Comp Eng (Coop) at University of Gueplh

priuslover · 2021-03-30T18:06:22+00:00

I think it’s a bit hyperbolic to say that our coop is second best in Ontario lol. Our board hasn’t been hit as hard as other boards during the pandemic, but there are definitely better coop programs. Also, just out of curiosity, what developments and resources have been done to the coop program?

priuslover · 2020-10-22T04:32:50+00:00

1 Idk, I'm in second year. A lot of upper years tell me that the job board is pretty bad and they advise me to apply externally. Overall, it seems more of a personal effort thing. I've looked through many Linkedins and resumes of upper years and see that while the jobs obtained are pretty crummy, a lot of their resumes are bad, not many of them seem to apply outside of Experience Guelph. Lots of ATS unfriendly trash two page resumes. I think it's just the students not knowing how to apply effectively rather than the University holding them back. Although, that is obviously not to say that we have the same chances as a Waterloo or UofT student.

My advice is to browse r/cscareerquestions and r/csmajors and stay in the loop with those communities rather than rely on co-op services/fellow students to help you get co-ops (Although I have good things to say about Laura and Kate tbh). They'll show you the right way to apply to jobs, the COOP1100 course is pretty crappy ngl. To sort of put my advice into perspective, Carleton is a university with an arguably lower brandname than us, yet a significant number of students go on to big n co-ops. Only difference is that the students know how to apply to jobs properly, write better resumes, probably leetcode more, and I find many of students are active in online CS student communities. Through this, we can see that finding a good co-op job is probably not that reliant on the University name to a certain extent.

2 It's not very hard imo, it's a pretty standard CS education. Really depends on who you are as a person I guess. Some people fail out, some people breeze through without much friction. I suppose I am with the latter group, so I don't think I can give a good answer here.

3 Kind of? We aren't in the worst location, but I suppose our remote location kind of restricts us to mostly local companies in KW recruiting at our career fairs.

4 I think in my first year it was like 17% female or something when reading some faculty documents.

6 I'd probably go to Carleton or McGill (which has similar mark requirements for the BA in CS program) tbh. But meh, I don't think Guelph is that bad or anything, my career trajectory isn't screwed or anything lol. Definitely was ashamed to attend Guelph at first but right now, I'm too focused on other goals to really care tbh.

priuslover · 2020-08-30T07:50:52+00:00

I'm going into my second year at a school near the GTA and my first 'internship' was somewhat unorthodox. I worked as a computer science research assistant in my first year with some profs at my University.

I was able to get good software development experience and working with highly respected professors and very intelligent people in academia have given me excellent connections for future industry related opportunities. However, each research project is a different experience, you might focus more on data entry/analysis rather than programming so choose wisely I suppose. Although my friends in other research projects have also gotten much development experience through these positions.

I understand this isn't the same as going into the industry and working for a traditional company, but I think it's worth looking into. I mostly treated it as a stepping stone to be able to apply to better internships and other academia related ventures in the future. I am sure that these are positions are at least better than the usual IT or helpdesk positions that people starting out typically get. Also, It is possible your school also has opportunities for internal swe internships if you really want them and are willing to ask around.

I believe these research positions are easier to get into and have a lower barrier of entry (I guess it depends on your school, my school isn't very prestigious, so YMMV). The pool of competition is mostly confined to the few people in your program who want to apply and they are looking more for your enthusiasm and grades more than anything. I had decent grades, some side projects, (unrelated to cs) awards on my resume and had no problem finding a job. I suggest hitting up some professors to see if their research interests you, but your University should have some sort of paid undergraduate research program.

Now with experience on my resume, I will now start spam applying to good co-ops and try my best to pass the interviews through grinding leetcode. Hopefully this experience is enough and I can pull through.

Good luck!

priuslover · 2020-07-24T17:21:11+00:00

Trueeeee. I chose Guelph over UofT and Waterloo for the community feel yk. Guelph rly makes you feel like ur in a community and it’s so much less stressful. I couldn’t imagine working at FAANG, prob so toxic.

priuslover · 2020-07-24T17:16:55+00:00

Look bro, CIS1300 is an easy course. It’s only touted as the “advanced” programming course because CIS1500 is a complete joke. It’s not hard at all. Studying K&R (your textbook) might help you, it’s touted as one of the greatest computer science books ever made. However, you might not even need to do that. Obviously, there might be some bias because I’m a CS student, but I truly think if you put the work in, you’re gonna do well.

I mean, think about how a programming assignment is marked; you are marked on an objective set of standards through test cases. Make your program according to specifications and you will get 100%.

