Admission Advices_University of British Columbia (UBC)
University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada
A. Why UBC?
Top two reasons:
1. UBC is one of the world's top 25 universities, providing excellence in teaching and research (among the top 15 Life Sciences Universities in the world). [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/life-sciences.html]
2. Vancouver is one of the most attractive cities in the world. (One of the most attractive places for Hollywood filmmakers!)
B. Application & admission
Steps:
1. Explore the graduate program of your interest to find the program specific admission requirements, application deadline & application process. You will also get information about funding and the research area of prospective supervisors. [http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/graduate-degree-programs]
2. If your meet the requirements, submit an online application form. For some departments, you have to complete pre-application first.
3. Send your supporting documents (check the website of specific program for the document list and address).
What happens after that?
1. Once your application package is complete, it is reviewed by the admission committee/ prospective supervisors.
2. If you fulfill all the requirements and at least one of the supervisors agrees to supervise you, the Department will ask the Faculty of Graduate Studies to officially approve your admission!
C. General information:
1. Degrees Requirements
Master's Program:
A four-year Bachelor's Degree or a Master's degree
Doctoral degree program:
Bachelor's degree + Master's degree + M.Phil. Degree
Note- 1: Though the above requirements are given in the UBC website (https://www.grad.ubc.ca/country/bangladesh) for Bangladeshi students, only Bachelor's degree is sufficient to get admission in Master's Program and Master's degree fulfills the requirment to get admission in PhD program in most of the Departmets/Faculties including Engineering and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Before you apply to the life sciences programs (except Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences), I would suggest you to enquire about this requirement to the respective programs.
[My suggestions for the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences applicants :
# Students with B.Pharm- Apply for M.Pharm
# Students with M.Pharm- You have two options now-
♦ Living cost per year: $10,500-$12,000 (single). ~$15,000.00 (couple) [Vancouver is one of the most expensive cities in North America.]
6. Funding
Most of the Departments offer $17,000.00-$21,000.00 per year as a guaranteed fund for the MSc/PhD students, which may come from Research Assistantship/Teaching Assistantship. Some of the Departments offer extra money for TAship.
7. Scholarship
There are several scholarship opportunities for outstanding international graduate students like affiliated fellowship (MSc/PhD), 4 year doctoral fellowship (PhD) etc.
Amount: Total income will be around $25,000.00
Note: It’s very difficult to get a scholarship here at UBC. Only top 1-2% students at UBC get scholarships.
8. Language requirements (IELTS/ TOEFL/GRE)
IELTS
A minimum overall band score of 6.5 (7.0 for Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences) is required with a minimum score of 6.0 in each component of the academic (NOT general) IELTS test.
TOEFL
A minimum TOEFL score required for all applicants to the Faculty of Graduate Studies is 80 (different program may have different requirements).
GRE
Some programs require GRE score. Check the specific program’s website for the requirements.
9. Pre-application:
You need to complete an online pre-application as a preliminary step of your application process in certain Departments (e.g., Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences).
Your pre-application package is usually distributed among the potential supervisors who are interested to take one or more students in their lab. Sometimes your research interest (whatever you mentioned in your statement of interest in the pre-application) will determine which professor will get access to your application package.
If at least one of the supervisors shows interest about you, you will be asked to apply online and send all the documents.
Then your complete application package will be distributed among the interested supervisors. Individual supervisor will then contact all the candidates he is interested in by e-mail. Most of the time applicants are screened through a series of e-mail and oral interviews over phone.
10. Managing supervisor:
For your admission in most of the Departments, at least one of the supervisors must agree to supervise you during your graduate study (MSc / PhD). However, most of the time, you will not be able to manage a supervisor directly by e-mailing them. In fact, they will choose you depending on your pre-application/application materials after you complete your application process.
However, before you start your pre-application/application process (for the program where there is no pre-application), you can e-mail the supervisors with your CV mentioning that you are interested about their research and want to pursue graduate study under their supervision. They may reply positively and ask you to complete your application process. But it doesn’t guarantee your admission. On the other hand, if you don’t get any positive reply from any of the supervisors prior to your pre-application, it doesn’t mean that you have less chance to get admission. In both of the cases, just go ahead and complete the application.
