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>>Regardless you still have to spend time and money on extracurriculars since the 98% is a bare minimum. This means student activities and clubs aren't for soci

>>Regardless you still have to spend time and money on extracurriculars since the 98% is a bare minimum. This means student activities and clubs aren't for socializing. They have been co-opted as a mechanism to create 10-person executive bodies so students can show they had leadership roles when applying to uni. A club that actually meets for its stated purpose imposes too much of a time commitment since competitive students need multiple leadership roles on their application. Granted it's been over 25 years since I graduated, but I remember that Canadian universities (across the country) had a relatively "bare" set of requirements to get in, namely your grades. Extracurriculars, from what I recall, had no bearing on a high school graduate's university application. This also made it somewhat impersonal, but at least it was straightforward. Have things changed now that (perhaps only Ontario) universities will also look at extracurricular to decide between candidates on the bubble? >>Waterloo also has a comprehensive dataset of "adjustment factors" to weigh your average differently depending on your high school. This has been in place for a decade. Rumour was that this was also in full force over 25 years ago for all Canadian universities, not only Waterloo, and not just in the last decade.

jjmarr 3y ago
>>Extracurriculars, from what I recall, had no bearing on a high school graduate's university application. This also made it somewhat impersonal, but at least it was straightforward. Ontario universities love extracurriculars now as the grades have inflated. The competitive top-tier programs require supplementary applications for each school. The Waterloo AIF in particular gets graded and then added to your adjusted high school mark, and is required for CS and engineering. I think other schools have supplementary ones that are sometimes optional if a program is less competitive. When you have thousands of students with a 98%+ it becomes impossible to differentiate. Over 40% of Waterloo students graduated high school with a 95 or above. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/an-explosion-in-a-students-grades-are-rising-at-gta-high-schools-here-s-what/article_ee933bd9-f198-5296-a0ca-64138f0c6a9e.html https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/an-explosion-in-a-students-... It's hard to do a cutoff when you're working with the top 5 percentage points of the scale. Too much noise in the signal. >>Rumour was that this was also in full force over 25 years ago for all Canadian universities, not only Waterloo, and not just in the last decade. You're probably right but it's only been public for about a decade. People started making FOI requests for the list and posting it online for anxious high school students. For context the numbers are the expected percentage points your mark will drop by from HS to university. https://github.com/aayushh-patell/Waterloo-Adjustment-Factors-2023/blob/main/Waterloo-Adjustment-Factors-2023.pdf https://github.com/aayushh-patell/Waterloo-Adjustment-Factor...

jjmarr 3y ago

>>Extracurriculars, from what I recall, had no bearing on a high school graduate's university application. This also made it somewhat impersonal, but at least it was straightforward. Ontario universities love extracurriculars now as the grades have inflated. The competitive top-tier programs require supplementary applications for each school. The Waterloo AIF in particular gets graded and then added to your adjusted high school mark, and is required for CS and engineering. I think other schools have supplementary ones that are sometimes optional if a program is less competitive. When you have thousands of students with a 98%+ it becomes impossible to differentiate. Over 40% of Waterloo students graduated high school with a 95 or above. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/an-explosion-in-a-students-grades-are-rising-at-gta-high-schools-here-s-what/article_ee933bd9-f198-5296-a0ca-64138f0c6a9e.html https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/an-explosion-in-a-students-... It's hard to do a cutoff when you're working with the top 5 percentage points of the scale. Too much noise in the signal. >>Rumour was that this was also in full force over 25 years ago for all Canadian universities, not only Waterloo, and not just in the last decade. You're probably right but it's only been public for about a decade. People started making FOI requests for the list and posting it online for anxious high school students. For context the numbers are the expected percentage points your mark will drop by from HS to university. https://github.com/aayushh-patell/Waterloo-Adjustment-Factors-2023/blob/main/Waterloo-Adjustment-Factors-2023.pdf https://github.com/aayushh-patell/Waterloo-Adjustment-Factor...