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yg17

macrumors Pentium
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
My college supposidley offers a good study abroad program. The cost is relativley the same, they make most of the arrangements for you, and credits transfer over. From what I've heard, it's as easy as filling out some paperwork, and then attending the other college. I've been interested about doing it since before my first day of classes my freshman year, and would love to spend my last year or 2 elsewhere. Not only would it give me a chance to get out of this hell also known as the middle of Missouri, it would give me a chance to see another country's way of life (although I don't think Canada is that much different than the US)

The reason I'm thinking Canada over somewhere else, is, I don't have to learn a new language (well, I wouldn't in England either, but read on) and it's someplace close enough to home (reasonable driving distance, no paying out the ass for international flights home) and someplace where I can take my car with me, yet far away enough from the hellhole where I currently am.

The thing is, I have no idea where the hell to go if I was to do this. My major is Information Science and Technology (info about what it covers here) and I don't know what colleges in Canada offer a good IT program and where they're located. And I don't want a city where I'll freeze my arse off year round, and relativley close to the US border.

And one more question, are terms up there the same? Like is a Bachelor of Science degree called the same thing north of the border? Do you guys call them credit hours, or something different? This is just something I should probably know as I research this.


Oh, I guess I should clarify, I'm looking for a 4 year university. College and University seem to be interchangeable in the US, but from the 30 seconds I spent poking around the internet, they don't seem to be the same up there.
 

CanadaRAM

macrumors G5
Close to the border and not freeze ass off .... Hmmm.

University of British Columbia in Vancouver
Simon Fraser University in Vancouver
University of Victoria in Victoria
Royal Roads University in Victoria

Don't know who has the best IT program -- SFU is probably seen as more liberal arts, UBC and UVic are pretty straight-ahead Universities, Royal Roads is much newer and focussed on business - IT and MBA type courses.
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
CanadaRAM said:
Close to the border and not freeze ass off .... Hmmm.

University of British Columbia in Vancouver
Simon Fraser University in Vancouver
University of Victoria in Victoria
Royal Roads University in Victoria

Don't know who has the best IT program -- SFU is probably seen as more liberal arts, UBC and UVic are pretty straight-ahead Universities, Royal Roads is much newer and focussed on business - IT and MBA type courses.

Those colleges are definitley on the far end. I was thinking more along the lines of Toronto or Winnepeg as far as proximity to st louis. of course, nothing is ruled out. I'll drive for 2 days if I get to have this opportunity.
 

CanadaRAM

macrumors G5
yg17 said:
Those colleges are definitley on the far end. I was thinking more along the lines of Toronto or Winnepeg as far as proximity to st louis. of course, nothing is ruled out. I'll drive for 2 days if I get to have this opportunity.
OK, Winnipeg would definitely not pass the "not freeze your ass off" critera. We don't call it Winterpeg for nothing, man.
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
CanadaRAM said:
OK, Winnipeg would definitely not pass the "not freeze your ass off" critera. We don't call it Winterpeg for nothing, man.

I checked out Winnepeg on Wikipedia. Your average temps seem to be the same as St. Louis, if not warmer in the winter months, but we're not covered in snow from November to March.
 

Stampyhead

macrumors 68020
Sep 3, 2004
2,294
30
London, UK
yg17 said:
I checked out Winnepeg on Wikipedia. Your average temps seem to be the same as St. Louis, if not warmer in the winter months, but we're not covered in snow from November to March.
I think Wikipedia must be wrong then. I was born in Winnipeg and lived there as a child, and I remember it being very very very cold. It's not uncommon for it to be -20 or -30 in the dead of winter. If you're looking for a place in Canada where you won't freeze I think Vancouver is really your only choice. McGill University is Montreal is supposed to be good, but the winter is quite cold.
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
What about York university in Toronto? Putting climate aside for a second, is it a good university? Based on a quick browse around their website, it seems good, but it's not enough to make a decision
 

CanadaRAM

macrumors G5
yg17 said:
What about York university in Toronto? Putting climate aside for a second, is it a good university? Based on a quick browse around their website, it seems good, but it's not enough to make a decision
York has a good reputation, as does U of Toronto - don't know specifically about their IT programmes though. You might also check out Dalhousie in Halifax NS - it's a maritime climate, so milder but can be wetter and stormy.

