Hi! I applied to UofA (Computer Eng), UofC (Software Eng) and SFU (Eng Sci - Comp Eng)
-Which one would you recommend and why?
-I know about the rankings and prestige of these three, but rankings are subjective, could you give me your own perspective of these universities if you’ve been to them?
Also, I applied to UBC but I might not be able to afford it.
GPA: 97%
-Got accepted to UofC
These are all very good schools.
Housing will be expensive in all three locations (and worse out near UBC). You might want to take a close look at the programs that each school offers to see which one fits what you want to study.
I’ve lived in/had family live in all of those cities. The cost of living in Calgary and Edmonton is significantly lower than Vancouver/Burnaby. The cities and campuses are also very different from each other. Calgary and Edmonton are heavily influenced by oil industry. Edmonton is near the oilsands, Calgary has all the company headquarters. Vancouver is a very international city and probably has the most software industry of the 3.
In my opinion, the quality of education and opportunities at most universities in Canada is very similar. All of your choices are large research-heavy universities where the undergrad population is 20-40k; freshman classes will be 100-300 people per section. You get out what you put in at schools like this - any opportunity you want: research, mentorship, internships, extracurricular clubs/teams, student government, adding a minor, advanced graduate-level classes, etc. are all out there, but you have to be the one to look for them and to persevere at joining in and becoming fully involved in them.
At my corporation, for student/entry-level hiring, we care way more about how someone did in school and their previous work experience & demonstrated skills rather than what school they went to. As a caveat, I live in Western Canada where attitudes are a little different than out East. But of your 3 choices, the difference in reputation isn’t that significant.
What’s important to you in your university experience?
@geraniol Thank you for your reply!
What I care the most is the quality of education and the co-op (that will provide me a really great working experience so I can be prepared for a job). UAlberta seems to have a 95% graduate employment rate and 5 co-op terms which are really attractive for me, UCalgary has a 91% employment rate but it has just a 16 months internship in just one company (or that’s what I’ve heard which I’m hesitant) and SFU has a good reputation and competitive fees, but they don’t have software engineering; instead, they have comp eng (which is related but not software focused like UAlberta’s Comp Eng with Soft. Option).
I could have applied for Waterloo, UBC and UofT but I don’t see myself getting a huge scholarship to afford the tuition that’s why I chose those alternatives.