Education Canada/USA

IBM course in Centennial College

2010-02-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

I am from Delhi and I did my Engg in Electronics from Pune and having a work exp of 3.5 yrs as a Software Engineer in HSBCSoftware Development India, Pune with a 6month work exp in canada in 2008.Currently, I planned to come for IBM course in Centennial for May Intake.What would you suggest me for the same?

I have applied for IBM(2859) course in Centennial college for May2010 Intake .It would be great, if you could pls advise on this course how good is it doing from Centennial and how about the 4months Internship and Job prospect thereon in IBM?, thanks!!

Answer:

You must have gone through my blog post, where I have already mentioned about the differences in years of work permit you get if you do one year course and two year course. So, if you have not read it yet, please go and read it in detail.

The IBM course that you are inquiring about is according to me an average course for a person like you with such a good profile. I would rather advise you to go for master degree in computer science and management so that opportunities will be more when you graduate. The reason why I am saying so is:

First, the course is mostly designed for individuals who have difficulty to get admission into universities. So the level of education is different compared to university and so does the opportunity level once you are finished with it.

Second, you will be restricted to one year work permit, whereas a master course will get you three years work permit, which is enough for you to settle here and get permanent resident status. I know many students who have worked in Canada for one year after IBM course but had way too much difficulty in extending their work permit. The reason is the employer would not extend your work permit due to lots of paperwork and difficulties involved. On the other hand, with three years of work permit after doing masters course, you don’t need any employer for up to 3 years for extending your work permit.

If you have a Bcom or other Arts undergraduate degree, I would recommend you to go for centennial college IBM course. But since you have engineering degree and good work experience, you should opt for master course. The only drawback to entering university is the tuition fee. But instead of enrolling to college twice in order to extend your stay and pay college tuition fee twice and getting nothing out of it. It is better to get a solid and valuable masters degree. The reason I am saying so is because, I have seen many students taking admission in one year pg diploma course, then working for one year and again going back to student visa. This is all done in order to maintain legal immigrant status in this country and with a hope of getting eligible for permanent resident status.

Talking about the IBM course, it is a very good course as it promises internship and students are placed in internship for real. But they also charge good amount of internship tuition fee which cannot be ignored. But let me warn you, this year centennial and other Canadian colleges have increased their intake capacities for international students. As a result they have introduced three or four intakes a year, am not sure of the exact number. When I entered centennial college for PG diploma in marketing management in May intake, I only had 5 students in my class. You might be facing a different scenario, you will have good amount of students. The reason I am emphasising on this is, if the intake of students increases, the college will be placing more students in internship program, which might become competitive. The assurance of internship might go down. The students who studied in intake of 2006 and 2007 of IBM course did secured internships of 4 months. Only a very few of them got opportunity to continue at the same company while others had to look for a new employer.

The best intake for college admissions is fall intake, September. Most of college events and information sessions happen during this period only.

The job prospects after doing IBM course is not as bright as compared to computer engineering degree. You already have this background, better look for studying further related to the same field. If you are looking for a mix of management and computer science, opt for such master degree in university. It would be beneficial, valuable and easy for further legal status into this country, if you are aiming for permanent residency.

If I have missed anything, let me know through comment.

Best of luck.

MBA-ISP BROCK UNIVERSITY

2010-02-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

This is Shadab here from India. I wanted to know about Brock MBA ISP programme, how an mba from Brock would help me in advancing my career and other info about St Catharines and living there.
I did Bachelors in Business Management (Finance) after my graduation I was recruited by JP Morgan for the investment banking operations division worked there for 2 yrs then moved back to Kolkata in 2009 and joined my family business and currently looking for MBA admission.
Regards,
Shadab

Hi Shadab,

First let me talk about the MBA program at BROCK University.

POLICIES

Before taking admission into any university it is very important as an international student to be aware of the policies and fee structure. So I strongly recommend you to read the student graduate and co-op handbook for MBA-ISP students. Try to read in detail about the academic and fee policies.

Some of the important points that I would like to highlight is,

You are required to acquire 70 % in order to pass any course in MBA-ISP program
If you score below passing 70 % in more than 2 courses, you would require to retake a course and one course fee is $2000
If you score in more than 3 courses below 70 %, you would be sent to undergrad for one year, taking more courses, which would cost around $10,000 (as informed by students who already went to undergrad for one year)
In order to qualify for co-op, you need to maintain 75 %, if you fail to maintain the score, you will be removed from co-op without any refund of money.
You will be paying for two insurances, twice: UHIP -$746 and GRAD DENTAL AND HEALTH PLAN – $368

Total = (746+368) x2=$2,228

The snapshot does not include fees like dental and health plan.

