The Next Four: The Class Of 2025's Decisions, Early On

Photo Credit: Jonathan Hayward via The Canadian Press

Since the start of the school year, Hamber grads worked steadily on applications to their dream post-secondary programs. Accepted to their preferred institutions, some students have already committed to their plans to attend these schools.

When Julius Chen (12) was recently accepted into the University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Science, he decided to commit to the university to pursue its General Science program. Having also applied to Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the University of Victoria (UVic), UBC was his top choice among his options.

“I chose UBC because it is the number one university in British Columbia and one of the top universities in Canada. The campus environment and student life also played a big role in my decision,” said Chen.

UBC applications require a “Personal Profile,” consisting of questions answered by applicants in short essay format along with descriptions of their extracurriculars. Chen explained that his application process went rather smoothly and that “gathering all the necessary information and refining my responses took some time, but it wasn’t too bad.”

He expressed his excitement for the overall campus experience which includes meeting new people and trying different activities. Chen’s only concern was with adjusting to and managing a university-level course load.

Shayan Sabet Jorshari (12) has committed to the same school and faculty after receiving his acceptance. Having only applied to UBC and Langara College, he chose UBC because of its close proximity. The program he looks forward to attending will help him pursue pharmaceuticals in the future. 

“It was pretty hard to think of things to talk about since the questions are really vague,” Jorshari said when asked about the application process. “Once I created a little outline for myself, it was pretty easy.” Similar to Chen, he looks forward to the various clubs and new people he will meet, but is nervous about the difficulty of academic classes.

There are still many grads who await decisions from their dream schools. Zachary Lukan (12), who is pursuing computer science after high school, has been accepted into UVic and the University of Alberta (UofA) but wishes to attend the University of Toronto (UofT). Lukan described his application process to the school similarly to UBC’s, requiring essays but being “very straightforward.”

For Lukan, U of T is the best school for his field of study. He would also look forward to participating in intramural hockey, using the facilities to do weightlifting, and exploring Toronto.

“I would most likely go to the University of Victoria or the University of Alberta since they have already accepted me and try to transfer to UBC or UofT for my second year, if it would be viable,” said Lukan, when explaining his plans if he does not receive an admission offer.

Similar to Lukan, Olivia Lindsay (12) awaits a response to her UBC application despite admission offers from other Canadian institutions. However, after visiting the University of Calgary, she is considering accepting her offer from the school.

“I went to the University of Calgary’s open house and seeing everything the campus had to offer, especially with sports, made me rethink where I want to go,” said Lindsay. Although she does not plan to continue sports post-secondary, she explained that students are allowed free access to watch games and can pay small prices to rent certain areas for sports.

Lindsay recalled having a similar experience with the UBC application; she also took a while when writing and revising her applications. However, with Calgary, she “ran into some issues with creating an account to report marks,” though it was quickly resolved after asking someone working in admissions for help. Although she is nervous about many things in university, such as finding friends and the larger classroom sizes, she is “pretty sure it will work out.”

Like many students who have applied to top American institutions, Daniel Choi (12) wishes to attend school abroad in the United States but is waiting to hear back from his top two choices — Princeton University and Duke University — sometime in late March to early April. Although he hopes to attend Princeton for its innovative physics community and research on dark matter, he anticipates acceptance into Duke’s prestigious physics program. “It's hard to say where I can get into [...] Princeton is a high reach, Duke is a reach.” 

With an admission offer to UBC Engineering, he expressed his wishes to possibly continue thin film exfoliation at UBC’s Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute in relation to his research into superconductors. “I want to contribute, hopefully make some breakthroughs and maybe create superconductors that can actually be used in the public and help build levitating trains,” Choi said.