----------------------------------- waitatshu Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:41 am u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- Hi people, hmm I'm a Canadian citizen currently studying in the States, and I'm just wondering... which undergrad school has a better comp sci program? Toronto or Waterloo? Thank you! ----------------------------------- JamesKim414 Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:59 am RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- My older brother is in Computer Engineering in UW right now and he said that UW is harder than UFT. So I would say UW has a better Comp Sci Program ----------------------------------- Tony Mon Dec 07, 2009 12:26 pm RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- "Similar enough", "depends on what you are looking for", etc., etc.... it's a popular question, discussed in detail on the forums already. @JamesKim414 -- "of" in "University of Toronto" does not get capitalized to F. It's typically referred to as UofT. ----------------------------------- hallowon Mon Dec 07, 2009 11:01 pm Re: RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- My older brother is in Computer Engineering in UW right now and he said that UW is harder than UFT. So I would say UW has a better Comp Sci Program how does he know if if it IS harder. For stuff like this it is best to just explain your experience in that university to the OP, and have op formulate his/her decision based on other's experience ----------------------------------- waitatshu Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:54 am RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- thanks for the input! so i suppose UW has more prestige? and you work harder in UW? ----------------------------------- ecookman Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:23 pm RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- in the summer I took a programming camp and my instructor said that he hated the CS at UoT, that he much preferred Ryreson (i think that's how its spelled) he also said that he did not have formal teachers it was mostly people who were in higher year teaching the classes, and that in the classes that he was taking there was no point of going to class, because the work and lessons were online. The way that he explained it to me, UoT sucks. ----------------------------------- jbking Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:42 pm Re: RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- thanks for the input! so i suppose UW has more prestige? and you work harder in UW? In some circles, yes UW has more prestige and name recognition, but I remember some of my classmates wanting to do their graduate degree at UofT. I'm not sure one could easily compare the schools in terms of difficulty as there may be electives that could be hard or easy depending on what one takes in each case. ----------------------------------- Dan Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:43 pm Re: RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- he also said that he did not have formal teachers it was mostly people who were in higher year teaching the classes, and that in the classes that he was taking there was no point of going to class, because the work and lessons were online. Admitly i don't go to U of T, but that does not sound accurite at all to me. Almost all universites (at least in ontario) these days have most of the CS lectures tought by proffesors. Labs might be run by TAs (who are noramly grad students) however. thanks for the input! so i suppose UW has more prestige? and you work harder in UW? Prestige maybe, but thats rather subjective and not nessarly worth anything, but how hard you work is totaly up to you. Universites are not responesable for making you go to clases, do your home work or study. Your personal work ethic, a willingness to learn and how you aproache your studies will likey play a bigger factor on your education then the univesrity (assuming it's accredited). ----------------------------------- Tony Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:44 pm RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- It might be just me, but "some dude" who appears to have not gone to his classes, dropped out, and ended up working at a summer camp might not be a credible enough person to have their opinion cited on this matter. Besides, " sucks" is hardly insightful. ----------------------------------- ecookman Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:46 pm Re: RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- he also said that he did not have formal teachers it was mostly people who were in higher year teaching the classes, and that in the classes that he was taking there was no point of going to class, because the work and lessons were online. Admitly i don't go to U of T, but that does not sound accurite at all to me. Almost all universites (at least in ontario) these days have most of the CS lectures tought by proffesors. Labs might be run by TAs (who are noramly grad students) however. apparentaly it was mostly TA's (sorry used the wrong wording the way you said it is the right way) ----------------------------------- Dan Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:52 pm Re: RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- apparentaly it was mostly TA's (sorry used the wrong wording the way you said it is the right way) Gradute students working as TAs will noramly mark everything, run labs (or help) and indvidualte exams and midterms. However it would be odd for them to teach the hole corse. There are some excpections however, there