[kanishka]

Helllloooo prospective first year ENGINEERS! Are you ready for University life? Yes? Then here is an amazing opportunity to ace your first year at McMaster University.

LEAP- The Learning Enrichment Advancement Program at Mac gives you the opportunity to reduce your first year’s course load by a total of 6 units!! Yes, you heard me right! LEAP runs for 6 weeks during the months of July and August during which you can opt to complete two courses from 1st year Engineering- Engineer 1P03 ( Intro to Professional Engineering) and Engineer 1C03 (Engineering Design and Graphics). Alternatively you could also opt for 1 course which runs for 3 weeks.

Although I should let you know the good and the bad side of opting for this program.

The GOOD:

You save lots and lots of time - These two courses are the most time-intensive courses in first year Engineering. Engineer 1C03 is a 1 term course by the end of which you have to do a small project. Whereas Engineer 1P03 is a two term course which includes a bigger project in term 2.

The BAD:

The Grades that you get on these two courses aren’t counted towards your GPA. You only get advanced credits for these courses. Now, why this is bad is because even though more than half the Engineers find these two courses boring, they end up getting a better mark in them when compared to math or physics. Personally, I had one of the highest marks in these two courses. But again, if you do take these courses in summer, you get more time to concentrate on other subjects such as Math, Physics, Programming, etc where you can do much better and bring your GPA up otherwise.

I wasn’t aware of LEAP before coming to Mac and before some of my friends who enrolled in LEAP told me about it. If I did know about it, I would surely go for it. I could clearly see the difference in my course load and my friends’ course load. They had more time to concentrate upon courses which were worth more such as math and programming.

Finally, I highly recommend LEAP to you. If you have any further questions regarding the program, please visit http://leap.mcmaster.ca/headstart2010.html

If anyone has any questions about it, feel free to ask me. I did LEAP and Headstart in 2008 and I'm working a counsellor this summer, so I should be able to answer any questions you might have.

I did Headstart last year and I absolutely loved it. Even though the residence option is expensive, it was definately worth it, tons of fun.

What I liked:
-I got to experience University before first year.
-I met some really great people who became close friends.
-I got to laugh at people pulling all nighters for 1P03 and 1C03 projects right before exam time during the year (trust me, this was a big upside)
-I pulled up some extra less time consuming electives instead which upped my average
-Even though you have to take a LEAP stream in the afternoon, this can be fun if u pick a good one. Highly recomend the Bio.

What wasn't so great:
-These are actual University courses, you work for these six weeks
-Because these courses, especially 1P03, are crammed into three weeks, the assignment come very quickly, one right after the other, and you don't have much more than a night or two to do them.
-Pulling an all nighter to finish the 1P03 report, and then having to present it the next day.

Overall though, if I could go back and do first year again, would definately do headstart again,