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Canadian Education system
Hi I live in the UK and I will migrating to Vancouver with my family in a few months time so I just have some questions about the education suystem you have. When you finish high school do you go straight into university like SFU of UBC or do most people go to a colleges like Douglas college and then do to uni afterwards? What's the difference between going straight into university and going into a college before university?
I hope I am making sense! Pleas help!!!
James.
I hope I am making sense! Pleas help!!!
James.
Comments
High school goes until grade 12, and that's the end of your basic education. You can then either just call it a day and go work, travel, or whatever, or you can choose to go to post-secondary (college or university). There isn't a typical route someone will take. Colleges are generally considered inferior to universities in terms of education and opportunities, but colleges are also significantly cheaper to attend. Lots of people do their first year or two at a college (like Douglas) and then transfer to a university like SFU, UBC or UVic. Others will stay in college and graduate right from there, while others start at a university right away. It all depends on your grades in high school, how much you can afford to pay, which schools are the most appealing to you, and such.
Like mentioned, the only difference between going straight to university and straight to college is that typically people that go to college either need to spend less on tuition, want more time to decide what they want to specialize in, or don't have good enough grades to get straight into a university, though that's mostly just a general overview. I personally went straight into university, and have no regrets doing so. I had a high entrance average, and was offered a scholarship, so it seemed like the right choice, and I'm happy with my decision. Love it here at SFU so far.
If you have any other questions specific to SFU, just post them here, and myself or one of the other posters can try to help you out. Hope that helps a bit. I can clarify anything if it is confusing (it is a wall of text, after all :P).
If I were you I would take go to kwantlen or sfu surrey for my fist semster. The smaller class sizes are much better.
And do you mean the profs at colleges are better in the sense that you learn more? Colleges are more laid back than universities, but that could be associated with the fact that they're easier in general (there's a reason your GPA is deducted some points upon transfer). Then again, most of these are generalizations, since I don't have first-hand experience at a college.
While I don't regret start at SFU right away, a college would've been nice because of the sheer variety in courses. So many cool classes my friends that go to Douglas and Langara and that get to do that would never be offered at SFU.
They've got people who can actually freakin' teach calculus. There's a reason I pulled A's and B's in differential and integral calculus at Langara, and a good chunk of that was because of the people who taught the material in a simple, straightforward way without trying to show off their math degrees.
Moral? Sometimes hitting up college is better to get your first and second year credits. Then hit up uni to get the advanced stuff.
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So all types of students go to college then, not just people who get lower grades? Also if you go straight into university do you have to have high grades?
What GPA does SFU accept and what GPA does UBC and UVIC accept?
You guys have been extremely helpful!
jAm,e#s
SFU is normally around an 80% average for admission, though it may go up this year, and Business is normally between high-80s and low-90s (though they've added in a new part to the Business applications where they consider your extra-curriculars and stuff too if you don't have quite a high enough average).
UBC this year is reported to be around an 86 to 90% admission average. Again, this is an average though, so people with lower grades are still admitted.
No clue about UVic.
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In the UK we have a totally different system so I am trying to work-out what grades are equivalent to the percentage?
If you mean if you get 80% in a class at SFU, it is normally either an A- or B+, though that can change depending on if the class is scaled or curved, and it also changes based on program (80% would get you an A- in Political Science, but a B+ in Criminology for example).
Check it.
For example, here when you start as SFU in the Bsc program you have to take 1st and 2nd year core courses, like Chemistry 121, 122, Physics 101, 102, Calculus and so on, whereas in the UK they do all that stuff at A level and not at university.
Another example, in the UK if you want to go to veterinary school you enter the degree program right after high school, it's roughly 5 years long and you start right away doing courses in animal anatomy and even professional/clinical skills. In Canada, on the other hand, if you want to go to veterinary school, you need to do science courses at university for a couple of years first - you can't just go straight in (and the same applies for med school or law school in Canada as far as I know).
At SFU you're allowed to pretty much pick and choose whatever courses you want to take in a particular semester. At British unis, I think you're assigned to certain courses depending on your degree program and you don't have much choice, but at SFU you could be enrolled in the Bachelor of Science program and then decide to spend an entire semester taking English and History courses if you feel like it; you can change your major halfway through your degree and so on.
The flexibility is good but it has its downsides too, you need to basically plan all the courses you'll have to take in order to fulfill the degree requirements. It's easy to get lost and start just taking lots of different first year courses if you don't know exactly what you want. For example, I have done first year Chemistry, first year Biology, first year Psychology, first year English, first year Calculus, first year Physics, first year Kinesiology, and first year Criminology. If I could discard half the courses I've taken, go back to the beginning, start over and plan everything out better, I would. On the other hand, it's nice because you might discover something you never knew you were interested in by sampling courses.