Computer Science: RIT vs CWRU vs RPI vs Waterloo

College Majors Engineering Majors
21

<p>Hartigan,</p>

<p>Again, you are so kind to go into so much depth in regard to finances. It is really helpful. I think this school may be doable for us. My son said he would study actuary science if he could attend Waterloo. Because of the ‘fancy’ inforamtion that was sent to my home this is his number one school. Who could have known a Canadian school would catch my son’s eye. In all honesty, it was the most impressive bit of information we received from any school. Could you know address some other issues? Mainly, how is the weather and how do US students acclimate? We are from Virginia but my son does not mind the cold weather.</p>

<p>We may be paying this school a visit sometime in the future. As I mentioned my son has wonderful grades and ECS but we are still waiting for the SAT results. He just took it for the first time last Saturday. When would you say would be a good time of the year ro visit?</p>

22

<p>

If you are concerned about the weather, winter would be a good season to visit.</p>

23

<p>Hey Hokiefan,</p>

<p>Sorry, I’ve been really swamped with work lately. It’s the last week of school before finals and I’m still interviewing for jobs for my next work term.</p>

<p>Haha yes, I think Canadian schools are often overlooked by Americans because it’s well…Canada. Waterloo is a great school but I believe it’s relatively unknown in the States outside of employers and academia. So I feel I should let you know that there is a surprisingly low number of American undergrads at the school. With that being said, the Math faculty comprises 20% international students (mainly from Asia) and I would expect Actuarial Science to have an even higher proportion.</p>

<p>If your son doesn’t mind the cold weather then he should be OK. I know plenty of people who have come from tropical climates having never seen snow before, and they made it through just fine - though not without complaints! Coming from the east coast of Canada the weather was a bit of change for me as well. The winters are colder and the summers are hotter, which is the effect of not having an ocean beside you. </p>

<p>It’s just the winter he would need to worry about. It can get pretty darn cold and there can be a lot of snow. Temperatures can stay around -10 C (17 F) for quite some time and feel even colder with wind chill. So you might want to visit sometime in the winter as noimagination suggested just to make sure.</p>

<p>In the summer, temperatures can reach 35 C (95 F) but usually stay around 23 C (73 F) to 31 C (88 F).</p>

<p>Right now we’re getting great weather for March/April. It’s supposed to reach 21 C tomorrow so you can expect to find me on the golf course.</p>

<p>If you want to visit sometime soon I would suggest You @ Waterloo on May 20th as that’s what I went to before my first year. [Become</a> a Student | University of Waterloo](<a href=“http://www.findoutmore.uwaterloo.ca/visitus/youday.php]Become”>http://www.findoutmore.uwaterloo.ca/visitus/youday.php)</p>

<p>And to make the trip worthwhile you guys should definitely head on over to Toronto (about an hour away) and Niagara Falls because Kitchener/Waterloo is pretty boring for a vacation.</p>

<p>Anyway, I wish your son the best of luck wherever he goes. Let me know if you have any more questions or concerns.</p>

24

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I just got accepted into honors math at waterloo and im contemplating waterloo, queens, McGill, and u of t. I think ill end up at waterloo and i want to major in actuarial science. Do most people get that 75% average in the 1st year? also what classes would i be taking in my 1st year, like what are my options.</p>

<p>thanks</p>

25

<p>Hi ber1023,</p>

<p>They really don’t give us any statistics on class averages but I would say only about half of students maintain 75% average after first-year…not including a good bunch that drop out.</p>

<p>In first year I think you should take:</p>

<p>Math 135 - Algebra for Honours Mathematics (tons of proofs, goes into number theory - I loved this course. It’s like nothing most people did in high school)
Math 137 - Calculus I for Honours Mathematics
Math 136 - Linear Algebra for Honours Mathematics
Math 138 - Calculus II for Honours Mathematics</p>

<p>CS 115 - Introduction to Computer Science 1
CS 116 - Introduction to Computer Science 2</p>

<p>Actually, I know people who have put off the CS until second year but eventually I think you’ll have to take it.</p>

<p>The act sci course requirements can be found here: [Actuarial</a> Science](<a href=“http://www.ucalendar.uwaterloo.ca/0708/MATH/act_sci.html]Actuarial”>Actuarial Science)</p>

<p>So you’ll probably want to add in say:</p>

<p>ECON 101 - Introduction to Microeconomics
ECON 102 - Introduction to Macroeconomics
ENGL 119 - Communications in Mathematics & Computer Science
AFM 101 - Core Concepts of Accounting Information (or maybe an elective?)</p>

<p>From an orientation presentation I found through Google:</p>

<p>Class averages for:
Math 135 - 73 (6% fail)
Math 137 - 76 (8% fail)
CS 115 - 72 (18% fail)</p>

<p>You can probably expect around the same for their successors (i.e. Math 138 follows Math 137)</p>

<p>When looking at these averages, keep in mind that Waterloo attracts a significant chunk of the top mathematical talent in Canada and that every student in these math courses was probably top 5 in their math classes in high school.</p>

<p>Put simply, the workload is intense. You will have weekly assignments in all of your Math courses. They’re normally only worth about 1% each but if you skip them you’ll fall behind quickly. The math assignments are no joke. For calculus, they used to give us a few tricky questions of their own and then an obscene amount of questions from the text book. The average length of each assignment I was handing in turned out to be around 20 pages of looseleaf. I talked to some first-years recently though and apparently they don’t assign text book questions anymore so consider yourself lucky :P</p>

<p>They recently revamped the first-year CS courses so now you guys do Scheme and Python instead, where we did Java. I’ve heard mixed reviews about the toughness of these CS courses but most people who aren’t majoring in CS completely despise them. We had bi-weekly assignments for our intro Java courses to you could expect about the same.</p>

<p>Combine this with the readings and assignments you’ll have in your ECON and AFM courses and it really starts to build. </p>

<p>You’ll get some relief from ENGL 119 since I’ve been told that if you can speak English you’re pretty much guaranteed a good mark.</p>

<p>You should definitely talk to an academic advisor at the school or something before you pick your courses because I may or may not know what I’m talking about.</p>

<p>So, in conclusion, achieving a 75% average in first year is no easy task. But, with a lot of hard work, it can be easily achieved. Haha, yeah that was stupid…but you catch my drift.</p>

26

<p>thanks, that answered all my questions. I am doing AP calc, mico, macro, computer science and physics. Do you know if i will get credit for my micro and macro economics? and yeah im not a fan of computer science, my teacher really sucks which i think is half the reason and i just dont enjoy it. In math i think im fairly smart but its hard to say because i live in bermuda, not exactly many people to compare to however i did get 33 1st time on ACT with no studying but thats not real math as far as im concerned</p>

<p>oh another thing, since i haven’t really done much stats before, could i just skip calc 1(thats AP stuff ?) and do some kind of intro stats?</p>