York U - toronto

Society Business and Career
1

any of you guys or girls know any input on what York has been doing to promote the enjineering program they’re launching off this year? (since it never did have one from before) i’m wanting to know if they took really big, high expectation types of steps whether or not they believe that the enj program might be a huge success.
i know comp sci is pretty big there - what about engineering?

i do know that what they’re doing is if you have a fairly good avergae from oac’s you’re open to receive a lil’ scholarship from them. but that happens with quite a few univs as it is.

has is it been talked a lot about by the high school guidance councellors / york_representatives coming in and trying to seduct you with whatever they can from this new program of theirs??
or has it even been issued a lot in the media , and stuff??

i’d appreciate any info on this. thanxs.

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2

k ... I did a little research when I was graduating from HighSchool and had to choose a University.

York is excellent for business kind of stuff, infact one of the best in Canada. However when it comes to Engineering, well simply put it sucks!

They just started this new Engineering program this year and want to build a good repute. The OAC avg for acceptance to say Comp Eng is around 85% which a lot lower then UFT (89%) and University of Waterloo (93-95%).

Seeing that the average requirement is so low. You can expect 85% type student body and thus in that sense that sucks especially if ur avg is alot higher.

Aside from York, Western Ontario University aslo started their Engineering program this year. The put a lot of money into this department. When they sent me acceptance the booklet had a customised CD with my name on it! But again their acceptance avg is also low around 80%.

If you are wondering which Universities I applied to well:
1. Universtiy Of Waterloo (Comp Eng) accepted
2. University Of Toronto (Eng Sci) accepted
3. Queens University (Comp Eng) accepted
4. Western Onatrio University (comp Eng) accepted

and I choose Waterloo above all cause they had the best repute and had coop

hope this helps

To do in life is to appreciate it. To live life is to lose it. I dont know what I am saying so I will stop saying it.

3

finally someone replies !!!

hmm i thought western had the enj program during the 2000-2001 year as well , maybe even earlier.

btw, 85% for oacs required in enj is nothing low or avg about it ..
there have been many peeps in waterloo with those kinda marks who're in the same program,
in queen's,
and also in uoft.
and i suppose other extra cirricular stuff like atheletics, or student council, etc.

alright. so from what i take it, york hasnt' really had as much of an influence on students to apply to the new program of their's then? alright.

4

I am not too sure about the system of accreditation in Canada.. but in states if the university is accredited for offering the programme there is a good chance that it will be decent.

as for new departments. or universities puttin fair amount of money into new departments .. it can be a great benefit as you may get newer equipment - a must for engineering courses - and hopefully good professors.

You would need to check who the course lecturers and professors are and their standing in the field - i.e. whether they have been pried away from other unis and what research they have done/ are doing.

a lot of the time when new departments are set up the university bends over backwards to ensure they help the students out as much as possible... as it reflects on their image.. as once the students graduate they will be the ambassadors for the university.

as for having lower grade requirements.. sometimes it works out better for universities because the students may not be book worms and would be more accepting of different way of teaching.

Engineering courses are changing rapidly to reflect the actual working environment. even old universities are chaging the way they teach and examine students.. with more group projects rather than examinations.. as it represents how the students will apply the knowledge instead of parroting it on the sheet of paper at exam time.

this ofcourse does not bode well for students who are good at momorising things and sovling problems but lack novel application or bad communication or who cannot work in a team environment.

you will have to do more research on how they will teach the courses/ examine the students/ the links they hav set up with the industry - not the normal questions a student asks.

whatever decision you make.. remember one thing.. here is what was said by our dean of engineering at graduation convocation.

"we have taught you the way to approach the work you will do and how to solve problems .. now in the outside world you will learn "engineering"'

5

I think I gave the wrong impression when I brought in the concept of marks. What I meant was that its relatively easy to get an 85% mark in OAC (I would know this cause I just graduated and know the situation) but as I hope most of you know the higher percentage you want the harder u have to work to attain it. It is exponential in nature ... going from a 90% to 92% is sometimes as hard as going from a 70% to 80%.

So wat I mean is that people who have high marks generally are alot more capable then people who dont (remember I used the term generally not always) and as such are more likly to benifit themselves and their peers in the university level.

As for the new program; yes the money that goes into them is really good for getting equipment, more resources etc. However in a way you are gambling becuase you have no idea how the reputation of the new program will be when u graduate and go out there for a job.

As for the ppl with 85%avg in Waterloo and UFT, well I dont know wat programs you were reffering to but unless the case is really exceptional this is very very rare in Elec/Comp Eng (I am assumeing thats the programs u wanted know about in York).

The other thing I noticed is that people generally assume that if you have a high avg you are a book worm or nerd. Frankly, thats not true I know many ppl (myself included) who tend to do well in school and still go out, participate in sports etc (me being captain of our schools soccer team, member of the local soccer club, being the schools webmaster, doing a partime job, and being one of the oragnizing member of our schools muslim club)

about York ... well as far as business program is concerned, York is admired by ppl. However, the following are a laughing stock of students generally as far as engineering is concerned:

York, Windsor, Western, LakeHead, Nippising.

not to say they suck or anything. Its all about the reputation.

To do in life is to appreciate it. To live life is to lose it. I dont know what I am saying so I will stop saying it.

[This message has been edited by AekKella (edited August 12, 2001).]

6

hmmm decision time eh...
aah I remember fours years ago... same situation - should I go to Waterloo or should I go to U of T.

Decided on U of T after some research about the programs, opportunites etc.
Just graduated this year with a Software Engineering Specialist from the Dept. of Comp Sci.

Engineering and Comp Sci programs at U of T and Waterloo are farily competitive. If you've done some research then you'd know that both institutions beat each other in different competitions and categories of rankings.

York, I can't say anything about the engineering program. I'm going for my MBA in September and York was in my list of Universities I wanted to apply to. They're very good in Business programs. Unfortunately yet again they didn't have the program I was looking for - a technically oriented MBA for which now I'm going to McMaster to do my MBA E-Commerce and Info Systems.

Aphridite, what I can suggest is take a look at different aspects of the program.
Check out the type of courses you will take at Univ. A if you were to pursue Program X, and what would you take at Univ. B if you were pursuing the same program.
Secondly, in a program like Eng. or Comp Sci, is the Co-Op program.

Again, one of the resons I selected U of T was because of the PEY (Professional Experience Year) program where you get to work for a company for a long work-term 12 or 16 months. This is in contrast to the conventional 4 month co-op where companies complain that 4 months is hardly enough to train the individual. I learnt a lot in that PEY year, perhaps one of the best features of the U of T program.

Finally, my choice was endorsed when I was selected for the NCSA scholarship last year... the profs there said that I was studying at the nation's best school.

So the decision is not very tough at all if you look at the top ranked schools for a particular program.
U of T, Waterloo for Eng and Comp Sci
York, Western Ontario, Queens for Business
U of T, McMaster for Life Sciences
etc.

Hope that helps.

Cheers.

7

great.

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thanks guys.