UBC Engineering for High Schoolers

In December of 2021, I applied to the engineering program at the University of British Columbia. As a high schooler in their last year, I didn't really know much about how university worked, or even how I could prepare for it. Having finished first and second year, however, I've learned quite a lot that might be helpful to current high schoolers interested in studying engineering at UBC. I've wanted to share my thoughts on the topic for a while, so if you're interested in reading a long ramble about my university experience, then you're in the right place!

I must start with the disclaimer, however, that I graduated from a high school in British Columbia. If you are an international student, or if you come from a different province of Canada, some of what I say will not be applicable—certainly not for the application process. In any case, I still believe there is benefit in reading some of my experiences, especially if you would like to lighten your load in your first year at UBC.

Too long; didn't read

Take some of these APs in order of priority:

• AP Calculus BC
• AP Chemistry
• AP English
• AP Physics C (Electricity and Magnetism)

For your grade 11 and 12 years, aim for a 95% average (if you're in British Columbia). At minimum, you should have a 90% average and a good personal profile. A higher average will make your profile less important, but keep in mind UBC genuinely cares about your extracurriculars. If you have nothing to show for in your personal profile, start volunteering, working for your community, etc. Find hobbies and interests that go beyond personal gain.

After first year in engineering, you will have to select a specialization that you will be studying for the next three years. This is based entirely on your first year average and another personal statement (unless you decide to choose ENPH). Taking those APs listed above will greatly help your first year average (at least a 5 to 10% boost).

That is basically all I have to say! If you'd like more detail, definitely read more below where I talk more about my own personal experiences.

Applying to UBC

Unlike most universities and colleges in Vancouver, you may be aware that you have to provide a personal profile in addition to your grades. This makes it a little bit challenging to be accepted to UBC, particularly if all you have to show for is grades (me). I'll first go over grades since that is a lot more straightforward.

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My high school average for grade 11 and 12 courses was 95.7%. I don't really know how this compares with other people, but it was certainly enough for me to be accepted. Considering that my personal profile was pretty average (more on that later), I suspect it is somewhat high for students from British Columbia. However, there are, of course, certain courses that are looked at more than others. In particular, my lowest grade, English 11, probably did not matter as much as my Physics 12 grade. Although this is just speculation on my part, I think it is reasonable to assume that engineering admissions weight course grades based on their relevancy (i.e. math, physics, and chemistry would be more important).

Because British Columbia eliminated provincial exams (standardized testing) several years ago, students' grades have been on the rise. Therefore, take my grades with a grain of salt since I graduated high school two years ago (June of 2022). After all, is not at all unheard of for students to finish a course with an overall grade of 100%).

If you struggle with maintaining a high average, your personal profile is a great way to offset this difficulty. Keep in mind, however, that you probably still need at least a 90% average to be admitted to UBC engineering. This is just my personal opinion, though, and it comes from peers and classmates I've talked to. Now if you have a really strong profile, you will probably only need 90% to 93% to be accepted. With a satisfactory personal profile, 94% to 96% is likely sufficient. With a bad personal profile, you should have a very high average.

Assuming you are happy with your grades, you now need to write a good personal profile. This is a chance to show off your extracurriculars. Make sure you have some—they are very important. UBC will almost certainly not admit you if you have a very bad profile. Personally, I listed three extracurriculars: my role in my high school's math club, stenography, and my past rock climbing experience. I've quickly summarized each one below:

At my high school, I took part in the math club where we taught recreational and competitive mathematics. One major role of the club was in preparing the students for various math competitions such as the Waterloo and local math challengers competitions. As the head coach in the club, I led a team of 4 other equally passionate coaches. Some of my responsibilities included preparing and teaching lessons, organizing schedules, and training the other coaches.

In grade 10, I fell in love with stenography: a method of chorded text input that allows one to write text at conversational speeds (200+ WPM). I was disappointed by how niche the skill was and wanted to share it with the world. There weren't very many good videos that explained how it worked, so I decided to create a YouTube channel dedicated to hobbyist stenography. My videos have been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, and have contributed to expanding the hobbyist steno community.

In grade 5 until grade 8, I loved to rock climb. I competed in several regional competitions, and once came in first at a particular one.

There isn't really much to say about these extracurriculars. If you are going write about these achievement type things, you will need to explain more than just what the achievement is. They're specifically looking for how they changed you as a person and how you frame yourself in these experiences. None of the extracurriculars I wrote about were particularly strong, and I don't think I wrote them particularly well eitherI would share my personal profile, but I'm not sure if that's allowed so I won't..

