Picking a University

[Bobrobyn]

I'm trying to decide which university I'd like to go to, and so far I think Waterloo (of course), Queen's, and Brock's look the best. Then, of course, there is places like Lauria (sp?), Windsor, ect. Anyways, what I'd like to know is if anyone has any knowledge when it comes to picking the actual university you want to go to. I know that Waterloo will be hard to get into, and once in, will be very hard with a lot of competetion, while a place like Brock probably won't have as much competetion...anyways, anyone have any ideas on how to pick the university you're going to attend for Computer Science? Esspeically for a co-op option.

Thanks,

~Bob

[Martin]

Choosing a university is a big thing.

Look at a lot of universities, and a lot of different programs including ones that you don't necissarily plan on going into. It's best to make an informed choice.

I love programming, but I hated university computer science, so I switched into applied math (at Waterloo), a program that I hadn't even heard about pre-university.

Waterloo'll give you a good education, but truth be told it can get kind of boring, and Waterloo is very uneventful.

If you want a really cool university, you should check out Queens in Kingston. Beautiful campus in a beautiful city, right down town. It's a good school too. It'd also be worth looking into universities outside of Ontario, such as UBC and McGill.

For co-op though, hands down go to Waterloo. Other universities have co-op programs, but none of them are nearly as mature or large as Waterloo's. Microsoft for example hires more Waterloo graduates per year than any other university in the world.

[Bobrobyn]

Curious: Since you're actually there, I figured I'd ask: what is the workload like - essepcially in the co-op program? I don't want to get into something that I'm going to regret

I agree with you on Queen's, it looks great. They also have an internship thing you can do..though I'm not sure how that works out. It's like a 12-16 month job at a company like IBM or something to that effect.

I didn't really think of looking at other programs besides Computer Science and Math, but I guess I could look, thanks.

~Bob

[Martin]

It's worth it - something might catch your eye. In any case, you'll know that you made a more informed decision. There's a lot out there.

I'm actually in Japan right now on a co-op job with Epson.

You do have to do a lot of work, but it's nothing unreasonable. Don't expect to party a whole ton after the first month of a semester though. You will have enough free time to enjoy yourself though, don't worry. My course load in 1A was Algebra, Calculus, Physics, Econ and CS. I survived.

If you do go to Waterloo, take the advanced math courses (MATH 145/147). The regular ones are too easy, and if you're having trouble, you can always switch out of the advanced ones. It'd be a waste not to try them out though.

[timmytheturtle]

Martin wrote:

If you want a really cool university, you should check out Queens in Kingston. Beautiful campus in a beautiful city, right down town. It's a good school too.

The city (kingston) is beautiful The water front espeically, though I don't go down there alot. I've been in Queen's a few times, but haven't seen all of it. A few of my freinds go there and seem to like it.

[Bobrobyn]

Thanks, I never really expected to party a lot or anything, I just need a bit of free time...I've heard rumours that you don't get any, and that would drive me nuts over the course of 4 years.

[Tony]

well the beauty of co-op is that you study for just 4 months, then work for as much. Repeat. Meaning you're never stuck doing the same kind of thing all the time. You'll have different kinds of lacking free time

free time is subjective though. If you actually enjoy the program you're in and/or the job you find.. there isn't much of a problem. Furthermore if you're tricky enough like Martin to get a position in Japan - you get to travel

[StarGateSG-1]

I agree with martin it is a big thing, but what do you want to do, there are different types of programing, with can make the decision for you, like if you wnat gaming and entrapurnership look at www.uoit.com or the acadmey for design in toronto. If you want main stream programing Waterloo all the way. If you are looking for something else read up about each course till you find one you can do. For instance I don't wnat main stream programming, I could get into waterloo if I choose but I am more into game development so that is were i would be looking.

[codemage]

Wouldn't hurt to actually visit the campuses & locale of your top pics as well - if that's an option.

You won't really understand the vibe/culture of each (and they're all different) without actually checking them out.

[Dan]

I storty disagrea with the above, for undergratute it is NOT a big thing. At the undergraute level any uni that has compsci in ontaro will be about the same in what u learn and how valuded your degrea will be. For an undergraduate progame what you should be looking for is the other things the uni has. Like how the comunity is there, the size of the classes, the costs of going to that uni, how close u whont to be to home, if they have other elective classes that you whont to take, what schoolrships they have that u can get, what there campus and rez is like, what rescorses they have ablivable, how much of there univiesty is geared to garduite sutdents and how much is for undergards, what are the profs like ect. In my option the worst posable way for you to choses a uni whould be based on the repuataion that unvisiristy has. I applyed to every unvitrsity in ontaro that had compsci (co-op if they had it other was noraml) and i looked in to them all when i did in great deepth, consdering all the things above and many many many more. No one univistity is the best for compsci undergrad, it is greaty deedenedt on you and what you like. If you whont a big unvsisity, with lots of peoleop very decideated to math based progames u of w or u of t whould probly be a good choice. If you perfure a small close comunity with very small class sizes (about 5~10 in some) i whould go with Lakehead. Queens i did not realy like b/c they did not seem very comited to runing a compsci progame if at all. Nipssing is the smalles uni offering compsci but a bit to small and not enought resorces for it. Waterloo is big and has lots of rescorces and repuation but the comunity there is very......difrent =p.........also class sizes are large compared to other unis and they are conerstating alot of there funding to graduted resurch and progames. Also since they have that reputation they tend to do alot of dumb things to try and keep it incuding some that i find inmoral and worng. U of T is very big, to big in my option, some of my firends that go there have class sizes of over 1500. Also there campus is not in the best condtion. Wilfiredloray is over corwed right now and needs to expaned more b4 they should be taking on more students, tho they do have some of the best scholrships for less work.

