Looking Back At My Journey At McGill University After Graduating!

I officially graduated in Fall 2022 and I was invited to the Spring 2023 convocation. I wanted to share my experience going through it in this post. 

Applying To The 4 Most Prestigious Canadian Universities

The Christmas period of 2016 was both very exciting and stressful, because I knew I had to apply to universities. In my mind, my life trajectory was clear: get a Bachelor’s degree in Canada, get a masters and a PhD in Japan with a scholarship, travel a bit with whatever money I could scrounge around, get a prestigious job at any governmental research institution, get married have kids in another country and live happily ever and after. I spent the whole month of December just thinking about it and surfing over the Internet about any kind of content related to student life and university programs. I looked over some Ivy League schools in USA and then I quickly went nope… when I saw that for one semester over there it would cost more than 20 000 USD$ !!

Starting in January of 2017, during my final semester of CEGEP, I then applied to the four most prestigious universities of Canada at the time into the following programs of studies:

  1. University of Toronto
    • 1st choice: Materials Engineering
    • 2nd choice: Mathematical and Physical Sciences
  2. McMaster University
    • 1st choice: Engineering I Materials Engineering
  3. University of Waterloo
    • 1st choice: Nanotechnology Engineering (CO-OP)
    • 2nd choice: Honours Physical Sciences Regular
  4. McGill University
    • 1st choice: Material Engineering
    • Physics, Math & Earth Sciences

The application processes were quite hectic for the first three universities. I had to fill out very long online forms with all kinds of background information, send all of my academic transcripts from high school by mail, perform long video call interviews, write essays, send my CV and complete short online exams. I applied to all of them simultaneously and it took about three months to complete everything and to deliver by post mail my paperwork. Unlike the others, McGill University’s application process only consisted of filling an online form and sending academic transcripts. I was so excited at the time and I made timelines with plans on studying and having international experiences.

How Much Did It Cost To Apply To All Four?

The following is a breakdown of the costs for all of them in my case specifically:

  1. Registering on the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre: 530 $
  2. University of Toronto Application Fee: 60$
  3. McMaster University Application Fee: 50$
  4. University of Waterloo Application Fee: 60$
  5. McGill University Application Fee: around 120$

Total : 820$ 😭

Letters

In the end, the responses were the following:

  1. University of Toronto
    • 1st choice: Materials Engineering – REJECTED
    • 2nd choice: Mathematical and Physical Science – ACCEPTED
  2. McMaster University
    • 1st choice: Engineering I Materials Engineering – REJECTED
  3. University of Waterloo
    • 1st choice: Nanotechnology Engineering (CO-OP) – REJECTED
    • 2nd choice: Honours Physical Sciences Regular – ACCEPTED
  4. McGill University
    • 1st choice: Material Engineering – ACCEPTED
    • Physics, Math & Earth Sciences – REJECTED

I was very nervous, because I got accepted by McGill University much earlier than the other ones. The offer’s deadline for accepting or declining was quickly approaching while I still did not get answers back from the other ones. Once I told the news to my mother, I remember back then she wanted me to stick to McGill University, because she could not afford for me to move out to a different city. Therefore, I decided to accept McGill University’s offer one week before the deadline despite not receiving anything back from the others. One week later after accepting it, that’s when I received rejections letters from all the rest. Imagine if I declined my first choice offer from McGill University only to learn one week later that I got rejected from ALL of my first choices for the other three! That would have been a heartbreaking moment, because none of the second choices were programs that I even wanted to study into. I found it very disrespectful from them to take that much time to review candidate profiles leaving us with no time window to choose between universities 😠! Nonetheless, I was still glad I got into my first choice and from then on, I attended all of the info sessions to get ready for my first university semester 📖.

The Orientation Week

Before the start of the semester, I attended every orientation events and activities during two full weeks. It was so fun and I got to play a lot of games and meet students that I am still good friends with. I remember getting an email saying that I had to take a mandatory exam. The most iconic event of the orientation week is Frosh. I attended the Fish Frosh which was organized by the McGill Christian Club instead of my Faculty’s.

Fish Frosh Orientation Amazing Group!

