The small things in uni life

I’m going to sound obsessed, but I was walking under a covered route to the commonsblock when I heard a rustling in the trees near me. Remembering my raccoons, I wondered how they were doing, when I realized there was one standing by where I’d just passed. If I’d walked sideways, I’d have bumped into its nose. Fortunately, I wasn’t walking in zig-zags like when I am incredibly tired.

So now not only have I seen a raccoon, I also managed to get really close to one without it going berserk on me.

Another thing that I really appreciate is my tuition for next term: the figure is a whopping $3.78 in total. It’s the biggest waste of a bank transfer ever, but I love it so much. Most of my tuition was paid off by a scholarship, and because I dropped a course I paid for this term, I think the fee got moved over to pay for next term or something.

Sadly, there are so few continuing scholarships so I won’t be able to enjoy this next year. A President’s Entrance Scholarship goes up to $4000 if you get 36 points on the IB or a 96% average in a B.C. high school, I think. You have to be in the top 5% of your faculty or school to qualify for a continuing scholarship, though, and I think that maximum is something like $1500. Every little bit helps, of course, but it really feels so little — personally, I think it’s much harder to be in the top 5% of your faculty or school (many of whom have also got scholarships as well) than to get a President’s Entrance Scholarship. It should be recognised as such.

Comparing UBC to Queen’s or UofT, both of which I applied to as well, it really isn’t very impressive on the scholarship front. Both those universities offered extensive — and I mean in the few-thousand figures — scholarships in the first year and in the following years, provided that I maintained an 80-something % average. Personally, I think it’s also easier to maintain an 80-something % average than to be in the top 5% of the Faculty of Arts here. Consider how many people there are and what the top 5% average must be — my guess is closer to 90-something % than 80. Although I don’t remember the figures for Queen’s, Toronto offered something like $4000 for my first year, and the college I applied to also offered $4000, bringing it to $8000 or so. Now that is an extremely attractive package and I wish UBC came a little closer in matching up.