The Reasons Behind Their University Decisions

NT’s Grade 12s share their thought process in picking their universities.

Abby Harlow Contributor

Each year between May and June, we’re bombarded by a never-ending stream of Instagram grad account reposts. Be- ing a Grade 12, I can say that these posts are now a great insight into who I may see next year at school. In my early high school days, though, these posts were a constant reminder that it would soon be my turn.

For me, choosing a university was a really scary thought.

Program: Engineering

I didn’t feel like I was in a place where I felt 100% certain that I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. If you’re in Grade 9, 10, or 11 and feeling this same way, know that you are not alone. As my mom has told me hundreds of times, you can have an engineering degree and still decide to go to law school. Ultimately, your undergraduate degree is just a stepping stone in your career path, and not the fnal destination.

In order to help ease some anxiety, here are some of the reasons why people chose the university and program they will be attending next year:

For most of high school, engineering wasn’t on my radar. In Grade 9, I wanted to go to culinary school, in Grade 10, I wanted to go into business, and in Grade 11, I was completely unsure. Come Grade 12, I had decided I was going to go into a Bachelor of Science, majoring in math. The only reason I applied to Queen’s Engineering was because my dad wanted me to keep it open as an option. Thankfully I did, because throughout the next 4 months of research and talking with various people, it made it up the roster to top choice. Why Queen’s Engineering? Here are some of my top reasons:

1) Queen’s is not too far, but not too close. I don’t have to take a fight and my sister can visit on the train, but I get enough distance to learn some independence.

2) I love the overall vibe of the school. The campus is really beautiful and inviting.

3) The campus does not feel isolated from everything else.

4) Queen’s Engineering has a great community within itself.

5) Good social life

Program: Kinesiology and Health Science

I chose to go to York mostly because of the program. I am doing a major in kinesiology and health science with a separate degree in athletic therapy. I also chose York because it is a bilingual school, so I’ll be able to take some courses in French.

Program: Arts

I chose Queen’s General Arts because I love the classic university town feeling of Kingston and how all the students seem so lively and spirited within the Queen’s community. Arts was an easy decision for me because I have a wide variety of interests when it comes to school and I want to be able to experiment with classes that fall under the Faculty of Arts and Science to see what appeals to me in my frst year. I was considering going to Dalhousie, but ultimately this was a fairly easy decision for me since I have wanted to go to Queen’s for the past few years!

Program: Arts

If you ask any of my friends, you will know that I struggled choosing where to go. For me, it wasn’t a question of why go to a school, but why not? I visited all of my choices, but to be honest, they all look relatively the same. And visiting Canadian universities in the winter makes them all seem really grey and ugly. I ended up using a list to help me think about each school: size of program, size of school, size of town, upper year residence, distance from res to school, distance from housing to school, the newspaper, clubs to join, social life. I had always wanted to do arts, so I only applied to arts programs. After getting into all my schools with a week to decide, I found it most helpful to talk to people a year older who go to each school. I ended up choosing McGill because I liked their program best, I had heard great things about the social scene, and it was far away from home.

Program: Human Kinetics

I chose to take human kinetics at UBC and my program is in Kelowna at the Okanagan campus. I decided on going there as I love the city (it gets some of the most sun in Canada) and the program itself is one of the best in the country. I was also offered a scholarship there so that defnitely helped to infuence my decision as without it, I thought it was going to be too expensive. It was defnitely a very diffcult decision for me and I’m still not 100% I’ve made the right choice as I originally wanted to stay a little closer to home. Kelowna is very far and a much smaller city than Toronto so it should be a very different experience but I’m super excited to live near the mountains and lake for the next few years.

Program: Journalism

In the last few years of my life, I have had the idea that I wanted to live in Halifax. Whether it was being closer to family or the ocean, I knew that was where I wanted to be. The University of King’s College was where I found my interest. Through lots of research, I found the journalism program which also provided the foundation year program for all frst year students at Kings. In my time at North Toronto, I started fnding interest through writing from my good friend Sophie Block. Sophie pushed me to sign up for an article and this inspired me to sign up for the next few issues of Graffti. So, the journalism program was what I wanted. Once I had gotten in, I was ecstatic. I was sitting on the couch when I got the email, which I kept reading over and over. I tried to imagine life in Halifax, but once I thought too hard, I thought about leaving Toronto, and this made my quick decision much more diffcult. It was hard to press accept but everyone around me was reassuring me that it was the right choice, and I agreed. Once I accepted, I got even more excited. I looked through different residences, different courses, and what my program provided. Leaving my family and starting new seems scary, but I’m willing to try and looking forward to doing so.