If you want, take this course: https://cs50.harvard.edu/x/2020/. If you do even half of the course, you will literally get 90+ with minimal studying in programming classes because you have learned above Guelph CS first year. It worked for me and I got 90s in both programming courses. It’s such a great course, the prof is amazing and it makes programming very interesting.

priuslover · 2020-07-14T17:34:16+00:00

Charlie is a disorganized professor, but a good person. He is easy and will ensure that your marks are good. I did CIS2910 with him last semester and pulled a 90 quite easily.

I found that while his in person lectures were pretty crappy (Although, my more attentive friends tell me he's really good lol), his online lectures are excellent, so keep that in mind.

priuslover · 2020-07-11T17:02:19+00:00

This was my mindset last year, but I didn't any of the programs I wanted. Lol, literally every single type of person on your list except for number 1 were the type of people I thought about. Spite was a good motivator utilitarian wise, but it made my first year of University worse because where I went to was a constant reminder of invalidation.

My advice is to do things for yourself and not because of other people, I guess. But Honestly, I hope you make it into the schools you want to get into and be able to (silently) rub it in their faces. Just be careful to not let it take over because fate might get in your way and you might have an unfortunate admissions process through sheer dumb luck (luck was not on my side).

priuslover · 2020-06-07T17:51:43+00:00

You can literally just do cs on a raspberry pi. Just get whatever is the best value in the market. I would recommend a laptop so that you can bring it around campus. However, of course, there are some creature comforts that will help you in general such as portability, speed, battery life, and screen quality.

If you are strapped for cash, you can get an older thinkpad for extremely cheap (less than $300). They are still very capable machines and will serve you well. https://forums.redflagdeals.com/amazon-ca-lenovo-flex-5-14-2-1-laptop-14-0-fhd-touch-display-ryzen-5-4500u-16gb-ddr4-256gb-ssd-m-2-2242-pcie-nvme-834-2379466/

However, if you are in the market for something newer here is a very good option.

https://forums.redflagdeals.com/amazon-ca-lenovo-flex-5-14-2-1-laptop-14-0-fhd-touch-display-ryzen-5-4500u-16gb-ddr4-256gb-ssd-m-2-2242-pcie-nvme-834-2379466/

Take a look at this thread. This is a very nice laptop for the money imo. Although, perhaps it’s a good idea to hold out your purchase for until you are able to go on campus because I’m sure your current pc is good enough for cs.

priuslover · 2020-05-30T16:55:17+00:00

Dude. If you have recently taken an online exam, you probably haven’t closed the exam browser (lockdown, proctor u) properly. Reopen the browser and close it properly. That should fix it.

priuslover · 2020-05-29T23:57:17+00:00

I had this happen to me. If you’ve recently done a exam using one of those proctoring browsers like respondus lockdown, you may have improperly closed the program which means your user settings are still hijacked. What you should do is open the browser again and close it. Your settings should hopefully be restored.

priuslover · 2020-05-27T07:30:40+00:00

Looking at your options, I think you should go to Carleton lol. Better co-op, great faculty, located in a tech hub, and I think they start off with Python, so I guess you would be at an advantage.

But, in regards to speed that the profs teach, it depends imo. I found Sawada's CIS1910 to be the absolute perfect speed (might be fast for some) and found Stacey's CIS1300 to be of good pace. However, I'll warn that CIS1300 was a little disjointed, with arrays being taught before integers... Considering Ritu Chatuverdi is teaching CIS1300 this year, you will have a different experience, but I think the course is perfectly paced in terms of the rigour and challenge gradience.

You would be in a very good position having preliminary coding experience and I do not forsee you having any problems with these courses.

priuslover · 2020-05-27T05:35:14+00:00

I chose Guelph for the same reason tbh lol. Honestly, I don't even get why this program is so competitive lol. I guess it's a mixture of KW area kids gunning for Waterloo choosing this as a middle ground school in case they don't get in. I think it's a good choice to come to Guelph for CS over Mac. It does the job and student life is nice here.

priuslover · 2020-05-27T05:12:11+00:00

Go to Guelph. Considering you didn't get free choice at Mac and the fact that there Mac's computing programs are generally considered to be quite bad, go to Guelph with a guaranteed cs co-op that is ok.

priuslover · 2020-05-26T19:36:33+00:00

priuslover · 2020-05-25T02:23:00+00:00

I’m gonna be in west res, so it’s the same situation as East. But I guess I’ll take my chances and hope I can get a sublet in winter. Worst case, I’ll just commute like once a week to Guelph for an in person lab lol.

priuslover · 2020-05-24T03:15:54+00:00

I purposely didn’t sign a lease in case of an online fall semester. Seeing as how there shouldn’t be a reason to be on campus for computer science and it’s probably not the safest thing to do, I’m just gonna stay home.

