Hi, I have been admitted to UBC Arts and SFU Business but I can't decide on where I want to attend. I have no idea on what I want to do when I get my Bachelor's degree either, though the reason why I mainly focused in applying for Beedie/Sauder was because subject-wise, I'm not good at anything else. For instance, I have taken all three Sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Biology), but I wasn't particularly good at them, especially since my marks ranged from high 70's to low 80's and it just wasn't my keen interest. I was, however, decent at English and Math throughout my years of high school, achieving at least an overall average of 90%, but I utterly failed in Calculus 12 and Statistics 12.
Anyhow, my back-up plan if I don't get into Sauder during second year is to go into International Studies/Relations, mainly focusing on the language and cultural aspects. However, I don't really know jobs that would accept BA majors specializing in IS/IR, since a majority of them may require a Master's degree.

Anyway, the pros and cons are stated below:


SFU:

Pros:
-I got into Beedie, which was what I wanted and their program overall is better (though I don't know if I want to stay in that faculty.....)
-Closer to home; 20 minute transportation time.
-No need for residency/accommodation on campus.

Cons:
-My high school is very close to the University itself; I feel like I'm still constricted in my comfort zone and am limited to the outside world..
-Elaborating to the point above, it seems as though it will be like high school all over again, just with a more new, diverse range of people. I don't think it'll seem like it is a new experience.
-Limited number of programs/courses I want to take. For instance, I want to enhance my language fluency and knowledge in Korean, however they don't even offer the language in the first place (moreover, I have been searching on the internet but can't find any that are available).

UBC:

Pros:
-More well-known and prestigious on a worldwide scale
-They offer more programs/courses
-Two of my close friends are attending (haha..)
-I heard that if you want to transfer from UBC to SFU, it will be a lot easier than vice versa.

Cons:
-If I don't obtain at least a 75% average during 1st year, there is no chance of me transferring into Sauder. Then again, I don't think my average will be high enough either, since I understand University is much more reliant on self-studying in comparison to high school.
-I live 1.5 hours away from UBC and transporting there everyday will be quite a hassle. Residency on campus isn't an option for me due to financial need.

Please help and share your opinion!!

[quote=Xenova]SFU is one of the hardest grading schools out there. I think transferring back into Sauder from SFU will be quite difficult.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8...nd-hardest-grades/%22at[/quote]

but what if i take all the easy courses to boost up my gpa

Sorry to hear you're stuck with such a tough decision. :/ I was in the same place when I graduated high school, as were a ton of other people I knew.

From what I know, going to Beedie would be the best choice right now if you plan to graduate from Beedie. However, if you plan on transferring to Sauder, going to Beedie might make things more difficult than necessary. Beedie is a competitive business school and Sauder admissions officers say they do not consider what school you attended when evaluating your transfer application (it's purely based on a score from your core GPA, overall GPA, and personal profile). None of the prerequisites for transfer into 2nd year at Sauder are even business courses (you take one calculus course, two economics courses, an English course, and 5-6 electives).

If you're unsure of what you want to do, UBC Arts does have a TON of electives to choose from. As far as Arts faculties are concerned, UBC is the clear winner (we could have a whole different conversation about Sauder and Beedie, though), so if you end out graduating with a BA, you're far better off at UBC. Same goes for going to graduate school; UBC is a research university, so it's easy to find opportunities to prepare for that. And if you decide you want a BCom with a minor in Arts, this also gives Sauder a big advantage.

My opinion, in short:
- Choose Beedie if you know right now that you'd prefer a business degree over an arts degree, and prefer an arguably better classroom experience over school prestige.
- Choose UBC Arts if you don't have any clue right now and need to try out many different fields, and also if you would prefer Sauder if you end out pursuing a business degree (because it won't be easier to transfer from Beedie).

(So you know where this perspective is coming from, I chose UBC Arts, started doing my BA with a minor in Commerce, and then decided to transfer into Sauder and keep an Arts minor)

A couple of other things regarding your OP:

- I've attended UBC for 3 years with a 1.5-2 hour commute and it isn't as hellish as it sounds. At UBC, 1st and 2nd year courses are offered in so many time slots that it's very possible to schedule your classes so you only have to go to campus 3-4 times a week (I had a semester where I was only on campus 2 times a week for a full course load).