11. Will it make any difference if you are a Permanent resident?
Regarding admission, it will not make any difference in most of the cases. 25% of the graduate students at UBC are international students. UBC values diversity and for that, it offers a partial tuition scholarship to every international graduate student to make the tuition fee equal to that of a Canadian citizen/PR. That’s why, supervisors don’t hesitate to take a qualified international student. The only benefit that a PR can get is to apply for some Government scholarships after they get admission.
Some recommended Departments for bio-science students:
1. http://www.pharmacy.ubc.ca/programs/degree-programs/MSc-PhD/prospective-students
2. http://www.biochem.ubc.ca/graduate/index.html
3. http://www.spph.ubc.ca/PhD-Program.htm
4. http://www.bioinformatics.ubc.ca/program/
5. http://www.ubcdom.com/Exp-Med/
Other important websites:
1. http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/application-process
2. http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/apply-online
3. http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/application-deadlines
4. http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/gre-or-other-required-tests
(Originally written by Mynol Islam PhD student, University of British Columbia)
This document is written for “Prospective Bangladeshi Students in Canadian Universities” (PBSCU) Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/BSAAC/). Anybody wishes to use the document must refer the original writer’s name and also the name of the group.
A. Why UBC?
Top two reasons:
1. UBC is one of the world's top 25 universities, providing excellence in teaching and research (among the top 15 Life Sciences Universities in the world). [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/life-sciences.html]
2. Vancouver is one of the most attractive cities in the world. (One of the most attractive places for Hollywood filmmakers!)
B. Application & admission
Steps:
1. Explore the graduate program of your interest to find the program specific admission requirements, application deadline & application process. You will also get information about funding and the research area of prospective supervisors. [http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/graduate-degree-programs]
2. If your meet the requirements, submit an online application form. For some departments, you have to complete pre-application first.
3. Send your supporting documents (check the website of specific program for the document list and address).
What happens after that?
1. Once your application package is complete, it is reviewed by the admission committee/ prospective supervisors.
2. If you fulfill all the requirements and at least one of the supervisors agrees to supervise you, the Department will ask the Faculty of Graduate Studies to officially approve your admission!
C. General information:
1. Degrees Requirements
Master's Program:
A four-year Bachelor's Degree or a Master's degree
Doctoral degree program:
Bachelor's degree + Master's degree + M.Phil. Degree
Note- 1: Though the above requirements are given in the UBC website (https://www.grad.ubc.ca/country/bangladesh) for Bangladeshi students, only Bachelor's degree is sufficient to get admission in Master's Program and Master's degree fulfills the requirment to get admission in PhD program in most of the Departmets/Faculties including Engineering and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Before you apply to the life sciences programs (except Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences), I would suggest you to enquire about this requirement to the respective programs.
[My suggestions for the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences applicants :
# Students with B.Pharm- Apply for M.Pharm
# Students with M.Pharm- You have two options now-
i) Apply for M.Pharm
Advantages:
-You can get excellent opportunity to know the professor and to decide whether you like him/lab environment/research. If you think you want to continue research in the same lab, you can always transfer to PhD after 1 year.
-I haven't seen any difference in total number of years required for completing PhD for the students who directly got admitted to PhD program or transferred to PhD from masters after 1 to 1.5 year (on average, PhD requires around 5.5 years here in this Faculty)
-PhD is a huge commitment. You will get chance to know yourself and decide whether you are really suitable for this (or, interested in it).
-You will get chance to take more courses than the PhD students without any extra cost which will give you a great understanding about the teaching system in North America
Disadvantages:
-Need to achieve good grades (> 80 %) in the theory courses here (believe me, most of the courses are not like BD courses).
-You have to prove yourself to the professor as a good candidate for PhD (it's challenging but feels great when you are successful!)
ii) Apply for PhD
Advantages:
-Dont need to care much regarding the good grades, however you will not get any scholarship (so, no extra money!) if you don't achieve good grades.
Disadvantages:
-If you find that you dont like the research area or supervisor's behaviour, you dont have much options.
