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procrastinationpen

Dealing with Procrastination

Steve Olson has a great collection of resources for beating procrastination on his site.  (Bookmark it, and then write it lower down on your to-do list. You’ll see why in a moment!) More »

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Is March Break the best time to visit prospective universities?

It’s March Break for high schools in Ontario and all the Ontario universities know it! There are several tours and activities planned for secondary students taking advantage of the time off to More »

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University without high school

Maclean’s article University Without High School gives a highly positive and interesting review of the ideas in the book College Without High School by Blake Boles. If you are high school age and want More »

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Is it worth going to university?

This post was written on my personal blog a few years ago, inspired by the fact that I had just paid off my student loans. ($463/month for 10 years — you can More »

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Students can improve by being more like salespeople

There’s a lot of information on this site about how to get into university. But it’s only responsible to also include tips, tricks and tidbits that will help you prepare for the academic More »

Ontario university programs not requiring ENG4U for admission

March 19, 2011   University Admissions . ca   No comments

The vast majority of Ontario universities require ENG4U to be included in your Top Six admissions average if English is your first language.  But, there are 3 general exceptions to this rule:

  1. The program is general enough that it has no stated prerequisites: any six 12U credits will do.  There are only four programs like this in Ontario, all at Carleton: Music, Humanities, Social Work and Public Affairs and Policy Management.
  2. A 12U English course is required, but it need not be specifically ENG4U. There are two Ontario Universities that are flexible as to which course can fulfill the 4U English requirement: Wilfred Laurier will accept ENG4U, ETS4U or EWC4 and Ryerson will accept any 12U English course for many (but not all) of its programs.
  3. A handful of mathematics/science/engineering based programs have so many other pre-requisites because of the demands of these programs that ENG4U is not required, although it may be strongly recommended.  These programs are listed below.  Brock, Carleton, Lakehead and Waterloo all have programs like this.

If a school or program is not listed below, then ENG4U is a requirement, even for its most general humanities program and its most demanding science program. Your best strategy is to take ENG4U to give you access to all other programs.

But, if you don’t have ENG4U, you can still apply to a select few Ontario university programs. You may wish to consider applying to an Open University instead to have a wider selection of programs to choose from.  Then, after a year of study, you can decide whether to stay at the Open University or whether to request to transfer into a bricks-and-mortar Ontario university.

Note: the following information was taken from eINFO Admissions Guidelines and Programs of Study (pdf) for the 2011-2012 academic year.  Programs and prerequisites may change in future years.  Please consult eINFO each year for the current academic information.

Brock University

Biomedical Sciences: MHF4U or MCV4U; SCH4U; two from: SBI4U, SPH4U, SES4U, a second 4U math or ENG4U. Strongly recommended subjects: ENG4U.

Biophysics: MHF4U or MCV4U; SCH4U; two from: SBI4U, SPH4U, SES4U, a second 4U math or ENG4U. Strongly recommended subjects: ENG4U, SPH4U.

Biotechnology: MHF4U or MCV4U; SCH4U; two from: SBI4U, SPH4U, SES4U, a second 4U math or ENG4U. Strongly recommended subjects: ENG4U.

Chemistry: MHF4U or MCV4U; SCH4U; two from: SBI4U, SPH4U, SES4U, a second 4U math or ENG4U. Strongly recommended subjects: ENG4U and a second 4U math.

Earth Sciences: MHF4U or MCV4U; SCH4U; two from: SBI4U, SPH4U, SES4U, a second 4U math or ENG4U. Strongly recommended subjects: ENG4U.

Environmental Geosciences: MHF4U or MCV4U; SCH4U; two from: SBI4U, SPH4U, SES4U, a second 4U math or ENG4U. Strongly recommended subject: ENG4U.

Mathematics: MHF4U and MCV4U. Strongly recommended subject: ENG4U

Neuroscience: MHF4U or MCV4U; SCH4U; two from: SBI4U, SPH4U, SES4U, a second 4U math or ENG4U. Strongly recommended subject: ENG4U

Physical Geography: MHF4U or MCV4U; one from SBI4U, SPH4U,SCH4U, or SES4U. Strongly recommended subject: ENG4U

Physics: MHF4U or MCV4U; SCH4U; two from: SBI4U, SPH4U, SES4U, a second 4U math or ENG4U. Strongly recommended subject: ENG4U.

