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Canadian Universities are extremely GPA centric, got rejected from all (11 uni and 1 college). Sharing my experience, might be helpful to others.

wonderbly

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Aug 26, 2020
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there arent a lot of small universities that offer graduate studies in engineering. and OP did also apply for low tier unis like SFU and ontario tech. it's probably a confluence of factors such as his grades, and probably a lack of work experience, good references and good statements of purpose.
You think SFU is a low tier university?? That's funny. It currently ranks number 5 in Canada in the 2021 Canadian university rankings (https://www.4icu.org/ca/)
 

imisstraveling

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Feb 11, 2021
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Well obviously, all programs worldwide are GPA centric but I mentioned my business and work profile because in my case, it was the strongest part of my profile and tried my best to leverage it to get an admit.
Unfortunately, there are so few universities in Canada that they have to choose the best of the best, mostly in terms of GPA.





McGill University
University of Waterloo
University of Alberta
University of Calgary
Concordia University
University of Ottawa
Simon Fraser University
Carleton University
University of Saskatchewan
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Ontario Tech University
Conestogac College





wonderbly! So sorry I forgot to tag you.
After giving it a lot of thought, I will most likely complete my program and work in US and then think about Canada a few years down the line.




Since this is about US, I will continue this over private message.





Yes! You have been a great inspiration to me. I will always keep trying. Persistence is the key. :)
So, I am not bragging but I got acceptance for 5 Universities from what you have listed and all of them are fully funded offers. I should also tell you that i screwed my 12th boards and got second division but after that i passed my UG and PG with distinction. I think research experience holds greater value than job experience. My Canadian supervisor told me that many international students have started giving fake work experience certificates and admission committee faces a hard time in verifying the authenticity of work exp. certificates. So, any work experience doesn't hold high value unless you worked for UN, WHO or top companies in private sector. I don't know from how many years you have been applying but i know people who even applied to 30 Universities and got accepted in only one. Other than last two years have been unpredictable like anything, there are fund cuts and all those things which made the admission process much more difficult. From my experience, what i have learned that irrespective of anything, the most important aspect of getting admission (at least in top Universities) is whether you are a good fit for their program or not. After establishing this, then comes SOP/Proposal and LOR's accompanied with your research experience. I felt like sharing my opinion because I have not even felt it once that my grades are going to be barrier in this admission process, unlike my home country's institutions. But yeah, I am happy that you were able to get admitted at some other place. Best of luck.
 
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imisstraveling

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Feb 11, 2021
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that’s not a real university ranking. refer to rankings like THE where they use metrics relating to the university’s research activities, instead of this dodgy one
Ranking doesn't matter in Canada, at least not for research based programs and SFU is a very well respected institute in spite of its low THE/QS ranking. So, if you are aiming for research, don't fall for ranking.
 

wonderbly

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its decently good, but again, there’s only so many unis offering MEng, so if you were to put these unis in a list of its own, SFU’s pretty far down
You are welcome to share the link/stat where unis offering MEng were ranked so we can see where SFU falls. But that's not even my point - I was countering your general assertion that SFU is a low tier university... mind you, I don't even go there :).
 

zekkeh

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Sep 15, 2019
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You are welcome to share the link/stat where unis offering MEng were ranked so we can see where SFU falls. But that's not even my point - I was countering your general assertion that SFU is a low tier university... mind you, I don't even go there :).
I painstakingly made the list of MEng courses offered by all the canadian unis by myself, spending weeks on it, so i wont be sharing it wholesale here. but anyway we can agree to disagree
 

wonderbly

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I painstakingly made the list of MEng courses offered by all the canadian unis by myself, spending weeks on it, so i wont be sharing it wholesale here. but anyway we can agree to disagree
That's ok, you don't have to share your list - not like it's an official source anyways.
 

imisstraveling

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Feb 11, 2021
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its decently good, but again, there’s only so many unis offering MEng, so if you were to put these unis in a list of its own, SFU’s pretty far down
You are being subjective here, I am from humanities and its one of the best programs for my discipline. Similarly, York is also low on ranking in THE list but its one of the oldest universities in whole Canada and much more respected than others which are ranked higher.
 
