I’m applying for universities this fall, so I’ve started to do research for them. I don’t have any experience with this, and I don’t really know what I should be looking for. Right now I have found all the major universities that have Bachelors in the field that I want to go into (Mechatronics), and I have added a little bit of info on each as well as their requirements in an obsidian doc, but what other info would be worth looking into and adding to my document?
(Edited to include my field of interest)
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Reputation in industry. If they’re viewed as crap, your degree could actually hurt you in the job market.
First year residence guarantee. Unless you’re commuting from home, see who guarantees first year residence. Depending on the city, housing could be hard to come by.
Related: distance between housing and your lecture halls. If there’s multiple campuses, make sure your housing is near the one you’ll be at.
Co-op. If applicable, you want this.
Thanks for the information! These definitely seem important, and I’ll definitely look in them.
Getting a university degree is essential for a lot of professions, but it should not be your only purpose in attending. It’s an opportunity expand yourself as a person while training for a job. Take some classes in non-technical areas that you know very little about. A few of them may lead to lifelong interests. Even if they don’t, they will give you a broader view of the world and the people in it.
Even if you end up loving your job, there is more to life than work.
I have a computer science degree and work as a developer and consultant. The most important things I learned in college were from some anthropology classes I took out of curiosity. Technical knowledge is not that hard to acquire. Gaining new perspectives on the world is a lot harder to come by. Take advantage of the opportunities.
Depending on what you’re planning on going into, don’t lock yourself into going to university. My wife spent 3 years of half course load at university while working in the same field she was trying to study in and didn’t get her degree, or actually get into the faculty she needed for that degree. She is now 5 months from her degree after spending a year and a half at college in a workplace program. Academia is disgustingly bloated and “you have to prove you want to be here before you can go into what you actually want to learn” for certain disciplines. College is a perfectly good, or better option depending on what you are going into.
All the universities may have majors in your field but it doesn’t necessarily mean their programs are their main focus or have been updated at all lately.
Edit: it doesn’t necessarily need to be their main focus but look for signs that’s at least still a priority (assuming other factors make the particulier uni appealing)
Hi. My kids went to university in Ontario. Graduated 2 years ago. One engineering. One media and publishing.
My son had amazing high school grades. He had early admission to every program he applied to. Scholarship offers too. He picked a school based on employability and coop. He went to a program that the school specialized in. Some engineering programs have a general first year with program selection following that. While others have a direct entry to their selected program. Difference being if his grades tanked he would lose his ability to get top pick. Then the support they offered for coops. Some said they had coops but very little staffing, other had a building dedicated to it. Engineering and nursing have structured programs. So many hours of a subject as a requirement. The school reserves placement for them. Open degrees are a free for all.
My other child did the arts thing. Her program was so over booked she didn’t get any courses in her major the first 3 semesters. But she still had to take courses. Waste of money in my mind. The last year was a grind getting all her credits for her major. Work experience was also hard to get in her field. No support from her school.
A friend of an ours went to Trent. Economics. He had great grades and took the full ride scholarship they offer. He’s making really good money now even though people bash on the school.
Go to a school for a career. Plan for some versatility in employment. CPA Accountants can work anywhere where as nurses have limited employers- government.
Watch out for rent availability. Lot of colleges are packing in the students and rooms aren’t available. Universities aren’t as bad for this but one college can soak up all the free rooms. Waterloo is a great example of this. 2 universities and 1 college there. The college doubled their enrolment. Now things are a struggle.
Look at commute times. You can’t afford to spend hours on a bus or 2. No time to study.
Feel free to message me if you want to talk.
A wise mentor told me something after I left school that I wish I knew before.
Major what will get you a job, Minor in what you love to do.
It makes so much sense looking back. I personally don’t regret mine, but I do wish I would have done a minor in something creative, or history, or sociology, or something fun. Instead all of my work was for my major, and it basically made it straight sciences.
For my creative friends, I do think this would have helped too. Journalism is going to get you barely anything out of college, same thing with many art degrees. It’s not how I would have built the world, but it’s the world we have. However, that doesn’t mean don’t do it, but maybe go for web design with your true passion as a minor. Maybe major in accounting if you’re good with numbers and minor in journalism, then go make a ton of money at one of the big outlets.
I just wish I would have known then, that it’s not one or the other, but you can have variety.
I tried to get my one kid to do business marketing as opposed to media studies and publishing. Take a minor in publishing. My thought was the flexibility of a business degree would allow a path towards a CPA or if they land in publishing the marketing would be a very complementary pair. Lots of off shoot jobs could lean on it.
University can lead to a lot of debt in Canada too
Yeah not an easy place as a parent there. On one hand you want them to do what they enjoy doing, they should get whatever degree they want. On the other, they have never experience the real world and have no idea what the job market is like - and you don’t want them to leave college with a piece of paper that’s worthless either.
I am not sure if this applies in Canada, but make sure that the program offered by the school is accredited. For example, I’m an engineer in the US and one of the bigger accreditation agencies is ABET. Some companies won’t hire you unless the school you want to is accredited by ABET.
Scholarship info. When I was picking schools, I lucked out and found one with great scholarship options and a good reputation.
