With Waterloo and UT, why on earth would any US school be of interest except for MIT/CMU level?
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I know this is what you state but the numbers do tell you a story. Yes, he is competitive and full pay which makes him an attractive applicant but the competition varies due to Residency and intended major for the UCâs.
Below are the overall admit rates based on Residency(International) along with data for the specific majors if available.
UCB International admit rate: 5.2%
Data Science: 5.8%
CS: 2.9%
Most definitely a Reach School
UCLA International admit rate: 6.1%
Data Science: Admits into the College of Letters and Sciences; 10%
CS: 3.8%
Reach school
UCSD International admit rate: 17.8%
Data Science: Capped major under 10%
CS: Capped major under 10%
Reach school
UCI International admit rate: 32.5%
Data Science: 7.8%
CS: 5.8%
Low Reach-Reach
UCSB International admit rate: 21.9%
Data Science: Admits into the College of Letters and Sciences 27%
CS: Historical data around 5-8%
DS could be a High Target/Low Reach. CS a Reach
UCD International admit rate: 49.8%
Data Science: Estimated <20% Major in College of L&S with overall admit rate 37.9%
CS: Estimated <20% Major has now moved to College of Engineering instead of L&S which could make it more competitive
Could be a Target.
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At the end of the day, we need to ensure doors are open to him, not just in Canada. Although well-known and respected world-wide, short of an internship which Big Tech is currently seriously cutting down on with the economic downturn, it will be very difficult to differentiate / apply vs. local applicants for big tech.
Waterloo is one of the top programs in the world. He wonât have to worry about job opportunities in the US or anywhere else coming from there.
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Just for context, I am a Canadian (I grew up in Montreal) who got my bachelorâs degree at MIT, and I have been wondering about exactly this question.
The top Canadian universities are excellent. Employers in the US know how strong Toronto and Waterloo (and McGill and UBC) are. Graduate programs in the US know how strong the top Canadian universities are, and how consistently strong a wide range of Canadian universities are.
Also, getting a bachelorâs degree in the US does not normally allow someone to work in the US. International students who graduate from universities in the US are expected (and typically required) to return to their home country.
I guess that I just do not understand why you would spend five times as much to get the same education, but at a university where Canadian employers are not likely to be recruiting.
There is however one difference that I have noticed that you might want to think about. At least in my experience universities in the US seem to have more âgeneral educationâ requirements, which means taking classes outside of your major. Universities in Canada seem to at least allow more major-related classes if this is your preference. One daughter who attended university in Canada for example took a lot of advanced classes in her major, and probably ended up with more major-related class work that would have occurred in the US. I suspect (but am not sure) that this was her choice rather than being required. Regardless, you might want to look at the graduation requirements at the various universities that you are considering in both the US and Canada.
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Even if the OP wants a US school, the likes of Emory donât make any sense in the context of Waterloo, and CS.
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OP may not be aware of this:
Your son will need to find a sponsoring employer if he wants to stay on in the U.S. after his graduation. Graduating from a U.S. college doesnât automatically allow him to stay on and get a job.
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This will even creates issues during internships. Every application will ask for work authorization status, and the need for sponsorship down the line. There are only a few big employers who are willing to take on the red tape and those are generally the ones who will know and appreciate McGill/Waterloo/UBC.
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Emory ED is a great choice actually. Emory CS grads make more (133k) than Georgia tech grads (127k) actually seen below.
If you like Emorys culture and its a good fit for you, ED is your best bet.
Honest question here. I know that many continental European universities have a very different feel in comparison than American ones. This is not talking about the quality of academics and instruction, but in terms of the traditional/stereotypical residential college life that is often depicted in various media. Is life at Canadian universities more like European ones or American ones, in this respect?
I was only an undergraduate student at one university, and it was an âunusualâ one in terms of life style. However, if I include family members, friends, and children we perhaps have roughly equal amounts of experience on both sides of the border. I do not however have any experience with European schools.
From what I have seen, varsity sports does not seem to be much of a thing at Canadian schools. Living on-campus was optional for all four years for the people I know who attended university in Canada, and living in an apartment was the norm for upper year students. Drinking is legal in Canada at 18 (Montreal / Quebec) or 19 (the other provinces that I am familiar with) which tends to take the drinking out of the dorms into the nearby bars. Entertainment, the presence of unknown members of the opposite gender, and having to pay bar prices for your beer appear to combine to make binge drinking less common in Canada compared to the US, but that might just be an artifact of who I happen to have known. I have seen plenty of serious students on both sides of the border. The slackers do not seem to stick around on either side of the border unless they stop being slackers. Changing a major seems to be quite common on both sides of the border, as does various activities (outing club, chess club, intermural sports, âŠ). I have only gotten to try curling on the Canadian side of the border (in our last attempt my daughter knocked my stone out of the house with the anchor and stuck for a win for her side â and we discovered that curling rinks have a way to make their ice extra slippery).