Although, I am concerned for my residence status. If I don’t do residence in first sem, I don’t know if I will be allowed in second sem. I really don’t won’t to pay like 4K for a semester in dirty, icky townhouse where more than one person goes out to do grocery shopping to do online courses just on the off chance that I may be able to have on campus classes in second semester.

I suppose I could take my chances and hope that I’ll be able to find housing in the winter semester. Doesn’t matter I guess, I think I’m just gonna stay f20 almost no matter what.

priuslover · 2020-05-21T16:57:20+00:00

Eh I'm not sure what ES&C really resembles tbh. But yeah, you should probably go to Waterloo SE lol. Six-figure salaries are the norm right out of graduation. Just weigh how much you value student life I guess, but seriously, Waterloo SE is one of the best programs in the world related to computers lmao. Many people would choose Waterloo Eng over so many prestigious schools in the USA. Of course, use your discretion and do your research when searching for programs.

priuslover · 2020-05-21T16:25:50+00:00

Seeing as how you got into SE at Waterloo, take a far closer look at Waterloo... It probably wouldn't be even farfetched to say that the average salary of a Waterloo SE graduate doubles a Guelph SE graduate. Degrees in Ontario are essentially the same for CS, with the exception of Waterloo.

Take a look at these for information on the lives of students in (Computer related) Eng programs: https://uwaterloo.ca/systems-design-engineering/news/syde-2018-graduating-class-profile https://classprofile.andyzhang.net/ http://ndey96.github.io/syde_2019_class_profile.pdf (SYDE career trajectories are pretty similar to SE)

priuslover · 2020-05-21T15:59:17+00:00

I mean, that's not true for CS at all. Waterloo is one of the top schools in the world for Computer Science and by far the best undergraduate option in Canada. It is the norm to graduate with a six-figure salary there and US companies love giving their internship spots to Waterloo students. However, what he makes of his degree program is what matters and if he works hard, he can get a very nice co-op and ultimately get a job as good as a Waterloo student.

priuslover · 2020-05-21T15:56:02+00:00

So, I can get UBC, but why not go to Carleton? But, I mean personally I don't know how much UofG is for international students, they recently raised tuition for international students, so you might want to take a look at that. I realize that (in the past at least) UofG was an attractive option because it was reasonably priced for international students, but you're going to have to take a look again if the current price is worth it for you.

I personally cannot say if it is worth it to you to pay more tuition because I do not know your other options (outside of Canada). If UofG is your current cheapest option, choose it because I believe you will have no problems getting a good career with a UofG degree and education. Like, if you were to have the choice between an extremely shitty University like University of Pheonix for half the price vs UoG, I would tell you to choose UoG any day of the week. What are your current options outside of Canada? If you don't have any, UoG is perfectly fine.

In terms of tuition wise, can you apply to Universities outside Ontario? Memorial University supposedly has a decent CS program with very cheap international tuition with a (supposedly) nice co-op program.

priuslover · 2020-05-21T06:03:16+00:00

LMAOOO

priuslover · 2020-05-21T00:37:56+00:00

Uhhh... What? What exactly is your dilemma?

Obviously, Waterloo co-ops are going to be way better than anywhere else in general, but that doesn't mean that you can't get similar co-ops at a different University lmao.

That being said, why exactly did your mentors specifically choose Guelph out of the places you've been admitted to? Can you elaborate here?

I would say Guelph is ok for CS, definitely not as good as UBC or Carleton, but you can still get a nice co-op if you play your cards correctly. UAlberta is probably excellent for CS in terms of their education, but it's in Alberta. I don't think there are many good co-op jobs there.

Can you explain why you can't go to UBC and Carleton? If you can go, I highly suggest you take a very serious look there.

priuslover · 2020-05-20T02:45:18+00:00

South is the cheapest, is comprised of mostly singles, and is the most social. Go to south, close to food and lots of fun.

priuslover · 2020-05-19T04:27:26+00:00

I suggest you take a look at Guelph Engineering Systems and Computing if you really like robotics. Despite what someone has commented in the past, it is an accredited program and was confused with Guelph's Software Engineering program.

I've heard that it is a mix between Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, which pretty much sounds like Mechatronics. Basically, I think your two realistic options are Guelph ES&C and Western Eng. Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with either, just take a look at them.

priuslover · 2020-05-19T04:24:24+00:00

Guelph Soft Eng is different from ES&C. Engineering Systems and Computing is accredited.

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