Fish Out Of Water(loo)

Elise (18) First-Year Blogger Honours Arts University of Waterloo Kaiju Groupie I like Space, Botany, Time Travel and the word Subterfuge. Also Star Trek, Welcome to Night Vale, Doctor Who, & Neil Gaiman. But that's for another blog.

[elise-uwaterloo]

On a scale of 1 to 10 how good are the parties and social atmosphere at waterloo

man i feel so much misplaced guilt when I get these questions because I honest to goodness do not have an answer for them i'm sorry I guess the social atmosphere is... nice? Like I am a really terrible person to ask sorry I live far away and don't go out much regardless but being close to Laurier I imagine it's not difficult to get in with their social scene if you find ours lacking

[elise-uwaterloo]

To that anon who asked about planning and arts and business, is the arts and business really boring? It looks quite interesting, can I ask why you think it's boring

From what I understand, Arts & Business is just Arts, with a few extra required courses called ARBUS (short for, you guessed it, Arts & Business). I have been subject to many groans and complaints about these courses from all kinds of people who all collectively agree that they are terribly, terribly dull. That said, I think there are also certain perks to being in ARBUS as opposed to just General or Honours Arts - like co-op placements, an extra little thingy on your diploma when you graduate, etc.

But as I mentioned, I’m not actually an ARBUS kid. So, if you have any other questions about it I recommend going to the always delightful Tatiana who can tell you much more, what with this being her area and all.

[waterloowhynot]

Just kinda stealing your ask here Elise I hope you don’t mind! 

The reason people complain about Arbus is that a lot of the required business courses in first year are… kinda painful. They are: 

Introduction to Business in North America

Microeconomics

Introduction to Financial and Managerial Accounting

Business Ethics

And these are my feelings:

Everyone hated this course. Mention it (or the words “Mike’s Bikes”) to an Arbus kid and they will cry. 

Kinda interesting actually. Relevant to life so I feel more educated, although I didn’t always appreciate it at the time. TAKE IT WITH CARVALHO. 

I died. Multiple times. However, it’s apparently much easier if you’ve taken accounting in high school (or if you’re at all interested in it). 

Interesting because I had never taken ethics before (you learn a lot of theories, which I liked). Some parts got long, though.

The reason I personally am in Arbus is a) you can enroll in co-op from the beginning and have to maintain your average instead of applying later and b) if I wasn’t I would wallow in delightful courses that… have no relevance to life. (It’s like a forced survival mechanism). There are also more options for co-op jobs (since you can now apply for business ones in addition to your chosen field) and some Arts programs only have co-op if you’re in Arbus. 

Hope that helps!

[elise-uwaterloo]

I give you: relevant information. Well done tatietittities

[xaviiers]

[elise-uwaterloo]

i've tried lately not to reblog anything from my main blog here bc i have a healthy work/home separation deal but i'm actually really proud of how this turned out so i will shamelessly promote it anyway I can ??

[elise-uwaterloo]

To that anon who asked about planning and arts and business, is the arts and business really boring? It looks quite interesting, can I ask why you think it's boring

From what I understand, Arts & Business is just Arts, with a few extra required courses called ARBUS (short for, you guessed it, Arts & Business). I have been subject to many groans and complaints about these courses from all kinds of people who all collectively agree that they are terribly, terribly dull. That said, I think there are also certain perks to being in ARBUS as opposed to just General or Honours Arts - like co-op placements, an extra little thingy on your diploma when you graduate, etc.

But as I mentioned, I'm not actually an ARBUS kid. So, if you have any other questions about it I recommend going to the always delightful Tatiana who can tell you much more, what with this being her area and all.

[waterlooarts-deactivated2017021]

Course Selection: How to Succeed

Hey, incoming first-year students! Hopefully, you had a chance to attend You @ Waterloo Day this past Saturday. I’m sure you were probably bombarded with information about the campus from our guides, and maybe you even got to talk to one of our excellent advisors.

One of the most important things that you, as a student, have to do to prepare for the fall is the course approval form. It’s due June 13th, so you should definitely work on completing it. Here’s a couple tips to keep in mind for filling out this important form.

Research ahead of time. It’s fine if you don’t know what you want to major in yet, but you should be taking the time to look at the courses that we offer for first-year students. There’s loads of options, and if you do have a major in mind, use the prospective major chart for Honors Arts or Arts and Business to help plan out your first year. For instance, if you’re looking to pursue a Fine Arts Studio major in the Arts and Business program, you’ll be taking ARBUS 101, ECON 101, FINE 100, and either FINE 101 or VCULT 101, plus an elective. That’s a pretty specific set of courses, so make sure you’re using the prospective major chart to help you fill out your course approval form.

