Hello, I am an international student who recently got an admit for masters in Chemical Engineering for Fall 2019 at UCLA Henri Samueli. I have received admits from schools such as Ohio State University and some schools in Canada such as McGill University and Waterloo. I am receiving no financial support from US universities, however, I am getting funding from schools in Canada about 18k(CAD) per year. I am typically looking at getting into industry R&D after my degree. Can you please suggest if Canada has better opportunities for Chemical Engineers? I am very confused and UCLA will be very expensive but it is highly reputed, however, have to do Work Study to earn some bucks there.
UCLA undergrad is not the right forum to get an answer. Let me research where to move it.
Both Waterloo and McGill are very good, and rigorous schools for Engineering. Waterloo is known for it’s Co-op programs. You’d have to follow up with them as to how they deal with international students, but they might be the best bet for work opportunities. I wouldn’t say, in general, that Canada has better job opportunities than the US, but I will say that you would have a better chance to gain CAN resident status after getting a ENG degree at a CAN Uni than you would US resident status after attending a US school, at least at the present time.
If you are full pay at UCLA, then the cost difference between either of the CAN schools and that would be anywhere from 250-300K…remember the CAN dollar is significantly lower. That’s a lot of money, and I don’t think that anyone can claim that the education is significantly better.
Don’t mean to pose as an expert about job opportunities for for international ChemE students at UCLA. I just know that the work visa situation(JH1) has tightened WAY up in the US, so just getting any work visa in the US will likely be very tough. BIL was an international ChemE PHD at UIUC and had a hard time getting a job/visa, and this was years ago. It has gotten worse since then.
McGill can be a grind academically. Expect it to be at least as tough as UCLA, if not more.
@57special Thanks. Waterloo might be the best bet then. McGill is offering me only PhD option which might take more than 4 years. I have a thesis based course at UCLA and they make us take 7 core courses in that, which will be pretty rigorous I guess? On top of that living in Westwood or culver area would and doing RA/TA plus research work for thesis and ending up with 50-60k loan amount in debt. I don’t think that is worth it.
Hopefully someone will chime in with more specific knowledge of the Masters programs at each school. I have relatives who did ENG( Chem, EE, Civil) at UIUC, Georgia Tech, and U of T, but all of those were years ago, and things have changed. I have a bit better idea of the Immigration situation, but even there I am sure there are others with more specific and timely knowledge.
Spending 4 years at McGill…that’s a grind. I will say that my BIL who got his PHD at UIUC in ChemE did end up going to Silicon valley, and hasn’t looked back.
Hopefully. I need to make a decision within days from now. I am confused as hell.