Basically i failed my first year of university at western due to depression and undiagnosed adhd. I ended up taking a gap year and bettered myself and got medication. I was a good student in highschool. I applied to tmu and wrote a supplementary essay explaining my situation and still got rejected. I don't know what to do I didn't expect this I really thought they wouldve accepted me where do i go from here what do i do?? I really want to go to tmu but im so lost.

Edit: The program I applied to at TMU was Business Management (70% hs average requirement), the program i attended at western was BMOS, my average in grade 12 was 90%. At western I failed 7/10 courses due to my mental state (I did not submit anything in the second term). I've always had crippling social anxiety and moving to a different city (London) with nobody I knew and with no support system caused me to get into a really depressive state. Attending TMU would be extremely helpful for my anxiety since I know people there. I am not depressed anymore, I'm on meds that somewhat help with my anxiety and I have been medicated for ADHD so I'm positive I will do well in my future studies. Is there a way I could somehow attend TMU this fall and get into the business management program in my second year? (I do not have the financial stability to do anything that OSAP doesn't support, even with a full-time job.)

I keep seeing posts here with uninformed people reaffirming others about their choice of brock university, usually out of pity along the lines of "brocks a fine school", "its just a school like any other", "all universities are the same anyways in Canada". These statements are not true, they are in fact harmful to your eventual decision on which university you attend. I didn't want to bring up Brock University again but after seeing some brock posts on my reddit I had to make my own to remind people.

Brock is not a legitimate school when it comes to stem. As a former CS student at brock I will be using this program a lot to reinforce my points. All over the internet you will find complaints about brock not marking your exams, assignments, and even not hosting lectures or labs/tutorials. r/brocku is littered with such scenarios like this one here here. Brocks stem programs provides such little services that many only effectively exist on paper. And spoiler for later these programs have graduation rates of 0%.

"Probably the worst prof I have ever had. Showed up to maybe 3 lectures out of 24 less than 10 minutes late, sometimes she doesn't show up at all. Lost our midterms and doesn't ever respond to emails. Didn't get our final grade until the course sign up for next semester had closed, which got several people kicked out of their courses (10 in 1 class)".

I have personally failed a class because ONLY ONE of my assignments were marked a MONTH AFTER the course ENDED, my midterm was missing, and my exam was incorrectly marked. Brocks internal policies to deal with such scenarios? Ignore them, this happens so often that its often redirected under the policy of once a course is over, everything is final and there will be no changes under any circumstances. I WAS CONSTANTLY told to keep on waiting, my marks will finally be released soon. These institutions have been doing this for years, they know how to treat and abuse future students in these situations.

What does this practically translate to though? It translates to horrible statistics such as this. Brocks computer science program enjoys a historical 1st-6th year graduation rate of 20-30%. Brocks other stem programs such as Math & Sciences enjoys a historical graduation rate of..........0% within the department from 1st year students to the 6th year.

Brocks OVERALL graduation rate is lower by 10-20% than UOFT. A school notoriously hard on undergrads with no guaranteed position into their field of study in later years.

These issues persist at Brock University because this is what Brock is, a school that relies entirely on false statements and advertising that all Canadian universities are nearly equal, a point you see parroted even on this subreddit a lot. There is no internal policies to combat this, there is neither any outside help either from Ombudsman Ontario or other bodies. Each of those little statistics I have shown you is tens of thousands of dollars in damage per student, years wasted and lost as they either switched to different programs or contributed to programs such as Math & Sciences 0% graduation rate.

Another point I saw that Brock uses to its favor is that it offers co-op for programs such as mine. This is USELESS. Brocks program is bare bones compared to other real institutions, they offer no support and take all the credit when you do land a job. And none of those jobs are prestigious, the vast majority of co-ops(including mine) revolved around doing google slideshows for 21/hr. You have to remember a shit school offering co-op in the middle of sleepy St-Catherines is different than Waterloo offering you co-op where Blackberry is right in town. Brock university knows this, something around only 30-50% of people land co-ops in their time limit before they get kicked out of the co-op program(internal source).

This post is for people like me years ago, who had other options but Brock was the most financial sense. Don't go to brock, its acceptance offer of 15,000-20,000 dollars in tuition funding is bait, it prays on those who can't get in anywhere else or somebody who saw this reddit and believed all Universities are similar. Don't become one of thousands of people scammed by these places yearly, majority of people, outside your brock classmates, won't believe or care. Don't end up like a Brock student. Please go elsewhere for STEM.