- If you were good enough to get into Beedie, you're good enough to get a 75% in university. 10% is the approximate average grade drop from high school to uni, but part of the reason that figure is so large is because some kids start partying a ton in university and their grades go down 20-30%. I've known other people who have had less than a 5% drop from high school to university. That being said, 2nd year Sauder transfers have a 80% GPA on average according to the admissions blog.

Good luck!

According to the numbers on the admissions blog from this year, here are the ratios of people that get in to those that applied last year:

Year 1 admittance: 605 out of 7532 or ~8%

Year 2 admittance: 175 out of 1702 or ~10%

Year 3 admittance: 125 out of 617 or ~20%

So yes, still super competitive for second year transfer, but not as competitive as getting in from high school. Getting in from UBC Arts is therefore hard, but that's because it's hard getting in from any school; Sauder doesn't look at what school you're coming from when scoring your transfer application, and they don't have a limit they take from within UBC. The people that'll have the easiest time getting in are probably going to small, less competitive colleges, because they'll have the easiest time getting good grades. UBC Arts is probably easier than Beedie though, because Beedie is more competitive, and UBC Arts gives you more course options so you have more professors to choose from (using ratemyprofessor.com) and electives that are in areas that interest you first year (=higher overall GPA).

If you're intelligent enough to get into Beedie, you're intelligent enough to get into Sauder, you just have to be willing to work super hard for the next 1-2 years. If you don't get in after first year, there are pre-Sauder 2nd year programs at schools like Capilano and Langara where you take all the 2nd year Commerce courses and transfer into Sauder 3rd year. Sauder refers to Capilano's Commerce program directly on their site, probably because they have such a high success rate; it says on Cap's site that out of the 35 students in their program, 83% get in. Those are really good chances, and those students spend thousands less on tuition, have way smaller class sizes, and take classes with all the same people.

It's hard to give you a concrete advice on this because I don't know to what extent you view Beedie as your "compromise" school. What I'd recommend is that if your heart is set on Sauder to the extent that you'd be willing up to 2 years of your degree outside of Sauder, you'll eventually be able to get in, so go to UBC Arts. Remember that if you're in UBC Arts, you can take 90% of the same first year classes as Sauder students, as they only have one actual Commerce course required in their first year, and the rest they take are Arts and Sciences prerequisites (English, Economics, and Calc) and electives students in any faculty can take. If you don't view a degree from Beedie as a compromise, genuinely believe what people say about the quality of education there, and are not certain that you'd be patient and determined enough to transfer into Sauder, choose SFU.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

I was in the same position as you just few minutes ago but I have made the decision to go to Beedie. It was not an easy choice but I chose Beedie mainly because I don't want to risk not being able to transfer in second year. I was thinking of transferring from Beedie to Sauder but then I saw the link saying SFU is one of the hardest grading schools... I also talked to many people and pretty much all of them said to go to Beedie. UBC would have been my preferred choice because of travel time and friends haha but then again, unless you are going for an arts degree, choose Beedie. Best of luck in your decision!

Congrats and good luck! And if you decide to transfer to Sauder it's not going to be impossible from Beedie, just maybe a bit more difficult than it'd be elsewhere. I think there are still a lot of electives outside of business in first year of Beedie, so those won't be as competitive. The business classes and business prereqs might present a bit bigger of a challenge, but they won't completely dominate your GPA. Either way you'll get a great business degree!



