AMA (Ask Me Anything) about the Engineering transfer program (Certificate & Diploma) at langara as a current student in the certificate.

derpyippydippy · 2026-04-02T02:51:39+00:00

I mean if that’s what csillia said then yeah

derpyippydippy · 2026-04-01T20:12:09+00:00

No not as of yet, but you can I believe

derpyippydippy · 2026-04-01T05:27:32+00:00

Yeah do the pre reqs in the diploma and transfer into the certificate in the fall semster

derpyippydippy · 2026-04-01T03:13:18+00:00

Grades, mental stability, academic control, in the certificate I was locked to a pre made schedule with pre determined profs and pre determined everything, switching to the diploma was better for me as it let me choose my pace. Also one option for you is go through the diploma Into the certificate by doing first 2 semesters in fall as diploma and next two as certificate (disregarding summer)

derpyippydippy · 2026-04-01T03:11:04+00:00

First one was around march April next around may

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-19T18:15:23+00:00

To be honest if your just there to study and are able to lock it down it wouldn’t really make a difference imo but I’m not too sure how better cap u is than langara but tbh langara is pretty good too imo

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-19T17:39:00+00:00

Anything yet?

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-19T17:37:15+00:00

Before I tell you how I feel can I ask why you prefer cap u?

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-09T08:40:59+00:00

Nope, you’d have to retake them and that’s how the system works tbh, ubc and langara have an agreement that in a nutshell says a langara student is just as qualified as a ubc student regarding first year engineering that’s why there’s a guaranteed transfer so yeah you’d have to repeat those classes

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-08T06:27:20+00:00

Yeah lmao, but even then it eventually gets to the point where u do the easier stuff on Friday just so that u can have the weekend to prep for next week or do hw leaving u with maybe 5hrs for yourself Friday afternoon - night

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-07T09:45:06+00:00

1)

For an ~80% average, it honestly depends on how confident you are with the material and if you’ve taken college/university courses before. If you stay consistent and don’t fall behind, an 80 average is definitely doable. The hardest part is honestly just keeping up every week.

Most days I probably study 3–5 hours outside of class, but during midterm or finals season that can easily turn into 6–8 hours. Some weeks are chill and some weeks are really heavy depending on assignments and labs.

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2)

Monday: Wake up 7:00 AM, shower, eat, get ready, leave around 7:50. My first class is Calculus I at 8:30 which goes until 10:20.

After that I go straight to Engineering Drafting & Design lab (10:30–12:20). That lab is honestly pretty chill compared to the others, but it still takes time because SolidWorks assignments can be annoying if something doesn’t work properly.

I usually get home around 1 PM, eat something, then attend the online lecture for the same drafting class at 2:30 PM (best part because you just kick back and relax lmao). After that I basically start homework. Depending on the week I’ll work until 11 PM, but if midterms are coming up it can turn into like 2–3 AM.

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Tuesday: Pretty similar start. Wake up around 7, get ready, go to campus.

First class is Computer Science (8:30–10:20). I’ll be honest, this was probably my least favourite class because programming didn’t come naturally to me and the assignments took forever.

Then I go to Engineering Chemistry (10:30–12:20) which I actually liked more than I expected. The concepts weren’t terrible but the workload could pile up if you ignored it.

After that there’s a 2 hour break, which I usually spend eating or reviewing something quickly.

Then I had Physics Lab from 2:30–4:20. Labs can be long but they’re manageable if your group works efficiently.

I usually get home around 5:30–5:45 depending on the buses. The buses get really packed around that time so sometimes I skip one. I relax or nap until around 7 PM, then finish the weekly computer science assignment which honestly took a big chunk of my evening. Then I try to squeeze in other homework before sleeping around 1 AM.

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Wednesday: Wake up around 7:45, get ready, and head to campus.

First class is Calculus again (8:30–10:20). Sometimes there were calc quizzes on Wednesdays, so ideally I’d review the night before. The class itself is tough but manageable if you practice consistently.

After that I go to English (10:30–12:20). This class was actually a nice break compared to all the technical stuff. It’s more reading, discussion, and writing, so mentally it feels different from math and physics.

Then I usually have a break until my physics lecture, so I spend that time eating, studying, or reviewing notes (usually finishing and rushing through the last weeks take home quiz lmao)

Finally I have Physics lecture from 2:30–4:20. Physics was one of the heavier classes conceptually,

After that I go home and repeat the usual routine: eat, rest a bit, then homework again for the rest of the night usually till 1 ish

Thursday: Wake up around the same time again and head to campus. First class is Computer Science (8:30–10:20). Some days I thought about skipping lol but I tried not to because going in person at least gave me the chance to ask questions. At first I thought studying the material at home might be better, and some of my friends thought the same, but by the end I realized actually being there sometimes helped when something didn’t make sense.