Use the ‘questions’ section of the form. This is especially important if you’re considering, for instance, doing a joint major. If you’re curious about something in the course approval form, fill out the ‘questions’ section and an academic advisor will look at your question. It’s pretty useful, especially if you’re just stumped about what you want to major in.

Try new things with your electives. There are loads of great courses to take in your first year. Even if you’ve got your major in mind, you should still try some new courses. I took an introductory metaphysics and epistemology class in my first year, without any philosophy experience, and I ended up loving it. You never know what you’ll end up enjoying.

When in doubt, look at the Breadth requirements! The BA Breadth requirements are something that every Arts student has to fulfill. It’s just several different broad categories of classes that you have to take: Humanities, Social Sciences, Transdisciplinary Studies, Languages and Cultures, and Fine, Performing, and Communication Arts. So if you’re really struggling to think of an elective to take, just take a look at these requirements and fulfill one of them! Keep in mind that these requirements do not need to be fulfilled in your first year; as long as you have them completed by graduation, you’ll be fine.

[elise-uwaterloo]

Do you know anything about the planning program? I'm torn between the arts and business and the planning!! Gaa I wanna do both!!

I know spectacularly little about the planning program, but luckily I have a friend who can tell you allllll about it. I asked her about her first year experience, and she saaaaid

For first year almost all of your courses are chosen for you, you only get 2 electives, and all of the courses are very basic and broad. Being considered a social science, there is a mixture of written assignments (i.e. Essays) and quizzes and tests. The workload is constant but not unbearable. Some courses require a lot more time and effort than others. For example, the first year design course is not difficult but very time consuming with about 3 major projects that require a lot of time complete. Like I said, the courses are all very broad and basically just give you a slight taste of the different opportunities in the planning field. There is a lot of reading for most of the courses and it is very beneficial to keep up with the assigned readings. Only about half of the first year planning courses have exams, but instead have major group projects and/or tests throughout the term. If one keeps up with the assignments and does as much work as possible in advance, the workload is quite manageable

As for arts and business, I also know precious little beyond the fact that the ARBUS courses are killer boring - I recommend talking to Tatiana for anything beyond that.

[elise-uwaterloo]

I am going to Waterloo and I love partying, but I heard they weren't that great there. Is this true? How are the parties and how was your experience at UW?

I'm afraid I am going to be marvelously useless answering this - I have an absolute minimal experience with Wloo parties. It's a combination of living far away from everyone and not being particularly inspired to make the effort. Try Tatiana or Cheryl for this one. Sorry!

[elise-uwaterloo]

Hi. I just wanted to know the most amount of pages needed for an essay for English majors on Waterloo

hmmmmmmmmmmm well this totally depends on the prof and the assignment right

buT I can say generally for first year assignments in English classes, there are usually two essays - a first, often diagnostic (but still counts for marks) essay that's usually 4-6 pages, and a second, much more important and heavily weighed essay that is 8-10 pages.

I can only assume the expectations increase in upper-years, but I can't say for sure!

[waterloowhynot]

If I graduate the arts and business program can I go on to do a post grad with something business related? Like say do a post grad that will help me become a financial advisor

I have limited knowledge in the subject of post-grad studies, so I would say yes tentatively? I’m pretty sure that you can apply to whatever you want for graduate studies as long as it’s somewhat related to what you’ve done already. 

However, if you’re interested in Finance, I wouldn’t recommend Arbus just because I don’t think that there are many courses that we take that are related to it. A better bet at Waterloo would be something like AFM (accounting and financial management) or FARM (financial analysis and risk management, not agriculture). Other schools also have other options for that kind of thing that are more specifically business- or finance-oriented.

Hope this helped! :)

[elise-uwaterloo]

just casually chirping in on tatiana's ask because I can, don't know if the anon in question will even see this but here we are. 

Becoming a financial advisor is a bit like becoming a lawyer in that post-grad places expect a bachelor's degree, but aren't entirely concerned in what the major is. That said, two things: one, you don't actually need any post-grad degrees to become a financial advisor. two, if that's what you want to do I would actually strongly suggest looking into Conestoga College's program - it's a career path that is almost entirely based on who you know (unless you're fond of making cold calls) and requires a lot of extra qualifications and licenses that have to be taken and earned outside of academics.

Not that you couldn't go to Uni and become an advisor - of course you can. This is just my two-cents. 

((tbh most of this is info I gleaned from my brother over the years, who is a financial advisor himself))

[elise-uwaterloo]

sustainthisdeadworld replied to your post “sustainthisdeadworld replied to your post “sustainthisdeadworld...”

Waterloo more like WACKYloo

I want this on a t-shirt. No, I want it on everything I own.