After all of that, I knew that things would get really serious with a full-time semester of hardcore courses that I have been warned about would be intense. People so diverse and from so many cultures, it was wild to be around them.

First Year (Sept. 2017 Until Aug. 2018)

My first ever semester was both exciting and stressful. I will always remember the first ever class I attended was called Communication in Engineering. I met a few people who I played badminton with on Fridays. I tried my best to build relationships and to join every student clubs I could. However, my classes took over most of my time and I could not really participate seriously in any of them. I was very overwhelmed with the course load and especially with the exams. I found it soo difficult when I realized that course lectures, assignments and laboratories had nothing to do with exams. I was also not used to learning at such a fast pace. For a full-time semester of engineering courses, if you fall behind on anything including understanding ongoing concepts in only one class, it will be very difficult to catch up successfully. It will not be impossible to pass the class, but your odds of scoring a high grade and completing the rest of the semester smoothly decreases by a lot! Luckily, I survived my first two semesters without failing a single class. In the meantime, I also started applying for engineering internships domestically and internationally starting exactly in November 2017. Although I started applying for scholarships at the end of my high school without getting any, I resumed it also at that point, because I really wanted to study and work in other countries. Every day, I applied to every job and scholarship possible I could find online. I was very relentless and I tracked every single messages and job descriptions for each of them and I subscribed to get email notifications for new ones on dozens of online platforms. Fast forward to a couple months later, I took four full-time summer classes and I decided to look for jobs near campus to cover rent for a potential appartment closer to the university. That summer semester was brutal ,because I went through four classes condensed into two and a half months instead of four. I decided to sign up for some full-time martial arts classes just to have some fun on the side. I did Kung Fu and Taekwondo classes three times a week each. As a sidenote, I tried pursuing a girl in one my Taekwondo classes, but she began to ignore me after I asked her out the first time and she completely stopped talking to me ever since 😥. I would encounter her in the hallway on some random occasions, but she ignored me every time. On the other hand, I also participated in a few Bible study sessions from the Christian Club in groups and we would often hang out afterwards. I also tried to pursue another girl from that group, but she also ended up ignoring me so that was another awkward instance 😓. In the meantime, I was looking for apartments and domestic jobs nearby without much success. I sent out exactly 100 job applications within two months and none of them returned to me with offers. Similarly, I called around and visited 50 apartments I could rent, but none had rooms available for me. I almost failed all of the four summer classes I took, because I was quite burned out back then and they were really tough. However, just one week, before the start of the semester, I landed a job as a Kiosk helper during the upcoming orientation week. I got that job through sheer luck, because I literally had no prior relevant job experiences aside from working in a factory. At the same time, I saw very randomly an advertisement of a small place to rent. I called the landlord and she showed it to me which was very small room in a basement with no windows, only one air mattress, a small closet and a small desk with a tilted chair. It was very filthy and the kitchen stove and fridge were broken. The bathroom was very filthy and filled with lots of mold with a toilet that could not flush. I only used the shower and I had to do my other business back on school campus. In short, it was not the ideal place, but it was ridiculously cheap (around 200 $ per month) and I was desperate to live closer to campus. With the monthly hours of work they gave me, I was able to cover the rent and other living expenses in the city while saving about 30 $ every month. I was living extremely cheaply, I never ate out and I never spent unnecessarily.

Second Year (Sept. 2018 Until Aug. 2019)

