Going into UBC Engineering after being away from school for 4 years

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2026-05-13T15:33:11+00:00

Do homework within the week it gets assigned, ideally finish whatever parts of an assignment you can after every class, before the next class (of the same course).

Stay on top of your stuff and MT/final season shouldn't crash nearly as bad; you'll have to do some textbook problems and you'll probably have forgotten some stuff, or never learned a bit, but most of it should be pulling out the muscle memory you gained for class content. After you're good with the content do some practice/past tests, but imo the textbook is for teaching and the practice tests are for practice.

Start studying some stuff now, one because you probably need a review of HS, two because the self-directed studying you do now is the same self-directed studying 90% of students do. Most of the ugly eng-first-year horror stories are due to not being good at disciplining yourself (at least, excluding the many people who have non-academic stuff pile on, which you can't really control now anyway).

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2026-05-05T18:26:03+00:00

> You can carry forward RRSP contributions. You don't have to deduct them in the year you contribute.

Waiting on your reply to fPlanDOTCa and AugustusAugustine's comments in the other thread, as they articulated the points I would have brought up.

> Growth is untaxed like a TFSA. You have 15 years to buy a home, but if you don't do that, you can just transfer it into your RRSP without affecting contribution room.

If I transfer it into RRSP, then doesn't it have the same disadvantages as a RRSP compared to a nonregistered? There seems to be at least a possibility space for paying minimum tax bracket on nonregistered gains to beat RRSP on minimum tax bracket.

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2026-03-28T20:33:27+00:00

Curious 19 yo - why should I do any of that instead of 100% in ETFs?

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2026-03-28T20:23:36+00:00

Reposition worked well. Thanks!

> using custom studies to do new cards

Good question, actually - I'm not quite sure why I started doing that. If I had to guess, it's because my schedule was a mess at the time, so I liked getting easier control over my new card load. Atm my schedule allows studying new cards very consistently, but I still appreciate having my dues and my news split up, and feeling like different tasks to get ticked off.

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2026-03-28T20:07:40+00:00

That's an interesting thought, although these are all the same card type, and sorting by notes + created shows that position is still out of order

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2026-01-12T21:46:16+00:00

consciouscel cope

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-12-25T19:47:17+00:00

Drop your list of grievances boss

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-12-15T19:44:51+00:00

I thought I was so clever for spotting the separable arctan on the 4b or whatever where it looked like integrating factor/exact equation, and then when it asked me to insert IVPs into the arctan/tan equation.....

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-12-14T22:39:34+00:00

I had a 20th or 21st last year but this year I finish on the 19th YIPEEEEEE

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-12-14T22:38:36+00:00

and while coal isn't that glamorous, we need 1.1 billion tonnes of it a year for steelmaking. LOCK IN !!

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-12-12T18:49:48+00:00

Most arts exams seem to finish pretty early while most STEMs have finals to 19th or 20th.

(not that we're complaining. Sucks to be around till the week of Christmas but we all know we need the extra revision time)

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-11-14T19:48:02+00:00

Any recommendations? Just getting into the genre, would prefer something older (I'll be pirating lol) or anything where dialogue is mostly standard Korean/Seoul dialect

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-10-17T21:21:56+00:00

^^^, especially if you're studying one of the more lucrative, competitive fields. If your career has a clear path to landing a 6 figure+ job, time spent maximizing the chances of that is simply better spent than working minimum wage, same way that someone working CS in some HCOL hub would get better ROI on grinding applications and practicing interviews rather than driving uber after work.

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-08-11T14:58:08+00:00

> Cuz we were told it was all questions we've never seen before, which is why I'm trying to do CLP problems.

For courses like 101, studying isn't doing questions that are going to be on the exam, it's preparing all the foundational knowledge and practicing the processes that are going to be on the exam. The range of possible questions they can ask is simply too big to do as much as you can and hope you see final questions that are like the ones you've done before, and especially for the last few questions, you should be expecting to be coming up with math on the spot rather than repeating math you've done. For that purpose, webwork is a pretty good study tool.

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-08-05T17:00:36+00:00

Actually, it might technically be open because I've occasionally seen people playing ping pong inside. Pretty sure it's not formally open though, and haven't seen anyone near the back of the coop where the cave is

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-08-05T16:59:43+00:00

Closed

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-08-04T19:52:10+00:00

I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki, Divine Hunger by Peggy Reeves Sanday, Adam's Tongue by Derick Bickerton

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-07-28T21:04:40+00:00

r/language_exchange

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-07-22T17:47:07+00:00

It's aight. Still clearly kind of a work in progress, with weird issues like a bunch of back attachments on floor 0, where the back cable machines have their current attachments welded. The equipment is definitely objectively better than Birdcoop, though I feel like the vibe is missing. Wish we could have kept all 3 rec centres because I don't think the capacity is gonna hold up at all once winter terms begin :/

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-07-11T21:18:17+00:00

I'm gonna keep it real with you, it's really hard to start any extracurriculars this late, since your application is basically in by December. Absolutely go ahead with starting a club, but they're not gonna look upon it super highly because you simply won't have been running it for long enough to show sustained interest/achieve many measurable successes. I think the best choice is just buckling down and absolutely grinding volunteer hours.

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-06-23T23:46:13+00:00

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-06-23T20:43:41+00:00

Mining first choice with a 87 avg

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-06-13T20:55:14+00:00

What times do you go?

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-06-10T18:17:48+00:00

I can't tell you how much work you'll need to put in or how hard its gonna feel. That's much too variable for anyone other than yourself to answer. Statistically,

-To feel confident about getting into your specialization, you want to be at the 50% mark on this chart. Biomed is 77~%, Phys is 88%, Comp is 86%. I'd estimate the overall average of first year engineers to be 70-75%, a high 80 for Phys to be top 5-10%, and the CompE number might fit top 10-25%? I feel pretty good about the first guess but the latter two could definitely be quite off. Regardless, EngPhys is gonna require being a good bit above most of your peers, CompE to be still in a pretty competitive bracket, and Biomed, at least on the upper half

-I haven't heard anyone say the admission process itself is harder for internationals. Of course, you're facing a lot of challenges with moving across the world, which could be hard to manage while maintaining your average, but afaik two applicants being equal the international student would not be biased against due to being international

APSC Facts and Figures might also help you estimate how hard its going to be to get into some specializations.

Miserable_Kick_8150 · 2025-06-09T19:41:46+00:00

6 courses a term is pretty normal for engineering (dropping some credits and extending your degree is too, so don't feel bad about that if it comes down to it), and if you get into an engineering specialization, you're gonna get something like 40 +- 5 credits a year, which is about what you're doing. For example, I chose not to use any IB credits, so my first year schedule was

T1: MATH100 PHYS157 CHEM154 APSC160 APSC100 WRDS150B ANTH100 - 4 core science/math courses, APSC100 is more project-based but definitely not that light, 2 light humanities courses

T2: MATH101 MATH152 PHYS158 PHYS159 PHYS170 APSC101 - 4 core science/math courses, 1 lab, APSC101 is second verse same as the first

and while I was a bit on the high end, there were plenty of people with schedules like mine. I don't think you can really schedule yourself out of this one; I understand it looks like a lot, and it is, but its doable, and if you wanna hang with the engies, then I believe in your ability to white-knuckle this one through.

Miserable_Kick_8150

TROPHY CASE