My recommendation if you are still in high school is to partake in volunteering. Even if you have achievements to write about, serving your community is a great way to make yourself more appealing to UBC. Volunteering shows that you will dedicate time to bettering not just yourself, but everyone. If you have the time, volunteer as much as you can—my high school had clubs dedicated to serving the community. Many of those members are enjoying very successful post secondary endeavours. No matter how you are, volunteering is a great thing to do; it betters yourself and everyone around you.

Beyond volunteering, you can also join meaningful clubs at your school. If you start early, you may be able to take on roles that go beyond being a member. Having administrative or organizational experience is not just a rewarding experience to you, but also can be appealing to UBC. Again, I haven't personally been very active in this category, but it seems to have worked for some of my peers and former classmates.

Advanced Placement

UBC engineering is treacherous. Each year, you are required to take around 40 university credits; somewhere near 12 courses spread across two semesters. Typically, this is 6 courses taken from September to December, and 6 courses from January to April. Depending on your program, you can take some courses in the summer, but this is not always possible. During your first year, you will also be transitioning from high school to university, which is a whole other can of worms to tackle on its own. AP credits are a great way to lighten your load in first year so that you do not have to take on so many courses.

UBC (thankfully) accepts Advanced Placement credits. From Wikipedia: Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada...AP offers undergraduate university-level curricula and examinations to high school students. Basically, you can take first year university level courses in high school, such that you don't have to do them in first year. These AP credits are also very inexpensive compared to UBC tuition. For $128 USD (2024), you can take an exam that counts for 3 to 6 UBC credits. At UBC, each credit is about $220; by obtaining credit through an AP exam, you can save at least $500!

With all of that said, which UBC courses should you take? Below is a list of some UBC courses and their equivalent AP course you can take.

• MATH 100 (differential calculus) – AP Calculus BC
• MATH 101 (integral calculus)– AP Calculus BC
• CHEM 154 (chemistry for engineers)– AP Chemistry
• WRDS 150B (writing and research)– AP English
• Mandatory first year elective course – AP EnglishAP English counts for first year English and a humanities course.
• PHYS 158 (electricity and magnetism) – AP Physics Electricity and Magnetism

If you carefully choose just four AP exams, you can remove 6 courses from your first year at UBC. This is why APs are so good. I personally only took AP Calculus BC and AP Chemistry, but this alone helped a lot in my first year. It is even more convincing to obtain credit through APs since many of the above courses are some of the hardest ones in first year.

If you're thinking how bad these courses can possibly be, take a look at ubcgrades.com. Keep in mind that a typical course at UBC would have an average of 72% to 75%. All the courses (except WRDS 150B and some elective courses) have a lower historical average.

So, APs are really good, but it's no doubt that taking four APs across grade 11 and 12 may be challenging. It is possible to start in grade 10, but you will be very stressed and you might not be able to do well. After all, it is not just about taking the AP course—the exams are graded on a scale from 1 to 5, and UBC only accepts credit if you achieve a 4 or higher (more on this later). Unless you are really good at managing your stress levels, I recommend just taking the ones that you can most successfully tackle as a high schooler.

If you can't decide which to take, AP Calculus BC and AP Chemistry are really good. With these, you can drop MATH 100, 101, and CHEM 154—many complain that these are some of the worst first year courses. I recommend doing calculus in grade 11 and chemistry in grade 12, but you can do both in your senior year too. After all, grade 12 level courses contain a lot of the foundational knowledge required for AP courses.

So how does one actually obtain AP credits? Well, you'd fist have to find a school that offers AP courses/exams. At this point, it's important to differentiate between AP exams and courses. To achieve the credits that are accepted by UBC, you will need to write an AP exam. Not all schools offer AP exams, but it is likely there is a school or library in your region that will let you write one of these. You will have to make arrangements to write an exam, whether it is at your school or elsewhere.

In addition to the exams, there are also AP courses. These are courses designed to help prepare you for writing the exams themselves. You do not necessarily have to take both the course and the exam. If you'd like to prepare for university courses, but don't want the stress associated with the exam, you can just take the courseThat being said, the course will probably still be stressful as is.. If your school doesn't offer the AP course, you can just write the exam at a different school, and self study on your own.

In my experience, I was lucky enough that my school taught a few AP courses, and even organized exams for courses it didn't teach. For example, my school taught AP Calculus AB, but not the BC variant. The AB variant only grants you MATH 100 credits, but BC grants you both MATH 100 and 101. I took the class for AP Calculus AB, but self taught the BC topics at homeAP Calculus BC is just AP Calculus AB, but with extra material.. As for chem, I was lucky enough to have a good class that was taught by a very knowledgeable teacher.