**There is no way to say that success rate of being accepted will be increased if you apply for Master's instead of PhD. It depends on individual professor (no one can comment on this) & somehow, your luck. If you apply for PhD and one professor likes your qualifications but doesn't want to offer you PhD admission now, he may ask you to come as a Master's student first and than transfer to PhD after 1 year.]
Note-2: For MA.Sc., M. Pharm. and M.Eng., a Bachelor's degree is enough.
Electrical and Computer Engineering:
http://www.ece.ubc.ca/admissions/graduate/minimum-requirements
http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/graduate-degree-programs/master-of-applied-science-electrical-computer-engineering
Civil Engineering:
http://www.engineering.ubc.ca/prospective_students/graduate/admissionrequirements.php?page=ajaxswitch.php&content=mengmasc
Mechanical Engineering:
http://mech.ubc.ca/graduate-students/applications-and-admissions/how-to-apply/#step1
General English Requirements:
http://www.engineering.ubc.ca/prospective_students/graduate/admissionrequirements.php?page=ajaxswitch.php&content=english
2. Grade requirement:
First Class/Division (No information is given for the students of Bangladesh who have results in CGPA. If your result is in CGPA format, contact the graduate secretary/ admission officer of specific Department to find out the minimum grade requirements. However, I think B+/3.3 out of 4/ 76% marks will be considered to be the minimum requirement).
3. Application fee: no application fee is required for Bangladeshi students.
4. Application deadline: Most of the Department enroll students in September & January session. Check specific Department’s homepage for specific date.
5. Cost:
For MSc/PhD students:
♦ Tuition /program cost: $7,490.88/year (all Bangladeshi students will get $3,200.00 as a partial tuition award).
Advantages:
-You can get excellent opportunity to know the professor and to decide whether you like him/lab environment/research. If you think you want to continue research in the same lab, you can always transfer to PhD after 1 year.
-I haven't seen any difference in total number of years required for completing PhD for the students who directly got admitted to PhD program or transferred to PhD from masters after 1 to 1.5 year (on average, PhD requires around 5.5 years here in this Faculty)
-PhD is a huge commitment. You will get chance to know yourself and decide whether you are really suitable for this (or, interested in it).
-You will get chance to take more courses than the PhD students without any extra cost which will give you a great understanding about the teaching system in North America
Disadvantages:
-Need to achieve good grades (> 80 %) in the theory courses here (believe me, most of the courses are not like BD courses).
-You have to prove yourself to the professor as a good candidate for PhD (it's challenging but feels great when you are successful!)
ii) Apply for PhD
Advantages:
-Dont need to care much regarding the good grades, however you will not get any scholarship (so, no extra money!) if you don't achieve good grades.
Disadvantages:
-If you find that you dont like the research area or supervisor's behaviour, you dont have much options.
**There is no way to say that success rate of being accepted will be increased if you apply for Master's instead of PhD. It depends on individual professor (no one can comment on this) & somehow, your luck. If you apply for PhD and one professor likes your qualifications but doesn't want to offer you PhD admission now, he may ask you to come as a Master's student first and than transfer to PhD after 1 year.]
Note-2: For MA.Sc., M. Pharm. and M.Eng., a Bachelor's degree is enough.
Electrical and Computer Engineering:
http://www.ece.ubc.ca/admissions/graduate/minimum-requirements
http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/graduate-degree-programs/master-of-applied-science-electrical-computer-engineering
Civil Engineering:
http://www.engineering.ubc.ca/prospective_students/graduate/admissionrequirements.php?page=ajaxswitch.php&content=mengmasc
Mechanical Engineering:
http://mech.ubc.ca/graduate-students/applications-and-admissions/how-to-apply/#step1
General English Requirements:
http://www.engineering.ubc.ca/prospective_students/graduate/admissionrequirements.php?page=ajaxswitch.php&content=english
2. Grade requirement:
First Class/Division (No information is given for the students of Bangladesh who have results in CGPA. If your result is in CGPA format, contact the graduate secretary/ admission officer of specific Department to find out the minimum grade requirements. However, I think B+/3.3 out of 4/ 76% marks will be considered to be the minimum requirement).
