Yet another thread regarding Universities + CS

[Night]

I'm planning on applying to universities soon (I'm in grade 12) and wanted to get a few more opinions on some schools. I'm fairly interested in Game Development/Programming but I've heard that choosing game development as a major focus isn't necessarily the best idea, so I've been looking at more "general" CS degrees. I got a 94 in ICS4U (took it in grade 11, ICS3U in grade 10) and have since been exploring more programming languages which I have really enjoyed doing (as well as computers in general) so I've chosen to pursue my university studies in it.

The universities I'm highly considering applying to are (all co-op where possible):

• Waterloo - Computer Science
  
• Guelph - Software Engineering (or maybe CS, not sure)
  
• Western - Computer Science -> Minor in Game Design
  
• Carleton - Computer Science -> Game Development stream
  

Other universities I've considered but sort of eliminated:

• UOIT - Game Dev/Entrepreneurship -> Too general (apparently, hardly looked at their CS course)
  
• Queen's - Computing
  
• Laurier - Computer Science
  
• McMaster - Computer Science
  

As for the 4 I listed as "highly considering", I'm not sure if I'll apply to all 4 or only 3 of them (still doing research). I'd appreciate any feedback anyone has on the programs, schools, etc. Thanks.

[Tony]

Have you considered UofToronto? How about anything outside of Ontario? (e.g. UBC)

[ProgrammingFun]

Tony @ Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:28 pm wrote:

Have you considered UofToronto? How about anything outside of Ontario? (e.g. UBC)

Is UBC actually good? A lot of people from my school go to it for transfer credits.

[Tony]

Maybe not UW/UofT "great", but I think it's perceived as "good", yeah. The campus is nothing special, but you get to live in Vancouver, which is all kinds of awesome.

[Night]

Re: UofT - I've looked at it a bit but I'm not entirely sure if I'd want to live in Toronto. I'll look into it a bit more, though. I noticed that they mention that each student is a member of a college, does anyone have any experience with that and could explain it in a bit more detail (please)?

Re: outside of Ontario - Also looked at it a bit but I'm not sure if that's something I'd really want to do (might find it too far away, parents, etc.).

[crossley7]

I applied to Toronto as well and the college system is for Arts and Science students only. It is basically to help make the student life transition easier by grouping you with people that picked the same college as you (hopefully similar interests) and therefore allowing you to make friends with a main group of people instead of see different people every day. It has no impact on the actual program unless you choose to go into one of their specific programs (Comp Sci is not one of them) and I believe there are a few required courses for some of the colleges.

The easiest way to explain it is that it is similar to the Harry Potter Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw. I hope it helps. Note that anywhere you end up you will be at least halfway across campus from the comp sci main building (still only about 15 minute walk though I believe).

Hope that helps. If you have other questions I can try to answer them as best I can (Going through the application process right now as well myself.)

[Night]

Okay, thanks. You mentioned that it is for "Arts and Science students only" so I assume that CS would fall under that since eINFO linked there but you said it wouldn't affect your program. That's what I got out of your post as anyways.

Speaking of which, is the major difference between campuses (UTSG/UTSC) that UTSG doesn't offer co-op whereas UTSC does?

Thanks again.

PS: Just out of curiousity, where are you applying to if you don't mind me asking?

[crossley7]

Computer Science is part of Arts and Science. I applied to Waterloo Computer Science Co-op, Waterloo Software Engineering and U of T St. Geaorge Comp Sci. (Can't pick which I prefer so just applied to all. Pretty confident I should be accepted)

St George has their PEY which is a 12-16 months work period after your 3rd year. UTSC has the standard Co-op style that is 4 months of school and 4 months of work starting after your 2nd year. I believe St. George has a few more on campus course selections being the larger campus but all 3 have access to all the courses. You can be at UTSC and take a course at UTSG at the same time.

It really only affects student life and not the program like you pointed out there. I ended up picking Victoria but it comes down to your preference for community. (Victoria is the furthest from comp sci of all the colleges)

The U of T website has a bunch of info on the colleges to help you make a decision

[ProgrammingFun]

I recently went to a special UTSC CompSci workshop kind of thing and was really unimpressed with their program. They don't have as many course offerings, and the director looked like he was half asleep. They also gave us a Python workshop and their volunteers (first year students I presume) were completely lost in things such as variable types (prbly because Python doesn't use them).

[Night]

crossley7 @ Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:07 pm wrote:

I applied to Waterloo Computer Science Co-op, Waterloo Software Engineering and U of T St. Geaorge Comp Sci.

The only Software Engineering program I've found that I can apply to is Guelph's since I didn't take Physics. Has anyone heard anything about Guelph's SE program? At the moment I'm looking at Guelph's SE program instead of their CS program since it looks a bit more appealing to me (more programming-focused), though I'm not sure which one would be "better" to consider. Both lead towards a Bachelor of Computing as opposed to a BCS/BSc.

[mirhagk]

Definitely apply to Waterloo, it's one of the best choices, if not the best. For co-ops there are all kinds of major companies there, including Google and OpenText.

I know Tony suggested looking into out of Ontario, and by all means do so (probably a good idea). However with out of province universities, the programs don't seem to be quite as good (not bad by all means, but not better), and the most appealing reason to move away is like Tony said, living in a new place (probably better place).

If you want to move away from home, and travel, it's an amazing idea to look into. If you don't care about traveling and moving away, it's going to probably cause more problems then it's worth (far away from family etc)

[Night]

Quote:

Definitely apply to Waterloo, it's one of the best choices, if not the best. For co-ops there are all kinds of major companies there, including Google and OpenText.

I'm definitely applying to Waterloo, but still need some other "backup" choices and just want to see what else is out there.

Quote:

I know Tony suggested looking into out of Ontario, and by all means do so (probably a good idea). However with out of province universities, the programs don't seem to be quite as good (not bad by all means, but not better), and the most appealing reason to move away is like Tony said, living in a new place (probably better place).

If you want to move away from home, and travel, it's an amazing idea to look into. If you don't care about traveling and moving away, it's going to probably cause more problems then it's worth (far away from family etc)

I think it'd be best for me to stay in the province (for the time being, anyways). There's always opportunities to travel later on.

Thanks again.