Congratulations, you’re now a UWaterloo student!! Now comes the question, how do you make the most of it? Well, you’ll be happy to find that there is a thriving social scene across campus and beyond. Anything from small social clubs for specific interests to massive social events run by student societies.
Many of the major faculties on the campus (Math, Science, and Engineering, etc.) have student societies that charge every student in their faculty a fee each term. The societies use these term fees to run some amazing social planning throughout the term. You’ll see talent shows, large dances, sports games, and even restaurant crawls (fun walks around parts of Waterloo to explore new restaurants, pubs, and more)! Participating in these society run events is a great way to get involved with others in your own faculty and to get to know a passionate community of students in a program similar to yours.
In addition to student run societies, as a student at Waterloo, you’ll find there are many more opportunities to enjoy the vibrant student life that exists on campus. For example, the dozens of clubs that are supported by WUSA (Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association) that meet every student’s interests in one way or another. From the lighthearted cheese club to the artistic chai and poetry club, and even the hardcore Waterloo Snow Coalition. For every student, there’s something or someone to join in celebrating your interests, and you may find something new that interests you. If you care to explore all the groups that exist, there is an online list of clubs, maintained by WUSA, that you can browse to find the club that most interests you!
WUSA and the other societies also run amazing food services. For example, grad house is a great social eatery run by the Graduate Student Association located in the center of campus. On the other hand, WUSA runs a convenience store, not unlike a 7/11, called Flock Stop located in the Student Life Center. It’s a great place to grab a quick meal or buy some snacks. On top of that, some of the faculty student societies run coffee shops selling dirt juice (my personal take on coffee) at dirt cheap prices, they’re amazing places for a quick boost in your day between lectures.
But outside of just social programming on campus, you’ll find thriving entrepreneurial and technical communities. For example, the Student Design Center in Engineering 7 houses some amazing design teams who work on some of the coolest projects on campus across almost all disciplines. Albeit, these are more popular amongst the engineering student community, but they are open for all students to try out if they are interested in joining any of the groups.
On the entrepreneurial side of things, Waterloo boasts its #1 spot in the country for the field with much of its success driven by Velocity. Velocity is an incubator for dozens of seed and pre-seed startups being run by Waterloo students that has been running since 2008. Since then, companies from velocity have raised 25 billion+ in enterprise value and 400+ companies created. Furthermore, they are an amazing community for students with bold ideas to work with like-minded individuals and pursue their dreams.
Finally, the social scene outside of campus. Now, Waterloo may get bad rep for being an absolutely dull city to party in, but that’s just not the case. With the Laurier folks further up University Ave. running smashing parties, the amazing fast food scene downtown (the plaza is goated), and the diverse food situation uptown (plus all the pubs up there!), there’s so much to see and do at Waterloo. There’s also Conestoga Mall up north, connected by the light rail that allows students to easily explore the city (your student fees include a term pass for the public transit). With all of these things, you will find yourself struggling to run out of things to do in the city.
Keeping all of this in mind, to truly enjoy your degree, just remember that you should choose to do what you enjoy. Choose to stay with people you enjoy spending your time with and you will find that you’ll never truly be bored throughout these years of your degree.
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