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Zunaira (Year 2)
What did you wish you knew before going to your university? What made you choose this institution over all others? What are advantages and disadvantages of your institution or campus? List any advice for incoming first-year students about your university.
Nothing, because my high school prepared me well. I chose this institution because my program has a high standing and it’s not as competitive to get into as other universities. Another reason is that, I enjoy the buzz of Downtown, where the campus is situated. Downtown has its advantages and disadvantages; commute may be long and exhausting for many students and the smell of smoke and drugs surrounds you in open air. Advantages are that everything (from commercial to recreational areas) are close by, if not in the campus already. This includes Eaton’s Centre and the Nathan Phillips Square. For first years who will need to commute to Downtown: Don’t let the commute demotivate you into joining Rye, it’s actually fun when you have friends to commute with you!
What did you wish you knew before choosing your specific program? What are the advantages and disadvantages of your program? List any advice for incoming first-year students about your program of study.
Before I joined, I heard they teach you everything from scratch. This program was not my first choice to get into so it took me a long long time to get a hang of it. In this program, half of us know everything while the other half is extremely behind in terms of the content /practice, there is no balance. The one thing I like about my program is you don’t need to do readings or memorize. My advice would be that if you don’t know how to code and never done it, don’t do it <3
What was your favourite university experience?
Definitely the breaks between lectures/labs. Sometimes my friends and I would study but the majority of the breaks consisted of us playing cards, going to Eatons, and eating out!
What was your least favourite university experience?
The very first few weeks when I didn’t have friends and I didn’t have a clue of what was going on in lectures or labs, when I missed my high school friends and my high school itself.
What is the hardest part about your program and what were the steps that you took to overcome any difficulties?
It’s a difficult program if you don’t know how to code or don’t have much of an experience. This program needs students who are passionate about programming, otherwise there will be lots of struggle. I made friends who were at the more or less at the same level as I was so we tackled most of the lab assignments together. Extra practice and time for coding should also be put in.
If you were able to take electives, what was your favourite elective? If you were not able to take electives, what was your favourite course and why?
Calculus (MTH 207) went great because the majority of the content was the same as grade 12. Ethics, Social Issues(CPS 412) was very easy, just two small assignments and the midterms and final were all MCQs, straight out of the PowerPoints.