In summery form my resrach and the univrsity i piced was lakehead unvirsity. It is not as well knowen by peoleop in souther ontatio but it dose have a greater repuation in other places. There class sizes are small and it is very comana to be on a first name basises with your profs. lakehead has one of the highsts rates of phd profs to non phd (ie. t.a.s) teaching classes (aucatly i have never had a nonphd or t.a. teach me a class). Lakehead unvisity is an undergartue univsity meaning that all most all of there resorces go to the undergature studys and progames. Also lakehead is braching in to medial progames and new tehcongly progames and thous has bulit one of the most avadced teaching buldings in north amraica. They bulit adiational rezs including 2 aprement budlings and 3 pahses of town houses in antisaption of increasing numbers of sutdens. The comunity at lakehead is very closes and there is almost allways events going on both on and off campus. In case u did not know Lakehead is located in Thunderbay witch is basiclky a city in quite littry the midel of nowhere. This means that if u like nature and claen air it is a good place to good since a few mins and you are out of the city and in to an endless northen forest but you still have all the advagtes of being in a city.

Now about co-op, it is done difrenty at every uni. At u of w it is set up as tony i blive was saying that u study 4 months then work 4 months intill u are done but this 4 moths could aucatly be b4 you have even had 1 day of class. At lakehead they blive that you should educate students b4 they are sent in to the work force, so the main work terms are for the summer semseter starting in 2nd or 3rd year. you main how ever take an optianl work term 1st year if u like. In the later years 4th and 5th you also have a work semseter as well as the summer one.

Any how it is obvises that i am biased to lakehead since i go there. But i do srongly recomend that you look in to ALL of your options and do not pick a univirity b/c every one eltes likes it or b/c it has a good reputation. Choses one that you like and some where that you whont to spend the next 5 years of your life (at least).

[StarGateSG-1]

You sem to have forgotten U.O.I.T, let me fill them in in the same manner.

They have the highest Phd to non Phd in Ontario and beyond.
They have small class sizes considering there is only 3000 students enrolled in the university.
They have a great course section for computers, and with the college on the same campus you can go there if you don't have the marks for university, you take the two year course and then reapply to university.

Lakehead is actually really nice, I don't plan to check it out any further becasue it is a little far away for me.

Overall Dan you have most of the bases covered, I just added the UOIT but I think maybe there should be a review sticky for universities since the topic keeps coming up again again.

[lyam_kaskade]

I just did this last spring. How did I pick? Hmmm...
Well, Engineering at Waterloo seemed like a good choice.

Just remember that whatever you pick, you'll probably be happy with your choice. Try not to choose before you get all your offers of admission (or rejections) back, so as to avoid dissapointment (and going to your "second choice").

Choosing which to apply to though. You could always do like Dan did, and apply to all of them (provided you don't mind spending money on those application fees). Dan makes a good point though, that most compsci programs across the province are about the same (someone correct me if I'm wrong).
And don't forget that programming is a subject you can learn easily (more or less) on your own as well. Especially some of the more interesting aspects.

[Cervantes]

Martin wrote:

If you want a really cool university, you should check out Queens in Kingston. Beautiful campus in a beautiful city, right down town. It's a good school too.

I spent a week on the campus and in a residence (forget which, but it wasn't especially good). I wasn't too impressed by the campus. Don't know why.

[Martin]

I definitely wouldn't go to Queens for compsci. Their commerce program is world famous though.

What Dan said is true though. No university is perfect. If you don't like bears though, steer clear of Lakehead.

I wouldn't go into a specialized program like game programming though. Your degree will be much less valuable if you change your mind later on in your life (and people with regular CS degrees can still become game programmers, don't worry.)

[Dan]

StarGateSG-1 wrote:

You sem to have forgotten U.O.I.T, let me fill them in in the same manner.

Your right i did forget about it in my post. Tho i did not forget about it at the time. At the time i looked in to it some of thos points where not ture and i am unshure of there vailidity now. When i was picking a uni UOIT just started up and this was one of the big reasons for me not picking it. The univsity was so new that there was not enough data, in fact there was no data other then they where giving away free laptops to students. I choces not to go there b/c of the lack of infomration and that the futtuer of this univrsity is/was unknow. This has chaged now since alot more data has become avlaible since they started. Deftaly worth looking in to for compsci, tho in my option they are too small and untested right now.

Also since you brougth up the topic of distacne, lakehead is making a 2nd campus in sothuner ontatio, i blive work has started on it this year. This campus will be linked to the main one (in thunder bay) by statlies and you culd have a class that is being thought in 2 places at once throw the use of the speashal equment enployed in the ATAC. All of the class rooms in the ATAC (ATAC is at the thunder bay campus) are equpited with lots of screens, computer interfaces, mupital webcames and a mic at each studensts location and many at the intructors so they can be linked together with in the buliding or to the statle campus in sother ontatio or any where eltes in the world if they like.

Edit/P.S.: Why dose every one dislike the bears so much? Lakehead in reality has an exteramly safe campus and u are about 100 times more likes to be atacted by a bear then a person. (and for the recored no one has very been atacked by a bear on campus, tho there has been bears on campus many times due to the fact that the campus has a forsest on it and all around most of it).