Applying to University?: This Post Has Got You Covered

Applying to University?:

This Post Has Got You Covered

Bhavya Tandon

As a high school senior, I’ve spent the past few months applying to universities. Along the way, I’ve picked up a couple of tips and tricks that I feel might be useful for students who find themselves in a similar situation in the near future. Here are a couple of generalized ones that might come in handy for you:

1. Do your research. It’s extremely important to build a thorough base of information before making any sort of decision. You can find excellent information regarding programs and universities on my blueprint and ontariouniversitiesinfo.ca. 

2. Don’t lose sight of what’s important. There comes a point in the year when all of a sudden everyone seems to be talking about university applications all of the time. It’s on everyone’s lips every chance they get. Your friends and peers may be applying to certain schools and— while it’s important to ask around as a form of collecting information— you should do your best to avoid being influenced by everyone else’s pathways. Yours will be different, naturally. 

3. Find the program that’s the best fit for you. After doing some research, it’s important to narrow it down by determining what your most sensible and realistic options are. You might have dozens of programs you’re interested in but it won’t make sense to apply to each and every one. Especially since applying is a costly and time-consuming process. This is when you’ll want to explore program descriptions as posted on the universities’ websites themselves. Check out the admissions requirements to see if your grades match up with them. It’s also beneficial to see what specific courses you’d be taking as part of the program for all four years. This will help you determine whether you’d actually enjoy your classes. 

4. Analyze your finances. What’s the tuition like? Would you be living on residence or renting an apartment? Would you be paying out-of-province tuition? How are you planning on covering all of these expenses? These are all important questions to ask yourself throughout the process of applying. Be realistic. 

5. Once you start applying, make sure you keep track of all the different logins and IDs you’ve created and/or been given. Keeping all of this information in one place will save you a lot of time and needless panic as you frantically scroll through your inbox trying to find them. 

6. Remember to keep track of the stages of completion you’re at with respect to all of your applications. Some universities release supplementary applications later than others and have varied submission deadlines, as well so you need to ensure you stay on your toes. 

7. Keep a record of the responses you’ve written as answers to supplementary applications’ questions. This will allow you to make good use of well-structured responses and save time. All you’ll need to do is tailor them a little to the particular question at hand rather than start anew with every application. 

8. Above all, remain patient as you wait for your acceptance(s) to come in. You can only do so much and should try to sit back and relax once you’ve completed your supplementary applications. Work as hard as you can all year to earn the required grades. Strike and maintain a balance between academia and extracurriculars, as well. Good luck!

How a round of golf changed Thomas Gilbert's life forever

How a round of golf changed Thomas Gilbert’s life forever

Jacob Goldbach

This article has been repurposed from November of 2018.

Thomas Gilbert was an avid athlete in high school.

He was on the track, snowboarding, and badminton teams. However, over the past few years, it’s been another sport that has piqued his interest. Disc golf.

It all started in October 2015. Thomas was playing a round of golf with his friend Tyler Norris.

“He and I were playing poorly, to say the least,” said Tyler, about the day. “We were grinding out the round when I asked him if he’d ever played disc golf. He said he never had other than maybe once with a regular Frisbee at camp, so I suggested we go out later that week.”

Thomas was enticed by the idea.

“He knew I liked playing Ultimate Frisbee,” said Thomas, about the suggestion. “So he brought me out to the disc golf course.”

So Thomas and Tyler headed out to the course for the first time, and Thomas loved it. Not only did he love it, but he was also gifted.

“At the end of the round,” said Tyler, “he threw one disc that was a line drive right into the trees above the basket 270 yards away. This was an incredibly far throw and showed just how much talent he had.”

Thomas was fascinated by the sport, and he wanted to play as much as he could. In fact, he would even play during school hours.

“It was something me and Tyler would do,” said Thomas. “We would practice on the fields at lunches.”

Thomas was hooked.

“I continually got better,” he added. “I realized this was something I can do.”

Thomas started competing in local events, and he was winning with regularity. Now, he just needed someone to usher him into the competitive landscape. That’s when he met Henrik Londen.

Londen was a professional disc golf player in the 1990s. Now, at 53 years of age, he coaches, with Thomas being one of his athletes.

“Henrik showed me some techniques,” said Thomas about Londen. “He showed me the more professional side of the game.”

Thomas has taken Londen’s advice and put it to good use. Since joining the Professional Disc Golf Association he has won 12 events and accumulated over $7000, climbing the ranks as a young professional.

“Thomas has a work ethic like no other players,” said Londen, when asked about what separates Thomas from other players. “He is practicing every day regardless of the conditions he faces.”

Along with Londen, Thomas’s parents have also been extremely encouraging.

“I was supportive,” said Thomas’s mom, Susan, when asked about how she first reacted when Thomas told her he wanted to pursue disc golf. “Because Thomas really enjoyed playing, and continually improved through practice and competition. He created his own path.”

Since he became a professional in 2016, Thomas hasn’t skipped a beat and continues to train rigorously. His goal: to win the Canadian National Championship in 2019. And with Thomas possessing one of the best backhand throws in the sport, including the furthest in Canada, this is a real possibility.

