Canadian Uni System

[Uytuun]

So I might be going to UBC for a semester next year and I was wondering when your second semester starts...all of the courses I've checked out start in May and end mid-June...and then there are some others that run from July to August, but there doesn't seem to be anything before May, which is weird to me considering that my second semester is February-June...

[AgentofGaming]

I don't goto UBC but if it helps UofT's Winter Semester goes from Jan-May

[Uytuun]

Yeah, I figured it out...apparently there's a winter session (2 terms) and a summer session (2 terms) and I was looking at the summer session wheareas I need term two of winter session.

But thanks anyway.

[Brutananadilewski]

UBC is an absolutely gorgeous campus, with the ocean view, trees, and the infestation of black squirrels...sure beats the rabbit infested University of Alberta.

[Uytuun]

Aww...now I'm looking forward to it even more. ;)

On topic: could you mention some specifics of the Canadian system? What are classes like, how do they grade you etc?

[Brutananadilewski]

Your classes will depend on your program and year of study in terms of experience; what are you dabbling in? But by and large, it's not much different from the American system, or so I've been told.

Same with grading - some classes are bell-curved while the others are a straight up percentage. In the end, you get the letter grade A+ through F, and each letter corresponds with a number of 0 through 4 to give you your GPA.

[Uytuun]

Well, I'm Belgian, so it all seems rather different to me...I'll be focussing on (Canadian) literature at graduate level....lots of seminars, papers and presentations, I guess.

[Brutananadilewski]

Cool!

You're right, you'll go to class for a couple hours a day, have your seminars each week and write a bunch of papers/presentations in the meantime. Classes will be fairly small, and your letter grade assigned based on a percentage value. A lot of independent work, and depending on how many courses you take, a lot of time off too.

One thing I found useful when in my undergrad was to google the course name and number, and often times old an old syllabus would pop up, so you could get a good idea of what exactly the workload and grading would be like. Helped me immensely.