I may or may not know what I'm doing.
2020-04-19
Note: Deadline, CV, contests
This is part of a 3-part series on the University of Waterloo’s application process.
Today’s topic will be on the admission information form (AIF).
This form is mandatory to be considered in the engineering admissions process, and there is a hard submission deadline. Miss the deadline, and you will be rejected unless you appeal with a very good reason. You are expected to create an account in Quest, where the form and other administrative information are located.
The form consists of several sections. In some parts, you will answer short questions, limited to several hundred characters. In other parts, you will fill out extracurricular activities, previous or current employment, courses, skills, and other requested information. You will also indicate your second engineering choice in case you do not get into your first. Please note that you are not penalized when being considered for your second choice if you don’t get your first.
For a good AIF, good extracurricular activities and employment are important. What the admissions team is looking for, I have no clue. I speculate that activities requiring soft skills such as leadership, teamwork, and organization are particularly valuable, as well as activities requiring creativity and perseverance. I also speculate that activities related to the program of choice will be helpful for the AIF. It is also important to participate in the various contests hosted by UW, such as the Canadian Computing Competition (CCC) and Euclid Mathematics Contest.
UW is looking for students that will not only survive, but actually thrive in its environment. See Angela Duckworth’s website on grit. Also maybe check out “metacognition”.
The AIF is like a combined résumé and cover letter; it is a mechanism which allows you to distinguish yourself from your peers and to show why UW would be a good fit for you. The AIF also allows you to explain circumstances that may have affected your academic performance. The AIF is scored out of 5 points. Generally, most AIFs will be given a score of 3 for an average applicant with average extracurriculars. What average means here, I do not know.
Once you have filled out the AIF, it must be saved or submitted, otherwise, all work will be lost. I suggest writing responses on another document before copy-pasting it into the form. The information you put into your AIF is also useful for other purposes, such as your actual résumé and/or applications to other university programs.
The important information to take away is to participate in extracurricular activities and contests hosted by the University of Waterloo in order to increase the AIF score, therefore increasing the chance of being accepted into the program of choice. However, high school grades and the AIF are not the only factor in determining chances of being accepted. I will discuss the next topic in the next post.
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