Film - Extracurricular Quality Development - Engineering at University of Toronto

Engineering essay

Hello, any and all feedback is welcome! I tried to write a more personalized response, but I have no idea how the essay comes off.

Reflecting on the activities that you have described above, what qualities do you believe that you have developed through your participation in these activities? How do you think they may have helped to prepare you for U of T Engineering? Feel free to comment on how your community engagement may have been different than expected as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.(250 words or less)

Film is fundamentally a team sport. Like engineering, no one person can plan, create and complete a project individually, and no famous director has led a team of just themselves.

During the height of COVID-19, I picked up the camera out of boredom, and started making small skits and videos. By the end of the year, I had reached the quality limit of what one alone could possibly do.

Due to a great burning passion and a want to create something more than me, a few friends and I grouped together to start Trudeau Filmmaking, a club dedicated to collaborative film production. Teamwork and leadership are at the core of every step in the process, from planning to post-production. In many of the films we produced, I guided and directed new members through the filmmaking process, communicating effectively with the various teams of our club.

Great teamwork results in success, as I have learned from my various video editing roles and hackathons. Whether it's producing an advertisement video from scratch within a week, or assembling hardware and code into a project as quickly as possible, having cooperation and communication skills are necessary to get the job done.

Like with film, I believe success in engineering can only be derived from effective leadership and productive teamwork. I know that skills that I gained through my extracurriculars will help me succeed not just in my studies UofT Engineering, but in any challenge thrown my way.

Expand on the area of filmmaking under Covid -19 conditions. Did you create animated skits due to interaction restrictions? When you reached the end of what you could do alone, did you do remote collaborative film development? How did these restricted activities prepare you to attend U of T Engineering? The writing instructions specifically ask for this specific presentation in the statement. While it is touched upon further development is needed to meet the Covid-19 environment.

Show that you are truly prepped to attend the college by creating a clear connection of these activities with the university expectations of their students. Yes, leadership and teamwork are qualities of a good engineer but these are commonly referred to traits of the applicants. There may also be other filmmakers applying to U of T Engineering. So what would make you different from them? Using these information, make yourself standout using special and uncommon traits developed by the situation and activities.

This is a good response but it fails to make you shine as an applicant for admission. It does not really have any memorable and highlightable mentions.