The program at Western offers a general first year instead of immediate specialization in the discipline of Engineering of your choice. This allowed me to experience a little bit of them all in order to better decide which one I actually want to specialize in.
Course Curriculum
I appreciate how they structured all the courses so there is overlap between them all, leading students to believe that there is a connection between them. However, many upper-year engineers have informed me that all the theory taught in most classes is very irrelevant to the workforce we are entering. I understand why they see a need to teach it, however, I feel like less of an engineer and more of someone who knows a lot about calculus and physics but cannot truly apply it. Additionally, with the general first year comes the struggle of having to take numerous classes that don't interest you at all, which makes it even more of a dreadful experience.
Events
I personally have attended few events thus far because of the workload I experienced, but I do hope to become more involved in the next year. I was able to join a few Humanitarian clubs that primarily held events for fundraising and wellness within the campus. These included wristbands at local bars, free giveaways in the university community center, exam care packages, Bell Let's Talk, and more.
Fees
My tuition for my program is almost double that of most students in other faculties. They tell us it's so they can offer us the best technological and engineering resources, but I think it's because we are on the only faculties that can fund a job right after undergrad, meaning we should pay for this luxury. The financial breakdown as far as tuition is very vague. About 13,600 goes to tuition. The remaining 1.4K is listed out to include the Health Plan, Dental Plan, Faculty Donation, and more than I honestly don't know.
Examination Structure
Most of the exams are multiple choice. All of them have an MC component in them. Very few of them will end with a writing (solving questions written) component, but if they do, the majority of the marks are allocated to this section.
