I need the opinion of a computer science student.

[bysic52]

Hi,



I have been issued offers of admission from Wilfred Laurier University and University of Windsor for the following programs:

- Honours (BCS) Computer Science from WLU
- Honours (BCS) Computer Science with software engineering specialization from University of Windsor

Which one would you recommend? and why?

[jernst]

I attended WLU for computer science, it was a decent program and often there are professors who also teach at waterloo giving some of the classes. However it does not have a graduate program and Windsor does, so that may be a strike against it. In terms of getting jobs after graduation, I had no trouble, and most of the people I've kept in touch with also have good jobs. I have one friend who went to Windsor for CS who had trouble finding a job after graduation and ended up attending college to make it easier but he now has a good job as well. I also know a couple students in my grad program at Guelph who attended Windsor and they have had good things to say about it.

So I guess I have really not helped you much at all. I think they are both similar (maybe with Windsor having a bit of an edge) however WLU is a good school if you want a well rounded education, want to get involved in the community etc.

[terrym]

I'm currently a student at the University of Windsor, and frankly I couldn't be happier anywhere else. I can't say a whole lot about WLU, as I've never been there, but I would recommend looking into the CS program at UoW.
The vast majority of our professors are amazing, and they do know what they're talking about. Dr. Kent, Dr. Frost, and Dr. Kobti are the three that come to mind. All of them are a blast to sit down and have a coffee with, and talk about real things. Also, the classes are fantastic .
As for job prospects later, I don't really think it has a whole lot to do with where you went to school (that's usually just the HR manager's personal bias, and you're going to get that no matter where you go. It'll tend to be a crapshoot). If you're considering, or leaving your options open for graduate school, I'd take a closer consideration at the UoW. As jernst said, UoW does have the graduate program, and if you manage to show some chops to your professors, you'll have an opportunity to participate in some of the research available there.
Also, if you're comfortable enough in C and with computers in general, you can blaze through the vast majority of your prerequisite first and second year courses in a year (some of the major courses are offered as half-semester courses, like 60-140 and 60-141, which are prerequisites for the remainder of the CS program. To futher speed things up, take courses in the summer). This'll help you graduate from the program faster, and get to where you want to go after even sooner (which means, if you're afraid you won't be interested in continuing your education with grad studies because you'll have just spent four years in school, you can nix that worry off the bat).

[Vermette]

Hey there,

I'm a grad student at Windsor, and the soft eng. program was my undergrad.

Terry's right, we have some awesome profs here, and I'm sure WLU does as well. If you show interest, some of them would be more than happy to involve you in some research work. If you do come here, everyone I knew in soft eng. was also enrolled in co-op, so you might want to look into that; everyone agreed it was a good choice.

Also, the required course load across all the honours programs is the same for the first two (might be 1 1/2 now?) years, so if you find you're really passionate about some other field (like AI ) you can transition to the other program without much fuss.

[Prabhakar Ragde]

jernst @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:28 am wrote:

I attended WLU for computer science, it was a decent program and often there are professors who also teach at waterloo giving some of the classes.

Can you name some of these?