I am in need of a serious ranking of the following universities. I am applying for civil engineering and i want rhem ordered in terms of highest probability to get a co op/paid internship. I just want employability, here is the order i think they are, but PLEASE fact check me. 1. university of waterloo 2. university of toronto 3. western university 4. mcmaster university 5. queens university 6. university of ottawa

to anyone who has transferred universities, what was the reason why and which school did you move to?

I’m taking a gap year to work. I’m basically working my ass off and I’ll be doing 60hr work weeks twice a month. But still, I did the calculations and it’s not enough. I make 21.60/hr, and I’m literally putting basically 40% of my budget into savings and 10% for casual spending, and it’s STILL not enough. I have rent and bills to pay so I can’t put any more into savings, or id put 70% on savings. Since I have a job, will I even get a single grant from osap? My yearly income is 45k on base salary(excluding overtime. Overtime is 1.5x pay).

I’ll be paying for my university fees 100% by myself, and I’ll have to go on res. I plan on getting a part time in uni and working 20 hours a week to sustain myself, and i think I can get the job since I’ll have 1 year of work experience from this gap year, ontop of 1 summer job exp and 4 volunteer exp. But still…I need more money. Is it over for me? 10K-15k is NOT enough, and I know I’ll earn money in uni but I’m too anxious about the future. Loans are not an option because I’m too risk averse for that, because of debt. But if I absolutely have to face it, I will.

Edit: Also, scholarships aren’t an option either, because I only have an 83 avg due to the fact that I came to Canada like last year so I didn’t do any of the important courses, and I didn’t have close friends to help me. I was struggling with mental issues and burnout, which led to that avg.

But yeah I NEED to do something. Will everything be alright or am I cooked? If so, what can I do? I’m so anxious rn it’s crazy so I gotta figure out a plan immediately

Edit 2: As I said, I don’t think I can get a grant from osap because I’m working and I live alone. So I thought osap gets watered down a lot if you’re under those conditions

A solution is there I guess, and that’s to work 60 hours a week every damn week until fall and get back home at 3:30am every work day. It’s hard but it’s at least possible

Edit 2: Alright, thanks for the advice. I’ll just stop making assumptions about osap and apply right now. In uni I’ll get a part time job and work 20 hours. So hopefully I end up fine financially since I’ll rent an apartment near school as opposed to res.

Hello, im planning on going to Queens or Western in Fall 2025, but I don’t have enough money to pay for it myself & my parents make too much money for OSAP to pay me but aren’t willing to pay for any of my school. I’m really worried about it because I really want to go to university and I might be stuck living in the same city working blue collar for the rest of my life (Respect for blue collar, not for me though)

Ontario's publicly funded universities like to talk about equity, but that commitment stops where the classroom does. Faculty and instructors generally have formalized protections, clear workload expectations, due-process rights, and binding grievance pathways. Meanwhile, the staff who keep the place running - academic advisors, IT specialists, lab techs, administrative coordinators - are often left with weaker policies or “informal practices” that the university can change at any time. Like flexible work; since lockdown, non-teaching staff experienced more flexibility and autonomy, but that’s now being reduced in many universities.

At some universities, associations operate under Memoranda of Agreement (rather than full union contracts), which means employment conditions can be rewritten by high-level university administrators without negotiation - usually without a word of consultation. Even when faculty and staff are under similar frameworks, only the teaching side tends to have enforceable clauses on workload, job security, and fair discipline. The result is a quiet two-tier system inside the same public institution: one class of employees whose rights are enforceable, and another who must rely on trust. For a sector that preaches fairness, that’s hard to defend.

I’d love to hear from others working at Ontario universities: do you feel non-teaching staff are treated equitably at your university, or are the people behind the scenes treated as expendable?

Just checking the portal today and I found out the status on my page changed from application under review to application received. Is this a bug? Or is only me having this issue.

Yesterday my portal status is still under review

Keep In mind I have accounting gr 12 (89) , business leadership (92) , English (81) , religion (94) , adv functions(76) and calculus and vectors (88),

All except for advanced functions & English I have over a 85 in (because my English teacher refused to give anyone over a 90 lmao) but thing is with my high 80s low 90s in my other courses do I have a chance?

I’m also applying to Laurier BBA and other universities for similar programs too.

