Importance of Awards

[user82829383831]

Hi everybody,

I was wondering if anyone knew how much emphasis UBC places on awards? I have the opportunity to be eligible for UBC's Trek Excellence Scholarship and based on past cutoffs and my own GPA last year (94.5%), definitely have a shot at receiving the award. However, I am currently in my fifth year and do not need to be taking 24 credits right now (which is how one must retain the award). Instead, I only planned on taking 17 credits and focusing on research, working a new job, maintaining my extracurriculars, as well as starting a few new ones to better strengthen my app. Realistically, I'm not sure how sane I'd be doing all of this while also taking 24 credits and trying to achieve stellar grades in all of my courses (just b/c most of my extracurriculars and job would involve me driving around from UBC around Vancouver, Richmond, and Surrey and commuting takes a big chunk of time + energy). 

I would love some input as I'm definitely a little overwhelmed and stressed with my options:

1. Register in 24 credits, have a new award to use next cycle, but miss out on the opportunity to be involved in some new extracurriculars - some of which I could only do this year (as they involve needing to be a UBC student and I'm graduating this year)

2. Lose my chance at receiving the award, but take on a new job and extracurriculars to strengthen my app?  

Help would definitely be appreciated!

[frenchpress]

All the other stuff you’re interested in doing sounds useful for your application. No one knows how much emphasis they put on awards, but I really don’t think it’s that much. And while I am sure having them will increase your score, I don’t know that the increase would be proportional to the amount of time/effort you’d have to put in to get that particular award. The cash is also a lot less than you’re likely to get from working part time! I’d wager that maintaining a high GPA and doing activities you enjoy to boost the rest of your app is likely an as good if not better strategy.