CLASS COMPOSITION

Since, it is international MBA program, you class composition will include students from foreign countries. You would not be studying with local Canadian students. So be prepared to expect Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Russians, Iranians, Saudi Arabians (Middle East), in your class.

It is questionable, that why they don’t disclose the class composition as other universities do on their website.

In 2008, MBA class had 43 enrolments, but in 2009, enrolment went up to approximately 90 students.

ST. CATHARINES AND LIVING EXPENSES

One of the positive aspects about living in St Catharines is it is cheaper than big cities like Toronto. Your monthly rent would range from 400-550 dollars (sharing basis). Moreover, bus fee is cheaper which is already paid along with your tuition fees. The negative aspect of living in St Catharines is there are not much local jobs for student. On the other hand, students in Toronto easily find part-time job to earn their living expenses by doing odd jobs. Campus jobs are there, but limited international students successfully get into it.

CO-OP PLACEMENTS

The co-op placement for 2008 batch was around 10. So overall you can say around 15 percent students get co-op job. It depends on your ability and hard work to be in that 15 percent. Whereas other universities give mandatory internships or co-op with fees included in tuition fees.

It is again questionable, that why Brock University does not disclose the total co-op placement as other universities do on their website.

YOUR PROFILE

Since you have already done BBA and have 2 years of work experience, you would have better chances of finding job. However, I cannot assure on whether it would be up to your satisfaction or not. Also, since there is high flow of International students in Canada (due to liberal visa requirements), the job market will be extremely competitive for new international graduates. The supply is very high compared to low demand of work force. Majority (could be about 70%) international students don't get job in the relevant field of their degree or education.

I would advise you to go for finance specialisation as it has more opportunities and demand. Also, be sure that you need to pass few examinations like CMA and CFA in order to practise as professional. Do your own research about related certifications for professional accountants and finance professionals.

If you are ready for GMAT and could acquire good score of 550 or above, I would recommend looking for more alternatives. There are more reputed universities, where you will have more international exposure by studying with local Canadian students. Don’t just fall for what your consultant recommends. Make your own decisions by making good judgement.

Best of luck

Thanks for reading, Please Comment and I will get back to you.

NOTE: CURRENTLY THE LINK TO STUDENT GRADUATE HANDBOOK IS BROKEN. KEEP CHECKING IF IT IS FIXED LATER OR REQUEST THEM TO SEND A LINK.

Admission Requirements of Canadian Colleges

2010-01-18T19:46:00.000-08:00

Question

How r u? I m interested in PG biotech & pharmacy technician in centennial colg.. Plz tell me req. For admission in centennial.. IELTS Band? Graduation percentage? Fees? N which intake better? N tell abt rule rules for parttime job..? N Abt off campus job? Waiting for reply..

Can i do over work during part time job?? How much doller/hr they pay? N during illegal over work? N how many days vacation after sem. End??

Answer

Admission Requirements

It is very easy to get admission in Canadian Colleges compared to Canadian Universities.

· For most of the courses they need IELTS band of 6 or more.
· Graduation marks requirement is pretty liberal. A good percentage of 50 percent or above will get you admission in most of Canadian Colleges. During my application process, I did realised that the admission requirements for Seneca college was little higher than Centennial College.
· The fees ranges from $10,000 to $16,000 for most of the courses in Post graduate diploma courses (for students who has already graduated or done 3 years of college studies).
The best intake to go for is fall intake (September intake). The reasons are many. The most important reason is you will have good class strength in your course, which will help you in networking. Such networks will help you further in accommodation search, job search and community activities. The other reason is, most of the cultural or academic functions/activities organised by student unions or college happens during this period. Such activities are usually missed by students who go for summer or winter intake.
For part-time job on-campus, you need to be full time registered student at the college, plus you should also have good standings (GPA score) in you enrolled courses.
For off-campus part-time job, you need to be full time student for atleast 6 months period, and then only you are eligible to work off-campus for 20 hours a week.
You will have vacation of 2 weeks in between semesters. Usually it will not be more than 20 days. If it is Christmas time, you might end up getting 25 days or more of vacation.
You can work for more hours during you off-campus work permit, but that would be illegal. The only way it is usually done by students is to work on cash jobs. Such cash jobs pay you less that legal minimum wage. Such cash jobs can fetch you some around $5 to $6 per hour.

If you are interested in doing Pharmacy Technician course, the fee would range in 17,000 around for 2 semesters. If you want to gain idea about the job market in fields of biotech and pharmacy, check websites like

-www.workopolis.com

-www.monster.ca

-www.jobbank.gc.ca

This are the most popular websites for job postings and job search in Canada.

