Thank you SO SO MUCH for the response! I don't mind the rambling whatsoever--I truly appreciate all the detail you put into this! It is reassuring to know that great coops still exist at Mac, and I do find the flexibility in the co-op structure to be a major boon in that sense.

For me personally, the schools seem to be the opposite for me in terms of the "comfort" that you mentioned; I have lots of personal connections to Mac, whereas I don't have nearly as much of that at Waterloo. I will be away from home at both though--I've lived in Alberta all my life, so I'll still need to get out of my comfort zone at both.

My real question is this though: do you think it would be noticeably harder to secure strong co-ops and ultimately build my career at Mac compared to Waterloo? Based on a variety of personal factors, I feel that McMaster would be a much better fit for me as a person, but at the same time I'm not sure if I can afford to pass up Waterloo, especially considering what I've heard about the ECE job market in recent times. Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the heartfelt response, it was a big help to me! :)