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zekkeh

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Sep 15, 2019
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You are being subjective here, I am from humanities and its one of the best programs for my discipline. Similarly, York is also low on ranking in THE list but its one of the oldest universities in whole Canada and much more respected than others which are ranked higher.
Yes, SFU is known for it’s social justice, not engineering. I’ve done my research on engineering schools, because i was applying to engineering grad schools this admission cycle! unlike wonderbly here, who seems to think they know more about engineering courses despite not being a student in that subject.

SFU doesnt even have traditional engineering programmes, and are even cancelling some of them. but anyway @wonderbly you totally misconstrued the meaning of my very first response here. no surprise there
 

wonderbly

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Aug 26, 2020
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Yes, SFU is known for it’s social justice, not engineering. I’ve done my research on engineering schools, because i was applying to engineering grad schools this admission cycle! unlike wonderbly here, who seems to think they know more about engineering courses despite not being a student in that subject.

SFU doesnt even have traditional engineering programmes, and are even cancelling some of them. but anyway @wonderbly you totally misconstrued the meaning of my very first response here. no surprise there
Dude, the personal attack is unnecessary and a bad reflection of emotional intelligence. I never said anything about engineering at SFU so you pointing out that I'm not an engineering student is beyond ridiculous :rolleyes: . My response was simply to counter what you said about SFU being a low tier school. You didn't specify that you meant in the context of engineering. You even went as far as saying the first ranking I provided was not authentic and only THE has the correct ranking. I proceeded to supply the ranking from THE - that's when you started backtracking and referring specifically to engineering courses.

This convo has ran its course clearly. Enjoy your day further.
 

lolcocks

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Jul 23, 2020
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Looking at your list, you have opted for top league universities where you might compete with the toppers of the world. I did suggest you over few occasions that take your chances with smaller universities.
I basically applied to every University in Canada that gave me a three year PGWP in an Electrical Engineering program. All others either did not have an electrical engineering program or had a less than two year program. I was not interested in putting my future at a risk by not getting a three year PGWP.

If memory serves me correctly, there were only three other universities with an electrical engineering program of less than two years.

Also, I was forced to apply for programs (MEng) and universities which did not require a supervisor as it was impossible to secure one due to low GPA.


So, I am not bragging but I got acceptance for 5 Universities from what you have listed and all of them are fully funded offers. I should also tell you that i screwed my 12th boards and got second division but after that i passed my UG and PG with distinction. I think research experience holds greater value than job experience. My Canadian supervisor told me that many international students have started giving fake work experience certificates and admission committee faces a hard time in verifying the authenticity of work exp. certificates. So, any work experience doesn't hold high value unless you worked for UN, WHO or top companies in private sector. I don't know from how many years you have been applying but i know people who even applied to 30 Universities and got accepted in only one. Other than last two years have been unpredictable like anything, there are fund cuts and all those things which made the admission process much more difficult. From my experience, what i have learned that irrespective of anything, the most important aspect of getting admission (at least in top Universities) is whether you are a good fit for their program or not. After establishing this, then comes SOP/Proposal and LOR's accompanied with your research experience. I felt like sharing my opinion because I have not even felt it once that my grades are going to be barrier in this admission process, unlike my home country's institutions. But yeah, I am happy that you were able to get admitted at some other place. Best of luck.
This is likely true.

Another factor that affected my admission (and I forgot to mention this in the first post) is my change of major. I wanted to go from Masters in Computer Applications (pure programming) to Masters in Electrical Engineering. Which is why they probably thought I am not a good fit for their program. From what I hear, U.S. universities are generally lenient when it comes to change of major, which is probably how I got in.