The big employers for pharmacy technician are shoppers drug mart, Wal-Mart pharmacy. You can also look onto their websites for job postings and pay scales.

Here are some of the links that would be useful for more detailed information

http://www.centennialcollege.ca/adx/aspx/adxGetMedia.aspx?DocID=2247

http://www.centennialcollege.ca/Programs/ProgramOverview.aspx?Calendar=2010-2011&Program=3622

http://www.centennialcollege.ca/Programs/ProgramOverview.aspx?Calendar=2010-2011&Program=3621

Thanks for reading, Please Comment and I will get back to you.

Canada Jobs in Health Care

2009-12-15T05:58:00.000-08:00

Mr. Gupta
Hi.
tell me about the part time jobs there.
its easily available there like in store factories like these jobs.and tell me if i will complete my 2 years of masters than i will get the visa for how many years.
plz tell me what about the the professional jobs if i will complete 2years prog. in hospital management or health care management.its easy to get the job there.
plz tell me what is the approximate fee for masters in indian currency.
i am a bams doctor(bachelor in ayurvedic medicines and sciences).this a bachelor degree after completion of this degrre i get the govertment job.and last from the 3years i m in govt.job. my age is 27years. may i get the pr of canada if i donot have the job there.plz suggest me.

Answer

Part time Jobs

Part-time jobs during the course of study are easy to get either on-campus or off-campus. The pay would be better if you do part-time job on-campus (10$ per hour) and also would be eligible to work legally. If you plan to do job off-campus, then you can only do it after 6 months of study or if you have genuine employer letter. Therefore, it is easy to work on-campus while you are enrolled as full-time student.

If you are looking to do job off-campus, initially for 6 months you have to do cash jobs (usually 5$ to $6 per hour). It would depend on your contacts to find such jobs. Since Canada is very easy on student visa this year, there are bulks of students coming to Canada; hence it will get very badly competitive later.

Health Care Management studies and Jobs

Since you have done bachelors in ayurveda, the prospects are narrow in Canada. Alternate medicine is less practised in Canada. So you have to change the stream of study. The options that you can opt for are nursing courses, pharmacy technician, medical assistant, Emergency services and so on. Look into the link just to get an idea of types of program offered

http://www.centennialcollege.ca/healthstudies

In Canada you can choose to study either in college or university. Full masters’ courses of 2 years are available only in universities, whereas colleges have 15 or 18 months courses (post graduate diplomas). If you ask me personally, I would recommend doing a university degree, as it has more good prospects in future and recognised higher by most employers.
However, the fees are drastically different for both institutions. For example
PG diploma in Marketing of 12 months at centennial college = $11,000
Masters in Marketing /Business Administration at Brock University = $ 35,000
A university fee goes high as you will be an international student. Same applies to college fees too. For university you can opt for masters in hospital management.

If your interests are solely towards getting PR then definitely I would advise to get admission in college and not university.
The reasons are you would be eligible for PR due to work experience and age. Also you will have additional points from spouse profile. Go to this website and take a self-test for points.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/assess/index.asp
By the time you are enrolled for any medical course in college, prepare all documents for your PR within 6 months time and apply in Canada. (Be sure to have birth certificate, police clearance, IELTS-general , bank certificate of $10,000 and other important documents ready) You will also be eligible for one year OPEN work permit of one year if you do 12 months college course and 3 years open work permit if you do 24 months course. So by the time you are on work permit, you should be through with PR process.
Your wife will get visa equivalent to years of visa you have. The only difference is that she has to apply on her own for work permit. I would advise to apply for her visa once you have already stayed in Canada for one year.
If you have more questions, leave a comment here.
Good Luck

Guess member sale for Canada and USA (50-60% off)

2009-11-24T16:57:00.001-08:00

I am die hard loyal customer of GUESS, but i wonder why the discount rates are different for customers in Canada and USA. Is it that they look at customers differently?Aren't all customers equal or Is it due to currency exchange rate(but we pay equivalent of US rates in Canadian dollars)? Is it because its an American brand?

Well I personally don't like seeing this difference in promotions or I would say better promotions for US customers and so so for Canadians. Let me know what you think about it????

Source: Guess.ca, Guess.com

Thanks for reading, Please Comment and I will get back to you.

Canada Admissions

2009-11-15T09:16:00.000-08:00

Question

Prasanth

i hav already got visa for centennial college but its for a diploma
and i want to apply for a masters degree in brock
one consultant has told me that he wud process the admission for jan2010 intake for ms in cs
and i wanna knw how wud be the univ and parttimes,
costliving etc.,

Answer

If you are serious about doing master course, I would suggest to wait for the admission and not to go for diploma course. But admission fees are high for master compared to diploma course. Any diploma course in Canada would range from 9,000 to 15,000 $.