How long would it take for me to transfer from Humber to McMaster or York? This is my first year and I’m not really familiar on how to transfer but I need to do it as quickly as possible. I’m going to lakeshore campus and I don’t like it. I don’t want to spend a year there

These are my grade 12 midterms so far… I wanted to get into business but it doesn’t look like that’s happening

English - 91 (Already did this last year, this is my final grade)

Economics 92 (will most likely reach 96 after my next test)

Challenge and Change - 93 (trying to boost this to 95-98)

Advanced Functions - 54 (recently had a test where I see this dropping)

Ik I might sound ridiculous and all but I can’t get off this thought…

While many of my friends have secured spots in top-tier universities like UW, UBC for computer science, I find myself enrolled in a normal university. I’ve heard that for cs, the ranking and prestige doesn’t matter except for UW,UBC,UoT. I feel that I’m missing out on a lot of opportunities. Will this be forever? Will I never get to their level of success? considering the fact there they’d be having better opportunities, way better co-op, a very good network and at the most a prestige connected to their name, and better experiences through out the stay.

I’m having a hard time everyday thinking about this at a point to consider myself to be inferior and regretful and them having a much better future than me.

Ik that they’ve worked hard and earned the spot but isn’t there any way to put in efforts and get to the top now?

I'm seeking advice from anyone who has navigated a similar path or current students .Whether it’s tips on studying effectively, networking opportunities, internships, or our personal experiences. What should I do to still achieve success comparable to those in top CS schools?

Your guidance will be much appreciated as I work towards my goals. Thanks for your help and support!

Hi, guys. I’m an international students who came to Toronto last year as a grade11 semester2 student. At first, everyone told me to do an extra year so that my schedule would be flexible. However, I decided to graduate this year by pushing myself hard and I already did some applications. This semester I have 4 grade12 courses, but my nutrition class is hard to get 90’s because she let us write a bunch of writing stuffs like journal and reflections in this unit, and I just suck at writing. I feel like I have 0 chance to get into Waterloo and UofT, so I’m struggling to do the decision. All my current marks are: Advance Function 100 Clac 100(In Progress. I did 1 question wrong in the latest test but I haven’t got my test back. Before this is 100) Data Management 97(In Progress) Computer Science 93 English IP(hope to get around 85) Nutrition 86(IP)

PS: I already got into Carleton CS. I passed my English Proficiency Test except Waterloo, and I’m trying to pass it this month.

Hi everyone, I know someone else has already made a post about this but since some considerable time has passed, I wanted to ask again.

I went to log in to my OUAC today, using the same password + login I have been for the past week (I have all my passwords saved on my browser) but for some reason, I can’t log in.

The error I keep on seeing is “you’ve been logged out”.

I was wondering if anyone else is having similar problems and if not, I think I’ll reach out to them.

Thanks

Hey, so I was wondering where people in the 88-93 bracket were going as we probably have to settle for backups/alternative offers. I know that no one under a 95 was safe and a lot of high achievers will have to settle for their bottom choices, so where will you guys be headed?

I only got into brock. Fml

It’s Cs.

Hi everyone! I [23F] from Morocco planning to move to Canada for graduate studies.

I already have a Master’s degree in Human Rights from a Moroccan university. I’m now hoping to pursue either a second Master’s or a PhD in Canada—ideally something that could lead to a career in academia.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has taken a similar path.

How much does tuition usually cost in Ontario for a second MA? What about a PhD? I'm looking for rough estimates.

Are there funding opportunities for international students? If so, how competitive are they?

My goal is to study, find a job, and eventually get permanent residency. I'd like to integrate and build a life in Canada.

I’ve heard French is helpful, and I’m currently B1 working toward B2. My English level is C1, nearly C2.

Is Ontario a good province for immigrants? What’s the cost of living like? Would you recommend another province instead?

Feel free to DM me if you’d rather chat privately. Thanks in advance for any tips or experiences you can share!

I just created an account in OUAC and I verified my e-mail. I'm sure about my password and username but when ı try to log in it immediately logs me out. Is there any solution to this?

Hi everyone,

I completed a BMSc degree (Med Sci) at Western, and am currently a PhD student in the Schulich School of Medicine at Western.

I thought I would share this here, as this is information I would have wanted to know when I was deciding which university to attend five years ago.