Larger and well known Canadian universities (McGill, Toronto, âŠ) are somewhat known to have limited âhand holdingâ. If you do not show up for classes or do not keep up with the work then you get to suffer the consequences. However, we toured smaller universities in Eastern Canada, and my younger daughter attended one. She seemed to build a close relationship with some professors and probably had as much guidance as you are going to get anywhere. At one small Canadian university (Bishopâs, in Quebec) we were told a story about a student who had being taking a âlearn Frenchâ class, was doing very well, but did not show up for a string of three classes. The third time that they did not show up, the entire class went out looking for the student. Of course they were all asking about him in French (since it was a French class) which I suppose they could do in the largely bilingual town where Bishopâs is located, even though it is an English language university. I do not think that this would happen at larger universities regardless of whether you were in the US or Canada.
One daughter attended university in the US. Bars and restaurants and stores in the area (Burlington VT) were very aggressive about carding anyone who buys alcohol. Probably at least 4 of the last 5 times I was carded were in Burlington (I do not look like I could possibly be under 40 years of age). In contrast use of alcohol seems to be more relaxed in Canada.
We were told that skiing is a big thing at McGill. Apparently early on Saturday mornings strings of busses are lined up to take the various members of the ski club off to various mountains. Of course, skiing is pretty big at UVM also (and probably some other universities in both countries). This might be more a function of where you are (particularly proximity to mountains and snow) versus which country you are in. However, I think that a significantly higher percentage of Canadians know how to ski (and skate).
And I already mentioned the issue about students in Canadian universities appearing, at least in my experience, to take more classes in their major and fewer classes in other subjects.
I think that this puts Canada somewhere in the middle between US and Europe in terms of the life style on campus.
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Wouldnât a large percentage of university students in Canada commute from home, since Canadaâs population is highly concentrated, and many of the universities are in the major metro areas to make them commuter-accessible?
I can see the value of going to Emory from Canada if itâs affordable for your family. A much smaller student body than any of the excellent Canadian schools. But a UC? That doesnât make any sense.
Iâm Canadian, grew up in Toronto and went to a SLAC in the US. Canada has a few small schools but theyâre really not on the level with the good US liberal arts colleges and I wanted a small school experience.
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This was not my experience (granted housing prices were different then!), most of my friends moved into apartments or rented houses after freshman year. Even the ones who went to school near where they grew up.
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I agree with most of these observations (especially the no hand-holding!) But it is possible for people to develop relationships with profs, especially if they are in Honours and doing research, and Honours students have a great placement rate for grad school at top Canadian and US schools.
48% of McGill students are from Quebec so drinking is not a novelty since they start at 19 and have been able to drink for at least year, and also there is a much more relaxed attitude about alcohol in Quebec. There is, however, a lot of drinking among first-years who live in the dorms, i.e. out-of-province Canadians as well as Americans likely due to excitement at suddenly being drinking age and away from home.
For courses in the major, Canadian universities do require more courses in the major than the US at least in science. Canadian universities also have essentially no âdistributionâ requirements (if youâre doing math, there is no requirement to take English or any other course to broaden your mind.) You do have electives to use as you choose, but if you are admitted IB or with multiple APâs, these credits come out of your electives.
Agree that varsity sports do not unite students at the big Canadian universities. However, at smaller schools, they can: Queenâs University students is much more like a US school in this regard, and is also more rich and white than the typical Canadian school, and the drinking culture is much bigger. At Queenâs students often wear Queenâs merch, something rarely seen at McGill. Greek life is a tiny part of most Canadian universities, different from many US schools.
My brother (a Canadian) also attended MIT for his bachelorâs. The year he was admitted, 3 students from his school (a Canadian feeder school) were admitted to MIT. These days, MIT accepts 3 students a year from all of Canada into their bachelorâs programs. 
(Harvard accepts about 35/year.) Happily, there are great engineering options in Canada, and MIT does take a large number of Canadians into their grad programs.
The OP mentioned Quantitative Sciences, but some responses mentioned CS. Waterloo would not be a safety for CS (<5% admits and 95% average in most admits) but could be for Quantitative Sciences. However, Iâm not sure since the 3.86 GPA is a bit hard to understand; Canadian high schools generally donât use GPA, they use averages, and the cut-off for an A is lower than in the US (in Ontario it is 80).
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