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University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

businessweek.com

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Re: University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

#31

Post by jsnk »

drpgq wrote: post #17
guyzero wrote: post #8

Oddly once upon a time (back in '94) we were a feeder for Canadian high-tech and Microsoft, but very few students ended up in the Valley, at least not fresh out of school. In the intervening 20 years Canadian high-tech has stayed flat at best while the US has taken on more and more Waterloo grads every year. The increases in UW engineering & CS enrollment over the past 20 years are basically all going to the US (in m…

As an Ontarian this is a little sad, although I'm sure there's places in the US where the same thing happens. Certainly though I think companies should think of setting up engineering locations in KW. You can get quality people for way less money than you would have to pay in the Valley.

I wish American software giants would open more offices in Canada. Canadian software industry is still in a sorry state right now, but there's a lot talent in the country. American companies can pay lower wage to Canadian devs than US and they will still attract top talents from other Canadian companies because developers are lowballed hard here.

Re: University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

#32

Post by rohitv »

Oculus wrote: post #24

Does anyone know if companies view soft-eng grads vs. compsci grads from uw differently? The school says it's the same, but I'm hoping to hear some first hand experience. Asking as a prospective undergrad next year :)

Software jobs are usually categorized with soft-eng, compsci, comp and/or elec eng and sometimes even other engineering disciplines. So they most probably don't view them differently. It really depends on the candidate and their capabilities. I have worked at places where the previous coop students were in compsci whereas I am a compeng student. For most of my interviews so far, the other candidates have been from softeng/compsci/ece. Answering as a second year undergrad :)

Re: University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

#33

Post by chollida1 »

guyzero wrote: post #27
pg wrote: post #16

There is something special about Waterloo. We noticed it a couple years ago.

Like all great schools what makes the students great is selection bias. Waterloo has a great reputation, so it gets the first pick of the best students. The great graduates give the school a great reputation. Lather, rinse, repeat. (Not that I'm complaining as I was part of the system and have benefited greatly from it. Co-op is a very, very big deal. But the professors and the school itself is not appreciably differ…

I think its a bit more than this though.

Their co-op program was, and continues to be, pretty awesome. This, IMHO, is what first got the great students to go there.

With university cost only increasing its nice to know you'll be able to pay your way due to co-op.

Re: University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

#34

Post by adamtait »

redthrowaway wrote: post #21
pg wrote: post #16

There is something special about Waterloo. We noticed it a couple years ago.

What's special about UW students/grads, and what do you attribute it to?

I would say that the variability of education quality between Canadian schools isn't that high, but the number of universities isn't great either. Waterloo does try to be more experimental with their curriculum than many other schools, but the real secret is in the co-op/internship program. All Waterloo engineering & (many) computer science students start doing internships in first year and complete 6x 4-month internships before they graduate. This means that you get significant experience before you're cast off on your own, and a chance to test the working conditions at a variety of companies, roles and locations. Graduates are better prepared to hit the ground running once they get their diploma. For hiring companies, they get a low risk 4 month interview. Waterloo also has interns available all year long (not just in the summer months), so they can spread out the minor burden of training an intern. I haven't seen a similar model anywhere else and Waterloo has been doing it for decades.

Re: University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

#36

Post by kohanz »

The funny thing is, at least when I attended UW (early 2000's), is that its domestic profile was not as strong as its recognition in the US would suggest. Many Canadians would mention more established schools such as U of T and Queens before Waterloo.

However, when I went for my first internship in California (NVIDIA, with about 20 fellow UW students), I found out that most people there couldn't name a single Canadian school, but if they could, it was UW.

I also remember a poker dealer in Vegas seeing my friend's iron ring and guessing "Waterloo?".

Re: University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

#37

Post by hatred »

dfrey wrote: post #23
redthrowaway wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's special about UW students/grads, and what do you attribute it to?

It has a reputation for being the best engineering school in Canada, so lots of the best people self-select to go there. Now having said that, I think there is less variability in the quality of education you get between Canadian Universities as compared to US schools. This is mostly based wishy-washy conjecture though.

After working with so many bright colleagues from Waterloo, I knew such an article was bound to come up one day considering they are known so less here in the valley.

Coming from a collegiate programming world, their ACM ICPC record is also pretty top-notch.

Re: University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

#38

Post by pyrocat »

adamtait wrote: post #28

I'm very proud of my time at Waterloo. The school surrounded me great students and (some) great professors who were constantly challenging and rewarding. I wouldn't be the person I am now, and wouldn't have had the same great opportunities had I gone to another school. As always, these stories about 'Canada's hidden talent pool' slide into a discussion about the 'brain drain'. Many of classmates from the class '07 en…

Isn't it pretty hard to get Canadian citizenship if you're American? Like, even with highly sought after skills in tech I've heard it's near impossible.

Re: University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

#39

Post by [deleted] »

kohanz wrote: post #36

The funny thing is, at least when I attended UW (early 2000's), is that its domestic profile was not as strong as its recognition in the US would suggest. Many Canadians would mention more established schools such as U of T and Queens before Waterloo. However, when I went for my first internship in California (NVIDIA, with about 20 fellow UW students), I found out that most people there couldn't name a single Canadia…

[deleted]

Re: University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

#40

Post by cbhl »

Oculus wrote: post #24

Does anyone know if companies view soft-eng grads vs. compsci grads from uw differently? The school says it's the same, but I'm hoping to hear some first hand experience. Asking as a prospective undergrad next year :)

If you want to write nuclear shutdown routines for AEAC, or work on something else safety critical in Canada, there may be a difference. (Strictly speaking, you can get your P. Eng by doing CS, if you take the right set of courses, but nobody in their right mind would subject themselves to this.)

If you want to work on something relatively harmless (buttons on a web page) then it won't matter.

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