Engineering, Architecture and Built Environment· Advanced level

Confirm the subjects first. Engineering applications are lost on a missing calculus or physics course more often than on grades.

In Canada, check each programme individually for its required Grade 12 mathematics, physics, chemistry and English courses. Applications go through the provincial system, with Ontario university applications made through the central application centre and colleges through a separate service.

In Ghana, confirm whether Elective Mathematics and Physics are required, and check the separate timetable for technical university HND admissions.

Architecture is different. Many programmes require a portfolio, and some run a separate submission or interview with its own earlier deadline. The portfolio usually wants evidence of drawing, observation and spatial thinking rather than finished buildings. Read the brief and follow it exactly.

The strongest engineering applications describe something the applicant designed, tested and got wrong.

Use your design brief. Say what the constraint was, what you calculated, what the test showed, and what you changed. One project described properly beats a list of clubs.

If a programme asks for a supplementary application or a recorded answer, treat it seriously and check its separate deadline.

For architecture, the portfolio should show observation and process: sketches from life, measured drawings, models, and the versions you rejected. Photograph work squarely and in good light, and follow the stated format exactly.

For referees, choose a mathematics, physics or technical teacher who supervised your project, ask early, and give them your brief.

Engineering and architecture carry costs beyond fees: drawing and modelling materials, a computer capable of running design software, field courses and site visits, safety boots and protective equipment, and travel to placements.

In Ghana, look at the government scholarship secretariat, district assembly support, institutional aid, the national students loan scheme, and sponsorship from employers in mining, construction, energy and telecoms, some of which support students in return for a commitment afterwards. Read those terms.

In Canada, look at provincial student aid, entrance awards, co-op earnings, and awards offered by professional associations and industry groups.

Ask each school directly what students are expected to buy in first year. Ask a current student too, because the official answer is usually incomplete.

Graduating is roughly halfway.

In Canada, becoming a professional engineer requires an accredited degree, a period of supervised engineering experience, and a professional practice examination, before registration with the provincial regulator. The title is protected, and the supervised experience must be signed off by someone already licensed, so your first job matters more than the salary alone. Architecture follows a similar shape: an accredited professional degree, a recorded internship period, examinations, and registration with the provincial architects body.

In Ghana, engineers register with the Engineering Council, and there is a national professional institution alongside it. Confirm the current requirements directly, and note that national service placements can count as useful early experience depending on where you are posted.

In year one, a graduate engineer mostly checks other people's work, produces drawings and reports, inspects, tests, and sits in meetings. You will not be signing anything off. That is deliberate, and it is the point of the supervised period.

Ask a mentor to review your application and your design brief, and to challenge one calculation until you either defend it or admit it was wrong.

Good backups keep you in the built environment. An engineering technology diploma or HND with a top-up route. Quantity surveying or construction management, which are less oversubscribed than they should be. Land surveying and geomatics. Architectural technology, which is a distinct qualification from architecture. Or a year of site or workshop work before reapplying with real experience.

Any of those puts you on site earlier, and time on site is not wasted preparation for an engineering degree.