r/ubcengineering

Asking specifically about design teams, such as the formula ubc or baja. I know they are competitive to join, but let’s assume I get onto one for the sake of discussion.

Thanks

I got into chbe want to do purely chemical engineering. What’s the process for that? Also how’s the profs and any tips for year 2? I kinda struggled in year 1 because of procrastination and bad habits. Also any cool coop stories from chbe?

Several years ago, I attended engineering at another university from out of province. I didn't end up finishing that degree but I dropped out due to poor grades. I have zero academic misconduct or disciplinary issues, just a history of academic difficulty. My transcript at my old university officially ended with me being on academic probation as a result.

I've got a job now and I want to go back to university to get an engineering degree.

Right now, I am enrolled at Douglas College in their Diploma in Engineering and Fabrication Technologies (DEFT). Under the transfer agreement with UBC, completing this diploma with a minimum 3.1 GPA "guarantees" admission into second-year UBC-V engineering.

However, because of my past, I am worried if my previous academic history will void the existing transfer agreement. I've been reading the UBC Vancouver Academic Calendar and it says "All applicants are required to be in good academic standing at their previous post-secondary institution(s)."

I reached out to Engineering Academic Services and I spoke with someone who told me essentially it is fine. I can finish the program and as long as I meet the requirements of the transfer agreement, they will honour the agreement.

However, I also emailed Enrolment Services and someone from the Admissions & Appeals Team told me they couldn't give any advance guarantees or pre-assessments of my admissions before I have even applied. Which makes sense. But at the same time encouraged me to continue focusing on successfully completing the DEFT requirements.

I've been eating myself alive over the past couple of days struggling with these thoughts. I want to restart my education and I feel haunted by my past. I don't want to be a situation where after I finish my diploma from Douglas, UBC tells me I am screwed because of my past.

I was wondering if anyone else has gone through anything similar or if anyone can offer some advice.

Thanks!

Budgeting for next year and looking for actual costs now that tuition statements are out:
What is tuition per year for first year engineering?
Dorm fees per month?
Meal plan?
Other fees?

For 2nd year and above: how much have your expenses changed with off-campus housing?

Hoping UBC is still an option for my grade 12 kiddo looking at it for next year.

Thank you!

Quick disclosure up front: this is my own project and there's a signup link in the comments. Mods, happy to take it down if this breaks the rules.

Here's the thing nobody really says out loud. Turning to the person next to you in a 300 person lecture and starting a conversation is terrifying. You rehearse the line in your head, you wait for a natural opening that never comes, the prof starts talking, and then it's week six and you still haven't said a word to anyone in that room.

And you know for a fact half of them are sitting there thinking the exact same thing.

So I built Orbit. You add your courses and it matches you with other people taking the same ones. There's a chat for each course, so the first message happens in a place where everyone showed up specifically to meet classmates. No walking up to a stranger, no wondering if you're bothering them. They downloaded the app for the same reason you did.

That's the whole thing. No feed, no algorithm, no gamification.

Launching with Sauder and Engineering courses first, then adding more faculties after that.

Beta is close. If you want to be notified when it goes live, the form is in the comments. Takes about ten seconds and everyone on the list gets in before it opens up properly.

i am an incoming first year looking to specialize in mech.

i was wondering how much gpa is weighed vs personal statement/extracurricular involvement? does the personal statement really matter or is it all about your grades?

how worried should i be if i can't get onto a design team, and what other ways can i be involved on campus (eng related)?

how is prof Amali Priyanka Jambuge for phys 157?

Hello! I'm in my second year of hs and I want to apply to ubc engineering but I never really did any ec. I kinda did some volunteer work in my first year of high school but it was part of a class so if I didn't show up to help my grades would take a hit. Would that count? What should I get into?

im an incoming first year and my profs are not rated too well on ratemyprof. i was wondering what role they play in terms of your learning experience. for example, does the difficulty of exams vary by profs or are they more so standardized?

