Hello My Friends
I thinking about applying to this program. I want to work in oil & gas industry as a geophysicist. Does anyone have information about the Integrated Petroleum Geoscience program at the University of Alberta? If you are a graduate - please provide information if you so please. Please, please me.
Does this program have an internship incorporated into the program? Do a high proportion of students end up working in Oil & gas? Any information is helpful.
You should post this on https://yconic.com/school/university-of-alberta you will get a response there.
Anyone?
I am a Graduate of the IPG program at the U of A.
This is my take on the program - Both the course material and quality of professors is very good (imo). However, the program fails to actually get its graduates into the industry, which (correct me if I am wrong) is the primary reason students enroll in a program which is advertised as an industry program, is it not?
Oil & gas companies hire through student internships and not through graduate positions meaning once you graduate it is extremely difficult to get into a company without an internship as a student. Out of a class of approximately 24 students, only 3 IPG Graduates gained internships - leaving the remaining 21 with no internship or access to these companies. We did graduate in 2015 when the Oil & Gas prices collapsed; However, there has since been no effort from the IPG program to get its graduates in contact with industry or companies. Many of my classmates have moved onto other fields - Some as geologists in other industries while others changed careers altogether.
I personally would not take this program again if I could go back in time. If there is another oil downturn odds are you will be left behind and the program director will make no effort to connect his graduates with industry despite advertising the opposite to prospective students. The only effort the program director made during the downturn was to increase enrollment rates which makes no logical sense when the graduation class before, only 3/24 students obtained internships.
The director of the program is more concerned about fancy and exagerated marketing to maintain enrollment rates rather than the success of his graduates. You are better off taking actual MSc research masters as it will give you more time to apply for internships (2-3 years rather than 1) and more time to network