General Science: SCH4U; MHF4U or MCV4U. Stronglyrecommended subject: ENG4U

Carleton University

Computer Science: all programs: MHF4U or MCV4U, plus five best 4U/M courses

Engineering: all programs: MHF4U, SCH4U, SPH4U; one of MCV4U, SBI4U or SES4U; plus two best 4U/M courses. MCV4U strongly recommended. ENG4U recommended

Humanities: Best six 4U/M courses (with Biology option: SCH4U, plus best five 4U/M courses)

Industrial Design: MHF4U, SPH4U, plus four best 4U/M courses. MCV4U is strongly recommended

Mathematics: MHF4U and MCV4U, plus four best 4U/M courses.

Biostatistics: MHF4U, MCV4U, SBI4U and SCH4U, plus two best 4U/M courses

Music: Six best 4U/M courses. ENG4U recommended

Public Affairs and Policy Management: Six best 4U/M courses. ENG4U recommended

Science: MHF4U; two of MCV4U, SBI4U, SCH4U, SES4U, or SPH4U; plus three best 4U or 4M courses. MCV4U strongly recommended. For Physics, SPH4U is strongly recommended

Honours in Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Computational Biochemistry, Computational Biology, Food Science and Nutrition, Nanoscience, Neuroscience and Psychology: MHF4U and two of SBI4U, SCH4U, SES4U or SPH4U, plus three best 4U/M courses. MCV4U strongly recommended. (For Combined Honours programs in Chemistry and Computer Science: SCH4U andMCV4U are strongly recommended. For Honours Psychology, ENG4U is recommended.)

Honours in Earth Science, Environmental Science, Geography, Integrated Science and Combined Honours in Biology and Physics,and Chemistry and Physics: MHF4U or MCV4U; two of SBI4U, SCH4U, SES4U, or SPH4U; plus three best 4U/M courses. (For Honours Environmental Science, SBI4U and SCH4U are recommended.)

Honours in Physics, Applied Physics and Combined Honours in Mathematics and Physics: MHF4U and MCV4U; one of SPH4U, SBI4U,SCH4U or SES4U; plus three best 4U/M courses. For all programs in Physics, SPH4U is strongly recommended.

Social Work: Best six 4U/M courses. ENG4U strongly recommended

Lakehead University

Applied Science Common Year (one year upgrading for Faculty of Engineering): Six 4U/M credits; 3U/M math required, Grade 10 Academic or Applied Science is required

Engineering: MHF4U, SPH4U, SCH4U, ENG3U

Ryerson University

All Ryerson programs require a 4U English course, but many programs do not require ENG4U specifically; other English courses may be used instead.

University of Waterloo

Health Studies: SBI4U, SCH4U, plus four additional 4U/M courses. Recommended: MHF4U, ENG4U

Kinesiology: MHF4U, SCH4U, one of SBI4U or SPH4U, plus a minimum of three additional 4U/M courses.

Wilfred Laurier University

Note: all programs require one Grade 12 English course: ENG4U, ETS4U or EWC4

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Dealing with Procrastination

March 16, 2011   University Admissions . ca
procrastinationpen

Steve Olson has a great collection of resources for beating procrastination on his site.  (Bookmark it, and then write it lower down on your to-do list. You’ll see why in a moment!)

He mentions one of my favourite procrastination articles, Structured Procrastination, where John Perry outlines his methods for making procrastination work for, rather than against, you.

Perry attempts to structure his to-do lists in such a way that procrastinating when it comes to the items at the top of the list (which, he argues, he would do anyway since he is a procrastinator by nature) means that he “tricks himself” into completing items lower down the list.

Of course, not every action he takes while evading responsibility is another item on his to-do list. Sometimes in an attempt to avoid his list entirely, he will engage in social activities. But even these activities (things not on one’s to-do list) can be rich self-development opportunities: making life-long friends, learning a skill, helping others and so on.

One resource not mentioned on Steve’s list is a book I read several years ago: It’s About Time! The Six Styles of Procrastination and How to Overcome Them by Linda Sapadin. What I liked about this book was that it let students identify with a variety of procrastination types and similarly dismiss other types.

Just like models of learning styles or personality types, no one model is the definitive model for categorizing people.  But, when you are presented with clearly distinct types of procrastinators, it becomes a little easier to figure out which behaviours and motivations you do or don’t identify with.  Sometimes when advice is given as a universal truth, it can be difficult to accept its relevance: we all want to think I’m different. Looking at procrastination types gets you thinking more specifically about your procrastination behaviours and might feel a little more relevant and a little less like, “Duh, everyone should <insert generic advice here>.”