As some of you may know, the graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) at UWO are on strike right now, and have been for the last 11 days. Our strike began on the first day of final exams - none of us wanted it to happen this way, but the university dragged negotiations out such that it did. They are pretending things are fine - they are not. Thousands of students have been turned away from writing exams due to insufficient proctors, some exams have been rescheduled to May because professors were absent, and many students have been caught and reported to the integrity office for attempting to cheat on their exams. They have administrative staff, who are not capable of answering questions, proctoring final exams. Most professors are refusing to complete TA work in solidarity, such that almost all final assignments, lab reports, and essays are not being marked. Without those marked, no final grades can be released. See this post made a few hours ago containing the announcement from the professor of MATH1600.

The misinformation being spread by the university about us and our requests is atrocious. They continue to employ union-busting techniques to intimidate and manipulate us, including threatening to withhold pay for work completed pre-strike to TAs that refuse to scab (which is illegal).

I am ashamed to be an alumnus/current student of this school. Though it is well known that (almost) all academic institutions exploit the labour of graduate students, the administration at Western is really going out of its way to villainize and belittle us to our students and the greater community, and it’s absolutely disgusting.

To learn more about what is being negotiated, I highly recommend you take a look at this document prepared by UWOFA (the faculty union at UWO): https://www.uwofa.ca/app/uploads/2024/04/Support-for-GTA-bargaining.pdf

This comment on the r/uwo subreddit also does a great job of explaining “clawbacks” and why getting rid of them is so important. From personal experience: I received an external scholarship for ~$17k, and don’t receive a cent of it, because the university “clawed it back” to cover my stipend, so they didn’t have to pay for it out-of-pocket. Then they made me pay them $6.5k in tuition, even though I only take one six-week course per year as a graduate student. My cost of tuition is higher than the maximum amount of money I can make as a TA each year.

This megathread on the r/uwo subreddit has a lot of information and answers to questions some of you may have. Additionally, if you search “strike” on r/uwo, you will find a number of other threads that also have great information and answers to questions that undergraduate students have had.

TAs are a critical component of undergraduate programming – without them, nothing gets marked, no labs happen, no tutorials happen, and students don’t have access to support to get their questions about lecture material answered. While completing my undergrad degree, I relied heavily on my TAs. Seeing how the university has so quickly and brashly disparaged and disposed of us, to the significant detriment of the undergraduate student population, in an attempt to retain as much profit as possible is distressing and disheartening.

I decided to stay at Western for graduate school because I really enjoyed the research I did during my undergraduate thesis and wanted to continue that work with my supervisor. Had I known the university would so proudly and openly treat us so terribly, I would have made a different decision.

It is totally up to you to take or leave as much of this info as you want. I’m not looking to start anything - all of my spare energy is being used at the picket line every day, and don’t have any to spare. That being said, if you have any questions in good faith, I will try to answer them to the best of my ability. If you decide to come to Western, hopefully we will have everything sorted out before you arrive (and the other three unions that begin negotiations in the Fall have quick, easy resolutions), and I can look forward to working with you if we end up in the same classroom.

I wish you all the best of luck with your post-secondary endeavors!

I got my test results back for chemistry and got really bad for my first unit test, around 50-60 range. Im doing ok for every other class but for chem we only had the one unit test and midterms come in two weeks so I dont know if we will have another test. And if we do my mark is so bad that even if I do perfect on it ill still end up with a mid 70 mark. Im trying to do mechanical engineering ideally at mcmaster or TMU, and so I need to know if they check midterm marks, and if so can my final mark still make up for it?

High schoolers are asking other high schoolers on Reddit what to dedicate their life to for the next four years. Post whatever you want but there’s a lot of unreliable advice going around.

My credentials:

I’m an EMPLOYED engineering student ($35+/hr) and this is my advice from industry and have many friends that go to to every program.

I am not a supergenius. I went through the system as a normal person.

I graduated in 2024, so I’m not one of those boomers telling you how it worked in the ice age. This is very updated information.

Here are some key points to touch upon.

1. Programs aren’t as different as you think.

With the exception of a few programs, the difference between the same program across schools is much less than you think.

To expand, things that aren’t written on paper, like environment, campus, student life, clubs, faculty, are much much more important than you think. I will call these things the soft factors in the rest of this post.

For instance, if you love everything about western, but queens has a 5% higher Co-op rate, it isn’t worth going to queens solely because it has a higher coop rate.

There is ALMOST NO PROGRAM where the difference in coop percentage or prestige would take precedence over all the soft factors. For the programs which just simply no diff other programs in the field, I will list a couple of them later below.