See if you can find a Macleans magazine with their annual issue where they rate Canadian universities competitively with each other. http://www.macleans.ca/universities/

According to them, University of Waterloo is worth looking at for computer science.
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
my wife and i have entertained the idea of BC...like many americans have i am sure :)

but i would have to think carefully on that one since i want to go into labor/employment law for the second half of my working life and i can't do that with an american law degree so i would have to have a commonwealth law degree, the LL.B, which is very similar to an american law degree, but both country's law degrees, in almost all cases, do no count in the other country

but thanks to the internet, british and commonwealth citizens can get a us law degree over the internet and us americans, or anybody else for that matter with a computer, can get a commonwealth law degree, like the LL.B and others, from the university of london

for associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees, i think both countries respect one another so you should be ok on that one

i think an american engineer simply needs a degree in engineering to be an engineer, but a canadian engineer has to also pass a field test, which i heard is very difficult, and only some forms of engineering, and not software or network engineering *even with advanced degrees in those two, can call themselves an engineer in canada...the us is far more relaxed on the term "engineer" and some engineers don't have their bachelor's in engineering and some forms of american engineers only have an associate's like a recording engineer, who in california can make great money...i knew a guy who had his associate's in recording engineering and made good money recording some band called metallica...but in canada, he could not be called an "engineer"

-jef,
former network engineer
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
One thing I noticed about York, is tutition for me, an international student, is the same price, if not cheaper, than what I pay at a public university in the states, as a resident of the state (cheapest tuition, out-of-state is a lot more)

Is there a catch I haven't noticed, or is education just that much more affordable up there?
 

pseudobrit

macrumors 68040
Jul 23, 2002
3,416
3
Jobs' Spare Liver Jar
Stampyhead said:
I think Wikipedia must be wrong then. I was born in Winnipeg and lived there as a child, and I remember it being very very very cold. It's not uncommon for it to be -20 or -30 in the dead of winter. If you're looking for a place in Canada where you won't freeze I think Vancouver is really your only choice. McGill University is Montreal is supposed to be good, but the winter is quite cold.

Harvard is the United States' McGill.

To the OP: You live in the middle of the US. Reasonable driving distances except for maybe the GTA (which is still 800 miles away) are out of the question. You're going to have to fly if you want to regularly return home. Which means you might want to think about leaving your car in MO or selling it. Which is no big deal because Canadian cities typically have functioning examples of mass transit. Thanks to vast networks of subways, you could possibly travel all over Montréal or Toronto, do shopping, see a movie, and get to class without having to go out into the cold once.

You won't freeze your ass off the whole year 'round in Canada unless you find a University north of Nunavut on some sea ice.

As far as tuition goes, education is heavily subsidised with taxes and I'm sure there must be residency requirements.

As an aside, Montréal puts something in the water that causes 98% of all women to be really, really ****ing hot.
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
pseudobrit said:
Harvard is the United States' McGill.

To the OP: You live in the middle of the US. Reasonable driving distances except for maybe the GTA (which is still 800 miles away) are out of the question. You're going to have to fly if you want to regularly return home. Which means you might want to think about leaving your car in MO or selling it. Which is no big deal because Canadian cities typically have functioning examples of mass transit. Thanks to vast networks of subways, you could possibly travel all over Montréal or Toronto, do shopping, see a movie, and get to class without having to go out into the cold once.

You won't freeze your ass off the whole year 'round in Canada unless you find a University north of Nunavut on some sea ice.

As far as tuition goes, education is heavily subsidised with taxes and I'm sure there must be residency requirements.

As an aside, Montréal puts something in the water that causes 98% of all women to be really, really ****ing hot.