“I’m pretty close,” said Thomas about the event. “As long as no Americans come and try to steal the title, I should be able to achieve it.”

From throwing discs while walking around the neighbourhood, to getting in practice at lunchtime, Thomas never could have never seen his career getting to the point it is at now.

“I was thinking about it a bit near the end of high school,” he said. “But I didn’t think I’d ever be travelling around North America, playing in the highest-level tournaments with the best players in the world.”

It’s amazing what a simple round of golf with a friend can lead to.

Ontario's first-year math investment: Politicians

Ontario's first-year math investment: Politicians

Samuel Reano

Let’s put aside our political views and focus on the future generation’s learning skills in math. The government of Ontario has come up with a four-year investment plan to improve students’ math skills. As of now, they have released their spending amounts for the first year of the investment plan. Note that EQAO is a big influencer for the government to decide how to invest in math skills to see improvement among schools and school boards. It took a long time for the government and EQAO to decide on the funding schools needed to aid their students to succeed in math.

I took the EQAO test in Grades, 3, 6, & 9 and my scores didn’t meet provincial standards. Yet I managed to pass math with marks above 75%. The teachers didn’t make math easy. They treated math like any other subject; some concepts are easy to grasp whereas the other concepts are difficult to grasp in one lesson and it requires lots of time to understand. It wasn’t just me that was concerned about the scores on the EQAO tests but my classmates and teachers as well. This has been going on for almost 10 years and now the government decides to spend money on improvement in math skills when they had never done so in the past. This is a well-planned decision because with the new curriculum for Career Studies where one unit has been added— financial literacy— students can now use their math skills to manage their finances. This holds huge importance in their lives. With financial literacy and math, the future generation is ready to handle personal finance issues. These same individuals will grow to handle the budget if they follow a career in politics and are elected for a position in the federal government.

While the investment is treated as an experiment, it will contribute to job growth. The first-year investment consists of school boards hiring math trainers and math coaches and an online system of tutors. The online tutoring system is beneficial for students and tutors because neither of them needs to spend money on gas and/or public transit to get to from one place to another. The tutors are ready whenever the students are ready to ask for help and the efficiency of their transportation methods contributes to a reduction in carbon pollution. As of now, there’s an excess amount of Ontario Certified Teachers and a limited amount of schools. If the excess amount of Ontario Certified Teachers contains math teachers, those educators can be used for the training and coaching programs for schools. The government will financially support a “summer learning program” where students can continue to improve their math skills during their summer vacation so that the material covered from the previous school year remains fresh for the next school year. Consider math as a language that is communicated through writing and verbally. It requires practice to be proficient and it’s a language that is communicated nationally, much like English and French.

Ontario's first-year math investment: Educators

Ontario's first-year math investment: Educators

Samuel Reano

Ontario’s Minister of Education has decided to invest in a common weak spot in schools; mathematics. Not every educator is an expert at teaching math nor at helping students to understand the materials from government-approved books and publication resources. In addition to going to your usual meetings, you’ll be trained to know math, inside-out, by experts. The process takes a long time to adjust to but students, parents, and guardians will be pleased by the math knowledge that you’re passing on to the future generation. Students won’t struggle as much in math as they will be able to rely on you for help in the classroom. 

When I was in Grade 10, my classmates and I struggled in completing math homework. It’s not because of the number of questions we were assigned for homework, but the methods of solving problems we’d been provided. We were taught to solve problems using one method but using a blanket solution to solve a specific type of problem does not always work. It limits problem-solving skills and the ability to apply math concepts in real-life situations.

Earning more money is a concern. Teaching night school, Saturday school, summer school, and Day e-learning courses give teachers extra money but the positions are filled quickly. The government has determined to start a “summer learning program” where teachers teach math to students so that the material they learned from the previous school year remains fresh as they enter the next one. This is an excellent opportunity to get more money in your pockets. However, the main reason for this investment is to improve the EQAO math scores for all schools. The team at EQAO is not satisfied that not all schools meet their expectations in terms of the range of scores. I remember my elementary school teachers mentioning the dissatisfaction from EQAO about our math scores. My teachers had discovered a pattern between our performances in math during the school year and the EQAO test. Our final marks in math during the school year were greater than our scores on the EQAO test. That means we either didn’t spend enough time in math or that the materials that the teachers used were not meant for preparing for EQAO. Even though we used the previous year’s test as a guideline for the current year’s test, we haven’t met their standards.

The investment creates a concern for the future generation that decides to become an elementary school teacher or a high school math teacher. Before applicants receive their teachers’ college certification, they have to complete an additional set of qualifications. The qualifications include proficiency in math and more math courses for future teachers. The government wants all current and future math teachers to be strong in math and have different teaching methods so that any student with any learning skill can learn the material without struggling to understand. In other words, the government and EQAO want you, the educators, to lead the future generation to solve math problems and apply the concepts they learned in the classroom to today’s changing world without doubt and very minimal struggle.