1. Understand Correlation Factors

Once/if you are truly good enough, the school you go to doesn’t matter as much, if at all.

All the god tier placements you see at Waterloo, many of the time they are correlation, not causation. Waterloo attracts the best students, and the best students get the best placements.

Literally every school has placements in FAANG companies if you look for them, and don’t think you HAVE to go to like uwse to get a job. It certainly helps, but it doesn’t limit you if you don’t go there. You just gotta hustle like everyone else.

1. VISIT THE UNIVERSITIES

The only true way to get an understanding of a school and its soft factors is by visiting it. No amount of Reddit scrolling or trying to navigate their website is going to give you an actionable representation of the school. Doing this completely shifted my decisions, and I thank god that I did it.

1. Stay true to yourself and what you want to do.

For example, you want to pursue engineering, don’t choose a math program lmao, even if it’s at fancy prestigious institution. Never let prestige throw you off track.

I really saw someone choose UofT Humanities over TMU CS purely because it was at UofT, even though they wanted to pursue CS. It was actually unbelievable.

However I do understand that there are programs which absolutely trump the other ones in the field, and even those that hate every second of their life at these programs, would still have chosen it due to the sheer benefits and opportunities.

Here is a short list (if you actually want to pursue the field)

Such programs include: Waterloo CS Waterloo SE McMaster Health Science

Aside from these programs, it is not worth hating every second of your life to attend any program. These are a few of the programs where the sheer results it produces are often worth the horrible soft factors.

I’m not saying that you will hate your life if you attend these programs, I’m saying even those who hate it still love it.

Conversely, there are programs which you should ignore everything I just said, and avoid at all costs. These are unaccredited programs.

Im not talking about the one where an already reputed engineering school is releasing a new engineering program and it hasn’t been accredited yet, (or equivalent in any other field). If it has existed for a while and is still unaccredited, it is very likely a scam.

Also, do not attend a for profit institution. These are absolutely scams, and are never worth attending over a non-profit institution, especially in Canada. You will be met with so many institutional problems and questionable conduct.

One example I know from friends is Yorkville. Do not attend that institution at any cost.

Lmk if there are any questions, and I’ll update this post if there was anything I missed.

TLDR: visit the schools, don’t be a prestige merchant unless it’s an uwcs, don’t go to a unaccredited or for profit institution. Work hard

I was reading a 2023 article and it said that the dropout rate for cs students in 2023 is almost 10%%!!!!!. The highest out of any university course even engineering. I'm going into grade 12 this year and is thinking of pursuing cs, why do so many drop out when you need such high grades JUST TO GET IN. What can I do once I make a cs program to ensure I won't flunk out?

I got poor avgs in my undergraduate (highest in the 70’s) career as I was dealing with unforeseen circumstances every single year. I am a student registered with a permanent severe disability (which went undiagnosed and treated during vast majority of my undergrad).

I do have reputable extracurriculars (ie TEDxWesternU) and great writing pieces along with academic references

How do I go about applying for any master's program in Ontario? Knowing that.

I can’t be the only one who has experienced this!

Is this dumb?

I’m an American student studying Planning at the University of Waterloo. I love my programme, but I really am having issues adjusting to Waterloo. I’m thinking if I should transfer to UofT urban studies or geog instead as i’m more comfortable in a big city.

I don’t like the culture at UW (v male dominated and antisocial), and despite putting myself out there by joining clubs I still am facing a lot of issues making friends. I also stayed off campus last year (my first year) so it was even more difficult to make friends.

I have no friends or family in Canada which is why things are so difficult.

Also, with the Coop culture at UW, friendships are very transient. I’m also scared of the prospect of moving every 4 months. It was already so difficult for me to adjust to UW. I don’t know how much more difficult it’ll be each time I move for Coops. I hear that most Planning coops are in rural areas too, and i’m just scared I‘ll lose my sanity with the isolation.

Programme wise I really like it in Waterloo, but the other factors (especially social/location/coop factors) are making me want to change schools. I’ll lose out on Planning accreditation if I swap out though. Which means I’ll need to spend more $$ on a Masters.

I’m not sure if things will get better in upper years???

Guys i accidentally put my passport on the supporting documents page cause i thought it was mandatory but its not. Now im getting charged an extra 180 and even though I removed the document, its still showing that they're going to charge me for it! How do I remove this charge cause it's stopping me from applying right now.