One of the advantage of doing Master course is you will be eligible for 3 years open work permit, whereas after diploma you get 1 year open work permit. It would be very easy to apply for immigration as permanent resident with 3 years of work experience or permit.

On average the cost of living can range from $10,000 to $12,000 depending on living lifestyle of the student. In Canada, a student is allowed to do off-campus job only after 6 months of study period, however student can do on-campus job right away. In Brock University, finding on-campus job is easy and there are many choices to choose from.

Brock university is well known for accounting courses, but i there are some Indian students coming for computer courses too. In computer field it really does not matter from where you are doing the course as far as the university is authentic. So i don't see any reason for looking for rankings of the university for computer science course. It mostly depends on your ability of working hard on programming and networking exercises, resources at university are abundant.

If you have any more comments or questions, post a comment here and I will reply through my email response.

Best of Luck

Thanks for reading, Please Comment and I will get back to you.

Pharmacy in canada

2009-11-11T09:50:00.000-08:00

Question

Javed Patel Hi..i m in last year b.pharm in parul phmcy..i wanna to come in canada..what the scopes for me there? Give me some guidance..for PG..job..

Answer

pharmacy job scopes are amazing in canada. normal job easily earns pharmacist more than 25 dollar per hour. If financing is the issue, u can take course of pharmacy assistant and start working within a year and later go for your 2 year pg. opportunities are good in both field. For pharmacy assistant course u can take admission in any college-centennial college is good, and for pg apply to any university

best of luck

Javed Patel
Hi..Thanks for such a help..What are requirements of immigration office? Means..IELTS band..Or any other type.. How much fees for above courses..?

Answer

6.5 to 7 is considered good for admissions and immigration. For canada you only need IELTS and GRE if college asks for your master course

Thanks for reading, Please Comment and I will get back to you.

Brock University

2009-10-10T22:54:00.000-07:00

Question

mam i wanted some help from .actually i will be applying to brock univ. for sep2010.
so just wanted to know that how is the univ in comparison to other univ in canada??
I've checked in other forums there they say its an average univ but since u r a student there then u knw the best.

Hi Rishabh,

First of all I would like to know your GMAT score in order to suggest you where Brock University stands in terms of ranking because MBA ISP course does not require GMAT so it would be not fair to rate it in terms of ranking compared to other universities. As you would have already done lot of research on Canadian Universities for MBA, you would be surprised to know that there are not many universities in Canada offering MBA and to be precise a Very Few conducts MBA without GMAT. So far i have heard of roughly 3 universities offering mba without gmat. Those are; Vancouver Island University, Brock University and University Canada west.

It is good university in terms of infrastructure and facilities but yes average compared to University of Toronto or York University. Even some professors are good in MBA ISP course. But if you have GMAT above 550 and seeking for admission. I would say you should apply to other universities too. Brock recently started MBA program and does not have too much recognition in the market compared to other universities like ryerson,uft,york and many more. But one of the biggest plus point of mba course at brock is, it has AACSB International Accreditation which is prestigious for a mba course without GMAT requirement.

If you have any more questions, leave in a comment.

Best of Luck

Centennial College

2009-10-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

Question

hi this is sachin from Hyderabad ap, i got visa for centennial for computer systems &network technology... i found ur profile from...centenial community...can u tel me pls what the availability of jobs after course complition....how we get pr... never mind as i am scraping without know you.. ur reply is useful for me..

Hi Sachin,

As you know north america is having bad recession period. But you don't have to worry as by the time you are done with the course, the economy will most probably improve. Also you are doing computer science course which has good prospects and an added benefit at any point of time. So i don't feel you will have any trouble finding a job. So far my friends whoever were in IT or Computer field have successfully got job. Moreover, choosing Canada is a good choice, as Canadian government encourages students to stay back and work here. Moreover they also has Special Permanent Residency (PR) for International students who have taken education here for more than a year.

Remember that you need to be eligible for the PR. There is a point system on the Canadian embassy website where you can check whether you are eligible or not. Once you acquire 67 points you can apply for PR.

Centennial College is good choice for starting education here in Canada and adjusting to the atmosphere first. Try to work on-campus and take advantage of possible opportunities by contacting the international office. When i was studying there, Miss Maggie was in charge at international office and she was very friendly and helpful. If you have any more questions, let me know.

Best of luck

Thanks for reading, Please Comment and I will get back to you.