800 miles is reasonable to me. I've done 2000 miles round trip in a weekend. ;) Its too far to come home for a weekend, but for week long breaks and whatnot, it's reasonable to me.
 

wozzlewoozle

macrumors regular
Jan 3, 2005
138
0
sarkoland
Well, winterpeg... Yes it can be cold here. However it is one of the sunniest cities in Canada. In Vancouver it is warmer I (nor can any sane person) argue that, but it is often overcast if not raining.

As far as schools go I would look into Waterloo (birthplace of the blackberry). They have had one of the more advanced computer engineering/computer science etc. programs in Canada. I am unsure as to where they may rank at the moment, but they have tended to be ahead of the game.

Just as another tip, those MacLeans university rankings are not necessarily the best way to decide upon a good school. Looking at specific departments/faculties and different criteria result in very different looking rankings.

Best of Luck.
 

maya

macrumors 68040
Oct 7, 2004
3,225
0
somewhere between here and there.
pseudobrit said:
Harvard is the United States' McGill.

And:

(USA) MIT = Queens University (Canada) ;) :)

There are others however since the poster is focused on Ontario, why not throw it in there. ;)

You have o factor many things such as, cost of living, currency exchange rate, climate, taxes, etc...

It might seem cheaper as in dollar wise to study in Canada, however it also means that you will be far away from your family in the states and other little things that you have grown accustom to.

Its a personal call in the end. :)
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
maya said:
It might seem cheaper as in dollar wise to study in Canada, however it also means that you will be far away from your family in the states and other little things that you have grown accustom to.

Yeah, I know I'll be farther away, and will come home less often (right now, coming home is a 90 minute drive) but I'm willing to do this. My sister has been in NYC for the past 5 years (undergrad and now law school) and it has worked out fine for her, and NYC is further away than, say, Toronto
 

maya

macrumors 68040
Oct 7, 2004
3,225
0
somewhere between here and there.
yg17 said:
Yeah, I know I'll be farther away, and will come home less often (right now, coming home is a 90 minute drive) but I'm willing to do this. My sister has been in NYC for the past 5 years (undergrad and now law school) and it has worked out fine for her, and NYC is further away than, say, Toronto

Remember that if you plan on going to any of the big universities in Toronto, that competition will be very very stiff, and I do mean very stiff. UofT is a great school as well as Ryerson, York U, and some others in the surrounding GTA (Greater Toronto Area).

One of my friends was taking the Computer Science at UofT and he said it is very very challenging, same went for another of my friends who went to Waterloo. The first year in Waterloo is mainly refreshers (as with many universities) and they start an "introduction to Java" during the last semester of the first year. :)
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
I'm not doing Comp Sci (been there, done that. Bored me more than watching paint dry). I'm IT, which is a little bit of everything...programming, web design, databases, server admin, networking, and a lot more
 

maya

macrumors 68040
Oct 7, 2004
3,225
0
somewhere between here and there.
yg17 said:
I'm not doing Comp Sci (been there, done that. Bored me more than watching paint dry). I'm IT, which is a little bit of everything...programming, web design, databases, server admin, networking, and a lot more

Then "Ryerson" is the university for you. :)

Located downtown Toronto, near the Eaton Centre. All the best. :D
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
maya said:
Then "Ryerson" is the university for you. :)

Located downtown Toronto, near the Eaton Centre. All the best. :D


Thanks, I'm looking into that one as well.



I love how on all of the residental life pages, on the list of "What not to bring" alcohol is nowhere to be found. That's like the first thing on the list here at UMR (not that that stops anyone from drinking in the dorms ;))
 

adroit

macrumors 6502
Sep 28, 2005
271
134
Victoria, BC
I would stick to the universites in the comprehensive or doctoral level in the mcleans ranking.

Other than that, I find that anywhere in the east is cold. BC is probably the only place in Canada to live if you don't like the cold weather and we do have good univeristies around here.

Never look at the annual average temperature because there are places in canada that would be -40c in the winter and +45c in the summer and have the ave temp about +15c.... that doesn't mean that it isn't cold! You really have to look at what the temp are like in each month.

