Third Year Biology Major at UBC with a love for reading and food. Feel free to ask me any questions you have about UBC! I will try my best to answer them!
If you want a private response, feel free to email me at: ayyellesrambles@gmail.com
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Life as a UBC Student
My two cents when it comes to creating timetables…;)
1. First and foremost, make sure you understand your faculty requirements. Look through the Calendar , your faculty website, your specific program requirements, and ensure you know which courses will fulfill those degree requirements. Ensure that you know what the promotion requirements are, unless you want to stay an extra year, those requirements are important! If something is unclear, don’t be afraid to ask advisors! They’re being paid to help you figure out how to meet your degree requirements! If you’re in Sciences, I can answer some questions and help you to a certain point, but I don’t know everything! The advisors know best!
2. Now that you’ve figured out which courses you need to take, make multiple worklists! Sometimes, you won’t get all the courses you want, so you’d want to have some back-ups!
3. Think about start times, ending times and breaks. How long do you have to commute to get to UBC? If it’s over half an hour, you may not want to choose the section that’s offered at 8 AM, I’d highly suggest you choose one that is later. If you commute for an hour, you may not only want to have a single class that runs for an hour, the commute will take longer than the class, and that’s a bit of a waste of time. If you want a job or to volunteer, maybe having a couple of days where you only have a single class would be beneficial for you. Breaks in between classes, you usually have about 10-15 minutes between classes to get from one building to another, so don’t sweat it, you’ll make it to class most of the time. I find having a single break in between my classes is the best use of my time, having multiple breaks loses a lot of time as I’d have to go find a seat, twice. A single 2 hour break is better, for me, than having one class, 1 hour break, another class, 1 hour break…
4. Stuck between two sections of the same course, offered at the same time? Check Rate My Prof, and UBC PAIR grades. Also check out the UBC Maps and decide whether or not the locations of back to back courses are feasible. For example, Buchanan D to Biological Sciences takes approximately 9 minutes to get to by speed-walking (by a 5 foot 2 girl). M/W/F classes usually run for 50 minutes with 10 minutes in between classes, T/Th classes tend to run for 1 hour and 20 minutes also with 10 minutes between classes.
5. Discussions, Tutorials, Labs. If you can help it, I advise you not to choose the Monday sections. You usually have less time to work on assignments, especially when professors don’t even post the next week’s assignment until Friday evening. You will also be bugged by EVERYONE else who has those sessions later in the week and will ask you about what happened in the lab, or tutorial session. If you choose a later day, you can reap the benefits of being the one to ask questions.
Anonymous asked: we have until 12:00 am tomorrow to drop a course right?
11:59 PM on May 17th to drop most (refer to the Courses website to see the date for your specific course) term 1 courses without a “W”, but I wouldn’t wait until then, in case the system glitches.
Anonymous asked: If I slacked my 2nd semester of senior year, do you think UBC will withdraw their acceptance? Or do you think after I pay everything by june 1st will be okay?
Depends on how much you slack, if you end up failing everything, then yeah, UBC is probably going to withdraw their offer, but if you drop a few %, it shouldn’t matter too much.
Anonymous asked: Do you think making an academic appeal is worth it? or do you think I should just take this year and go to Langara instead and then come back. If other people have opinion they're welcoming to answer too,.
I don’t know what the process is exactly, but it never hurts to try! It may take some extra time to go through the process of appealing, but if it doesn’t cost a lot of money, you should go for! Weigh your stakes!
Good luck!
Anonymous asked: Hey there:)! I was wondering what can you tell me about UBC from a personal, student stand point - the stuff they don't tell you on the prospectus or when the rep isn't over selling every good aspect for all it's worth hahhah. The stuff you wish you knew. Also what's Vancouver like as a place to live, weather, things to do etcThanks so much! - an interested student from the UK
Hi!
If you scroll through my posts, you’ll read what I’ve said to other students in regards to specific questions I’ve received. These questions cover various topics ranging from academics to social life to how to save a few bucks on campus.
UBC is a very large school, over 40 000 undergraduate students, first and second year classes are VERY large, at least 200+ per class, as all students in a single Faculty tend to take the same courses during this time. You’ll most likely be just another number, as professors don’t have the time to learn everyone’s names. If you want to be more than a number, you really have to make an effort to visit the professor during their office hours. Third year courses are relatively smaller, depending on the subjects you choose to study. Professors are more interested in learning names in classes with less than 50 students.
It’s hard to make friends, especially if you don’t put in the effort. Many of the students are local, so they’ve already established relationships with people from high school or through meeting friends of friends. It’s not impossible, and it’s definitely easier if you live in a residence in first year, as most students won’t be from Vancouver and will be looking to friends!
Vancouver is an expensive place to live, there’s a price to pay for it’s beauty! :P It also rains a lot, but you’re probably used to that, being from the UK. I’ve had friends tell me that the weather in Vancouver is exactly the same as it is in London, both are coastal cities.
You really have to take responsibility for your own undergraduate experience. Nobody is there to nag you about having to complete certain requirements, you have to look it up yourself and take note of deadlines. Opportunities to get involved, such as volunteering in research labs are also not generally advertised, if that’s the sort of thing you would be interested in, you’ll have to contact professors or talk to people who are already in labs to see if they can get you in. There are advisors you can talk to, but ultimately, it’s up to you.
Anonymous asked: Hi have you used sapling before? How difficult is it to get full marks on questions? How is it graded, do you get a set amount of attempts like mastering physics? How difficult are the questions, did you getstuck alot? Can you find ans onIine like mp? Same ques for everyone? Is it very time consuming? We can use sapling and have the midterm and final worth less, or not use it and have the exams worth more, do you think its better to get it? Its just that we have other hw to do, worried about tim
Calm down!! Breathe!!
If you’ve read any of my previous posts, I have used Sapling. You lose marks with every attempt, but very little marks, not full marks, like 0.25 or something like that with each incorrect attempt. The answers are not usually online. I found it pretty helpful though, especially since you can work on it with friends, so it was like almost like a free 10% (or however much it was worth). Very time consuming though.
Anonymous asked: Do you feel like you have less time to study for finals during summer classes?
It was okay, because I was never taking more than one class at a time. I also never took courses that ran every single day, so I had time in between classes to study. The finals are scheduled after the last class now, so there will be more time to study! Before, they were mostly held during the last class.
LOL, we went from sunny 20+ days and not a single cloud in the sky one week ago, to this…love you Vancouver, perfect timing for Summer School!
The best list of free things to do in vancouver. No money? No problem. Check out this list of free things to do in vancouver for some ideas
For us poor students bumming around the city over the summer…
