hamnuts yes, agreed.

I didn't even bother with the major entrance scholarship deadline because they are pretty damn hard to get, unless like others have said you have 98% average + amazing supplementary

When do they usually give out admissions for Ontario students?

Guys, please don't get discouraged applying for the Major Entrance Scholarship just because of what I said.
Who knows, maybe my year just had a lot of competition, and maybe your year wont have as much.
They don't actually tell you what will get you the scholarship or not, so anything can happen.
It doesn't hurt to try..

Bump. Anyone accepted for next year?

I've been accepted to applied sciences, I think that's where I'll probably end up! Stoked for the ski and board club, hopefully I'll have time.

UBC is the epitome of all that's good and pure in the world. I miss that place

plyswthsqrrlsUBC is the epitome of all that's good and pure in the world. I miss that place

Wheeew I got in. Deferring for a year- stoked because I only applied to UBC haha