3. Application fee: no application fee is required for Bangladeshi students.
4. Application deadline: Most of the Department enroll students in September & January session. Check specific Department’s homepage for specific date.
5. Cost:
For MSc/PhD students:
♦ Tuition /program cost: $7,490.88/year (all Bangladeshi students will get $3,200.00 as a partial tuition award).
♦ Living cost per year: $10,500-$12,000 (single). ~$15,000.00 (couple) [Vancouver is one of the most expensive cities in North America.]
6. Funding
Most of the Departments offer $17,000.00-$21,000.00 per year as a guaranteed fund for the MSc/PhD students, which may come from Research Assistantship/Teaching Assistantship. Some of the Departments offer extra money for TAship.
7. Scholarship
There are several scholarship opportunities for outstanding international graduate students like affiliated fellowship (MSc/PhD), 4 year doctoral fellowship (PhD) etc.
Amount: Total income will be around $25,000.00
Note: It’s very difficult to get a scholarship here at UBC. Only top 1-2% students at UBC get scholarships.
8. Language requirements (IELTS/ TOEFL/GRE)
IELTS
A minimum overall band score of 6.5 (7.0 for Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences) is required with a minimum score of 6.0 in each component of the academic (NOT general) IELTS test.
TOEFL
A minimum TOEFL score required for all applicants to the Faculty of Graduate Studies is 80 (different program may have different requirements).
GRE
Some programs require GRE score. Check the specific program’s website for the requirements.
9. Pre-application:
You need to complete an online pre-application as a preliminary step of your application process in certain Departments (e.g., Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences).
Your pre-application package is usually distributed among the potential supervisors who are interested to take one or more students in their lab. Sometimes your research interest (whatever you mentioned in your statement of interest in the pre-application) will determine which professor will get access to your application package.
If at least one of the supervisors shows interest about you, you will be asked to apply online and send all the documents.
Then your complete application package will be distributed among the interested supervisors. Individual supervisor will then contact all the candidates he is interested in by e-mail. Most of the time applicants are screened through a series of e-mail and oral interviews over phone.
10. Managing supervisor:
For your admission in most of the Departments, at least one of the supervisors must agree to supervise you during your graduate study (MSc / PhD). However, most of the time, you will not be able to manage a supervisor directly by e-mailing them. In fact, they will choose you depending on your pre-application/application materials after you complete your application process.
However, before you start your pre-application/application process (for the program where there is no pre-application), you can e-mail the supervisors with your CV mentioning that you are interested about their research and want to pursue graduate study under their supervision. They may reply positively and ask you to complete your application process. But it doesn’t guarantee your admission. On the other hand, if you don’t get any positive reply from any of the supervisors prior to your pre-application, it doesn’t mean that you have less chance to get admission. In both of the cases, just go ahead and complete the application.
11. Will it make any difference if you are a Permanent resident?
Regarding admission, it will not make any difference in most of the cases. 25% of the graduate students at UBC are international students. UBC values diversity and for that, it offers a partial tuition scholarship to every international graduate student to make the tuition fee equal to that of a Canadian citizen/PR. That’s why, supervisors don’t hesitate to take a qualified international student. The only benefit that a PR can get is to apply for some Government scholarships after they get admission.
Some recommended Departments for bio-science students:
1. http://www.pharmacy.ubc.ca/programs/degree-programs/MSc-PhD/prospective-students
2. http://www.biochem.ubc.ca/graduate/index.html
3. http://www.spph.ubc.ca/PhD-Program.htm
4. http://www.bioinformatics.ubc.ca/program/
5. http://www.ubcdom.com/Exp-Med/
Other important websites:
1. http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/application-process
2. http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/apply-online
3. http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/application-deadlines
4. http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/gre-or-other-required-tests
(Originally written by Mynol Islam PhD student, University of British Columbia)
This document is written for “Prospective Bangladeshi Students in Canadian Universities” (PBSCU) Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/BSAAC/). Anybody wishes to use the document must refer the original writer’s name and also the name of the group.
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