Frankly, your son doesn't have "great marks" by University standards if he's forced to repeat courses. Computer Engineering might have loosened it's requirements, but it used to require a high school average somewhere in the 95-97% range: and repeated courses would definately count less than regular ones.

Well, I can speak from the knowledge that his marks on the two Math courses were in the fifties. So, yeah, he'll have to repeat the courses, and no, I'm not surprised that they want him to do so. Amusingly (or not, as it turned out), he was accepted at another university, in Computer Science. It was only when we went for the appointment with the Academic Advisor that they began backpedalling. His other computer related course marks are in the 80's and 90's. I think once he gets his Math marks up he'll be OK.

And thanks for mentioning the University of Waterloo, I know all about it .. I started there in 1976, took a year of Honours Math, then transferred to Systems Design Engineering. The joke in fourth year was that, if we were applying now, most of us wouldn't get accepted into the program we would shortly be graduating from. Apparently, York University and Ryerson University have different academic requirements for entrance -- Waterloo is, after all, known world-wide for its excellence in Engineering and Computer Science, among other areas.

A CS or Comp. Eng. degree isn't required to be a programmer. On the other hand, if he isn't showing signs of interest by now (like writing his own code on his own inititive), is he really that interested, or is he just trying to please his Dad?

Well, I wouldn't know about what his Dad feels about Computer Science -- I'm the Step-Dad. And the problem I'm trying to solve is, he's *not* doing it to please *anyone* -- he's not doing it all. And I do know guys who were very successful at CS without a degree in it -- one guy had a Geography degree and was making $85/hour doing software development in the late 80's, which I thought was pretty impressive.

What are his plans for the future?

He doesn't really have any. That's why I'm making an educated guess about .. guiding him into CS. We have to pick something, because I don't want him to lounge around at home for the next few years.

He doesn't really have any. That's why I'm making an educated guess about .. guiding him into CS. We have to pick something, because I don't want him to lounge around at home for the next few years.

Hmm... it sounds to me like he has to pick something. All you have to do is make him understand that you'll kick him out of the nest soon, and leave it up to him to take up flying lessons on his own... :-)

Good Luck! --
Ytrew

I went in engineering because you can get in there with no restriction. Everyone can subscribe and everyone is accepted. Well here in Quebec. The filtering is done while studying, those who can't follow leave by themselve. But computer science and any engineering program are still the easiest science program to get into.

And it is not because he does not show interest now that he does not like it. I started programming when I was 20. Before that, to me a computer was equivalent to Word and Internet I didn't even know how to scan for viruses. He just have to try it to know.

Hard programs to get into ??? Since when ?

Well, since the early 1990s. Things may have changed, as I did point out in my post. Like I said, you needed a 95%+ average to be accepted into Comp Eng back in 1991: my engineer friends were all griping about how they barely got in, or didn't get in, to Computer Engineering.

I consider requiring over 95% as a overall average for admission to a program to be a "hard program to get into". Maybe you're so smart that you don't. :-)