I got accepted into the University of Toronto at Scarborough for Psychology, University of Ottawa for Commerce, Criminology, and EE, University of Guelph for Commerce, University of Western Ontario for Criminology, and YorkU for undecided major. Engineering is my program of choice so I was wondering if I should go back to high school for another year and try to get into UofT, Waterloo, UWO, or McGill for engineering (my schools of choice) or go to college my first year at one of the above schools/programs that I got accepted to and try to transfer.

It would be more difficult to transfer from another field into Engineering, as there typically isn't any overlap.

And what were your marks this year? UWaterloo takes 5% off your admission average from repeated courses, and UofT doesn't like them at all.

You were accepted into engineering at UOttawa, so why wouldn't you go there if engineering is what you want? All of the engineering programs that I'm aware of at Canadian universities are accredited, so it doesn't really matter where you do your engineering degree (unless you want to do graduate work in the U.S., where reputation matters a bit). I have family members who work as engineers, and they honestly don't care where someone studied engineering, as long as the program was accredited by the appropriate provincial body.

If you are dead set against Ottawa, I would still do my first year there, and study and work hard and smart to obtain as high a GPA as possible. Then apply as a transfer student to other engineering schools.

It is possible to transfer from one engineering program to another if you have good marks. A good friend of mine transferred from Carleton engineering to Guelph engineering, but she had almost a straight-A average (she had one "B" I believe, and all her other marks were A or A+).

At university, though, you better work a lot harder than you said you did this past year. If you hand in blank tests and don't complete assignments you will not survive first year at university.

People want Waterloo because of quotes like this:

During his visit to Waterloo in October 2005, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates stated, "Most years, we hire more students out of Waterloo than any university in the world, typically 50 or even more.

BTW, what were your individual marks this year? We can provide more insight and advice if we have that to work with.

Umm.. yeah. This will hurt you a lot. 3 out of 6 of your courses are beyond horrible (even without engineering standards). UofT does not take in repeated courses unless there is a truly extenuating circumstance.

UWaterloo would also deduct 5% off you admissions average (I don't know if it's 5% overall for repeating or per course, email them to find out).

Your best bet at this point is to get into any university, not let your arrogance get in the way of success, achieve extraordinary marks and apply for a transfer for second year into your preferred universities.

By the way, your average for Engineering is 78, not 80.5.

Don't be too sure. :P

And they take 5% off. It's not the maximum or anything, it's they either apply it or not (extenuating circumstances).

And since you're foreign, in Canada colleges are what you probably know as "community colleges" and UofT/Waterloo are known as universities.

And even though you got into UofT, it's incredibly difficult to transfer from another field into Engineering, even within the same university. Especially from Psychology.

But let's assume you did get 95s. I'll put in 90 for English, since no one really gets 95 in English. Your average (after adjustments) would be 88.8. Understand that this is basically your maximum average, since there is no guarantee that you'd get 95 in SCH4U/SPH4U and 90 in ENG4U (even though you might). A high 80s is competitive, but UWaterloo also take other things into consideration, such as extra-cirriculars, sports and leadership opportunities, so be sure to have those as well.

However, UWaterloo will also know that you failed one of the prerequisites, and did poor in English and Physics (compared to other applicants). It's three courses, not just one, which were pretty bad. So if there are other applicants with a similar average, they would prefer the students who got the average on their first try rather than their second. The university will think you won't be able to handle university courses without repeating them, as they don't know you're actually smart and just being lazy.

UWaterloo also takes in some people with mid-80s but rejects some with 90s, for the same program because they review each application individually.

BTW, UofT does not use repeated marks at all unless there is a truly exceptional reason.

Although I have no experience with U of T, I would think that it would be very, very difficult to transfer from any other program into engineering, unless you were perhaps studying physics or chemistry and managed to get a very high GPA. I do know that at the Masters level, for instance, there are engineering programs that allow students with physics or chemistry degrees (or other related degrees, such as food science) to start an MSc in engineering, provided that they complete a bunch of undergraduate engineering courses.

I've only ever heard of people transferring out of engineering, not into it. I'm sure that someone out there somewhere has done it, but it certainly isn't very common.

My advice remains the same: if you want engineering, go to UOttawa. If you care more about the university than the program, go to U of T. In either case, work your butt off.

Doing another year of high school isn't going to be worth it unless you plan on applying to universities that don't care about repeat courses. As has already been mentioned, Waterloo and Toronto DO care, and have different ways of dealing with repeats.

Hm.. I'm beginning to lean towards Ottawa. Your reasoning makes sense, although it is something I have already considered. I just never really put much thought into my future until recently when it dawned upon me that I'm soon going to be entering the real world. It's not just that I want to do engineering - don't get me wrong, I do - it's that I'm still unsure of what I want to major in and I was told I would be able to switch into most other programs should I decide to opt out.

@nutritionrunner

Eh... it's still not a good choice. If you all of a sudden decide you want to go into the health, there is virtually no overlap between Life Sciences and Engineering, so you would have to do first-year Life Science, and you just wasted valuable time and money on your Engineering studies in the beginning.

You have acceptances into a broad range of disciplines: accounting, psychology, law, engineering. You should think hard and try to pick one now, although I think you should go with UOttawa Engineering since you do have a keen interest in that program. However, if you do decide to go with that program, do not go in with the mindset that you will be at Waterloo or Toronto the next year, because the chances of that happening aren't high and this will cause your arrogance to precede your success once again.