Alright, that was a pretty tough hell week. After an experience like that, I have to ask myself ‘Why am I here? Why am I in Waterloo Engineering?’
I reached out to some fourth year friends for some moral support about this issue. Their responses were generally negative (Jaded fourth years, what?). But I am a strong believer in the power of positivity and I want to share some of the positivity I found with anyone who may be having the same thoughts as me.
We all know that co-op is the best feature of Waterloo Engineering, so I’m going to skip over it and talk about the positive things that school terms brings to us.
Waterloo may or may not be one of the top schools in Canada, but incoming students think that they will get top quality education by coming to Waterloo. This perception brings the best people to Waterloo. A lot of fourth years I talked to mentioned that the people at Waterloo are some the best they’ve ever met. Waterloo’s recruiting works and some of the most innovative, smart, and passionate students attend Waterloo Engineering. Henry Chan (4A Chemical) echoes this, “Waterloo engineers are in my perspective very clever individuals. These same engineers that you acquaint over the years would become the foundation of your professional network.”
Waterloo Engineering supports these great people with the Student Design Centre and Velocity. Nabeel Syed (4A Mechanical) says that, “I can speak from experience that Waterloo has a strong commitment in [student teams]…They value them, and not just ones that bring trophy’s, things like Aquaponics.” The investment in student teams is further evidenced by things like Waterloo being only one of 15 Universities in the world competing in the EcoCAR2 competition. The school recognizes that there are indeed extraordinary students entering Waterloo, and they support them in their endeavours.
The school is not only investing in students beyond the classroom, they are investing in classrooms. In the past 4 years since the current fourth years were in first year, there have been two new engineering buildings and the Quantum Nano Centre. The school is evolving as we speak. Everyone only sees a snapshot of parts of the school, so it is hard to see changes. Changes are there, curriculum is developing, and the content and the delivery methods are improving.
Waterloo Engineering can get you down, especially after midterms. But if you recognize good things when they come, it will bring happiness to your 5-7 years here, and allow you to get through it.
“C&D is cheap. And that makes me happy” Mike Benoit – 4A Mechanical
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