New podcast for students offers tips and advice on applying for higher education

Melinda Giampietro, founder of Vancouver’s education consulting agency Options Solutions, is the host of new podcast Admissions Office Canada.

Application season is officially open for universities. With deadlines rapidly approaching and questions on everything from navigating the litany of potential courses to deciding whether to stay close to home or travel further afield, it can mark a particularly stressful time for aspiring post-secondary students.

Melinda Giampietro, founder of Vancouver’s education consulting company Options Solutions, is hoping to ease the stress and streamline the process for students with new podcast Admissions Office Canada.

Funnelling over 30 years of educational consulting and secondary school teaching experience into the ten-episode series, Giampietro details what students and their families should know but may not easily be able to find about the application process.

“One of our big pushes was to have information that you can’t read on the internet. It was about discovering how to get really nuanced, insider information to more families for free,” said Giampietro, adding that the guidance is offered in a “non-intimidating, conversational way.”

With ten episodes already recorded and interviews with industry insiders conducted, Giampietro has traversed the likes of admission and enrollment processes at specific schools, information needed for picking up business, engineering, arts and science programs, and the options of schools in Canada - with a particular highlight on the smaller, lesser-known facilities.

There are “96 major universities in Canada, give or take” said Giampietro, and “many other smaller, post-secondary institutions that are generally overlooked.”

Of the courses that are typically the most sought after, Giampietro said business is becoming an increasingly competitive area, alongside commerce and engineering.

“The general public perceives business as having this skill set, this really tangible thing, that transitions into the world of work,” she said, while “engineering is popular because there is so much that can be done” with the degree.

The course that facilities have experienced the largest increase of interest in is data science, added Giampietro, with the health science faculty following quickly behind in terms of popularity.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, health has cemented itself in adolescent conversation in a way that it hadn’t had prior, she said.

“During the first two years of the pandemic we saw a huge increase of interest in nursing, health science and psychology, especially where it was combined with mental health.”

AI and the ever-changing technology landscape is also influencing students' decisions around what courses to choose - there are jobs now that may not exist in a decade.

“We really want students thinking about the end of their degree. What does that look like, and what will that world look like, and how do you best equip yourself with job or work experience to suit that?” she said.

To land upon such a decision, Giampietro advises students to think more broadly than just their high school curriculum.

“We encourage students to print out the institution's majors and minors, get a highlighter and black out anything that you know for sure you are not going to study. Then highlight things that are really interesting to you,” she said.

Giampietro doesn’t like the word ‘passion’, believing it to be “grossly overused and abused,” but she does recommend students thinking about what in life brings them joy. She uses the example of chess. Avid players will likely be strategic thinkers - how can that correlate to the world of work? If students enjoy listening to their friends' problems, what course can be investigated that involves the helping of others?

Navigating such decisions is undoubtedly stressful for students, said Giampietro, but she assures “almost everything in education is changeable.” Should a student begin on one path and realise that it’s not the right one for them, they can always make a shift further down the line.

Episode two of the podcast, found on the Options Solutions website, is out now and delves into the important information around how admissions decisions are made. The remaining episodes will be released week by week.