UNBC's best advice when searching for The Right School?

Work Backwards!

Whether we’re speaking with prospective or current students, one of the most useful pieces of advice to come from the student recruitment officers or academic advisors in the Student Recruitment and Academic Advising Centre at UNBC is: work backwards.

What interests you? What are your interests and passions? What would you like to pursue in college or university? What is your dream career? If you don't know yet, don't worry! You have time. Explore what engages you.

Where would you like to study? When you know what you want to study, you need to go where you can study it. Explore a few schools (learn about programs, courses, student activities, campus events and culture, and, if at all possible, visit them - some schools even have unique visit experiences for prospective students, like our Student For A Day program at UNBC), and narrow your scope.

What are the admission requirements? Once you've chosen your program and the school that best fits you, you need to know how to get in. Sometimes you can directly enter (usually non-competitive and non-professional programs), sometimes you can't (professional programs most often ?social work, education, medical, dental, veterinary, or optometry schools, for instance).

What do you need to do to get in? Some schools don't offer the program you want, but they can help you build the foundation to get there. UNBC, for example, does not offer a dentistry program, but we do offer the courses needed to build the academic requirements necessary for successful admission to your top dentistry school.

Use your resources! Meet with student recruitment officers. Recruiters know the ins and outs of the programs their institution offers, and they know how to help you to build requirements to get into programs their school don't offer.

It's not always easy, but it can be straight forward. Always start with your passions and active interests. After you've picked your career path (or area of interest), choose a school (or two, or three, or ten), check out their admission process, reach out and chat with someone (and/or visit), and apply!

For more information, please visit us online at unbc4u.unbc.ca or email us at unbc4u@unbc.ca.