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Hi. My kids went to university in Ontario. Graduated 2 years ago. One engineering. One media and publishing.
My son had amazing high school grades. He had early admission to every program he applied to. Scholarship offers too. He picked a school based on employability and coop. He went to a program that the school specialized in. Some engineering programs have a general first year with program selection following that. While others have a direct entry to their selected program. Difference being if his grades tanked he would lose his ability to get top pick. Then the support they offered for coops. Some said they had coops but very little staffing, other had a building dedicated to it. Engineering and nursing have structured programs. So many hours of a subject as a requirement. The school reserves placement for them. Open degrees are a free for all.
My other child did the arts thing. Her program was so over booked she didn’t get any courses in her major the first 3 semesters. But she still had to take courses. Waste of money in my mind. The last year was a grind getting all her credits for her major. Work experience was also hard to get in her field. No support from her school.
A friend of an ours went to Trent. Economics. He had great grades and took the full ride scholarship they offer. He’s making really good money now even though people bash on the school.
Go to a school for a career. Plan for some versatility in employment. CPA Accountants can work anywhere where as nurses have limited employers- government.
Watch out for rent availability. Lot of colleges are packing in the students and rooms aren’t available. Universities aren’t as bad for this but one college can soak up all the free rooms. Waterloo is a great example of this. 2 universities and 1 college there. The college doubled their enrolment. Now things are a struggle.
Look at commute times. You can’t afford to spend hours on a bus or 2. No time to study.
Feel free to message me if you want to talk.
A wise mentor told me something after I left school that I wish I knew before.
It makes so much sense looking back. I personally don't regret mine, but I do wish I would have done a minor in something creative, or history, or sociology, or something fun. Instead all of my work was for my major, and it basically made it straight sciences.
For my creative friends, I do think this would have helped too. Journalism is going to get you barely anything out of college, same thing with many art degrees. It's not how I would have built the world, but it's the world we have. However, that doesn't mean don't do it, but maybe go for web design with your true passion as a minor. Maybe major in accounting if you're good with numbers and minor in journalism, then go make a ton of money at one of the big outlets.
I just wish I would have known then, that it's not one or the other, but you can have variety.
I tried to get my one kid to do business marketing as opposed to media studies and publishing. Take a minor in publishing. My thought was the flexibility of a business degree would allow a path towards a CPA or if they land in publishing the marketing would be a very complementary pair. Lots of off shoot jobs could lean on it.
University can lead to a lot of debt in Canada too
Yeah not an easy place as a parent there. On one hand you want them to do what they enjoy doing, they should get whatever degree they want. On the other, they have never experience the real world and have no idea what the job market is like - and you don't want them to leave college with a piece of paper that's worthless either.