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Friday, February 20, 1998
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Spring training
![[Bar graph]](/1998/feb/applications.gif)
For Ontario as a whole, the number of applicants from secondary schools is up by just 0.6 per cent, from 53,790 in the winter of 1997 to 54,118 as of February 11 this year.
Total applications to UW are up by 12.8 per cent -- a number that puts Waterloo in first place across the province -- and first-place applications up by 8.1 per cent, making UW sixth in that column. (Students typically rank three universities and programs when they apply through OUAC.) UW's 5,446 first-choice applications mean it has more would-be students than any other university in the province except Toronto.
UW -- which experienced a drop of 6.2 per cent last year -- is ahead of the provincial average nearly across the board. Some highlights, as explained yesterday by a very happy Peter Burroughs, director of admissions:
Mathematics: That's the glamour area this year, with first-choice applications up 15.5 per cent and total applications 27.0 per cent. Waterloo is the only university that accepts first-year applications specifically to math, so comparisons across the province aren't possible. Math currently has 2,710 applicants to consider for about 830 spots in next fall's first-year class.
Arts: Last year there was a 6 per cent drop in applications to UW, which is more than cancelled by this year's 9.5 per cent hike (10.1 per cent in first choices). The regular honours program is showing an increase of almost one-third over last year's application level, and social development studies at Renison is also booming. Arts could fill its first-year class of about 1,000 students from first-choice applicants alone, if they all were admitted and chose to come.
Science: Applications are comfortably up, with some big shifts from one program to another, largely because of the new "pre-optometry, pre-health" choice which was available for the first time.
Engineering: A jump of 7.5 per cent in first-choice applicants, and 12.0 per cent overall, is still behind the provincial figures. Engineering seems to be the hot field province-wide this year, with applications up 12.9 per cent, although the total of 5,188 applicants is still less than a third of the number of students seeking to enter arts. Waterloo alone has 2,857 would-be engineers (first, second and third choices) to consider for a first-year class of 745.
Environmental studies: Architecture is showing a sharp increase in applications, but interest in the other fields is down both at UW and across the province.
Applied health sciences: UW is lagging behind the provincial figures, and showing an actual drop in first choices, because of a sharp drop in applications to enter kinesiology. An OAC physics course was required for kin applicants this year for the first time, and officials say the drop probably represents students who weren't suited for UW's scientifically-oriented kin program.
Still to come are many applications from students who aren't now in Ontario high schools (those from other provinces, or returning to education after some time away). OUAC says it has processed 7,477 such applications so far this year, compared to 11,057 at the same time last year.
Said a news release: "Through its investment, Bell Emergis will establish Bell Emergis University Labs with U of T receiving $13.5 million and UW receiving $9 million over three years. The laboratories will develop technologies that place Canada at the forefront of the emerging digital communications industry. The partners will collaborate on exploratory research in technologies relating to computing, networking and communications."
The president of Bell Emergis, Jim Tobin, said that "The combined capacity of the universities of Toronto and Waterloo provides access to superb intellectual and physical research infrastructure which is unmatched in North America."
UW will create endowments in support of "a significant increase" in graduate student enrolment in information technology research. In addition, the funding will be used to create an endowed chair and upgrade the computing and research infrastructure.
At U of T, the partnership will create an endowed chair for a new faculty member, three additional endowed chairs for existing faculty members and four new junior professional positions. It will also significantly strengthen research infrastructure and provide substantial research funding that over time will encompass a broad range of disciplines.
Carolyn Hansson, UW's vice-president (university research), said the project "underscores the importance of research and development in Canada and will encourage our graduates to remain in Canada. I am also delighted that the partnership gives us the opportunity to cement the strong relationship we have developed with U of T over the last decade through the Information Technology Research Centre." (ITRC is now Communications and Information Technology Ontario)
To support the project, UW and Toronto are applying for resources from the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.
"They're now talking the end of March" before decisions will be made on which projects will get funding, says Carolyn Hansson, UW's vice-president (university research).
The process of writing the proposals and lining up private sector money for them was a hectic one, in part because it had never been done before, Hansson said. However, it'll have to be done again -- several times more this year, with more ORDCF deadlines coming in spring and fall, plus deadlines for the federal government's Canada Foundation for Innovation. And all of that comes on top of the regular application process for hundreds of grants and contracts each year.
ORDCF applications had to be in Toronto by closing time on Friday, January 30, Hansson recalls, and the last document arrived in her office by fax at 2:26 that afternoon, "with the courier standing there waiting!"
The next big deadline comes April 1, when UW can submit applications to CFI for "new opportunities" funding to provide research infrastructure -- everything from lab equipment to computers -- for more than 70 recently-arrived faculty members. She's set a March 6 deadline for applications under that program to arrive in her office and be screened.
As for the ORDCF applications that went in at the end of January, here's a rundown:
The Kiwanis Travelogue series at the Humanities Theatre continues tonight (8 p.m.) with a talk on the American southwest by Pat McCarrier. Tickets are $5.50, kids $3.50, at the door.
The Waterloo Dance Centre has the Humanities Theatre booked for a "Showcase" performance at 1:30 Sunday afternoon.
And Monday, it's back to class in the faculties that had all this week off. It's the final week of regular interviews for spring co-op jobs, and posting #1 for architecture students (whose placement schedule is shorter than the timetable for those in other faculties) will be available Monday at noon.
CAR
Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information
and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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