The Invention of Waterloo (Canada’s Technology Triangle) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Invention of Waterloo (Canada’s Technology Triangle)

#71

Post by potatolicious » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 7:51 AM UTC

ekosz wrote: post #66

potatolicious wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UW engineering tuition is through the roof now. It's so bad now that I'm not sure what I would've done had I had the unfortunate luck of being born 3-4 years later. Breaking even with co-op is out of the question for a lot of students, though it still helps a lot. After all, without co-op, for most UW engineering programs you're now looking at $40-45K tuition + living costs + supplies/books... A $80-90K loan is not a…

Is that per year or for the whole degree? I was living in Waterloo and the students I talked to were paying $5-$15k a semester. To put that in perspective for an American, at RIT I was paying $40k a year + all of those living expenses.

That's for the whole degree. Waterloo engineering is $10-12K per year at this point for just tuition. Stack living costs on top...

Definitely not as bad as the Americans have it, but education is starting to approach unaffordability, and it'd be a shame if we had an American-style system in Canada.

Re: The Invention of Waterloo (Canada’s Technology Triangle)

#72

Post by bryanlarsen » Fri, Jan 13, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

shazow wrote: post #8

reso wrote: post #2

In my opinion, the engine of Waterloo's success is the university's unique co-op program. UW operates on a four-month rotating co-op system, each student does four months of school, then four months of internships, repeat for the duration of their degree. Many of us land in the Valley, or NY, or London, and bring what we learn back here. Most of my friends have multiple google/facebook/valley start-up internships on…

Funny, I came here to say the exact opposite--how the four-months-at-a-time thing doesn't make any sense to me because I've always experienced the vast majority of learning during the 4-12 month range of my employment periods. University of Toronto (my alma mater) does 18 month coop terms which make marginally more sense to me. I'm generally anti-coop for people who would have no trouble finding a job when they gradu…

"I've always experienced the vast majority of learning during the 4-12 month range of my employment periods."

I've had 4 4 month co-op terms and 1 12 month co-op term as well as 5 full time jobs since graduation. In every single case I learned more in the first 4 months than I did subsequently.

Re: The Invention of Waterloo (Canada’s Technology Triangle)

#73

Post by bryanlarsen » Fri, Jan 13, 2012, 5:44 PM UTC

wwhchung wrote: post #51

jbarham wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $100k base salary in Waterloo adjusted for cost of living would be like an $180k base salary in Mountain View. Um, no. Even though SV is a high-cost location in a (relative to the U.S.) high-tax state, personal income taxes are still substantially higher in Canada. Housing might be somewhat more in Waterloo than in SV, but the net take home at the end of the year would still be higher. Assuming you're married and c…

Actually, here are the 100k tax rates for Waterloo, Ontario, Canada vs. SF, California: Waterloo: 26% Federal + 11.16% Provincial = 37.16% http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html San Francisco: 28% Federal + 9.3%x(0.72) State = 34.7% http://www.efile.com/tax-rate/federal-income-tax-rates/ https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/catxrate_exmpt07.shtml Once you get above 174k/year, it's sill similar, with: Waterloo:…

"If you're working at a startup, Canada may even be more advantageous because of how capital gains taxes are treated on privately held CCPC's"

This is huge. Read as "the first $750K of your startup windfall is tax free".

Re: The Invention of Waterloo (Canada’s Technology Triangle)

#74

Post by reso » Fri, Jan 13, 2012, 8:58 PM UTC

karamdeep wrote: post #46

reso wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadian VCs suck, no question. That's why most good Canadian start-ups have investors from the valley.

Most Canadian start-ups that have investors from the Valley also have investors from Canada.

This is true, but they're usually local angels, not VCs.