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Waterloo or Toronto for Computer Science

Hello all, I am an international student and considering Toronto or Waterloo as the place to spend my next 4 years. I would like to get some opinions regarding these 2 choices for studying computer science. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Reply 1

ChemistBoy

16

I doubt you will find much informed opinion on here. For what its worth I have heard Waterloo is an excellent university.

Reply 2

fundamentally

15

Jacques

Hello all, I am an international student and considering Toronto or Waterloo as the place to spend my next 4 years. I would like to get some opinions regarding these 2 choices for studying computer science. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Waterloo is probably the best Canadian university for computer science.

Coherent ( a commercial precursor of Linux ) was created by Waterloo students
Watcom, the highly regarded C/C++ compiler was from Waterloo
So was WATFOR the Fortran compiler.
And of course the widely used Maple is from Waterloo.
Student teams from Waterloo have traditionally done well in the ACM programming contests and in the international functional programming contests.

In addition, Mike McCool ( yeah, that is a real name ! ) at Waterloo is doing state of the art GPU meta programming and shader algebra.
See
http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~mmccool/
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/gpu_gems_2_home.html
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568812299/104-8722048-0183152?v=glance&n=283155
http://libsh.org/people.html
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040716/mccool_02.shtml

Reply 3

feanor

Sorry for hijacking but I'm quite confused in deciding between Waterloo maths over Imperial maths. Waterloo is cheaper and offers me a scholarship whereas imperial is very expensive. What do you all suggest?

Reply 4

Jacques

OP

Hello feanor_telamon, they are both great choices for math. You may know that UW's Faculty of Mathematics is the world's largest centre for education in the mathematical, statistical, and computer sciences. I am not sure if it is that true. But in my opinion, if you are a British, go to Imperial because it's in your home country. Otherwise, UW's math is a better choice, especially for computer science (at least one of the best in the world). Moeover, if you want to study co-op math/computer science, pick UW definitely. Actually, many international students always prefer studying in NAmerica than any other place in the world no matter what the subject is. Hope these help.

Reply 5

digitalparadox

1

Waterloo is better. Check out this article:
http://www.macleans.ca/universities/article.jsp?content=20051114_115664_115664

Reply 6

Derek_The_Hamster

3

UM... if you read the article, it's a Canadian article about Canadian league tables, including the comment "the University of Waterloo is once again Canada's top academic institution". It may or may not be better than Imperial at maths, but that article doesn't say anything either way.

(It does say it's the largest though, and 4k3 students does sound a lot if it's accurate and not including other fields etc bunched under a broad heading of maths)

Reply 7

"Hurricane"

12

Toronto ranks better overall. But in computer related majors, Waterloo is a better choice. 2 of my friends got offers from both toronto and waterloo to study comp engineering, both chose waterloo!! Hope that helps.

Reply 8

Jacques

OP

Thank you. But one of the greatest advantage of UW is co-op. How about if I do not want to do that?

Reply 9

feanor

@ jacques, thats the same situation I am in. Even without the co-op, I think you should go for waterloo. Its definitely more reputed for its comp sci course than toronto.

Reply 10

feanor

Jacques

Hello feanor_telamon, they are both great choices for math. You may know that UW's Faculty of Mathematics is the world's largest centre for education in the mathematical, statistical, and computer sciences. I am not sure if it is that true. But in my opinion, if you are a British, go to Imperial because it's in your home country. Otherwise, UW's math is a better choice, especially for computer science (at least one of the best in the world). Moeover, if you want to study co-op math/computer science, pick UW definitely. Actually, many international students always prefer studying in NAmerica than any other place in the world no matter what the subject is. Hope these help.

I'm not british, and that's why I'm considering waterloo at the moment, mainly because of the job prospects for foreigners.

Reply 11

Jacques

OP

feanor_telamon, if you want to work in NAmerica, go to UW. But again, either of them is a good choice. Also, try to think about the different living environment and culture in different country. Which one do you prefer?
The problem about me is the fact that UT is a more research-oriented, more comprehensive and larger school, which I enjoy.

Waterloo or Toronto for Computer Science

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