I was disappointed to see that UBC is not currently listed among the eligible institutions for OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Academic Researchers program:

https://chatgpt.com/sophia/eligible-institutions

According to OpenAI, eligible institutions must be “recognized, degree-granting colleges or universities with a high level of research activity”. UBC clearly meets these criteria and is one of Canada’s leading research universities.

As a postdoctoral research fellow at UBC working in a related field, I know how difficult it can be for researchers to secure sufficient funding to access AI models and services. Access to this program could meaningfully support research across many disciplines at UBC, particularly for postdoctoral researchers and early-career faculty.

UBC is in the same league as the University of Toronto and should remain competitive in providing researchers with access to emerging research infrastructure. University of Toronto is already included. I hope UBC will engage with OpenAI and take the necessary steps to become eligible as well.

Does anyone know whether UBC has already applied, or which department or administrative office we could contact about this?

Some questions I have are:

1. How hard are studies in STEM majors? I heard like half the class fail to graduate, and even if you manage to graduate, maintaining high gpa is another issue
2. how are the internships like? For instance, Waterloo is known extremely well for their coops, but they say you're not guaranteed having great coops in waterloo, YOU need to try to keep in touch and contact big tech companies, and the school doesn't match you?
3. How are the employments like? yes i've seen uni websites promoting that 95% of their students succeed in finding jobs after graduation, but I want to hear from real engineers who have made it. Also, I heard engineering occupations are extremely unstable??
4. Is majoring engineering still worth it? or would you switch to medical, such as nursing, if you had the chance to??

hey, im going into grade 12 in the fall and my first choice is ubc eng, then second is ubc sci. im a bc student. im aiming for a 95+ avg for grade 12 (got a 94-95 avg in grade 11) but im worried that my ec's arent gunna be enough? also, i came to vancouver in grade 8 so it took me a while to realize that ec's were pretty important for uni. here they are:

- played basketball for my school team and outside my school for 2 seasons (grade 9-10)
- generally, ive volunteered multiple times throughout grade 9-11 in my local community
- joined a women in stem club in grade 8 and grade 10, became the club president in grade 11 where we took members to ubc labs, did robotics workshops, and raised money in fundraisers

- did a research program called Youreka Canada in grade 10, won first place for our team project, and joined again in grade 11 working on a different field of research

- volunteered at a summer camp summer of 2025 and 2026, accumulating 500+ volunteer hours

- volunteered 1 hour per week for the entirety of grade 11 at a stem club teaching elementary school kids stem stuff

- ran an environment club in my local community in the spring of my grade 11 year

- did a public speaking club in the fall of my grade 11 year

- part of clubs in my school such as interac club

- idk if this counts, but i took an engineering class IN school in my grade 11 year (it was super fun) and built various arduino projects like a bike sensor, a line sensor, etc

-currently working on my own hardware and softwareprojects for an online hackathon called stardance

-currently volunteering for the UBC D'HoPE program (its medical related)

So yeah. Any tips/advice on how to write a strong personal profile??

Apologies for the umpteenth post about laptops in the sub but just wanted to ask if the coursework in civil contains enough CAD/Civil 3D work to the point that something like a gaming laptop would be needed?

Have no plans to game on it or whatever but just worried about the hardware demands for any projects or design team work I may run into. Also plan to be on campus all day so laptop workstations would be ideal.

If any civil or other specializations have any experiences like this to share I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks

Yo how doable is 7 courses if anyone did it jsut curious on the difference if I were to take 7 instead of 6.

Hello everyone!! I’ll be going into my first year of engineering and was wondering how note taking would be, since it’s mostly calculations and formulas and such. Would a regular notebook be optimal or should I invest in an ipad? Thank you for your help!!

Hi so I am a second year civil engineering student transferring from the faculty of science. I was wondering how can I get on a civil related design team?

The way ECE has MCLD etc.