The top 50 Universities in 2008 are published on October 9 in THE and they are listed below:
Archive for the 'SFU' Category
The morning rush hour deposits more than 14,000 students at the University of B.C. alone with a bus arriving about every 42 seconds. Add in Simon Fraser University, the B.C. Institute of Technology and Vancouver Community College, all with multiple campuses, and you have a flood of youngsters with bulky backpacks joining the morning commute.
Source: The Vancouver Sun
Coast Mountain was only able to make minor adjustments yesterday, putting on some extra buses from Production Way to Simon Fraser University and from Metrotown to Capilano University.
Source: The Vancouver Sun
But there were still passups, particularly on the No. 143 from Coquitlam to SFU, on the No. 25 from Brentwood to UBC and on the No. 44 from downtown to UBC.
Source: The Vancouver Sun
When you try to pay your tuition on http://go.sfu.ca/, it will not let you.
That’s Right! For those of you who are currently registered as an undergraduate student or are coming into Simon Fraser University, you will realize a message that says “We regret to inform you that effective September 1st, 2008, the University will no longer be accepting credit cards for tuition and ancillary fees.” on your enrollment appointment email.
Simon Fraser University is currently facing (estimated) $15 million deficit. This is because the Government of British Columbia put a maximum on how much universities can increase their tuitions by, which is 2%. Also, due to the inflation, the amount that the Government of British Columbia funded a few years ago is not as much as the amount funded now because they have not kept in pace with the inflation. The University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria are also in the same situation.
Currently, the University is spending too much money on Credit Card payments for tuition. When you pay by credit card anywhere, the credit card company (such as VISA or Mastercard) takes a percentage as processing fee. In this case, the credit card company is taking a percentage of your tuition to use as processing fee. The credit card company also charges the university for other fees. There are around 25,000 students at Simon Fraser University and if more than half of the students are taking more than 4 courses and are paying by credit card, then that would put the numbers in 7 figures).
In order to make up for the deficit, the University has decided to cut the credit card payment option for tuition (you can still use your credit card in the bookstore).
Not only are credit cards being removed from the University but tutorials, professor hours, amount of teaching assistants are being decreased. This is why Psychology doesn’t have anymore tutorial blocks.
Simon Fraser University is not the only university that is cutting the credit card processing feature. University of Alberta is doing it too [source] and they started on July 1, 2008.
If I remember correctly, a university in Alberta removed their credit card processing feature and a student paid their tuition at the school registrar using pennies.
This is bad news for those who are trying to get AirMiles 
.
Edit: I just received a message from Stephen Price from the Dean of Science office that “everyone still has the option of adding Simon Fraser University as a bill payee to their telephone or online banking account and paying that way (which is way better – no lines!).” He also provided a link for more information and that link can be reached here: http://students.sfu.ca/fees/howtopay/#tuition
These are the scheduled dates from Spring 2009 to Summer 2012. (including the newly introduced Reading Breaks). First and Last Day of School are labelled with green. No Schools are labelled with Red.
Spring 2009
- January 1 – New Years Day (No School)
- January 5 – Classes Start
- February 16-17 – Midterm Break (No Classes)
- April 6 – Last Day of Classes
- April 8 – Exams Start
- April 10-13 – Easter Weekend (No School)
- April 22 – Exams End
A lot of students (first years) have been asking me what to do after they have registered their courses. After you register for your courses, you need to buy your textbook. Your textbook should be available on MySFU (http://my.sfu.ca/). It should list your courses, books and the prices that they sell it for at the bookstore. You can buy them either online or at the bookstore.
From my past experiences, it is cheaper to buy your courses from 3rd parties (such as Chapters, Amazon). Just copy and paste your ISBC number to the amazon or chapters search box and see their price. Throughout the course of the last 3 semesters, I have saved a total of more than $400 from the listed price at MySFU.
