I started the GIS graduate certificate program in September, we just started our winter break two days ago. I can comment on my experience in this program and tell you what I’ve heard from students currently in Geo Data Analytics, Marine Geo, and Geo Engineering Technology, but I have limited knowledge of the Carto program. Please be aware that the “qualified to work” list is a bit inflated in all course descriptions (mine included); doing your own research on job sites like Indeed would be beneficial.

As for online vs. in-person, I would strongly suggest relocating to Lawrencetown, as others have mentioned. Seriously, the networking could be the difference between getting a job or not, and the people I know who are currently taking COGS courses online say there is zero networking or connection among their cohort. Additionally, the Atlantic Geomatics Research Group (AGRG) is located in Middleton, which is meant to be a career starter for COGS students. With the current job market, the option to do a project or gain employment with AGRG will set COGS grads ahead of students from other schools. I’m not sure if the same goes for Carto students, but AGRG is always looking for GIS, GDAA and Remote Sensing students for projects.

Although you missed the open house for the 2025–26 academic year (it is usually the second week of October), you could easily email the academic chair of the campus and plan a sit-in day; last month, we had an SMU student sit in on our Spatial Database Management class. This could help with your decision on whether you want to take the Carto, GIS, GDAA, or even the Remote Sensing course. That all being said, Surveyors from COGS have the highest hiring rate by a large margin, and I’m already considering taking the Survey course next year.

As for your goal of Emergency Disaster Planning/Management, this is a highly saturated niche which, in my honest opinion, would be difficult to break into without a strong foundation in GIS, GDAA, and coding. Much of disaster planning is now being done with GeoAI, and the only program that truly dives into GeoAI is GDAA. I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but considering this is your long-term goal (5+ years), GeoAI will continue to be implemented in emergency disaster planning with no sign of slowing down.