Question and Answers #3

Q: Can you elaborate more on the admissions process? I am currently in grade 12 and am hoping to get in the same program. I retook Adv Functions to upgrade my park (78 to 91) and was wondering how that will affect my admission chances. Also, when did you get your acceptance, and what were the admission averages for people who got in last year?
thanks for writing this blog, it is very helpful!

A: So your application, transcript, and completed AIF are sent to the admissions office. They use the AIF and marks to get some sort of "score" that is also affected by the success of other students that came to the University of Waterloo from your secondary school. That is roughly how admissions work as far as I know.

I think a repeated course would be looked at critically, so they would have preference over someone who achieved a slightly lower mark on their first attempt at advanced function than a repeated course mark. I think a repeated course may be enough of a reason that they would even go as far as not even considering giving you an offer into Computer Science since it is a very competitive program to get into. I remember seeing some numbers in regards to the number of applicants to the number of available spots in computer science and it was in the ball park of 16 or so applicants per seat last year and it only gets worse from there. There has been a 15% to 30% increase in applicants every year.

The averages of people who were accepted into Computer Science for Fall 2015 were about 93% as far as I know. I was accepted for Fall 2014 with an average in the low to mid 90's or so, it has been a while so I can't fully remember what my marks were like at the end of grade 12. I am sure I can find out but that would require I either (A) go home and look for my report card or (B) go ask administration to see if they can pull up my file and tell me what my average was on my transcript. Frankly speaking, I can't really be bothered to bring myself to do either since it does not matter and I have better things to do, like write a new blog post about my university experience thus far or answering questions, which I think is much more interesting for you, future university students, than a number that was calculated from six random numbers, so let's just stick with low to mid 90's for the sake of answering your question.

I hope I answered your questions, if not, let me know. And I am glad you find my blog helpful.

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