Chances are, you probably have to self study APs as there aren't a lot of schools in Canada that teach these courses (at least where I am). Unfortunately, I don't really have any tips for preparing for these exams. It has been a long time since I've had to. Furthermore, there is a ton of information and resources online. The basic rundown is that an AP exam is two to three hours long, filled with multiple choice, short answer, and written questions. While they are very difficult, I still believe it is worthwhile to take an AP exam for several reasons.

First of all, learning the material before you arrive at university is very helpful and will better prepare you for first year. In preparing for the exam, you are forced to learn and understand the material (even if you are self studying). Second of all, UBC does not care if you absolutely bomb an AP exam—they do not look at your scores for admission. That being said, if you are taking an AP course and you do poorly, it will affect your average like any other grade 11/12 course.

The last reason why you should still care about AP exams is that, in spite of their difficulty, they are massively curved. For some courses, you don't need very many correct answers. As previously mentioned, APs are graded on a scale of 1 to 5. For UBC, you will need a score of at least 4. That sounds pretty high, until you realize that for some exams (Calculus BC, for example), a score of 4 corresponds to correctly answering only about 50% of the questions.

The image below is a little complicated since AP Calculus BC is a little special—you actually receive two scores (and both need to be 4). However, it is possible to achieve a 4₄, with only 55% of AB questions, and 35% of BC questionsOne score is for the AB material (UBC MATH 100 topics), and the other score is for the BC material (UBC MATH 101 topics). If you get lower than a 4 on one of these topics, you won't be granted the credit for the corresponding course..

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In a nutshell, APs are awesome because you can get 70% on the exam, but all UBC sees is ✨5/5✨Of course, not that it matters for admissions 😄..

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My sessional average for first year was 88.3%. It would have been much lower had I not dropped MATH 100, MATH 101, and CHEM 154, whose overall class averages were 66.6%, 69.4%, and 68% respectively.

IB

Personally, I did not do IB. However, UBC also grants first year credit for IB courses you do well in. If you have a choice between IB and AP, I would do the latter since it is much less stressful. IB is an entire program that you have to apply to get into and it comes with its own projects and assignments and whatnot. On the other hand, anyone with a few hundred dollars can order an AP exam. My personal belief is that IB is great for international students, but it's a bit unnecessary for domestic students in Canada (certainly for UBC).

Summer courses

I did not take any first year courses in the summer, but if you have the choice, you should definitely consider it. This is another great way to lighten your load. Especially if you are not planning on working and are easily bored out of your mind during the summer months.

First, you can drop PHYS 158 and take PHYS 118 during the summer. They are equivalent courses—it's just that 158 is the special course for engineering students. In my session for PHYS 158 (January to April of 2023), the average was 68%. However, the PHYS 118 class in the summer term (May until June) had an average of 76%. You will likely do much better if you take 118.

You can also consider taking WRDS 150B as well as your elective during the summer.

Specialization

After you complete first year, you will have to apply to a specialization. For example, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, etc. I can't help you decide which one (if you really have no idea, go for civil!!!), but I can maybe help shed some light on the application process and what they are looking for.

Right after term 2 exams of your first year, you need to rank 8 different specializations. You will also need to write a statement for your top choice. Students with higher grades are given higher priority towards their first choices. You can imagine the process a bit like looking at every single individual student at a time, starting with those with high grades. One by one, each specialization will fill up. When it is your time to be assessed, your first choice specialization will be granted if it is not already filled. Essentially, you need to ensure that your average is high enough.

The following chart can help you decide what average you need:

⊕ The blue dot represents the median, and you will very likely receive a spot in that specialization if you have that average.

For example, computer engineering (CPEN) requires about an 85% or 86% average to safely get in. However, it is possible to get in with a lower average. The cut-off is represented by the horizontal dash; it is very unlike you will get into CPEN with 81%.

You may have noticed that the y axis of this chart is labelled with "unadjusted". If you were wondering about the statement I mentioned earlier, this is where it comes into play. Your "adjusted" average is based on the strength of your statement. If you don't write a statement at all, your adjusted and unadjusted averages will be exactly the same. However, if you write a good statement, your adjusted average may be a few percentage points higher.

When it comes to your first choice, UBC will look at your adjusted average (since your statement is written for your first choice). However, when it comes time to putting you into a specialization, if your first choice is already full, UBC will use your unadjusted average, which what the chart above shows.

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