Ontario University Fair – The Road to Engineering

If you live in Southern Ontario, and you are curious about university, the Ontario University Fair is being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre this weekend on Saturday, October 5th and Sunday, October 6th. Details can be found on the website for the Ontario University Fair.

This annual event allows prospective students to explore the university programs that schools offer, speak with representatives of programs, and learn more about applying to university. We have a large team at the event to answer your questions. The event is also great for younger high school applicants who might wish to learn more about entrance requirements in preparation for future course selection in high school.

This year, I am not attending the event. I am travelling to Chicago to attend another university fair. I will be at the NACAC National College Fair at Navy Pier in Chicago. While in Chicago, I also hope to meet with some of our alumni working in the area.

This will be my second recruiting trip this Fall. Just over two weeks ago, I visited schools in New Jersey including the Peddie School shown in the following image.

The Peddie School

My trip to New Jersey was a busy one. I visited 5 high schools across the state. Our recruiting team is also actively visiting schools throughout Ontario and Canada. One member of our team will be visiting high schools near Victoria BC in a week. We do our best to visit schools that request us to visit them. As you can probably imagine, demand often exceeds our capacity to visit.

Thankfully, we have recently updated our website so that students we are unable to visit can learn more about our university and the programs we offer. In November, we also have our annual Fall Open House where prospective students can visit our school, tour our facilities, and speak with representatives. The Fall Open House is our most important recruiting event of the year by far. Thousands of prospective students attend.

As always, if you have any specific questions about undergraduate engineering programs or admission to these programs, feel free to email enginfo@uwaterloo.ca.

The Ontario University Fair will run this year from September 28th to September 30th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario. The doors open for visitors at 10:00 am and close at 5:00 pm every day. If you are a Grade 11 or Grade 12 student considering applying to university programs over the next couple of years, you should plan to attend this fair if you have the ability to do so.

The University of Waterloo will be well represented with a large booth in the Main Exhibit Hall. The Faculty of Engineering will send a large team of faculty members, staff members, and students to answer the questions of applicants and their families. At the fair, you can learn more about our highly respected co-operative education program and how it helps students successfully pay for a substantial portion of their education. You can also learn about the 14 different engineering programs that we offer as well as our excellent Architecture program. Our volunteers will do their best to answer all of your questions.

I highly recommend speaking with our students about their experiences. Our students have been instructed to answer your questions honestly. They will tell you that our programs are very challenging. For many students, the transition from secondary school to university is a difficult one. Moving away from home, relocating to a new city, making new friends, and learning an entirely different daily routine can be daunting task. Our students can provide you with tips on how to make this transition successfully. After all, just a few years ago, they were in a situation similar to your situation.

I will be at the fair for a portion of all three days. I will do my best to answer your questions or to refer you to a member of our team that can do so. I look forward to meeting all of our future students and their parents at the fair!