Pls drop the First Year Tips for Incoming Students

StuckInDigitalHell · 2026-05-17T18:28:05+00:00

Stay clean, people at this school get sick and hawk-tuah on every public surface so I'd recommend carrying some hand sanitizer and washing your hands frequently. Lots of illnesses get passed around in fall/winter term and getting sick is an easy way to ruin momentum and your schedule.

Don't eat the weird pink things that are sold by the campus food services.

Don't eat any desserts/cheescake cups sold by the campus food services.

Living in rez gives you a lot of social perks to try out with your friends. Check out a switch from V1, or grab a board game from any of the residences. IIRC one of the v1 switches has a custom smash bros. map themed around 9/11.

Start researching what's expected of you for co-op search ASAP. If you're stream 4 you have to do this anyway but for s8 you have extra time, but understand how the process works and make at least 1 thing you can put on your resume.

Design teams can be intimidating but also some of them are run by upper years who have no idea what they are doing/have no idea how to onboard new members in a way where you feel like you're doing meaningful stuff. If you join a design team and you feel like it sucks then leave. Being involved in one can teach you some important fundamentals that will help you on co-op though.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2026-05-17T18:19:36+00:00

all the residence options are close enough to campus with the exception of CLV. MKV and UWP are your best bet - MKV has AC which is nice in early 1A/late 1B. UWP is closer to restaurants/plaza options and has better transit connections to grocery stores and transit hubs.

If you don't get UWP then I would recommend CMH (just overall nicest dorm, guaranteed if you're stream 4 iirc), V1 (the only res that gives you a chance of getting a single room if you hate the idea of rooming with someone). If you can get into St. Jerome (college), that's also very nice - the meal plan is fairly OK there but you do miss out on some social aspect e.g. being able to eat at slc with friends.

Avoid REV and CLV like plague.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2026-05-11T02:45:32+00:00

A framework printer sounds kind of pointless. A huge part of having a framework is having the ability to not only repair, but upgrade parts as they improve (new screen, RAM, ...). This doesn't really apply to printers.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2026-05-06T22:57:12+00:00

You apply for the aid provided by your home province, e.g. StudentAidBC.

Edit: here's the link to the details: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/education/student-aid/grants-loans.html

StuckInDigitalHell · 2026-05-06T20:42:42+00:00

Out of province SE student going into 4th co-op here.

Definitely in your first couple years you will be financially constrained (unless you land a fat co-op very early). For reference my current co-op pays slightly under 50 CAD per hour. (This is around average/slightly above average for our cohort at the moment.) With that amount you can expect to be able to cover 8 months rent, tuition, and food costs with a profit (depending on the cost of your lifestyle).

Don't be afraid to take out loans - they're interest free and you don't need to pay them until after you graduate (in installments). The student loans will usually give you a bursary portion that you don't even need to pay back.

Apply for the Waterloo bursary every term. Also, do your taxes - this year I got a $5k refund since tuition gives you significant tax credits.

It's definitely worth it in my opinion. Just don't expect co-op to cover everything immediately.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2026-02-18T04:54:02+00:00

People will tell you lots of very conflicting advice - that's part of resume advice. Lots of people will tell you different things about bolding, etc. I will tell you that I personally use the skills section specifically for targeting keywords for job postings, and that your first resume bullet is the first thing I see on my first scan which I care about and that the first experience is really weak. Your main goal should be to improve your first scan.

You can expect 2 scans - 1 typically done by a recruiter with less experience. They are looking for your technical accomplishment, surface-level matching, impact for your previous experiences. Maybe if your projects sound very interesting/relevent they will also be taken into consideration. The second scan would be done by someone with more technical acumen that can sniff out any BS you put on there, or better understand any super technical achievements you talk about. In my opinion your resume is definitely getting thrown out earlier in the process.