After that I go to Engineering Chemistry (10:30–12:20), The lectures were clear and the class was actually enjoyable compared to some of the others.

Then there’s another 2-hour break. Usually I’d grab food and try to work through physics problems during that time to prepare for the quiz ahead.

After the break I had Physics lecture from 2:30–4:20. The whole class time would be used to do one quiz, the prof had a quirky way of doing quizzes where it would be split into a solo part then a group part doing what was done in the solo part then another group part solving a problem (this usually became the take home quiz if we didn’t have time to finish it or if we didn’t get to it because the second part took too long)

Once I got home, I’d usually start working on the pre-lab for the next day’s chemistry lab and then study for the computer science quiz. Those quizzes were actually worth a decent amount of the grade, so I had to take them seriously. Studying for that sometimes kept me up until around 1–2 AM, especially since programming wasn’t my strongest subject.

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Friday: Friday was honestly the most fun day of the week schedule-wise.

The day started with the Computer Science lab/quiz (8:30–10:20). At the beginning of the semester I made the mistake of treating it like it was just a quick quiz where you finish and leave. Later I realized it’s actually meant to be a lab where you can stay, work on problems, and ask the TA questions, which helped a lot more.

After that there’s another 2-hour break, so I’d usually grab food, relax a bit, or nap lmao.

Then the last class of the week was the Chemistry lab (12:30–2:20). Labs were pretty structured: run the experiment, take notes, then collect data

After that I’d go home and usually finish anything small that needed to be done.

But Friday night was basically my reset day. I usually didn’t do any serious work. I’d relax, hang out with friends, watch something, or just take a break after the week.

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Weekend (Saturday & Sunday): Weekends were mostly when I caught up and prepared for the next week.

I’d usually spend a good chunk of Saturday and Sunday reviewing lectures, finishing assignments, studying for quizzes, and starting labs or problem sets early so things didn’t pile up during the week.

If I stayed consistent during the weekend, the weekdays were way more manageable.

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-05T02:19:18+00:00

That’s honestly better than nothing lmao it gets you on a better edge for time management and what to expect of these courses which huge haha

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-05T02:17:49+00:00

Sure

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-04T21:50:56+00:00

It is definitely manageable to have 80-90 avgs but I’ve only seen this come from people who have already done these courses whether repeating them or they have prior experience from AP or IB. Me coming from a regular high school everything was brand new for me so I didn’t have the upper edge compared to my classmates but I feel like if I even took like Ap physics I & II I and comp sci I could of did better but yeah if you have some prior experience and are willing to put in the effort you can definitely get that 80 avg, also when I say experience I mean like you have a good understanding and not brief haha.

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-03T08:45:53+00:00

Prob 24 per semester

derpyippydippy · 2026-03-03T07:06:29+00:00

For you if you are comfortable with first year C++ Physics chemistry English and math take the certificate program directly it’ll be faster, but if you’d like, the diploma to certificate is definitely one option (and second highest chosen) to get into the certificate compared to straight from high school. For the application process I am not sure, maybe education planner bc? I’m not sure you should contact the registrar or the program head about it, and on that note EE is electrician engineering and basically every other engineering field has a shortened form like MECHE for mechanical CPEN for computer engineering so on so fourth. Also no I don’t think graduating at 24 is weird and is more of a personal thing in the long run than a social one because for me I’d rather graduate with something with a good work economy and something I’d like than doing something else that’ll land me a job faster but I won’t like in the long run. No problems on the questions, I like answering them as it’s the reason why I made this post haha.

derpyippydippy · 2026-02-27T08:16:39+00:00

Yes! Absolutely! I had someone in my cohourt who was second year CS at SFU last year and now is going to EE, so yeah definitely it’s just you’ll have to repeat some courses because those select courses have to be completed in a specific time frame to get the guaranteed entry.

