This Week In University Counselling: Grade 12
April 12-22
Appointments to see a university counsellor
To see one of the University Counsellors, you must make an appointment using our on-line booking system.
To book an appointment, you need to be logged into the Brentwood system through your school email account. Also, you must ensure that you have opened your Google Calendar at least once to ensure that the times between the two systems are in sync.
To access our on-line appointment system, click HERE to go to the correct page on the University Counselling website...
Although we shouldn’t have to tell you, do not make an appointment during a class—academic, arts or athletics—you cannot skip to attend a University Counselling appointment!
Take note: there are some evening appointments (virtual) that are available in the coming weeks... look carefully at all of the University Counsellors and their booking calendars for days/times that work best.
CLC & Your Capstone Projects
You will be booking a time to Present your Capstone Project to your Advisor soon!
Please check your CLC Google Classroom for all the information you need to ensure everything is complete and submitted.
Please see the Career Education website for details about your Capstone Project.
Admission offers: action required
All Offers of Admission will have a deadline or expiry date associated with then. You must confirm what your deadline is to accept an offer. Once it is expired or past the deadline, the Offer of Admission is gone forever. We cannot work miracles to get them back!
Virtually all universities require a deposit of some kind to be paid to accept your Offer of Admission (except in Ontario). This often needs up to a week to process, so do not delay in accepting your Offer of Admission... give yourself plenty of time before the deadline to accept.
May 1 tends to be a very common deadline to accept an Offer of Admission...
University of victoria: ACTION REQUIRED
Application Open for Additional Scholarships
UVic's application for additional scholarships (beyond those based on marks) is now open! You need to log into UVic to access the application (closes April 30). See one of the University Counsellors for assistance.
Residence Application is Open
With the near completion of two new halls of residence, UVic will be guaranteeing residence to first year students who apply by May 1.
Acceptance Deposit
If you have decided that you want to attend UVic, a $250 Acceptance Deposit needs to be paid by May 1. The payment of the fee allows you to register for courses later in June.
One of the University Counsellors can help you make this payment by making an appointment with us. The instructions for making the payment can be found HERE.
HOUSING: Canadian universities
While most universities will guarantee housing to you if you receive an offer, there are some schools which require further action to confirm your interest in campus housing and others where a separate application for residence is required. These schools include: Alberta, UBC, Calgary, Lethbridge, Simon Fraser, Toronto, Victoria. In some cases, the applications for housing are open now (Alberta, UBC) and in others the application will open later in the term.
Simon Fraser
Housing is NOT guaranteed for any student... you should apply for housing ASAP to increase your chances of getting a place in housing.
Toronto
You needed to complete their housing profile (StarRez) via your JoinUofT account by March 31 to secure a place in residence. If you did not do this and plan on attending University of Toronto, you will now need to look into alternative housing as accessing residence now will be virtually impossible!
Alberta, Calgary
You must submit your housing application by April 30th
UBC, UVic
You must submit your housing application by May 1st
If you have questions regarding university residence, please see one of the university counsellors.
admission offers to ontario universities
If you have received an offer from a university in Ontario, there will be an expiration date associated with that offer.
You must respond through OUAC to the offer by that date or else it the offer of admission will be lost… forever… and there is nothing we can do to fix that! Please check to see when your offers expire. If you are uncertain as to the expiration date, please make an appointment with one of the University Counsellors to have a look on OUAC, and to discuss how to proceed with the offers. OUAC allows you to accept only one offer at a time but accepting an offer does not impact any other offers that have been given or applications still awaiting a decision.
university choice
As you consider which university admission offer you want to accept, it is imperative that you consider the conditions of your offers to ensure that you will be able to meet them come the end of the year. In some cases, you have very little room for your academic average to change, and so meeting those conditions might be challenging. It would be wrong of you to choose a university if the chances of meeting the conditions is low!
Please meet with one of the University Counsellors to discuss your options.
UK Admission Decisions
News about your applications to UK universities is slowly coming in. There is no predicting when any one university will make their decisions, although they need to ensure that they push out all decisions by the first week of May. It is clear that this year the process is slower than in previous cycles. Students have until the first week of June to decide, so there is plenty of time. Plus, you cannot take any action until all of your choices have a decision posted on UCAS.
UCAS requires that you make two selections: a FIRM choice and an INSURANCE choice. Your FIRM choice institution is your top choice, your planned destination, where you want to be next fall! …Your INSURANCE choice is just in case you do not meet the conditions of your FIRM choice. When you make those two choices, you must also decline your remaining choices, and those offers will thus be gone forever! So, do not take the process of selecting your choices lightly. Please come in to discuss your options.
As well, once you have submitted your FIRM and INSURANCE choices, you need to get on with applying for accommodation.
international student visas
International students who will need to apply for visas to attend university in either the US or Canada need to make sure they are getting on with the process. The University Counsellors can assist you in applying, but as the process takes time, we need to get started.
For a Study Permit to attend a Canadian university, it is FAR better to apply to extend your current permit while you are here at Brentwood.
For an F-1 Study Visa to attend an American university, you will need to attend an interview at the US embassy in your home country, but everything can and needs to get done well before you can book that interview.
In both cases, documentation proving that you have the financial resources available to cover the costs of your education for next year, at least, is required, so parents will have to move on that.
For a Tier-4 Student Visa to attend university in the UK, the process can only begin once you have an unconditional offer, so in the summer. The application process, though, is efficient, and can easily be completed in the summer months.
Please see Mr. Rodrigues for any questions that you have about visas/permits.
university counselling final update & GRADUATION CEREMONY READOUT form
In order to capture ALL of the information regarding your applications, we ask that you take time to complete the Form below. We know you may not have ALL of the updates to offer, so you can return to the form to provide further information.
We also take this opportunity to get information from you concerning the Graduation Ceremony in June, so this Form is very important.
EVERY SINGLE GRADE 12 MUST COMPLETE THIS FORM... EVENTUALLY... If you have all your information, please get it done.
UC Logins Form
While you are always advised to protect your login credentials for websites on which you establish accounts, it is vital that you share those credentials with University Counselling so that we can fully support your applications. We do promise absolute discretion in protecting your credentials... you can put your trust is us!
To easily share your Application Account Login Credentials, please use our Form.
Scholarships
For now, the scholarships that are most relevant are considered to be Major awards—usually national awards that are tough to get. Most of you will be automatically considered for Entrance awards to the universities you apply to, without a separate application.
Between those are other scholarships that need to be found by looking at resources such as the following sites: scholarshipscanada.com, yconic.com, and studentscholarships.org. On these sites, you need to set up a profile and search through matched awards.
If you think you would be a suitable candidate, be sure to investigate the Major Entrance Scholarship process for the schools to which you are applying. Each will have a different process for scholarships, so better to do your research now to ensure you know what exactly to do and when to submit!
There are some major scholarship programs that require work to be done and application submitted early this fall. Here is a list of scholarship opportunities, and information about the work you need to do to apply.