[waterloowhynot]

Applying to be a Blogger

(This is dedicated to the anon who asked Elise and I about this a while ago, at which point we failed spectacularly. Hopefully you see this, anon!)

Do you think you have what it takes… to be me?

The answer is: you don’t. But you can try anyway.

Basically, what I’m getting at here is that first-year blogger applications are open at https://uwaterloo.ca/find-out-more/blogger-application! Let the university know why you’d be a good person to blog or vlog about your experience, and in return you get to meet cool people (just think, you could have your very own Elise and Cheryl) and contribute to the university society with your words (what’s more powerful than that?). 

[elise-uwaterloo]

Who doesn't want their very own Elise and Cheryl I mean c'mon

[elise-uwaterloo]

they released the unofficial marks for winter term and w o w I am going to have the weirdest first year average ever these are the most eclectic grades i've ever gotten

[elise-uwaterloo]

Hey. Are you majoring in English? I would like to myself but I'm really afraid that I'll have no job opportunities when I graduate.

I am! Quick general info session: there are three branches to the main English majors at Waterloo: Literature, Literature & Rhetoric, and Rhetoric & Professional Writing. I am part of the third, but may switch to the second as time goes on.

I totally feel you. In fact until grade 12 in school I didn’t even vaguely consider English as a major because I mean what can you possibly do with that? Well, according to the excess of pamphlets and brochures the department has given me, apparently you can do quite a bit.

There’s obviously teaching at all the different levels and further academic stuff in research and whatnot - branching off into the histories and mythologies and all that cool stuff. ((like there’s this really cool masters program in Iceland that’s in Norse & Viking cultures and mythologies and moral of the story maybe I’ll go to Iceland after my undergrad but that’s unrelated to your question so I digress))

There’s all sorts of media jobs - places looking to make their brand more modern and hep with us kids are always keen to hire graduates because we’re young and exciting. Use that. Be young and exciting. Or just young, they really don’t care.The same goes with marketing and advertising jobs - though obviously that’s aimed more at rhetoric students than literature. There are some really neat upper year courses in RPW that deals with stuff like typography and speech writing and are basically why I went for that branch bc they sound hella cool.

Law schools also love English majors, so if that’s a thing you’re considering there’s that too. That’s what I came into this thinking I was going to do - I wanted to be a civil rights lawyer - but then I actually took a law course and laughed myself out of that idea.

ANYWAYS moral of the story is there is plenty you can do with an English major provided you’re willing to work for it, just like any other university degree.

[elise-uwaterloo]

i'm having trouble deciding between going to waterloo and another school. Waterloo is closer to home which makes me feel a bit more confident but UOttawa (my other choice) has a really great atmosphere. What was the deciding factor for you to go to waterloo?

tbh it was money, not even going to lie. I couldn’t afford residence so I stayed in town. Which I know is a super helpful answer to your question so I will try to elaborate.

I have friends at UOttawa (or do I? Maybe they’re at the other school in Ottawa. There’s another one isn’t there? Whatever moving on) and they love it. But from what I understand from those who live at Waterloo is that the atmosphere is pretty great there too. If you’re considering staying in Rez, I know there is like crazy camaraderie and friendships and parties up in there, especially in places like Rev.

If - you said Wloo is closer to home - you stay at home: yeah it’s substantially less fun but maybe that’s just bc I don’t go out (ever. at all.).

[elise-uwaterloo]

Heellooo~ I was wondering how hard is university? Is it as hard as most people make out out to be or do you think it's reasonable for most hard working students?

hello lovely and I am so sorry if this is a terribly late reply.

It’s not so much that University is substantially harder than high school so much as it’s just crazy different. The expectations are suddenly super changed from the past 12 years and I think the main thing that really startles first years is that shift. You suddenly have fewer projects worth a lot more weight and tests with more complicated phrasing and questions than you’ve had to deal with.

Also the interactions with instructors is different - I don’t know about you personally, but I got along really well with my high school teachers and had no issue asking them questions (or demanding they change the assignment what). The best I can say is to try and maintain this with your Profs, but it will be difficult because you will not want to stay after your lecture with 300 other students to talk to them; and coming to their office can be crazy intimidating.

So uh in answer to your question - working hard is definitely a big part of it. But getting the shift in mindset is probably just as if not more important in succeeding in first year.

[elise-uwaterloo]

WOW OK so I have a bunch of messages in my inbox that i neVER KNEW EXISTED so if I never answered your question I am so sorry I will do that now oh god it's probably really late i'm so sorrrrryyyyy

[elise-uwaterloo]

sustainthisdeadworld replied to your post “sustainthisdeadworld replied to your post “Things I Still Don’t Know...”

haha, I think I just write science on all of mine... I always wonder though. Also why do they even NEED that part???

I don't even know they're just a bunch of wacky willies they are