Waterloo

I know there's a couple people here who go to Waterloo in Ontario (XSquared, maybe some other people...)

I was wondering what kind of stuff you did extra-curricularly and what kind of things you'd suggest I really aim at so that I could get in to Waterloo? Waterloo's basically my goal for universities at this point and I would like to be as ready for it as possible (this is my last year of high school, *throws fist in the air* finally!)

Well, anything involving leadership is a good thing to have on your application, as well as good marks, of course. If you have enough extra-curriculars, they will add up to 5% to your H.S. average. What program to you intend to apply into? Also, are you going to you@waterloo day on this coming Saturday?

agree with XSquared. get as much extracurricular stuff as you can withough harming your marks majorly (a percent or 2 drop shouldnt cause any problems).

it's not that hard to get in. i mean, since i'm here, how hard can it be?
good luck man.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to you@waterloo becuase we just finished moving and it'd be too expensive to fly out there again, but I looked at Waterloo's high school visits and one of the high schools they're visiting just happens to be mine on the 9th, so I'm going to definitely be going to that.

As far as which program I want to go in to, I'm thinking either Computer Science or Software Engineering, and probably tack on a math one with that also.

And as for leadership things, I've got a bunch of good stuff there: attended the National Youth Leadership Forum on Technology (gave 2 seminars there), taught a C++ class at my school last year, am going to be teaching another class this year at school, have worked on a couple different teams where I was the lead programmer and have finished 4 complete games, student of the year for computer science, student of the month a couple times, academic letter of achievement for 3.5 GPA in 2 consecutive semesters, and some other stuff too...not sure if maintaining a website and making a programming language counts as extra-curricular or not, oh yah, and chorus for 4 years of high school, a city choir for 3 years, and marching band for 3 years

and also, my average percentage for grades is somewhere between 86 and 91%

Do as much as you can, especially if they're leadership activities. Community service is good, too - look at Habitat for Humanity or volunteering at a soup kitchen or something.

Hey cii, what year are you in? Are ya in CS?

i'm in 1A. i was in soft eng. but switched to accounting* over the summer.

*failed the midterm yesterday. so i'm preety ........ed about that.

What rez are you staying in?

UWP
beck hall

Cool. I'm over in St Paul's.

@JVerkoey: Those marks combined with your leadership skills should get you into either CS or SE. CS has a lot more math than SE, and you also get electives early on.

I'm also thinking about going to Waterloo. I live in Alberta :P

They're coming to an "Out of Province Universities" type thing in Calgary on Mon/Tues, so I'm gunna go check em out


Would you recommend doing the CCC to somebody interested in going to Waterloo?

Are you in co-op? If so, how's it working for you? Good, bad?

What other good universities does Canada have that compare (or don't compare) to Waterloo?

Well I'm looking for a job right now. The way you look for jobs is on a central website, which stores your resume in HTML format, and then you can just submit your application to whatever posting you want. Another good thing is that almost all employers come on-campus for any interviews.

>>Philandrew
You're in alberta too? Very cool, you hear about U of C's tech course they're offering now?
http://www.computer.ucalgary.ca/cert...wareyouth.html
I'm going in tomorrow to talk to him about it, I'd suggest you do too if you want to join the thing (deadline's this friday). So whereabouts in calgary do you live and which high school? I'm guessing the odds of you going to aberhart are relatively slim to none eh?

jverkoey... do yourself a favor and DON'T GIVE YOUR MONEY AWAY TO CANADIA!




In all seriousness... any clubs or sports where you can push yourself to the top will help. But if you haven't been doing stuff like that, don't expect a last minute effort to really count for much. Schools can see right through that plan. They want someone who has been involved in stuff like that. It shows that it'll continue.

What other good universities does Canada have that compare (or don't compare) to Waterloo?

I originally wanted to go to UWaterloo, but coop is mandatory, and if you can't find a job (seems like a good chance this will happen at the moment), they don't let you just go back to school and study another term. Coupled with the fact that you have to find a new job every 4 months or so, that puts a heavy strain on your studying as well.

As a result, I'm now looking more at UToronto since they also have a very strong engineering program (don't know bout comp sci), but they have a Professional Experience Year (3rd year I think) rather than a work term-study term schedule. And they have an Engineering Science program that lets you choose your specialization in 3rd/4th year instead of right away, although that's supposed to be really competitive.

To the topic, for most canadian universities it's a big boost if you do well on the UWaterloo competitions (math, chem, physics, computer). @Philandrew, while the CCC is relatively obscure and unknown, I'm sure a good result is still taken into account for admissions purposes (or scholarship), at least for Waterloo. I can't say about other universities, but since there are relatively few if any competitions run by other universities, it's likely that they will 'piggyback' on Waterloo's contest results. Especially if you get into the CMO (do well on the COMC), you're in excellent standings for admission.