My entire second year was spent living in that small room. It was the first time I truly moved out of my parent’s house with some occasional weekends trips back. I went to church on Sundays while working out at the calisthenic park next to where I stayed. I had a hard time during that period, because I was very stressed with the job and scholarship hunt. Specifically with my program curriculum, I had to secure a engineering internship by the summer of the following year. It has been a year since I applied and I still never received any offers nor interview requests back. Meanwhile, my courses were becoming tougher and quite frankly uninteresting. I kinda lost the joy of learning and the classes were just plain boring. I was more excited at the thought of traveling internationally and learning other cultures. I struggled a lot with managing full-time studies with part-time work as an administrative assistant and with some extracurricular activities with the Christian club. I became very easily distracted and just bluntly very depressed. I lost motivation in trying to get good grades and I just wanted to pass my courses without much care for learning. Months went by and still nothing back from any of the stuff that I applied to while I noticed other classmates secure job offers and international scholarships. Interestingly, because I was desperately searching online how to travel cheaply, while at work, I read about people who could make a living from blogging and travel through it. I remember vividly being so inspired by these people, because they all struggled with money like I was (and still do) and yet, they could make a living while traveling with it. However, I was still skeptical, because the Internet was filled with a lot of fake content targeting people with little funds. I was scared of getting scammed, because I was so desperate and vulnerable to fall for it. So I kinda ignored it while focusing on what was real in front of me which was what my advisors and other students were doing. I really regret not giving it a try back then. It would have costed me 80$ and all I had to do was write. I was laid off from my part-time work in May 2019 so I agreed with my landlord to not pay rent for the summer and come back in September for the following school year. I also failed my first class ever in my life with an F on my transcript. That summer, because I could not land any internship, I told my parents if we could travel back to Madagascar. They agreed and we spent one month and a half back there. I HATED it, because most of the time, my father screamed at me and humiliated me in front of everybody. My family back there was very narcissistic and they keep pretending like it was normal behaviour even though they would not like to be treated that way. They constantly wanted to talk to me as if it was obvious I should have done some normal stuff like going out even though they could not understand the verbal abuse I was living in. I came back from the trip and surprisingly, I was contacted by my previous employer if I could fulfill the same job during orientation week as I did the year prior. Of course, I accepted, because that could cover a portion of my upcoming rent for the small space. At the same time, they kept me at the job for only one more month, before they decided to lay me off again.

Third Year (Sept. 2019 Until Aug. 2020)

Once again through sheer luck and relentless applications, I found another part-time job as an assistant at the beginning of my third year. I was so glad, because even though I had some savings to cover the rent for a few months, this could help contribute towards it a little more. I felt again depressed during most of my semester getting no responses from job applications sent and from the trip I was constantly abused verbally. I reached the peak of my jobs and scholarships hunt hustle . I signed up for dance classes four times a week. During that fall semester, I failed two classes again, because I felt so bummed out.

Fast forward to March 2020, the COVID19 pandemic happened and I will always remember how I left the appartment on time. My part-time job ended one week before it was announced and before the first reported case. I packed all of my stuff and left the apartment ONE day, before everything went into quarantine. I did well not to renew my lease for another year, because all of my classes were given online from that point on. I saw an advertisement of an internships one of the professors wanted to give. I signed up for it, because I had no choice, it was part of my program and because I could not get any outside of it. I worked in it for about a month until I realized that something was wrong about it. They essentially pretended like it was paid even though it was not. I argued for days with the head of the department and the situation really turned ugly. I was able to convince them to release me from the course without any failing grade and that was the end of it. I spent the rest of my summer doing outdoor activities, reading books and watching some more self-help content.

Fourth Year (Sept. 2020 Until Aug. 2021)

This time, everything was still online so I did not need to . It was a fun semester, because I got to understand how to study in those kinds of circumstances. I kept applying for engineering internships, but I had the idea of taking on a part-time job too. So I applied to become a tutor at Montreal Confucius School and in January of 2021, they hired to me as a tutor for kids and teenagers. I was so glad I got a job amidst all of the circumstances and despite not finding anything else. While working part-time, I had what I thought back then would be my final semester of courses. I would be studying full-time during the day and then tutoring on nights and weekends. The schedule was not hard to manage, because it was all online so I could attend my university classes on Zoom and then just straight away get ready for tutoring while staying on Zoom. It was so flexible that I could very easily teach in-between classes or whenever I had breaks. It was not like I had to attend a class in-person in one of the buildings on the university campus and then have to travel somewhere else to tutor kids and repeat that throughout the day traveling back and forth hectically. It was so convenient and honestly very fun! I really believe that every student could juggle both perfectly in those circumstances, because it was not like I was grinding like hell to handle both. I was not stressed at all and I felt grateful to have this extracurricular formal part-time occupation. Taking on a job as a tutor allowed to share my knowledge and I felt glad whenever I would help kids learn difficult concepts. I tutored in Mathematics, French, Public Speaking, English, etc. It also allowed me to reinforce my knowledge in all of those fields so I liked that. I kept applying for jobs, but less aggressively. I failed another class that I failed previously with an F, because I did not study well for it. I could not find any by May 2021, so I decided to work as tutor for more hours. I was working during the weekdays and on weekends while sending out more applications. I was also reading books, writing personal essays, watching a lot of self-help videos or entrepreneurship related content. I did not launch anything nor start anything, but I wrote essays on my Google Docs and they were all private. I would talk to advisors about entrepreneurship ideas not knowing that writing was the idea I should have pursued all along. Once again, I regret not having started this blog immediately then while I was writing. Just publishing articles while studying and working part-time Urghhh!!!

