Hi Wannabe...
I'm a UWO grad and I recently wrote this for a guy who had questions regarding the program on the avcanada forum. Maybe it will help you as well.
"I'm glad you're interested in the UWO program and I think you'll get a lot out of it.
In any case, I may not be the best person to tell you about admission averages now-a-days, because it's been quite a long time since I had to worry about those. My best advice is to contact Prof. Keith Fleming (519 661-2051 x82051 or
[email protected]) with any questions you may have in that regard, as the BMOS and CAM programs are sorta his baby.
What I can tell you, is that your first year will be a riot. Now granted, you won't be flying, but trust me - it will actually help you in the long run. The first year is designed to get you used to university life. Almost everyone I know lost at least 10% on their averages from high school, so you will have your hands full just trying to keep up. On top of that, add all the good times that come with living in rez (I'm sure by now you've at least heard of Saugeen) and you probably won't remember much come summertime. Just be careful that you don't have too much fun or you won't make it into second year at all! In my year, we started with roughly 50 students and by 2nd year we were down to 25. Although it has probably changed by now, all you needed was a 60% to continue to year 2.
Year 2 is probably the hardest year of them all. Not only do you have a full course load, but now you must add your flying schedule as well. You will usually have 3 to 4 flight bookings a week, although the law of averages says at least half will be cancelled for weather. The reason that the workload is so hard here is that very few of your courses at school will work towards your Private Licence. This is because you can do the university courses without the flying and it has to be able to stand on its own. In a nutshell, you will find that the work load at least doubles year 2.
From there it's a piece of cake. Ok - well maybe not easy, but it will seem like it's getting better. By my 4th year, I was able to take on a 20 hr/wk part-time job on top of flying and school. You will find that by this time, fewer and fewer people will be droping/failing out of the course.
With respect for the quality of the flight training, it really is top notch. Empire will work you hard and expect you to perform your best. As a former flight instructor myself, I know this is not something you can get just anywhere. It may not be something you can put on a resume, but you will most definitely be a better pilot for it. I HIGHLY suggest going for a tour of Empire's facilities before you agree to anything. Contact Empire's General Manager Bill Welsh at 514.455.3020 and he can tell you all you need to know about Empire and how it operates.
I'm not aware if it's advertised, but CAM grads also have a great reputation in the industry and do very well for themselves. Just off the top of my head I can think of 3 Air Canada Jazz Managers, 2 Successful Cathy Pacific Cadet Program Candidates, 1 Ops Manager for a Northern Air Operator, 1 Jet First Officer, 1 Turbo-Prop FO, Many Single Engine Pilots doing all sorts of jobs, Several Military Recruits, 1 Masters student down at Empry Riddle in Daytona Beach, 1 student studying law (specifically aviation law), several guys working ramps and Tones of Instructors working at Empire and all over the country ... and those are only the grads I can remember. I also know that Old Empire Instructors have gone on to work at companies like Trasport Canada, Air Miksew, Voyageur, Nav Canada, Air Sprint, Flightexec and Wasaya. Not bad for a program with only 4 sets of grads!
Alright - Well that's about all I have to say about that. If you have any other questions, feel free to send them my way and I hope this helped you out. "
Mist