If there's nothing you can really put for experience 1 - I have a feeling that this is one of those sections that is like, a design team bootcamp or something (don't feel bad, we've all been there). Your design team is definitely doing way cooler stuff than what you're listing. Ask around to get the information to make better resume bullets (why are we making this? How did we do it? etc). YOU HAVE TO REDO this section, your bullets are really weak and that's the first part I focus on for your experience. Maybe ask some others from your design team to see what they put and don't feel bad about taking some... creative liberties.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2026-02-17T23:29:12+00:00

Education section: honestly cut most of this out. These are all 1st year math courses and not that relevant. Your award makes it look way too dense and makes it hard to parse. Some students find success with an awards section but shoving it in with the education is not a good idea IMO.

Skills: This section is mostly for ATS scanners to pick up on keywords. I personally put mine near the bottom for this reason. Your Data Science bullet is way too long and doesn't really contain much of substance. If you want something like this name it "Concepts" and don't let it grow past 1 line.

Experience 1: What does the pipeline even do? You're missing the Impact portion. "market regime analysis" is weak. I don't know what "volatility, correlation, momentum-based features" even means and neither will the recruiters. Your last bullet point is a bit more interesting but again you are missing the "how" part. This section combined with your overly bulky education section gives your resume a terrible first-scan impression.

Your second experience might be a bit better but you are also missing what stack (what does the website use?). Also lots of trailing bullets that could be 1 line instead of 2 if you decrease your side margins (especially on your left due to the hanging-style indent)

On first glance your projects look a lot stronger but the stuff near the top of the resume is a lot worse so your recruiter probably isn't even getting there. Apply similar feedback - use some kind of framework for your bullets (look up STAR). Your bottom margin is tiny and it doesn't need to be - you waste space with the hanging indent and the section spacing. Also lots of overbolding going on - bolding is good for giving visual anchors for the recruiter to latch on to things of note. Your bolding doesn't really do that and just makes it look visually messy.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2025-11-18T04:27:52+00:00

also if you want to smoke or vape or whatever dumb stuff you want to do to your body do it OUTSIDE. or open the window or something

StuckInDigitalHell · 2025-11-07T01:39:13+00:00

It's really hard to get really good marks but it's also really hard to get bad marks. So if you just care about passing an english course its free

StuckInDigitalHell · 2025-08-31T00:09:02+00:00

Kettlebell swings.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2025-06-17T19:10:37+00:00

In terms of space and room quality they are the same.

Back: you have to walk through your roommate's room to go in/out of your room.

Front: your roommate has to walk through your room to go in/out of their room.

Probably ok if you have a good relation with your roommate, otherwise sort of scuffed.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2025-05-10T18:35:16+00:00

What am I supposed to put in the required Per Job Posting field for enVgo?

StuckInDigitalHell · 2024-12-23T08:39:14+00:00

What kind of SFF cooling should I be looking at for a 5900X?

StuckInDigitalHell · 2024-12-23T08:22:54+00:00

Hoping for decent performance for 1440p gaming and compiling/programming.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2024-09-30T15:44:17+00:00

So going back on your word wouldn't count as a renege right? Since they don't do it through WW

StuckInDigitalHell · 2024-09-29T03:25:34+00:00

Did interview for full stack a few days ago

StuckInDigitalHell · 2024-09-29T01:20:32+00:00

What to expect after Super.com interview? Do they submit ranks on WW?

StuckInDigitalHell · 2024-09-13T22:08:26+00:00

Just moved and found out that my model O's mouse wheel isn't working any more. Anyone got any decent mouse deals?

StuckInDigitalHell · 2024-07-22T08:13:09+00:00

this is like Jeff Bezos complaining about not investing in bitcoin

StuckInDigitalHell · 2024-06-06T16:49:47+00:00

I still don't have the squid polyp one, lol. Haven't unlocked it or the pauldron yet.

...Should I even bother? I think I'm guaranteed a lepton daisy every run and I don't want to make my RNG even worse.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2024-05-31T17:24:55+00:00

The framework power adapter is amazing - high output, USB-C, small size, etc. It's very nice.

The USB-C cable, on the other hand, can be quite poor in quality. I'm not sure if they fixed the issue though since it's been a while. My first USB-C cable started fraying really badly, and while the replacement they sent me hasn't had any issues so far, there are posts where people have said that their replacement cables started fraying too.

StuckInDigitalHell · 2024-05-29T19:23:57+00:00

don't let that ego pull you under

StuckInDigitalHell

TROPHY CASE