By Patrick Longchamps
Police foundations, practical nursing and broadcasting television were among the most popular programs reviewed by visitors at the Algonquin College’s open house Jan. 18.
The Robert C. Gillett Student Commons building held many booths for different programs as a place for people to gather and explore their desired courses within the school. The police foundations program was one that drew in a lot of interest.
“Out of the thousands of applicants to police foundations only around eight hundred get in,” said Nick Brynaert, a second year police foundations student representing his program at the open house. “There are a lot of people who are getting turned away at the doors of the presentation upstairs, due to overflow.”
There were presentations followed by guided tours that had to be done every few hours to meet the demand of how many people were interested in the favored programs.
Some who were interested in these courses had often travelled long distances to attend the open house. Cole Riley came from about 3 hours away because he was interested in practical nursing.
“I’ve gone to other open houses in search for a school that would suit my needs and have found that the Algonquin program seems to be the best,” said Riley.
Nathan Groves had researched all the police foundations programs near where he lives in Montreal. Comparing all the information he gathered, he found that the employment rate after graduation at Algonquin is higher than anywhere else he’s looked into.
The popularity of certain programs was based on the impressive technology that they offered. Dylan Froude’s program of choice, broadcasting television appealed to him because of all the technology featured during the tour of the studio. Combined with, the cheaper tuition and the quality of the open house was why Algonquin beat out Ryerson University for Froude.
All the other booths, even those among the attractive programs said that the police foundations program had the largest amount of people interested in it.
“They were really stealing our thunder,” said Amber Lindsay a student representative of the veterinary technician program while looking over at the large crowd huddled around the emergency services booth.