Another thing that I would recommend is that if you are in the sciences or applied science, I would recommend you to get the Chapters iReward card. You get to save 10% on all books or textbooks that you buy from them. 10% is a lot when you are buying science or applied science textbook. The math textbook costs around $140. You get to save $14. That is only one course. If you were to buy textbooks for 4-6 courses, you would save around $60-$90, even though the membership price is $20.
After getting your textbooks, you will have to pay your tuition. If you are paying before August 31, you have the option of paying by credit card on the internet. If you do not wish to pay by credit card or you are paying after September 1, you will have to go to the Student Services Center in the Maggie Benson Center and pay your tuition there. You have the option of paying by Cash, Certified Cheque, or Debit Card (i think).
In the upcoming week, I will post why you cannot pay by credit card after September 1.
Many people have been asking me about significant dates at Simon Fraser University. Instead of telling people repeated, I have decided to make a blog post about it so anyone (not just the people who talk to me) can look at it. The below dates are for the fall semester only. I will post the Spring significant dates in November.
August
- 28/29 – Photo ID and upass for first years
September
- 01 – Labour Day – No School (Monday)
- 02 – First Day of School (Tuesday)
October
- 06 – Last day for undergraduates to drop courses except under special procedures applicable in extenuating circumstances
- 13 – Thanksgiving Day – No School (Monday)
November
- 11 – Remembrance Day – No School (Tuesday)
- 26 – Last day for undergraduates to drop courses under special procedures applicable in extenuating circumstances
December
- 01 – Last Day of Classes (Monday)
- 03 – Examination Period for Undergrads begin
- 15 – Examination Period for undergraduates end.
Total Number of School Days
- Monday – 12
- Tuesday – 12
- Wednesday – 13
- Thursday – 13
- Friday – 13
301,600 – Prime Minister of Canada
278,400 – Chief Justice of Canada
186,200 – Premier of British Columbia
163,040 – City of Toronto Mayor
140,000 – Member of Parliament
126,278 – City of Vancouver Mayor
117,950 – Governor General of Canada
98,000 – Member of Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
95,000 – Bachelor of Science Acturial Science
95,000 – Bachelor of Science Mathematics
95,000 – Bachelor of Science Statistics
80,000 – Bachelor of Engineering Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineering
73,000 – Bachelor of Engineering Electrical, Electronic Engineering
72,000 – Bachelor of Business Administration / Bachelor of Arts Economics
70,000 – Bachelor of Science Computer Science
70,000 – Bachelor of Business Administration Business Management
70,000 – Bachelor of Commerce
63,000 – Bachelor of Science Chemistry
58,000 – Bachelor of Science Physics
52,000 – Bachelor of Science Biology
51,000 – Bachelor of Arts Sociology
49,000 – Masters of Science Psychology
45,000 – Bachelor of Arts English
44,000 – Bachelor of Arts Philosophy
42,000 – Bachelor of Arts Fine Arts
40,000 – Bachelor of Arts Antropology
38,000 – Master of Arts in Music
21,000 – University of British Columbia AMS Executives (2007-2008)
18,000 – Simon Fraser University SFSS Executives (2007-2008)
All other Bachelor of Arts degrees are lower than 38,000 and will not be listed.
“Those earning the above-average incomes generally had degrees in applied fields: business, engineering, plus some sciences. The one constant seems to be a solid grasp of math.” – MacLeans
The above statistics are taken from a November edition of the MacLeans.
When you receive your marks at Simon Fraser University, it will say A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, or F.
If you receive an F, you will not receive credits for the course and it will hurt your GPA significantly if you are in your first two years. If you did not receive an F and still got credits, then you passed the course!
WQB
The Simon Fraser University requires all students to do something called the WQB. This WQB requires the student to take 6 credits worth of writing courses, 6 credits worth of quantative courses, 6 credits worth of Social Sciences Breadth courses, 6 credits worth of Science Breadth courses, and 6 credits worth of Humanity Breadth courses. Breadth courses only count if the courses are outside of your department. I will explain this later. In addition to the 30 credits mentioned already, students will also be required to take two additional courses outside of the student’s major program. The two additional courses does not need to be designated as breadth.
