university applications (again)

christa lynn · Post by **christa lynn** » 1/15/2004, 12:36 am

thirdhour wrote:Christa, what dorm do you live in? I've got a couple friends that go to UBC.

I'm in Totem Park, Shuswap.

Axtech · Post by **Axtech** » 1/15/2004, 6:53 am

Johnathan: I have nothing against Natives. I just think there's way too much money being spent. I think that now people are so far from their heritage that paying them for deeds done by other people is getting a little pointless. Honestly, what makes the poor native student more deserving of free education than a poor caucasian student (or, for that matter, any other student)? I know that they have this horrible heritage, but I think it's about time we said what's done is done. We should be able to move past what happened so long ago.

A lot of native communities have it extremely rough right now. Most children in such communities won't be going to university. Why isn't the government helping them (because of their condition, not reparations) instead of sending big city native kids to university?

nelison · Post by **nelison** » 1/15/2004, 10:31 am

or hey, just to be fair why not have any natives who live on reserves and wish to go to university write a test. They score above a certain score they get their education paid for. This is probably the only way that is fair because you can't go from paying for every native's education to not paying any. Thats a public relations disaster.

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » 1/15/2004, 12:24 pm

Axtech wrote:Johnathan: I have nothing against Natives. I just think there's way too much money being spent. I think that now people are so far from their heritage that paying them for deeds done by other people is getting a little pointless.

Rob I couldnt agree with you anymore. I also agree that there is too much money being givin to the reservations. It just a waste.

Jim, thats an excellent idea

Dr. Hobo · Post by **Dr. Hobo** » 1/16/2004, 2:50 am

Jim: your comments about queen's being "not all that great as its cracked up to be" (not an exact quote but very horribly loosely quoted) because "the high academic standards are only for the people you apply against" (or something along those lines, im tired and lazy and crap so im not going back 3 pages) but the gist of what you were saying is that the high academic standards of the uni isnt that great and its only compared to others during the application process etc, etc.. thats what makes the uni so great.. thats what makes any school the calibre of queen's so damn good.. if you get in, its not easy street,.. you are going to CONSTANTLY be compared to some of the best and brightest in the subjects your in constantly in an attempt to force you to do better and to compete for ever shrinking seats.. thats true for any/all uni's of course but the truth in that logic comes more into play with better schools like queens, u of t, mcgill, mac, UBC, etc etc .. and on top of that, theres the research.. what sets a good school apart from a great school is the research the folks at the school conduct..as undergrad students we wont notice this (especially first years) but as you get older you truly appreciate that kinda stuff more for various reasons, none of which (personally) atleast have to do with presitige but just in some cases the pure genious involved etc.. in order to get the best of the best in researchers you have to pay money and the best uni's put up that kinda money because they recieve a lot from alumni who truly appreciate what the school has done for them, not always but usually the better the school the more they get from alumni..

for the folks who were wondering about queen's and marks and programs etc.. its highly dependent on what program you apply for.. i went there for a year (well 2 years technically but due to my severe depressive episode i dropped out and took time off and im back in school again at U Sask) .. anyways.. when i was in first year, i had guys on my floor in just about every program offered.. i myself was in biology, my roomate was doing a dual major in bio and chem, we had a boat load of commies and eng's, umm.. lots of pre-med folks, some guys in arts (i cant remember all the majors to be honest) from all over north america.. (our RA was from waterdown? watertown? somewhere in upstate ny just south of k-town) and on of the other guys was from the DC area.. its a great school and not a day goes by that i dont wish i had a chance to get my degree..
coming out of HS i didnt have the BEST marks in the world (i think low-mid 80's but i did EC stuff.. (ran x-country 2 years, track 1 year, badminton team, was a member of my school's reach for the top team, 2 science fairs) lots of crap so it is possiblle to get in with okay marks.. ive also heard that for some programs a mid 70s could get in but having said that however, i graduated in 1998.. and things have obviously changed since then, especially in ontario..

and finally, to touch on the native issue, i think if they were to change the rules to make the money be spent properly it would be better.. i mean.. if i was in the situation that you've mentioned where i wouldnt have to work (for all intents and purposes) etc etc then i wouldnt WANT to.. although i would goto school but when you dont have proper work habits in your upbringing then you wont be able to succeed at the university level.. you have to make someone WANT to earn a very decent living before the money is being spent wisely.. there will be some folks who need the money and put it to good use, some who waste the money and others yet who take the money, goto school and just cant handle the programs theyre in either culturally or emotionally, etc.. the latter cant be blamed for not trying.. maybe they couldve tried harder.. maybe *I* couldve tried harder but its not something entirely black and white.. anyways the point to my rant continuing is actually to say that more money needs to be spent on making uni more accessable and to increase the standards of what they used to have here in canada.. from when i first moved to canada to the time i graduated highschool mcgill was considered one of the top medschools in the country and was doing high end research and such, now from ive heard from my cousins most of the profs have either been "forced" into "voluntary" retirement or just not had their tenures renewed and most of the leading researchers have left not only mcgill but a large # have left canada as a whole.. (when i first moved here, my oldest cousin was doing his bsc at mcgill, he went onto complete his MD there and was then followed by his brother, nowadays, the older ones an associate prof in Yale's med school, in addition to his research there and the the others a nephrologist in seattle)