Sorry to hear that, but just keep all this in mind:

- UBC Arts is an amazing faculty that has a ton of departments that are the best of their kind in Canada (for instance, UBC has the best Economics program in Canada and it's probably better known than Sauder internationally).
- You are going to have a ton of classes to choose from first year to help you know for sure what you want to do with your life, and UBC has a ton of faculties other than Sauder that you might end out wanting to transfer into.
- If you decide to switch to Sauder, first year UBC Arts with the Commerce prerequisites is essentially no different from first year of the Sauder BCom. If you were in Sauder, you'd just have one class different.
- If you somehow don't get into 2nd year transfer, you can go to Capilano Commerce for 2nd year and have an 83% chance of getting into Sauder 3rd year (plus you'll save a couple thousand $$)
- If you find a passion in Arts you want to major in, it's fairly easy to get into the Commerce minor if you have a decent GPA and still want to have business knowledge.
- UBC Arts Co-op is really amazing. It's competitive to get into also, but if you manage to get in, the work experience you'll have when you graduate will arguably be worth more than your degree.
- One thing UBC definitely beats SFU at is how beautiful the campus is and how there is tons to do, so you're not missing out on that.

I think it'll be difficult to have a negative view of being in UBC Arts once you actually start going to UBC, but try not to be upset in the meantime. Not getting accepted into programs you want first year doesn't mean you're not going to spend most of your postsecondary education in them, it just means you have to go through the application process again and stay really motivated throughout your first year. Good luck!

Just decided to accept Beedie today as I don't expect a decision from Sauder within 2 days (waitlist sucks ) although UBC Arts seemed like an easier path to take considering the faster commute/ easier courses for better average, I chose Beedie to gurantee myself a business field degree in case I don't make the 2nd year transfer. Although it may be harder at SFU than Arts, I'll just have to work twice as hard now.

Sorry for not reading everything above thoroughly, I may be repeating somethings, but here's what I have to say,

I didnt get into UBC Sauder, but was accepted to SFU Beedie, which I will be attending. I'm actually kind of glad that I "forgot" to apply to UBC Arts (yes, stupid of me), therefore I didn't have to make this difficult decision.

In my opinion, it really depends on whether you want to pursue a Business degree, or "any degree will do, as long as you graduate". I really wanted to pursue a BBA or Bcomm degree, so I would have chosen SFU regardless.

Yes, it may be easier to transfer from UBC Arts to UBC Sauder, but there is no guarantee that you'll get in, because even second year is still very competitive. Now if you chose SFU Beedie, even you dont get into UBC for second or third year, at least you still graduate with a degree in Business, as opposed to Arts.

It's kind of hard to say because I only ever took one of the possible choices - ASTU 100, which you can only take if you're in the Coordinated Arts Program. If you don't do CAP, your choices are pretty much between ENGL 100 and ASTU 150, and the one you choose depends on if you think you'll have an easier time writing about literature or other subjects. ASTU 150 is probably your best choice between the two because ENGL 100 is primarily intended for people who want to be English majors.

Regardless of what you choose, the prof you take will make or break the course. Make sure they have a high rating on ratemyprofessor.com (and have been rated many times, not just a couple), and if you struggle with English, you might want to make sure they have a high easiness rating.

Probably the most important part to doing well in first year English is understanding how to properly write an essay for university. If you have a background in IB or a similar program, you're pretty set, but if not, there are a lot of workshops and a writing resource centre where you can learn how to and also have people suggest improvements on your work. CAP's ASTU course dedicates several classes as essay writing workshops so you don't have to go out of your way to access those resources, but it is a 6-credit 2-semester course, so it'll carry double the weight on your average as other English classes. This could obviously be problematic if you don't expect to do as well in it as your other classes.

Hey, no, you don't have to take all those classes first semester; in fact, I would strongly advise against it considering that would create a very heavy workload and make your adjustment to university difficult. I would recommend you take ECON 101 first semester and ECON 102 second semester, and take MATH 104 during a semester that doesn't have a lot of other high maintenance courses.

I don't think the electives you take change your score of your transfer application, considering it's based purely on GPA and your personal profile, so don't worry about that. To do well in electives and enjoy your first year, make sure you take courses you're interested in that have instructors with high ratings on ratemyprofessor.com. If you're still unsure, students generally seem to find PSYC 100 interesting; the name of my professor for the course was Wehr, and he was pretty awesome. Also, PSYC 100 made Organizational Behaviour (a commerce course you have to take second year in Sauder) MUCH easier because a lot of the concepts we were tested on were based in psychology.

Good luck! First year at UBC is awesome.