Hi everyone, I have been accepted at the University of Toronto, Waterloo, and queens, at the faculty of arts and sciences. I plan to study political science . Can anyone share with me your opinions of the three ? I heard UT is very tough and difficult to graduate. Is that true. For Waterloo, I heard there is a co-op program, but I don’t think I am enrolled in the program. Is there a co-op program for political science majors at Waterloo ?
Much appreciated!
Congratulations on the great acceptances!
While Waterloo has AMAZING STEM co op, I’m not sure about pol sci so I can’t help you there.
However it is general knowledge that Waterloo isn’t as strong in the humanities as it is in the STEM fields.
Toronto is a great option!
You’re in a major city with top programs so you have everything going for you. However you’d do well you consider ‘fit’. Toronto is infamous for its ‘weed out’ courses and less school spirit and big commuter population.
Queen’s also has a very well regarded pol sci department and imo will give you the best balance. It has good programs, collaborative curriculum (highest graduation and retention rate in Canada), great school spirit and community. However, it wouldn’t be the most diverse school of the three (Toronto wins there hands down) you would also have to consider whether you’d like to give up the huge ‘prestige’ of Toronto (though queen’s is prestigious af as well)
Best of luck!
The “very tough” reputation at U of T doesn’t really apply to humanities courses, it’s more for the STEM courses. Waterloo is extremely strong in STEM, but not so much in humanities. It’s definitely the weakest of the three in that regard. It also has a very strong co-op culture. Most students will spend 4 months at a time on campus and 4 months off. Summer will have as many co-op students on campus as fall and winter terms. It’s also the most competitive and weed out of the 3, imo. But again, that mostly applies to the STEM classes.
The biggest differences between the campuses will be ethnicity and housing. Queens is not very diverse at all. Waterloo is heavily Asian, because of the emphasis on STEM. U of T is more diverse, but with a slant towards Asian students. At Queens, students who are not in residence will share a rental house with a group of friends. These houses tend to be quite old. At Waterloo, many students live in 5 bedroom apartments that are leased by the bedroom. Waterloo seems to have the most residence space though, so you can have a spot in residence throughout your career if you want. U of T (as like the others) guarantees a spot in residence for first year. After that, most students move out to share a house, rent an apartment or condo, within walking distance to campus (usually 2-3 bedroom) or move back home with their parents.
Check on the requirements to stay in your program and residence for each place you’ve been admitted to. Different colleges at U of T have different thresholds to stay in residence. Trinity lets you stay as long as you like as long as you have a 3.7 GPA. Other Trinity students can enter a lottery for a residence spot, but only if their parents don’t live in Toronto. Other colleges are simply first come first serve. For academics, U of T has a simple GPA threshold to not be put on academic probation. I think it’s 1.8. It’s easy enough to stay above there if you put some effort into your studies. D16 is at Waterloo - part of her program is in the math faculty and she has to maintain an average >60% for her math classes (equivalent to about a 1.7 GPA) which isn’t too hard. But she’s also partly in the arts faculty where she must maintain a 70% for her arts courses (equivalent to about a 2.7 ) GPA.
The campuses are very different. Waterloo is kind of an outlying suburb of Toronto. It’s 60 miles from Toronto, but there isn’t good public transportation to Toronto.The university continues to build new buildings. Most of them are in the brutalist style of architecture. U of T rarely build new buildings. The campus hasn’t changed much in 40 years.Some buildings are 150 years old and are ivy covered. It’s in the heart of Toronto, which is very vibrant. Queens is 150 miles from Toronto, halfway between Toronto and Montreal. Because it is halfway between those 2 cities, it has good bus and train service between the 2. Queens is in Kingston, which has more of a small town feel.
UT has developed an excellent international reputation, and rivals McGill as the top rated university in Canada. But I suppose it is going to be about what kind of student experience you want to have - Kingston, the college town, Waterloo, a university research center, or Toronto, the business and cultural capitol. UT is going to be a little more expensive when housing costs are considered, unless you live in the GTA and commute. Poly Sci/Int Relations at UT is very highly ranked, 24th worldwide.
Kingston is a small ( 125,000) but historic city on the St Lawrence river. It has an older eastern feel.
Any Kitchener/ Waterloo ( it’s a twin city, or even a triple city if you throw in Galt) resident would bridle at being called a suburb of Toronto. It has always been seperate. I’m guessing the population is around 250,000. It has sort of a Midwestern feel.
Toronto is a very large city, and U of T is in the middle of that.
Both Queens and U of T will be very good. Not sure about Waterloo. It will be decent, for sure. Maybe better than that.
@bouders wrote
You can take GO Bus from U of Waterloo to the TTC Subway at Kipling and from there take the subway or buses all over Toronto. You can also take the GO bus to Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga and then transfer GO buses to Toronto. Greyhound also runs buses from Waterloo to Toronto.
@gwnorth Do you have a link to the GO bus to Kipling schedule? I can’t find it on the GO schedules. The transfer of buses at Square One turns a 60-90 minute trip by car into a multi hour trip by bus. It’s not convenient imo.
@bouders, it’s funny I can’t find it now. Alternatively the Go Train from Kitchener goes to Union, and you can take the GO Bus from U of Waterloo to the Milton GO Station (though the trains on the Milton line don’t run as frequently as those on the Lakeshore line).
I don’t think any transit option is going to be as convenient as going by car, but given the congestion on the 403/QEW/Gardner transit could be faster some times of the day.
I am a current student at the university of toronto art and science faculty. I DO NOT recommend UOFT at all. The classes are super big for you to hear or learn anything. Professors do not care about students its just their research or uoft income. School is super expensive. I have tons of classmates that either got depression, left school. Unless you are a genius and can live with no social life you could survive UOFT, otherwise I dont recommend it. Make sure you research well before entering any university and do not make the same mistake as people like me.
go to queen’s
I live in Canada and I would suggest to go to Queens or U of T. Waterloo is known for their engineering and computer science programs and aren’t well known for political science.
U of T is huge. In 2016/17, it had a total enrollment of 88,766 consisting of 70,728 undergrads and 18,038 graduate students. U of T has three very different campuses which attract students of varying quality. When evaluating U of T as an option, it is important to understand what campus and college you have been admitted to.
The original post was from last April. I would imagine that the member has made his choice by now!
@marmoos how many students are in politics science classes? Is it true that there are hundreds of students in the first two years at UOT till one selects a major.