Why should applying to university be complicated?

Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC takes the approach that whenever possible, admissions should not be a mind-numbing process, and GPA should be used to reward students, not keep them out of university.

Students applying to TRU don’t go through two doors; admission is directly to their program of choice. While some programs do use a selective admissions process, because of heavy demand for limited space – Nursing and Animal Health Technology being the two most noteworthy – most other programs use an “open” or a “limited” admissions process.

Students applying to any university should be sure they understand which admissions process they are dealing with. A ‘selective’ process, common for admission to many first-year university degrees, requires specific courses and minimum GPA’s, but depending on how many students the program admits, you could be out of luck if the GPA cut-off is raised above your average.

At TRU, admission to first-year  is “open” which means that students who want to attend university in a Bachelor of Arts, Science, Business or Tourism degree, are admissible with the basic requirements of Grade 12 graduation, English 12 (B) and Math.

Students are also expected to have other courses they need in Math and Sciences, and their GPA is used to grant Early Admission and higher registration priority, but if they are missing a course, or did poorly on a required course, they are still admissible and allowed to take a University Prep course to upgrade that subject while in first year university.

Most diploma programs at TRU use a “limited” admissions process, which means that as soon as you apply and then show you meet the specific course requirements, you are admitted, but only until the limited numbers of seats are full! Best advice – apply early.