Info/Facts from the UBC Counsellor's Conference

I was in attendance yesterday at the UBC's High School Counsellors' event. There are some important information that prospective students of UBC should know. UBC will be visiting Templeton October 10 (Wednesday) at lunch, so you can listen to this information yourself, first-hand. The following are some of the highlights that you may want to know coming into the meeting next Wednesday:

• New Bachelor Program: Starting in September 2013, UBC will open a new degree program called Bachelor of International Economics (BIE). It is a cohort program that will only accept 80 students; the program offers students who want to study economics in a more global sense to begin a program right at the start of year 1.
• Application Process: Starting in 2013, all applicants would require to complete an academic profile along with their regular application, which would be used to ensure you have the proper prerequisites needed for the program you are applying to.
• Application Process (continued): Also starting in 2013, most faculties would require students to complete a "personal profile," which would be used for UBC's board-based assessment in determining admission. The personal profile will help determine successful applicants into a program at UBC.
• Application Process (continued): Also starting in 2013, application for admission and application for entrance scholarship would be consolidated into one single application.
• Reporting of Grades: When filling out your academic profile, UBC only wants you to include COMPLETED COURSES. When self-reporting your grades during application, IN PROGRESS COURSE MARKS also need to be reported. 

There are also some proposed changes to the application and admission process that are currently being discussed, and may affect you when you apply for September 2014 admission (as well as current applicants for September 2013 admission):

• Conditional Admission: there may be increased conditionality in UBC's offer for admission
• English 12 Marks: Students who perform substantially worse in the English 12 provincial exam may have their admission retracted.UBC may also choose to use ONLY your provincial exam mark to calculate admission averages.
• Faculty-specific Minimal Mark: Many faculties have specific grade 12 courses used to calculate admission requirement, plus other provincially-approved courses that you can choose from your course load. UBC may set a faculty-specific minimum mark for those required courses when evaluating your application for admission.

There is a lot to digest, I know. Please don't hesitate to come by to ask me any questions, and remember to attend UBC's info session next Wednesday to have the people from UBC answer all of your questions.