Does the coop makes UWaterloo a better University for Undergraduate then other Top schools in US for CS like Berkeley or Columbia? Wont the employers prefer someone with 2 years worth of work experience then someone with little to no work work experience? Note: I am not looking at the rankings as they are mostly based on Grad school, prestige and does not include Coop in their ranking which would make a lot of difference in Undergrad rankings.
Not sure I would go so far as to say a co-op makes a school better for undergrad CS, but if you have some kind of practical project experience on your resume, that always helps.
CS co op at Waterloo has enormous prestige on its own, but it’s different from attending a US University: few gen eds, intense math/CS. Your life is closer to that of a US grad student. Employers like both, in fact employers like what you can do, not just your University’s name. An advantage of Waterloo if you are laser focused on CS is that admissions aren’t holistic: top scores and grades + CS experience get you in (don’t dismiss the essay and resume questions though as scholarships depend on these.)
Waterloo CS is also very well known by all the big companies. A lot of recruiting cycles also work very well with the co-op program, and it means less competition for working at places like Google in January-April and September-December since most go for the summer internships there.
In general, you’ll need to get experience in CS via internships. Co-op schools can make it easier since you’ll have more experience, not be competing with the summer crowd as much, and have it built into your schedule instead of technically being an optional thing you have to take initiative on.
Versus the schools you mentioned, you’ll be right up there with those, even above Columbia in the book of some. But it won’t matter in the end really.
@MYOS1634 Is the admissions process difficult? I am a sophomore in high school in the US and am taking the most rigorous course load possible at my school. Factors like irresponsibility and going to a completely new school with a completely different environment resulted in a 3.2 overall GPA for my freshman year. However, I’m back on track and well adjusted to high school life now, and got a perfect 4.0 GPA my first semester of sophomore year with minimal effort and am confident that I can maintain a 4.0 throughout the rest of high school. I’ve acknowledged that my freshman year was filled with mistakes that I will never repeat again, but even with a perfect GPA for the rest of high school, my overall GPA will be at around a 3.7-3.85. I know this is extremely horrible for US schools, but downright terrible for Canada schools especially since schools in Canada place more value on grades and are less holistic. Could my poor GPA hurt me less if they notice that all of my low grades occurred during my freshman year?? I am a decent student and know that I can get a near-perfect ACT score (34-36). I’m really worried that such poor freshman grades will taint my entire application and that they will toss it away once they see my GPA. Should I even apply to UWaterloo?
@needtosucceed27 Others have chimed in on some (most?) universities in Canada NOT looking at your freshman year in HS. You would need to check their admissions requirements, but I believe McGill and U of T only look at 10-12 GPA. Obviously that would help you and make you an even stronger candidate in the Canadian system vs US.
@dadinga That is probably the most relieving thing I have ever heard!! Thank you so so much! I was worrying so much about admissions and my grades that I spent probably the past hour or so researching on Canadian universities and grades. I checked the Waterloo admission site and they just require a 90% Grade 12 average. I don’t know how this would translate into a 4.0 American unweighted GPA. That is just the requirement though, but nowhere on their website do they say that they don’t look at freshman year grades.
Actually they don’t consider freshman grades, so you’re good 
https://uwaterloo.ca/future-students/admissions/admission-requirements/computer-science/international-system/american-system/
Don’t be so sure you’re among the top 1% of all students nationally though (34+) - but a 32 will be very good. More important is the level of math achieved as well as prowess in CS.
By that I mean that you should try and work through Art of Problem Solving problems, accelerate in math (through community college enrollment in Calc1+2 or Calc BC; Discrete Math, Linear Algebra a plus); taking AP classes in CS (CS Principles, CSA) and/or community college intro classes in CS and related subjects. There’s a math competition where doing well helps, plus of course USAMO, international Olympiads in math and CS.
The absolute minimum is AP Calculus with a score of 4 (can be AB in 11th grade) and an 11th-12th grade GPA of A-. However this doesn’t make you very competitive.
@MYOS1634 Thank you so much! Does that mean that even if I apply to the University of Waterloo, they will only look at my 10-12th-grade grades and not even look at my grades from 9th grade? I am currently taking AP Computer Science Principles. During my junior year I will be taking AP Computer Science A and AP Physics 1 and 2. During my senior year, I am planning on taking AP Calculus BC, AP Microeconomics, AP Chemistry, and others that I have not picked yet (the courses that I mentioned are just the AP STEM courses I am taking).
They won’t look at your 9th grade grades. Waterloo CS admissions is holistic, but not to the extent that highly selective US schools are. You will need top grades and standardized test scores, but they will also look at your extracurriculars.
https://uwaterloo.ca/future-students/programs/computer-science Check out all the links (they’re indicated by underlined phrases) on that page.
@bouders Thank you! Also, my high school grades students by letter (A, B, C) instead of (A+, A, A-, B+, etc…). This means that when I apply to University of Waterloo, they won’t be able to see my number grades (94, 95, 96). Would that be fine? I saw on their website that if my average grade was 95+ or something like that, I would have a really good shot at getting in, but how would they know how high or low my As are if they can’t see it on my transcript?
@MYOS1634 @dadinga I’d appreciate your advice on the above question too. Thank you all for helping 
We didn’t apply to Waterloo, but both daughters (and I and siblings) applied to other top universities in Canada. As already mentioned grade 9 doesn’t matter at all. One daughter only had letter grades, and the schools were fine with this – she got in everywhere she applied and probably would have gotten in at any English language university in Canada. The applications are on the most part significantly simpler than for schools in the US. For CS at Waterloo with only letter grades, a very large majority of those letters, at least in math and science classes, are going to need to be A’s.
Work or coop experience will be quite helpful. To me this experience, while helpful in getting a job after graduation, is also likely to be very helpful in terms of allowing you to get the most of your education.
I agree with others, between Waterloo versus Berkeley or Columbia if you are getting a CS degree, you are going to get a good job graduating from any of these. Employers will care about what you can do, and will be fine with any of these very good schools as well as any of many other good CS schools.
By the way, with a weak grade 9 but straight A’s after that, you will have a very good chance at any university in Canada. Toronto, UBC, McGill, Queens, McMaster, Alberta, Simon Fraser, Calgary and many other universities also have very good CS programs.
Waterloo gets applicants from all over the world with lots of different grading systems. It’s fine if your school doesn’t give out A+s or percentage grades.
As a US applicant, you should send in your SAT or ACT scores. Waterloo will place a high value on those as well as your grades. If you’ve ever entered any math contests, those will be of value as well. Waterloo has their own series of math contests. They really like it if students take those, especially the Euclid.
Speaking of the Euclid, Waterloo tends to hand out most of its acceptances in May, after the Euclid results come out. They are the slowest school I know of. May is after the deadline for committing to a school in the US, so you will want to have a solid plan B, and C and D.