International Exchange is one of the privileges and opportunities available to Waterloo Engineering students. You need to take action this term if you want to go on exchange in Fall 2014 or Winter 2015. Exchange is primarily for third-year students. But the lead time for application can be long. Don’t put it off. If you miss the opportunity, it doesn’t come back. I have had lots of students come to me too late to apply, after they heard from their classmates about their experiences on exchange. So, if you expect to meet the academic criteria (complete 2B; be in the top half of your class, or at least with a three-term GPA over 70) take the first step: make an appointment to see Cindy Howe, the Administrative Coordinator for Exchange (Faculty Exchange Office or FEO, CPH 1320 or cindy@uwaterloo.ca); she can help you sort out where in the world your best choices may be.
There are very firm deadlines. If you are in 2B this term, you need to get the Engineering part of the exchange application completed by mid-November if you want to be sure of a place. You can’t be sure of going unless you meet the due date. Getting the information together to fill in the forms (available on the Engineering Exchange website: search ‘engineering exchanges’ from the UW page and follow the links to the forms) can be both time-consuming and arduous; once you have done that, filling the forms in is a snap, but you have signatures to collect and a pre-acceptance interview before it’s all done. You have exams, and then you’ll be leaving for Christmas and a work term, so use the spare time now to get the application done.
If you are in 2A this term, you may have more time available. Plan ahead. You can think of exchange terms to replace 3A or 3B (or both), which will normally take place in Winter and Fall of 2015. In some departments it may be possible to do an exchange term in place of 4A. Note that the term or semester dates of our partners typically don’t match ours; essentially, our co-op system puts us slightly out of sync with the rest of the world. So you have to figure out how to make them fit. Many people don’t know that when you go on exchange you can change the normal sequence; for instance, you can take fourth-year tech electives on a third-year exchange, and make up the core program on return, or you can interchange a work term and an academic term if it’s more convenient from the point of view of finding appropriate courses at our partner institutions. These take a bit more work to arrange and you have to get the appropriate approvals. But there’s nothing ‘set in stone’ about the order in which subjects are taught, or about when you must learn them. We merely require that each term is completed and that you end up with the correct number of satisfactory work terms.
All of this may seem complicated but we in the FEO are here to help. And in your department there are professors, particularly the undergraduate Associate Chair, and their support staff, who will help you in various parts of the process. You can also contact returned exchange students, who are in 4A this term.
Whether you are in 2A or 2B now, or whether you are still in 1A, one important matter is to get yourself ‘on the list’ for an exchange to your chosen destination. Each of our partners sets strict limits to the numbers of students that we can send them. Even though we have more than 80 possible destinations, some are more in demand than others, and we fill the spots on a first come first served basis. You should not fill in the application before contacting the FEO, for there may not be a place available. But when you make it on to the list, you are blocking later applicants, so be sure about your choice. If you change your mind you may have stopped another student from fulfilling a dream, so don’t apply before you have made a firm choice for exchange.
International Exchange is worth all the trouble. Whenever I meet students who have returned from exchange they tell me, without exception, how much they enjoyed the experience. All of them agree that Exchange was a highlight of their education. In fact I haven’t met one in the last decade who wasn’t enthusiastic about the experience. Typically, they say that international exchange was an experience of a lifetime.
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