Comment Re:From what I've seen... (Score 0) 423
Although all schools in Canada are subject to the same accreditation board, this does not mean that their courses are the same. For example, a first-year statics course at Waterloo and UBC may use the same textbook, however, Waterloo delves into the more advanced topics, whereas UBC does not (this was based on personal observation...there may have been courses where UBC was more thorough than Waterloo. I just wanted to base this on something that I've seen).
You should decide which is most important to you when deciding on an engineering school:
1) Reputation (ie getting a job) -or-
2) Academics
Waterloo has the best reputation in industry because it pumps out the most students through its co-op program. This typically means that students graduate with up to 6 companies in their resume, and two years of work experience. This also means that Waterloo grads are better hires straight out of school than most (even compared to schools with co-op). Unfortunately, this also means that Waterloo grads are extremely cocky...but that's another topic...
I would however not insist that it has the best academics. I can easily see a smaller school, with smaller class sizes being a better environment for academia. Big schools like Waterloo and UofT sometimes have huge classes (I've heard that UofT first-year calculus courses are overbooked, so if you're not there early, you get locked out of the lecture hall).
IMO, you either need spectacular teachers as profs (most aren't), or highschool-sized classes to get anything out of lectures. Since profs are rated based on their research and tenure and not their teaching skill, this is sort of hard to judge.
As for schools in the states, from what I can tell, they are not nearly up to par with Canadian schools (sorry). The undergrad coursework that I've taken at Waterloo at times equates to grad school work down here in the states. I work in the states, and new grads even from big schools like UCLA don't really seem to know too much unless they are supernerds and do a ton of extracurricular stuff on their own anyways.
You should decide which is most important to you when deciding on an engineering school:
1) Reputation (ie getting a job) -or-
2) Academics
Waterloo has the best reputation in industry because it pumps out the most students through its co-op program. This typically means that students graduate with up to 6 companies in their resume, and two years of work experience. This also means that Waterloo grads are better hires straight out of school than most (even compared to schools with co-op). Unfortunately, this also means that Waterloo grads are extremely cocky...but that's another topic...
I would however not insist that it has the best academics. I can easily see a smaller school, with smaller class sizes being a better environment for academia. Big schools like Waterloo and UofT sometimes have huge classes (I've heard that UofT first-year calculus courses are overbooked, so if you're not there early, you get locked out of the lecture hall).
IMO, you either need spectacular teachers as profs (most aren't), or highschool-sized classes to get anything out of lectures. Since profs are rated based on their research and tenure and not their teaching skill, this is sort of hard to judge.
As for schools in the states, from what I can tell, they are not nearly up to par with Canadian schools (sorry). The undergrad coursework that I've taken at Waterloo at times equates to grad school work down here in the states. I work in the states, and new grads even from big schools like UCLA don't really seem to know too much unless they are supernerds and do a ton of extracurricular stuff on their own anyways.