That year could have been a turning point for me, because I thought of quitting the internship program of my degree and just graduate if I could not find any jobs by September 2021.

Fifth Year (Sept. 2021 Until Dec 2022)

I got my very first internship by the end of September 2021 by pure luck. I worked as a metallurgical lab technician and I performed experiments and examined some of their metal samples.

Long story short, I got fired from it and it was definitely not what I expected. In December 2021, I examined all of my options and the only one that really made sense was to return to school, because I could not find any other jobs following that one. So I came back to school and I took extra classes even though I had enough credits to graduate. I decided that since I completed one internship course already out of the three, why not just finish them all? So once again, I applied and cold called relentlessly companies around where I lived to look for one. Luckily in May 2022, I was able to secure a job as an on-site technician for a construction company. It was a great experience, but only for three months. Beyond that, I don’t think I have ever worked as hard as I did back then at a job ever since working at the factory while HATING it. The schedule was brutal and the job was very draining. I did not really like the people I had to deal with on many occasions so that also felt terrible.

On-site work stations

I worked there for four months although I would say three would have been enough. I really had to force myself to work for the remaining month, but I would not have been able to continue that way. I would not recommend anyone to take that job unless it was temporary like in my case. It was GREAT for traveling around the area and to learn something outside of my degree, but after some time, it becomes mentally and physically too exhausting.

Although I stopped applying for internships, once again, I found one luckily before quitting the internship program of my degree. I was hired to work in the research and development and operations departments. It was really fun and I got to learn so much during my time there. I spent my time both on-site and in the lab which really helped bridge the gap between research and development and operations.

The Team

It was definitely the best experience out of the other two that I did by a large margin and a great way to end my degree.

Graduation Ceremony (June 2023)

My faculty’s convocation was held on June 1st. Upon arrival, I walked around to strike up some conversations with two fellow classmates. I had an amazing time being there and I took some pictures of the experience.

The weather was luckily very good and sunny although a little hot. The best lesson I learned from the speakers was that we may choose a defined path or define one for ourselves. That statement definitely hit hard on me the most, because the whole point of this blog is exactly that.  At the end of it all, we were asked to stand up and receive the audience’s applause which gave me goosebumps. I was proud that all of the hard work will someday enable my future children to be proud of their lives. I went around taking pictures next to the iconic Arts building and with another friend I met at my previous internship. 

Total credits: 154

Number of assignments submitted:

Numbers of midterms taken:

Number of final exams taken:

Number of group projects:

Total courses: 42

Total failed courses (and re-taken with a passing grade): 3 courses of 3 credits

A huge thank you to my mother who always dreamed of studying at a university, but couldn’t in Madagascar due to financial struggles and who always wanted to see someone from her family succeed at it. For her to see me graduate from one of the most prestigious university in a country that she never thought she would be able to be in was surreal.

The Next Chapter

My university experience was just a giant roller coaster of emotions. It demanded lots of mental fortitude and I remember asking for help from classmates, TAs and professors for every single course. From my struggle to finding internships to getting fired, I came out of it a wiser and more determined person than when I entered . My 16-year old self that applied to universities with big plans of traveling and living abroad could not have foreseen such turn of events. I had to think impossibly hard, because science problems were really abstract and I spent countless hours just trying very hard to understand them, remember them and never be swayed away from the goal. At the same time, I feel like I know roughly enough where I am heading in my life. I sorted all of my school stuff from high school all the way to the end of university into four boxes and they are now stored in the basement of my parents’ house should I ever want to look back at my work.

Thank you McGill University for that journey and to all the people that I have met and enjoyed spending time with! 🎓🏫 

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