I would like to transfer into electrical or mechanical engineering at UWO (Western). I’m applying to transfer into general first year to improve my chances.
I’m currently in my 2nd year of biomedical engineering at another Canadian university.
Demographics: I don’t think this matters in Canada. However, I’m a white male Canadian citizen. I’m the first in my family to go to university.
High School: Did well in high school. Had a 95+ average all 4 years (95 final year). Won numerous subject achievement awards. Won the 90+ average award all 4 years.
Extracurriculars: Throughout high school I was in an international languages program. Finished the program with a 96 average and won student of the year. Aside from that I did some volunteering in the community and did some extracurricular classes.
I’ll be doing an engineering internship over the summer. This is guaranteed.
University: Did poorly in 1st year. Finished with a 70 average and dropped 3 classes (dropped classes don’t show up on transcript). My poor performance was due to some extenuating circumstances.
Doing well in 2nd year, however I purposefully only took easy classes + classes I dropped to improve my average. Average for 2nd year alone should be in the high 80s to 90s for both fall and winter semester. I expect my overall average to improve to a mid to high 70 by the end of fall semester and to a low 80 by the end of winter semester.
Extenuating Circumstances: I did poorly in 1st year due to some extenuating circumstances. I’ll discuss these in a form submitted with my application. Basically, my breadwinner parent had to leave his job due to a disability. This caused my family to become low income. The stress and frustration resulting from the financial and domestic issues stemming from my father’s disability created a very toxic environment at home. In time my mom decided to divorce my dad. As of now legal proceedings are taking place to finalize the divorce. My father’s disability is neurological in nature and thus in addition to his physical abilities, his mental abilities are rapidly deteriorating.
Additional Information: I plan to apply to transfer towards the end of fall semester. I’m pretty committed to transferring so if I don’t succeed this year I’ll just apply again next year.