Does anyone have any knowledge about the 4 aviation programs in Canada? Western University, University of Waterloo, Mount Allison University and the University of Windsor all have programs where they combine an undergrad degree in either business, science, environmental science or leadership; and then you do all of your flying credentials up to your commercial pilots license.
I am curious about the reputation of each program.
I do not know anything about aviation. However, on the basis that you might not get many (or any) responses, I thought I would at least say what I know about the schools.
We visited Mount Allison a few times when both daughters applied and both were accepted. It is a very good small university. It is usually ranked as the overall #1 small “primarily undergraduate” university in Canada. It is not necessarily the best for any particular major but overall it is a very good school. It is in a quiet small town, but is not too far from Moncton which is a pleasant small city. We liked it quite a bit. We stayed in Moncton for most of our visits.
We did not apply to or visit the other schools that you mentioned. Waterloo is of course famous for computer science. I have however heard that it is quite good for a number of other programs (for example including music).
Thank you for your reply. We were hoping to visit Mount Allison but I fear the New Brunswick border will remain closed to us even though we are Canadian citizens living in the US. If that is the case we will have quarantine in Ontario, visit Waterloo and Western and then decide if those schools are too large, 35,000-40,000. Although the aviation programs are very small my son would still be taking a lot of general classes with the larger student body.
I have only heard good things about Mt Allison, but it does seem isolated and remote. They must be doing something right if they have been rated the number 1 undergrad school in Canada 23 out of 30 years!
I assume that you know that you will pay the Canadian tuition. This is quite a bargain. My kids and I are dual citizens living in the US (my wife is a US citizen) and we found that Canadian universities cost less than our in-state public university. This is even considering a very good merit scholarship that we were offered at our in-state public university. The universities in Canada are also quite consistently very good.
It is hard to imagine how to compare Waterloo with Mount Allison other than size, and the quality of Waterloo’s coop program and computer science and math and engineering programs. Being bigger does correspond to a larger number of strong programs, but also bigger classes.
One daughter attends one of the small universities in Eastern Canada. First semester freshman year she had two classes with 15 or fewer students in the class. You can get to know your professors when the classes are this small. Her biggest class at the time (freshman biology for biology majors) was 90 students. I am not sure if this is the largest class that she ever had in four years. She graduates in May and we are a bit concerned that we might not be able to visit at the time.
Does the tuition include all their flight training? Instruction? Aircraft? Fuel? Simulators?