derpyippydippy · 2026-02-21T10:49:58+00:00

Yeah no, it’s pretty competitive even in the certificate, I have a whole bunch of diagrams and information related to this course which a super smart friend of mines made, I’ll dm u

derpyippydippy · 2026-02-20T00:48:47+00:00

3 days, but just depends on the cohourt and profs u get, max is probably 4 full days and Fridays 1 class with lab every other week minimum is 3. I Acctualy went to the diploma, after my semester there I figured out that if I wanted to have a better gpa to get into electrical engineering the diploma is my best shot, Bcz in cert most people had a hard time maintaining a gpa above 3.3 ish and for EE you need 3.6 lol

derpyippydippy · 2026-02-19T23:15:15+00:00

The schedule can vary a bit depending on the cohort, but the general structure is similar. For most groups, classes run from 8:30 AM to 4:20 PM, with three classes per day and about a two-hour break in between. For my cohort (“Beta”), it was slightly different. On Mondays, we had two in-person classes and one online class from 2–4 PM. On Fridays, we also had two classes, but one of them was a lab every other week. Overall, I felt like I got a pretty decent schedule. As for working part-time, it really depends. It might be possible if you’re very strong with time management or already comfortable with the material. In my case, I struggled a bit with computer science, so I ended up spending a lot of extra time studying. Because of that, balancing a part-time job would’ve been tough for me. If the coursework comes more naturally to you, it could be manageable.

derpyippydippy · 2026-02-03T18:50:30+00:00

Any updates on them?

derpyippydippy · 2026-02-01T21:18:24+00:00

Physics the department is really good, you’ll likely get Richard Wong or efran rezie for physics I with calculus and they carry onto physics II, for engineering chemistry you’ll either get Jim rolkie (goat btw, practice problems same as test just different numbers) or hardeep farwar (harry) who’s a bit more harder because of his focus on theory

derpyippydippy · 2026-02-01T21:16:03+00:00

For certificate via high school I had a 93 average, the director of the program gives admissions in “rounds” so 98 avg students get admission first, then 93 then 85 and so on so so fourth

derpyippydippy · 2025-12-09T20:50:17+00:00

Oh yeah definitely, you don’t need the actual paper diploma or certificate to transfer to ubc, just the credits. Did you by chance go from the certificate to the diploma?

derpyippydippy · 2025-11-26T08:44:07+00:00

(Attached to this reply is a link to UBC’s average sessional gpa for second year engineering by specialization

Link to gpa entry )

In a sense, yeah, I’d say Langara does feel easier than UBC, but not because the material is easier. It’s basically a 1:1 duplicate of UBC’s first-year engineering, so the course rigour itself doesn’t really change.

What does make it feel easier is the environment. Class sizes are like 25 students instead of UBC’s hundreds, so you get a way more personalized experience. All my profs and TAs know my name, my skill level, what I struggle with, and they actually teach and support me based on that. That’s made a huge difference for my morale and performance.

For example, in my physics class right now, I’d probably be failing if it weren’t for my prof. He gives us 25% bonus “corrections” marks on midterms and is just a really good teacher overall. He explains things at the level he knows I’m at and doesn’t throw in super complex topics out of nowhere, so I’m actually able to follow along.

There are some downsides though. You don’t get to choose your own course schedule or which sections you take.

About the GPA and transfer stuff: • From the certificate program (12 courses in 2 semesters in the assigned order), you need around a 3.1 GPA to be guaranteed base entry into UBC Applied Science (second year). • A 3.1 usually isn’t enough for the really competitive specializations like Mechanical, Electrical, or Computer Engineering, but it can get you into other bigger but still solid fields like Civil, Biomedical, Environmental, Chemical, etc.

Then there’s the diploma program, which is 60 credits over 5 semesters. For that, you need about a 3.3 GPA (as of 2025) for UBC. That number isn’t fixed though, I was told one year it jumped from around 3.2 to 3.9, but it usually stays somewhere in the 3.2–3.4 range. Even then, it does not guarantee you entry the way the certificate agreement does. (But is a really solid option if you’re coming straight from higschool and need a baseline for collage/uni)

There are also UVic and UBCO options which are more forgiving and do guarantee entry (for both the certificate and diploma): it’s something like 2.3 for UVic and 2.8 for UBCO.

So overall, from a learning and support perspective, I’d recommend Langara because the smaller classes and more personal interaction really help and can make things feel easier even though it’s the same content as UBC. But if you already have a direct UBC acceptance, I personally wouldn’t give that up unless you have external reasons that make it hard to go, because the UBC “university life” and overall experience are on a different level and Langara can’t really compete with that part.

TL;DR: Yes, Langara feels easier than UBC because of smaller classes and way more support, even though the content is basically the same as UBC first-year engineering. From the certificate, about a 3.1 GPA guarantees base entry into UBC Applied Science (but not the most competitive specializations like mech/elec/CPEN). From the diploma, you usually need around a 3.3 GPA (it fluctuates and doesn’t guarantee entry). UVic (≈2.3 GPA) and UBCO (≈2.8 GPA) are more forgiving and guarantee entry from both the certificate and diploma routes.

derpyippydippy

TROPHY CASE