is a big diffrence between a upper year undergrad TA or masters TA and a doctoret canaidate working as a TA. ----------------------------------- Prabhakar Ragde Thu Dec 10, 2009 5:26 pm Re: u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- U of T tends to have lecturers (rather than professors) and graduate students doing the bulk of the teaching in the first two years. UW has more research faculty involved in the first two years (with some lecturers and grad student sessionals). Since all categories of instructors just mentioned have good instructors and bad instructors in them, it is really the luck of the draw. The two programs start out differently but cover largely the same ground. Comparing them thus comes down to a host of minor differences and considerable differences among individual experiences with each program. ----------------------------------- Euphoracle Thu Dec 10, 2009 5:50 pm RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- Also, ecook (as you seem to lack the ability to criticize information effectively, sought help when I thought it necessary, and tried rather hard to force the messy and sloppy way we learned how to do stuff in highschool out of my head, but others chose to blame their apparent misfortune on the prof's 'lack of teaching ability,' pace and 'but this is how we did it in highschool.' In short, if you ask me about my algebra class, I'll tell you it was a challenging and refreshing change from highschool and although it's unfortunate that my grade wasn't extremely high, I enjoyed the class. If you ask someone else, perhaps one who retains the highschool mentality of "teachers will feed us everything," they'll tell you they hated it, they'll conjure whatever excuses they can to put the blame on the prof, and they'll leave it at that. (Now of course, there are also those who do the same thing they did in highschool and do extremely well who can't really comment as they may still be riding their natural aptitude through first year. Similarly, AP/AB/BC etc students might be in a similar situation if they learned the material before. Also, there will be those of apathy who have no opinion other than "I did well" or "I did poorly") tl;dr: Take prof reviews as you take movie reviews: everyone has their own tastes, some which are impeccable and some which you should take sparingly. ----------------------------------- ecookman Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:22 pm RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- well an opinion was asked, and I contributed. Obviously, as we have just denounced, if TA's aren't your thing be weary of UoT. ----------------------------------- Dan Fri Dec 11, 2009 11:31 am Re: RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- Obviously, as we have just denounced, if TA's aren't your thing be weary of UoT. If you realy don't want TAs teaching you (or even many lectures out side of the core faculity) you should check out smaller universites. At lakehead i have never had a singal class thought by a TA, including allmost all labs. You also get to know the facuality alot better as you will have them for serveral courses threw out your program (which can be both bad and good). ----------------------------------- [Gandalf] Fri Dec 11, 2009 1:09 pm RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- ecookman, your opinion should be filtered by your own common sense as well. You're obviously not very critical of what you hear... if TA's aren't your thing be weary of UoT TAs and tutorials are great, as a supplement to a lecture. At lakehead i have never had a singal class thought by a TA, including allmost all labs. Sometimes it helps to get the perspective of someone who has more recently been a student in your position, which is why I think a balance of TA/prof involvement is best. ----------------------------------- Dan Fri Dec 11, 2009 4:57 pm Re: RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- Sometimes it helps to get the perspective of someone who has more recently been a student in your position, which is why I think a balance of TA/prof involvement is best. Lakehead does have TAs for the courses, they just don't run the lectures. Some labs are run by TAs in other deparments, but for CS however I have only had TAs helping in labs along side a profesor. Also some TAs here have office hours to tutotor students. To be fair tho, my year was rather small, even for lakehead. I was not trying to make a point that this method is better, just that if ecookman and others where that conisndered about the subject, smaller universites might be a good choice. ----------------------------------- Crazymik3 Fri Dec 25, 2009 7:48 pm RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- I was also stuck between U of T and Waterloo when I got into both. I ended up visiting both, and found Waterloo to be a very boring campus and town. If that might be a factor for you, I recommend you visit them both for yourself. ----------------------------------- chrisbrown Sat Dec 26, 2009 10:12 am Re: RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- Waterloo Quite untrue, it just takes time to find the right places. Also, the abundance of students between UW and Laurier makes for some unreal nightlife. ----------------------------------- Crazymik3 Tue Dec 29, 2009 8:06 pm Re: RE:u Toronto vs u Waterloo? ----------------------------------- Waterloo Quite untrue, it just takes time to find the right places. I figured that was the case. I am also a big fan of big cities living in London(U.K.), so that more than likely contributed to be seeing it as a boring campus in comparison to UofT.