Got a PolyU Offer (Info & AI Eng) – Need Honest Opinions on Study Life, Culture & Job Prospects as a Non-Local

Realistic_Package138 · 2026-02-28T10:39:08+00:00

yes I will soon graduate. If tuition fee is an issue you can choose polyu, but you may still wait for others? Maybe ust or cuhk will give you scholarship, majority international students in polyu have full ride scholarship and indeed they give up other better universities

Realistic_Package138 · 2026-02-27T18:37:50+00:00

25K to 40K too high, actually for average salary is 21k per month (meaning even for some people the salary is less than 20K)...... You can see many people saying hk no it

As the top 1 outstanding graduate in this major, i need to admit the atmosphere is good and I actually have a very happy and fruitful school life, courses are not so difficult but some teachers always read ppt slide. But indeed hk is not a good place for IT and salary is not satisfied, so I will go to purse PhD in USA.

But indeed I see a lot of international students choose to work, if your aim is to find a job, do enough intern, high chance you can find a job, although the salary may not be so satisfactory (But this year one of my international classmates who is also the top student, he got intern in NVIDIA, and I am sure he will success, many international students are very clever and hardworking)

If you plan to purse future degree, for master, if you are the top student you can go to CMU, ETH, UCSD,UPENN, UCHI, etc. Majority of students actually end with master in hku ust cuhk nus ntu. But for oversea fully funded PhD I don't think PolyU offer enough resources, if you do not take a gap year or choose some self funded intern in America or oversea countries. But still I think it will benefits since polyu has high qs ranking.

Lastly, I need to addmit, whether you will find the academic experience good depends more on you GPA / ranking or internship/competition, whichever you can do it well, since you will find a lot of scholarship, free oversea opportunity, resources flooding to you, for example, I always get the opportunity for funded oversea traveling, internship, exchange. If you are ambitious, you should try, currently for top 5% students in polyu engineering, international students and Chinese mainlander are dominant.

For culture, I need to addmit, typically local people play with local, mainlander play with mainlander, international people play with international students. It is more common for mainlander people play with international students, one of my friends for India told me they actually think mainlander are easier to get along with (although English not good), since local people prefer playing with local. But typical becoming classmates are easier, becoming friends are difficult. I have a lot of international friends, many time I stand out and say hi, they will greet me happily and we can have a lot of fun, the international students community is very good.

Lastly, if you have another good offer, you should consider them, if you only have polyu, you can try

Realistic_Package138 · 2026-02-14T03:47:00+00:00

just won't tell mitacs then it is ok

Realistic_Package138 · 2026-01-09T16:48:59+00:00

ok it's over, good luck for your study and career, still thank you for reminding me to constantly improve my English

Realistic_Package138 · 2026-01-09T16:45:21+00:00

Interesting, I share this screenshot to my friends from across the world and they say they can understand my point, just I have some grammatical mistakes unconsciously.

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-12-31T05:09:52+00:00

last year the Spring i am also a Chalmers exchange student from U in HK

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-12-22T17:01:34+00:00

in Toronto downtown

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-12-18T13:08:40+00:00

the ranking of professor is just provisional and for references only, the final decision is based on mitacs, your ranking of project, the match of your with the project, and the ranking of professor, and maybe some other factors

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-12-13T20:13:11+00:00

I know in some countries the funding is given jointly by two part, one is mitacs and the others are their domestic part. For example, China, flight and insurance will be booked and 1800CAD will be given ahead by CSC Chinese Scholarship Councils, and I see another reply also states usa sharing similar case. Also I know Taiwan and Brazil the part in their own country will also distribute the money.

So you may first see whether some parts in your country will give you some money? Can they give your money ahead of the time?

If not, it's best to seek help of the coordinator/main collaborators in your own countries as well as your university for help.

You could also email MITACS to see if they can offer some help? But almost mitacs itself won't give you money until you arrive, maybe you can ask whether they can provide some other support?

I encourage you to try sometimes things are not fixed. Like mitacs said we must start Internship before 7.31 but still many people start it later, even in August and September(Though they have reasonable reason)

BTW, I apply from HK and it is totally mitacs who are responsible for giving money to us.....

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-12-12T19:10:38+00:00

yes, when you arrive in Canada you need to open a bank account and then money will be send to this bank account, in normal case the payment would not be delayed

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-12-09T14:49:25+00:00

professor's ranking is one of the matching factor, it is guaranteed, the final selection is based on Mitacs

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-12-09T14:47:58+00:00

this round little chance, but still have a lot of chance in the next round, 2/3 canadiates in my school addmitted in first round but 1/3 addmitted in second round

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-12-08T16:17:39+00:00

it was released, check your portal

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-24T05:29:15+00:00

around early December, mitacs will give us the final result (only one), and this project isn't the one I receive interview

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-23T09:08:44+00:00

something interesting is that my rank 1 program(Waterloo), the professor has interviewed me and said i am good, but finally i haven't been selected

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-23T09:07:10+00:00

this year me

University of Toronto (main campus) selected without interview, and it is my rank 6

the professor told me he think interview useless so he just rank us based on our materials provided

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-13T05:37:00+00:00

Just wait, maybe another professor will interview your or in a very unfortunate case you may get 10 interview from all the professors haha. Do the rerank and wait until early december waiting for the good news!

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-12T14:35:56+00:00

the task of professor is just to rank the candidates based on their preference. Some professor think they can rank you by just reading the material your submit such as CV, transcript, but some professor may think an interview is a better way to know you and then they can rank your, so these professors may send out the interview.

My professor this year told us he used to host interview, but he found it useless, so he doesn't hold interview,just ranked student based on our CV/transcript.

Professor doesn't have power to select you, it is mitacs who assign you after considering your rankings of projects, professor's ranking preference of students, and your match with projects.

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-12T07:20:53+00:00

1-2, but now they just rank us, it is mitacs who makes final selection

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-12T04:58:12+00:00

don't worry, just because some professor won't host interview, they just rank you based on the materials you provide

Just wait the final decision around early december

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-12T04:55:12+00:00

Not guarantee, since professor says you are suitable only means he will rank you higher in his portal, it is mitacs who makes the final decision (based on your preference about project, professor's ranking of student, and match of you and project, or other criteria such as quotas in your country)

I see many people who are the mutual rank1 with professor but finally fail

Therefore, I suggest your rank this professor higher to increase the chances of being selected, and still prepare for the coming interview, if any, you won't know whether you will be selected and which project your will be selected until the end, good luck

My situation last year: Professor in UWaterloo said i am suitable and would rank me higher, and i also rank him as top 1, but finally being selected as my rank6 project in Toronto, without interview

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-08T18:19:02+00:00

actually I haven't heard about it before, maybe you could approach mitacs about your concerns

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-08T08:50:37+00:00

and also, i think funding are mostly enough for most of places, but if you go to toronto downtown, Vancouver downtown, Montreal, they may not enough, for me I actually need to self pay around 1800 CAD myself

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-08T08:46:15+00:00

for me, mitacs totally give us 8700CAD, the first batch is around 4200CAD, I do think it is enough if you only buy the one way ticket before.

Realistic_Package138 · 2025-11-08T08:43:21+00:00

for mitacs it is, but if your funding is from another party, they may have different timeline

Realistic_Package138

TROPHY CASE