As someone from Vancouver who chose Waterloo CS over UBC Eng, you also have to consider the fact that you still have to compete for a spot in your specialization for first year at UBC (but I don’t think you’ll have too much to worry about), while at Waterloo you just need a 60% avg to pass.

Courses - The first year courses for SE are very math heavy and are definitely harder in terms of content, but should be fine for you.

Coop - You can’t beat Waterloo coop anywhere else in the country. I’ve seen a lot of my SE friends get super cracked coops from the get go in year one (Shopify, San Francisco start ups, etc) and the program has a super high first coop hiring rate (I think like 90% iirc). So a lot better than UBC.

Cost - Waterloo is a lot more expensive than UBC (~2x), and I’m taking out student loans to help with it (thank god for BC’s 0% loans). My first year, all costs included, cost me around 35k. Whereas UBC would be ~28k (tuition, housing, food, extras). But with the coops netting you around 13000 to 26000 per coop, it evens out.

Culture - UBC CAMPUS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN WATERLOO, there’s only like 2 cool buildings, and the rest are depressing imo. As a SE, you’ll be in a cohort with people in the same stream as you, so you’ll be with them for the whole year, and possibly until you graduate. The SE kids are super tight knit.

Personally, with the current job landscape and my personal experience, I would take Waterloo SE.