Students that are in the Faculty of Arts doing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Fine Arts are required to take 2 additional courses (14 courses in total as opposed to 12 courses).
Although I mentioned that students need to take 12 courses or 14 courses, this value may decrease. Say that you take Political Science 101 with Andrew Heard during the Spring semester, you will get 3 Social Science Breadth credits and 3 Writing credits. This allows you to “kill 2 birds with one stone”. Some students might look at the course schedule and see that COGS 100-3 gives you a B-Soc, B-Sci, and B-Hum course credit. Unfortunately, you can only pick one of those breadth to count.
I mentioned early that you will pass a course as long as you get a D. Although this is true, you will only receive WQB credits if and only if you get C- or higher in the course. Say that you and your friend gets D and C- respectively in Political Science 101, you will not get the WQB credits but your friend will.
Some friends have asked me why we need to do WQB. The answer is simple and it can be found off the Simon Fraser University website:
- A superior education, with greater applicability and relevance
- Our students will graduate as improved writers, with better quantitative reasoning skills and a greater breadth of knowledge.
- Better preparation for careers
- Many employers value writing and quantitative skills as well as depth of knowledge in disciplines.
- Better writing and quantitative abilities increase the probability of gaining admission to graduate schools (GREs) and professional schools (LSATs)
In the Faculty of Science, we are required to take courses that are from other departments. An example of this would be that a Biology major would be required to take CHEM 121 and CHEM 122. Currently, CHEM 121 has a B-Sci credit. Although your major requires you to take CHEM 121, you are still allowed to count your CHEM course as one of your B-Sci credits.
Prerequisites
Science courses are hard courses because they require you to think hard and will require you to understand the materials. In the Faculty of Science, we have something called a “minimum grade requirement”. With this minimum grade requirement, a grade of C- or better is required on all prerequisites. This means that if you want to take MATH 152 (Calculus II) and you only received a D in MATH 151 (Calculus I), then you may not take the course and you will have to retake MATH 151 if your program requires it.
Although the Faculty of Science has a “minimum grade requirement”, this does not apply to other faculties. The School of Engineering is in the Faculty of Applied Science and offers a course called Electric Circuits I (ENSC 220). ENSC 200 requires PHYS 121 and 131, MATH 232 and 310 as a pre-requisite. Although Physics and Mathematics are in the Faculty of Science, the minimum grade requirement does not apply. All you need in PHYS 121 and 131 is a D in order to get into the course.
MACM courses are a unit set of courses. MACM 101 (Discrete Mathematics I) is offered by the Faculty of Applied Science School of Computing Science and all other MACM courses are offered by the Faculty of Science Department of Mathematics. Since MACM 201 (Discrete Mathematics II) is offered by the Department of Mathematics, a grade of C- or greater is required. CMPT 275 (Software Engineering I) requires MACM 101 as a prerequisite but the course does not require a grade of C- or greater.
Retake
I mentioned early that you have to retake a course if your mark is not satisfactory. At Simon Fraser University, you can retake a maximum five courses in a normal degree program where you are only allowed to repeat a course once. If you need that limit to be raised, it can be raised at the descretion of the dean but your should see your academic advisor before applying.
Simon Fraser University will take a two-week break from classes in February 2010 to accommodate the Winter Olympics. The break from Feb. 15-26 was approved Monday by SFU’s Senate.
SFU officials noted transit services are expected to be hard-pressed to keep pace with Olympic demand and students could have trouble getting to classes. They said the time off will also give students, faculty and staff the chance to volunteer at the Games. The Winter Olympics run Feb. 12-28, 2010, followed by the 2010 Paralymic Games.
Some of my peers have asked me how to check for their marks on goSFU so I am going to post the instructions here:
- go to goSFU
- click on view my grades (beside your schedule)
- The Official Grade is your mark.
Information on calculating your grade point, grade point average, cum. grade point average and OAP (academic prohibition) can be found here.