My First Year of Western Engineering
Created and recorded by Vivek Jariwala, Jeffano John, Masumi Yvas. June 2022
Music: Times by Madman, https://lmms.io/lsp/?action=show&file...
Is Engineering at Western difficult? The short answer is yes, its engineering which at any university will typically have one of the highest workloads and the averages are always skewed to be on the lower end between 65-72%. But the long answer is, it really depends on you. If you have done the AP, IB, or similarly equivalent program in high school or came from a more challenging high school, I think on average those students can make the transition a bit easier as significant amount of the content in courses like calculus, physics, and chemistry can be review. However, that also doesn’t mean that if you that does not apply to you, you still can’t do just as well if not better than those other students. And if you did come from those programs, you might still do poorly in some of these courses.
Also, in my opinion, there are few courses that you can do fairly well in if you just try to put some effort in them or just go to class. I would say in my opinion that especially applies to ES 1050 (Design), ES 1036 (Programming), and NMM 1411 (Linear Algebra). And then some other courses may feel impossible. That no matter what you do, you just don’t understand. And thats okay as well. If you find it difficult, likely many other students do too. And most of the time, it all evens out in the end when you factor in other course components and calculate your average.
Why Is Engineering Hard?
A question that I had going into university is okay well I am doing well in high school, why is university and especially engineering so much harder? Like if you do the homework, then like whats happening on the exam.
So this might be different for other programs, but you’re not wrong. If you did all the homework and understand it, you would be fine for the exam. However, most individuals don’t do all the homework and its because its impractical. Time becomes your greatest enemy rather than just the difficulty of the content. So what I would say is I felt like more than anything, the first yera teaches you how to study the most material within a limited amount of time and learn it well enough to be able to get a high grade on an exam. I think the students who can do that effectively are the one who can do just as well or better than people who do all the homework.
In regards to what resources I used, many times it was prep 101 courses that I split with my colleagues that created like 15 hours worth of videos that you can go through and learn the course really well within the span of watching the videos.
People In Engineering?
While UofT and Waterloo definitely attract many ambitious students, I think the environment within the program can feel extremely competitive and less welcoming. In comparison, I rarely feel that present at Western with the exception of a few times in the year. For example, the discord at least in my year was full of great resources, assistance, and just collaboration. Engineering is a team sport and you would be shocked how important having good friends are in this program. Like my average would easily be 15-20% lower without having had great friends alongside me.
Internship/Co-op?
My biggest complaint about Western and what makes Waterloo so renowned is our co-op. Western 1) is not really well known for its engineering program 2) has a co-op portal that is poorly funded and thus requires the majority of students to look elsewhere for internship opportunities.
In terms of how to find them in the first place, I know many individuals on the PBSN and WFN clubs on campus who were executives got internships out of nepotism from being apart of those clubs. Also many people whose family members work at places like banks or some companies in downtown toronto are able to get internships through that, once again out of nepotism.
And then there is Indeed and company websites where you can try applying. The chances of getting a job through any company website is very slim and I actually would suggest to not even waste your time unless you have some really applicable skills or experience.
The other really big way students get internships is by networking, which I hate to say as well. Esssentially, they make a LinkedIn profile and send these copy paste messages to recruiters at the company they want to go to and basically just ask questions about the company to show them they are interested and to get the recruiter to know them so that they can get the job.
However I understand that also is not ideal so I would strongly recommend applying to internships through government programs that subsidize the wages of the companies that list postings on these program pages. You can also try applying to startups if you really just want the experience and do not care if you get compensated properly.