Most universities wouldn't have the IT program though. Usually they are much more specific and would offer com sci instead. Plus, I don't know why you would want a degree in IT anyway, it's too general and train more towards system administrator. You might want to consider computer science or computer engineering instead then you'll get to work w/cutting edge technologies. If you really want to go into IT you might have to look at 2 years college programs instead.
 

Leareth

macrumors 68000
Nov 11, 2004
1,569
6
Vancouver
Hmm
Vancouver is definetely your only choice if you want mild winters.
The is one school nobody else mentioned BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology), they have stuff you are interested in but no exchange program
SFU on the other hand has both,getting in as a third or fourth year is easy, first or second have at least a 85% average, at UBC it more like 87% (93% for sciences) Tuition is not too bad... I thought exchange worked that you oay youre fees to you home university while atteniding classes at the exchange school? Be prepared for the cost of living here though, it is considered one of the most expensive places to live in Canada...:cool:
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
adroit said:
Most universities wouldn't have the IT program though. Usually they are much more specific and would offer com sci instead. Plus, I don't know why you would want a degree in IT anyway, it's too general and train more towards system administrator. You might want to consider computer science or computer engineering instead then you'll get to work w/cutting edge technologies. If you really want to go into IT you might have to look at 2 years college programs instead.

in silicon valley, IT and IT management are the only high tech sector jobs that have not been outsourced in a big way to china, taiwan, india, and yes, canada

still in this day and age, organizations still do better with an on site IT manager and/or system engineer/administrator so it remains the last important high tech job an organization cannot outsource

when i first entered high tech seven years ago, there was little or no talk about programmers outside of the united states, and brick and mortar seemed like an old concept ready for the trash heap...and amazon.com was going to buy out borders ;)
 

rickvanr

macrumors 68040
Apr 10, 2002
3,259
12
Brockville
Western University in London, Ontario is a stellar school. McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario is also very good. Also, Guelph has a fairly good reputation as a party school. All three are in the Southern Ontario region.
 

adroit

macrumors 6502
Sep 28, 2005
271
134
Victoria, BC
jefhatfield said:
in silicon valley, IT and IT management are the only high tech sector jobs that have not been outsourced in a big way to china, taiwan, india, and yes, canada

still in this day and age, organizations still do better with an on site IT manager and/or system engineer/administrator so it remains the last important high tech job an organization cannot outsource

when i first entered high tech seven years ago, there was little or no talk about programmers outside of the united states, and brick and mortar seemed like an old concept ready for the trash heap...and amazon.com was going to buy out borders ;)

Yes, you are absolutely right about the outsourcing part.

I was just thinking more along the line of the development and cutting edge technology, but I guess that is more or less just a personal preference. From what I've observed about high tech industry, your best bet right now is probably going with software engineering with embedded system option because the reason why india/china are able to accelerate so fast in the computing/programming industry is because the subject requries very minimal equipment (you only need a computer to get through your whole degree) and because they're "usually" much harder working people and ask for less pay compares to North Americans it is not surprising why they are an attractive choice for outsourcing. The way I see it is that if you are planning to get a high tech degree right now.... try to get one that you'll need to work with lots of expensive equipments!

Anyway, that is just how I feel but it could be because I just like to develop something. It really help with the self esteem to have a product that you can say that you're part of the people who developed it. Also, the reason that I mentioned embedded system software engineering is because I am actually in 3rd year Electrical Engineering and we have co-op program where you go to school for 4 months and work for 4 months w/o any summers off. Other than my first co-op job, my other co-ops so far has been in embedded system software R&D which is really a computer science job. However, you'll need to have a good understanding of embedded system and that is what most computer scientist doesn't have. There's tons of job postings and no one to fill them in.
 

desenso

macrumors 6502a
May 25, 2005
797
1
You shouldn't view a foreign language as an obstacle - you should view it as a challenge, a way to improve yourself, and something incredible to put on your resume for the rest of your life.
 
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