“It’s just not fair,” says local BCIT computing student Joseph Harris. “One of the few sources of satisfaction I get from my time here at BCIT is the sense of superiority when I tell people that my program is objectively the hardest one—and it is.”
“I was at the library the other day, and I was walking around waiting for somebody to claim that they were struggling with their workload. It happens a lot. Every time they did, I’d say ‘Amateurs…’ kind of under my breath, but loud enough for them to hear, you know? I probably did that like eight or nine times in the five hours I was there, but not a single person asked me a follow-up or was even like, ‘what was that?’ They were all too busy studying.”
We spoke with Donna Turner, the associate dean of computing. When asked about Joseph’s struggle and the difficulty of his program, she had this to say:
“It’s a trial by fire. I can say without a doubt that we have the most difficult program at BCIT. In fact, computing programs here are some of the hardest in the province. We pride ourselves as an institute on training ready-for-industry students using an accelerated workload, and I sympathize with any students who go through our diploma programs.”
However, reports from other schools suggest Nolan’s claims may in fact be exaggerated. In a recent meeting with Shelly Fraser, associate dean of nursing, she had this to say:
“It’s a trial by fire. I can say without a doubt that we have the most difficult program at BCIT. In fact, nursing programs here are some of the hardest in the province. We pride ourselves as an institute on training ready-for-industry students using an accelerated workload, and I sympathize with any students who go through our diploma programs.”
We asked them why the institute isn’t offering bachelor’s degrees for BCIT’s accelerated programs. We have yet to hear back.
Joseph was seen outside the accounting building earlier this week, sighing loudly and looking dejected.