Similarly, Paul Graham’s article Good and Bad Procrastination (also from Olson’s collection of resources) attempts to categorize procrastinators.  But, instead of classifying them based on their reasons for procrastinating (fear of failure, need to please, rebellion, revenge, perfectionism), Graham distinguishes different procrastinators by what they choose to do instead of the thing they should be doing: something more important than the original task, something less important than the original task or nothing at all. Reminiscent of Structured Procrastination, this article claims that there are good forms of procrastination. Whether or not your procrastination is actually helping you (even if you didn’t know it), it’s probably a good idea to take a look at what you do while you’re procrastinating.  If you can’t bring yourself to actually work on the task at hand, maybe you can improve your overall situation simply by choosing better distractions.

One of the linked articles suggests that a strict or authoritarian upbringing can rob us of the opportunity to learn to plan effectively for ourselves.  If your daily schedule was decided for and imposed upon you, what happens when you suddenly find yourself as a young adult with complete freedom?  Some will stick with the strict routine they know, and some will consciously choose to rebel. But many students will sincerely try to manage their time and commitments.  Very few students entering university actually intend to be a slacker. But they can stumble if they’re not used to making these tough choices (like when to work vs. when to play) themselves.

Another must-read article on Steve’s list explains how our own brain works against us and why meta-cognition, thinking about thinking, is the best defence against our own mind. Our reasoning is often irrational and biased towards survival strategies from earlier days when life was riskier and we couldn’t always afford to wait for future rewards.  Hyperbolic discounting is our tendency to choose a smaller payoff now rather than wait for a larger payoff later.  In doing so, not only can we end up making decisions of short-term gain that work against ourselves in the long run (like procrastinating) but we underestimate future consequences, tending to focus instead on present consequences.

As a result, we often make commitments to future deadlines that we would never agree to under present conditions.  For example, you can’t write that article for the campus newspaper this week because something came up. But you’ll gladly sign up for six weeks from now because you’re sure that month will be just a normal month. Our idealized picture of the future never seems to include helping a friend move, a Star Trek: The Next Generation marathon, a breast cancer run nor a public transportation strike. (Or as could be the case in Canada, a federal election!)

This potential for being over-committed is a key factor in having an unmanageable to-do list . . . or as described in the article, an impossibly long Netflix queue of high brow films you’ll probably never get around to watching because in the present moment, you always choose Family Guy.  And unmanageable to-do lists can make you appear like a procrastinator (missing deadlines, feeling overwhelmed etc.) even if you’re not normally one.

And finally, for those of you just wanting lists of tricks for beating procrastination or getting motivated, Olson’s article has that too.  There should be more than enough for those looking for actions they can try out right away.

So visit The Smart Guide to Beating Procrastination and give yourself something productive to do while you’re procrastinating!

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Is March Break the best time to visit prospective universities?

March 14, 2011   University Admissions . ca   No comments
students

It’s March Break for high schools in Ontario and all the Ontario universities know it!

There are several tours and activities planned for secondary students taking advantage of the time off to visit their university choices.   During March Break you can be sure there will be plenty of representation from academic departments, the student union, clubs and services to answer your questions and sell their school.

But the March Break experience isn’t always the most accurate representation of daily life at university.

The circus of March Break activities may give you the impression that the campus is busier and more crowded than it really is. This misrepresentation is just as much a problem if you want to chill out on a mellow campus as it is if you’re hoping to find party central.

Professors, staff and students who might normally be available for a private chat find themselves swamped with hundreds of students being shuttled around from building to building for prepared presentations.

Some of the current university students may enjoy the distraction and be friendly to the throngs of high school students, but remember that the university year is shorter than the high school year.  That means these students are that much closer to their final exams than you are. You may be invading their personal space just when they are trying to buckle down, catch up after their reading week vacation, and finish off their coursework.

When you visit a university campus during your March Break, you’ll know that the university is ready for you.  There should be lots of information to take home and most buildings and facilities will be open for touring.  It’s a great time to see as much of the university as you can.

But if you really want to get a feel for what your experience there will be like, consider booking a campus tour when you can really see the university as it is most of the year.

October is often a great time to see the campus after frosh have settled down and most students are well into their classes but not scrambling to finish a semester. If you’re considering a school in a city that can be cold and snowy in the winter, early February will often allow you to see the campus in its harshest conditions.  That’s the time when you want to evaluate the distance between your residence building and your classes!

It’s not too late to get a campus tour at many Ontario universities this week, so if you don’t have any plans, consider getting in on the excitement! But remember that it is just that – excitement. For a calmer view of the university, consider also trying to get a tour later this month. Then you can follow up on your interests from the March Break tour and get a little more quality time at the university.

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