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University of Waterloo: Silicon Valley's Canadian Feeder School

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

#131

Post by dclusin »

pokoleo wrote: post #75
pg wrote: post #16

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

Cribbed from a recent Quora answer of mine: The Waterloo (CS/Eng) intern ecosystem is immensely strong. First year students generally work at the best companies that they can, often taking smaller startups where they are able to learn the most. There's a steady transition to final co-op terms, where most classmates end up working in Silicon Valley, Redmond, NYC, and their own startups. It's a great place to be if you…

RIT has a pretty good coop program as well.

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

#132

Post by ppymou »

DrSbaitso wrote: post #126
reso wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having done > 70 interviews in my time at UW, most companies don't understand or care about the difference between Soft-eng and CS programs. I'd highly recommend CS over Soft-eng, unless you like pain.

That may be true, but for a Canadian a big advantage of taking software engineering is that it makes it much easier to work in the US later. An engineering degree lets you easily qualify for the "engineer" category of the TN visa, but with a CS degree it's considerably harder.

I don't think it's that much harder as CS can easily apply under the computer analyst category for the TN visa.

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

#133

Post by jrsmitchell »

BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #96

This is anecdotal but one of their students once told me that Waterloo puts more emphasis on mathematics compared to other universities. It's not that students there necessarily take more math courses but that most courses try to integrate math and teach the mathematical aspects of their material, even courses outside of science. Their wikipedia page states that "Waterloo created the first Faculty of Mathematics in N…

Waterloo does have a strong Math tradition. But further to that, for a long time the Computer Science degree at Waterloo was a specialization under their Bachelor of Mathematics degree. So you had to fulfill all of the requirements of the Math program and graduated with a "BMath". You were also offered interesting minors like "Combinatorics and Optimization" where you would get deep into Cryptography, Graph Theory and so on.

I can't say how it compares to other schools, but certainly many of my memories of CS at Waterloo were working feverishly through difficult math assignments so I could get back to the lab. ;)

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

#135

Post by abrichr »

herge wrote: post #80
memracom wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hear, hear. Google really needs to take a hint from BufferBox. If they can set up parcel delivery sites everywhere, what about setting up small to medium sized offices in every major city so that people don't have to relocate to work with them. Start with Vancouver. Mozilla has an office here in Vancouver and near as I can tell its only function is so that local people can work close to home on one or another of the…

Google has debs working in Montreal and Toronto.

Got a source for this? All I know about is the marketing office, where Hinton now works some months of the year since the acquisition of DNNresearch. [1]

[1] http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/google-buys-university-of-...

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

#136

Post by cbhl »

FD3SA wrote: post #120
pg wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just how good they are. They have a different attitude from students from elite US universities. More practical, less arrogant. I'm not sure whether it's a Canadian thing or a Waterloo thing though.

Having attended UWaterloo's CS program as well as other institutions, in addition to completing many courses from elite US universities (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, etc.), I've come to an interesting conclusion. Elite US schools have an unparalleled reputation built upon hundreds of years of pedigree, and as such, there is incredibly fierce competition for entrance. Once you are admitted to an Ivy, the hard part is behin…

> completely new exams and assignments, while making sure previous years' materials are not released

This seems absurd. Both MathSoc and EngSoc maintain exam banks, which students can (and do!) contribute to. Professors release past midterms and finals to help students prepare all the time -- assuming they think they're relevant. (Sometimes they're not -- the accreditation boards and curriculum committees shuffle stuff around every few years to keep up with du jour trends in education.)

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

#137

Post by gdilla »

eumenides1 wrote: post #100
theorique wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely agree. The co-op program actually increases time to degree a little bit (three terms), because a “normal” 4 year university degree is 1/3 summer term, while Waterloo students alternate co-op term and academic term after their first two terms (I’m glossing over some details, but this is more or less how it used to work). A = academic; S = summer (most universities); C = co-op (Waterloo) Most unis : AASAASAA…

I went to waterloo, I wanted to add a little more insight to your comment. the system you gave is correct, but there is a little nuance to it. when you are on your academic term, around midterm time you have to find your job for the next term (assuming you don't continue your previous term's job). so during midterms you are studying like mad and interviewing like a pro to make next term work. its not easy, but you be…

This. Thought i was smart in high school. Got the highest score in the descarte math course. Went to waterloo and got my ass whooped. Always below average. My time at Waterloo made me feel dumb. I mean, things were just effortless for them. I was just a late bloomer, I tell myself.

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

#138

Post by redthrowaway »

throwaway1979 wrote: post #67
memracom wrote: post #45

Former Waterloo student here... It's a shame that more Waterloo folks don't stay in Canada and build their businesses here. Unlike when I was at UW, nowadays there is plenty of investment money available in Canada and significant tech hubs in Vancouver, Toronto and Waterloo itself. Not to mention the fact that even in less major Canadian cities (or the US Midwest) there actually is a tech scene happening and people a…

Every time I've looked into it in detail, I feel Canada's VCs/angels are essentially bankers. Too much risk minimization going on (at the expense of the entrepreneur). What I find is a travesty is that the recent govt of Canada investment in developing startup activity will most likely go to these glorified bankers to help them further reduce risk. Look at how much YC has spent on its startups ... my memory might be…

You're right on the money. Bay St likes resources, not startups. The company I'm currently working for was started by a couple of fresh UVic grads in 2005 and they went through 60 VCs before they found one who both had a worthwhile network, and seemed legitimately interested in funding a startup that had positive cashflow from day 1 and partnerships with tech titans.

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

#139

Post by bzmwillemsen »

pyrocat wrote: post #38
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.

It's not hard at all to become a Canadian citizen.

You can even move here to start a startup on our "start up visa program" http://www.cic.gc.ca/ENGLISH/immigrate/business/start-up/ind... Then work your way towards citizenship.

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

#140

Post by minwcnt5 »

ppymou wrote: post #132
DrSbaitso wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true, but for a Canadian a big advantage of taking software engineering is that it makes it much easier to work in the US later. An engineering degree lets you easily qualify for the "engineer" category of the TN visa, but with a CS degree it's considerably harder.

I don't think it's that much harder as CS can easily apply under the computer analyst category for the TN visa.

CS grad here, I've obtained multiple TN's and it's no different. You just have to avoid telling the agent that your job involves "programming". It's just a technicality really, the language was drafted at a time when terminology was different.
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