and yeah with that i close today's lecture
i expect you all to read chapter 5 through 8 for tomorrow

dream in japanese · Post by **dream in japanese** » 1/16/2004, 10:42 am

no more reading :mad:

nelison · Post by **nelison** » 1/16/2004, 10:43 am

sorry, didn't mean to offend you, I was just going by what I've been told from friends, and just passing the info off to the people here. I don't doubt it's a good school, pretty much anywhere you go for university in Canada is going to give you a pretty good education if you want to do the work. I've just unfortunately heard more bad things than good about the school. Hell, I'm sure you can find just as many bad things about the school I'm at as well.

Dr. Hobo · Post by **Dr. Hobo** » 1/16/2004, 4:15 pm

i wasnt offended.. sorry if i came off that way but i was just relaying my experiences from there :lol:

i would like to say though that first year classes at Queen's are huge and arent that fun but 1st year classes always tend to be that way when you are in a program that is good or whatever at the school you are going to (i wasnt IN Pre-med per say but was taking pretty much everything a pre-med major would except for english so as a result i had huge classes) but that happens when a course is a core course for multiple degrees, etc

Axtech · Post by **Axtech** » 1/16/2004, 4:55 pm

Here's my marks at midterm:

Bio - 84%
Philo - 83%
Eng - 80%
Math - 88%
Average - 83.75%

Now, the pre-exam marks:

Bio - 86%
Philo - 87%
Eng - 89%
Mat - 90%
Average - 88%

Wow. My english mark (which was bringing my average down) went up NINE PERCENT! *happy dance*

Now, as long as I don't completely fuck up my exams, I'm set. XD

Dr. Hobo · Post by **Dr. Hobo** » 1/16/2004, 4:57 pm

oh and theres another thing.. if schools see a trend that you improve either from year to year or in general you are improving they will also (sometimes) take that into account or atleast thats what i was told back in the day

Axtech · Post by **Axtech** » 1/16/2004, 4:59 pm

Sweet.

I half-heard something at school the other day. Apparently a lot of universities (Queen's included) are stopping taking in applications all together. Usually (so I think I heard) they'd keep taking them in, and get a huge percent of them after the "deadline" (Jan 15 or something like that). Now, they're not taking in any more, meaning that there should be less competition for me.

Dr. Hobo · Post by **Dr. Hobo** » 1/16/2004, 5:09 pm

when i was applying i figured "theres no way in hell im getting into U of T" so i didnt bother.. then my friend with similar marks got in. i almost applied then but chose to stick with Queen's.. but if say i didnt get into Queen's for whatever reason and the uni i wanted to apply to was a "lesser known" school and i wouldve gotten into that.. i would be screwed for not applying in the first place (which is stupid of course that one wouldnt cover for the "unforseeable") but a lot of kids just dont always think that way unfortunately (or atleast didnt back then) :lol:

but when it comes to a school like Queen's which get so many damn applications it makes sense

Henrietta · Post by **Henrietta** » 1/16/2004, 9:23 pm

I agree on the native bit. Why can't you pay for the scholarships and then if they don't hack it after a year don't give them the money. That's absolutely stupid. I have to keep my grades up and they pay for my education (a different kind of scholarship), but they don't give me cash, ever. My friend is half Brazilian and she could have her education paid for but she won't. Course it might be a different story if her dad wasn't a doctor. :lol:

gavtodd71 · Post by **gavtodd71** » 4/21/2004, 7:25 am

on another note, i got early acceptance into queens engineering....

megxyz128 · Post by **megxyz128** » 4/22/2004, 9:06 pm

how much is tuition in canada anyway?

i've decided against wayne state, it's u of m - d for me. hellz yeah.

oh yeah, and i ended my high school career at number 21. OUCH. that stings. my goal was top 20. :neutral:

Axtech · Post by **Axtech** » 4/23/2004, 5:49 am

gavtodd71 wrote:on another note, i got early acceptance into queens engineering....

Sweet! I got mine for Arts there, too!

gavtodd71 · Post by **gavtodd71** » 4/23/2004, 6:58 am

wooo, what type of arts my sister goes to queens for music

starseed_10 · Post by **starseed_10** » 4/23/2004, 8:32 am

gavtodd71 wrote:on another note, i got early acceptance into queens engineering....

sweet. i'd probably be with you if i filled out the online application :lol:

oh well. no queens for me.

starseed_10 · Post by **starseed_10** » 4/23/2004, 8:32 am

which type do you want?

Random Name · Post by **Random Name** » 4/23/2004, 12:03 pm

humm. I got accepted to MUN but I still have no idea what I'm doing there. Which is a little scary.