<p>I am a Canadian permanent resident and will be a Canadian citizen in 1~2 years. I have heard from a lot of people that University of Waterloo in Canada, famous for its great co-op program, is a very good university for engineering, math, and so on. (I got already accepted to Waterloo)</p>
<p>Last week, I got accepted to CMU. I totally didn't expect this because of my low SAT scores and weak ECs. </p>
<p>Also, money matters.... Waterloo's tuition is less than half of CMU's.</p>
<p>However, I really want to study in the States and stay and work there in the future. I also want to go to a grad school in the States.</p>
<p>Then is it better for me to choose CMU over Waterloo?</p>
<p>If money matters, than go for Waterloo. There's no question that CMU is a better school, but Canadian schools are pretty much dirt cheap and Waterloo in particular has a great reputation. I'm sure you've heard the claims that Microsoft hires more graduates from Waterloo than any other university in the world.</p>
<p>This is coming from a guy who's Canadian and making a similar choice. However, I'm fortunate enough that money is not an issue. Waterloo will allow you to graduate without debt, perhaps even with a bit of cash from the co-op program.</p>
<p>If you want to go to grad school, try to go here as a grad student after attending Waterloo. You'll save your money, and as long as you do a great job there, I don't think it'll hurt your chances at admission at all.</p>
<p>I want to do something else than engineering in a grad school.
Also, money matters, but I can still afford CMU with debt.
My parents want me to go to CMU as well.
I'll think about it more carefully
thanks for your comments</p>
<p>Google also hires a bunch of Waterloo grads. If money is an issue and you don't mind spending college in Canada, as long as you do reasonably well, I don't think you'd have too much trouble finding employment in the US post-graduation - Waterloo has a very well respected CS program; I'd assume ECE is equally well respected (I don't actually know).</p>
<p>How do you feel about the co-op program and taking 5 years to graduate? Most CMU ECE/CS students spend at least the summer after junior year interning; some do after sophomore year, and its not unusual to spend the summer after freshman year doing research.</p>
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I want to do something else than engineering in a grad school.
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<p>What would you like to do? If you're interested in going into business, then you should think about taking advantage of the Tepper school of business at CMU while you're there.</p>
<p>If you're planning on going to grad school for non-engineering field, then you shouldn't expect for it to bed paid for, so loans for that on top of big loans for undergrad could get to be quite cumbersome.</p>