Applying to University for 2016

[kommisar]

Take a seat, let me tell you how this Frenchman's been questioning his life.


I've been on here 10 years and in those 10 years my biggest life decisions took place. The biggest ones involved gearing up for my future in the working class. At 17, I thought people going to university were simply going to drown in debt for 15+ years and have a job that isn't related to their field of study as I've seen happen many times. I generalized a lot, didn't see past what I knew from personal experience, thought I'd take the cheap way out and go to community college for a year.

I took a cooking class and finished my first block of studies out of 3 to get my full license (which to this day I still don't have even though I have all the hours required to go write the test). I graduated with no debt and an average 43k per year job. For Atlantic Canada, it's a very modest life in the middle class. I work full time at a job that requires my Red Seal for cooking (full license) but I managed to get in without it. They can't send me back to school for those certifications because "staff shortage".

My current girlfriend has her bachelors of science in psychology, but is going back to do either another undergrad program or graduate program. This left me with a few choices: move with her to whichever university she gets into and find a job there, break up and stay here, or apply to university for a career change. She convinced me I'm better than what I do and could get into a career that has room for growth of personal skill and actual incentive to do better and climb the ladder to a better paying job.

I'm at the top of the ladder at my job. It's not fulfilling any sense of accomplishment or merit. It's just an easy monotonous job that honestly anyone could do. I'm unhappy. So I decided to leave everything behind should I get accepted into university. I haven't been in school in 7 years. I imagine this greatly diminishes my chances of getting in anywhere, but I'm giving it a shot anyways. I have the grades for it, but the required classes are perhaps questionable since I went to a French high school and time away from school is also taken into consideration. I'm looking into studying in computer science which is probably what I should've done in 2008.


Has anyone been in a situation where they applied to a university after being out of school for a while? Is there anything I should know regarding admissions and what I could do to increase my chances? I'm applying to a few universities here in Canada (University of Toronto, Ryerson University, McMaster University, Dalhousie University) and -kinda- meet the requirements to apply (french high school equivalents in New Brunswick are vague and every university I call tells me I "should be fine" which is nothing short of nerve-wrecking). So to add chances of getting in, I'm looking into night/online high school classes from college to fill in some gaps and give a fresh layer of studies to my transcript.

[j-rodd123]

if you want computer science then University of Waterloo without question. although i think it's decently hard to get into, glgl

[kommisar]

Originally Posted by j-rodd123

if you want computer science then University of Waterloo without question. although i think it's decently hard to get into, glgl

they reject people who have been out of school for half a year lol

[kommisar]

I'm not worried about the difficulty too much (to even get in you need mid 80s grades hngg) I was more worried about them giving preference to others coming out of high school. good to know i wouldn't be alone haha