First Year Engineering Checklist
Everything I think you might need in your first year at Waterloo.
Posted: September 28, 2025 - Last Updated: September 28, 2025 - Tags: #university
I recently completed my 1A term in Computer Engineering at Waterloo and here are some of my thoughts on the program.
This post was inspired by Xierumeng, Jordyn Mindorff, and many others who wrote similar posts on their CE 1A experience. To hopefully continue this tradition for future students, I've written this post to hopefully give you a better idea of what to expect here at Waterloo.
As I'll be completing my first year in Computer Engineering at Waterloo soon, here's a checklist of everything I think you might need for your first year!
Essentials
First are the things that you'll 100% need to have and I would 100% recommend getting.
- [ ] Laptop: I personally use a Mac and haven't had any major troubles (minus running some tools like Altium).
- Your lecture halls will have chargers for every seat but I would still recommend something with super solid battery life.
- [ ] Power Bar, Extension Cord: I think this one is pretty obvious and not hard to get, anything with like 4+ outlets it probably more than enough.
- [ ] Clothes: Yes
- [ ]
Sort of Optional???
A lot of things I brought definitely made life easier, but not everything was necessarily essential...
- [ ] Some sort of card holder: You'll be using your WatCard everywhere if you're living on Res, it just makes it so much easier.
- The UW Store sells these, you can check it out there.
- [ ] Noise Cancelling Headphones/Earbuds: Lot's of areas where you might be studying (CMH Great Hall, Open Lecture Halls, etc.) will have some level of noise, it's just a really nice quality of life thing to have
- [ ] A Tablet/iPad: You'll probably notice a good majority of the class uses some sort of digital tablet/iPad to take notes.
- I do know some students who didn't need it and passed just fine, but it's genuinely so much nicer than carrying around many different notebooks around. Plus many textbooks are available online and some will only be provided in a digital format anyways. It's a good investment in my opinion.
- [ ] Air Filter/Air Purifier/Fan: I felt like there was a distinct smell in the rooms at UWP, not that it was bad (think like old building's smell?), but I definitely think that the small air filter I got helped with it, especially since you can't always have your windows open in the winter/when it's raining.