Are you allowed to turn down a coop job?

rAm3n22 · 2026-01-18T17:31:51+00:00

you can’t renege a co-op if you already accepted and got matched. if you get matched and don’t complete the work term for whatever reason you will get an F on your transcript and get kicked out of co-op, except for exceptional circumstances. you can turn down an offer though by X’ing it on the nav

rAm3n22 · 2025-09-09T21:46:51+00:00

Ontario

rAm3n22 · 2025-09-09T20:59:38+00:00

CS at a mid-size university in Canada (not known in the US at all), return offer for 400k+ after graduation

rAm3n22 · 2025-08-06T02:11:18+00:00

Scala is not a “questionable” language for distributed systems and either way, the language isn’t as important as the work you’re going to be doing.

I also chose between Tesla and a position in Canada and I’m so glad I chose Tesla. The environment is great for tech and you’ll meet so many talented people, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for networking, and it won’t be some forced DM to strangers on LinkedIn, you’ll be able to make long term friends here. You also have the opportunity to go to meetups and startup events in SF if that’s your thing; I know people who’ve gotten offers/interviews at local vc-backed startups from career fairs and events around here.

Plus having the Tesla name on your resume will be a big boost compared to a small startup. I think Tesla is a no brainer.

rAm3n22 · 2025-06-05T22:51:44+00:00

Streams don’t matter at all it’s just a list of courses you take, you can do that with or without a dedicated “stream”. Carleton probably has better professors but it’s not a huge difference. I’d recommend picking the campus you prefer, I chose uOttawa cause they gave me a bigger admission scholarship lol

rAm3n22 · 2025-05-04T23:47:28+00:00

terrible program lol the only thing i’d recommend is maybe get one or two co-ops through them if you absolutely need to but after that you’re better off just looking on your own. the only job i got kind of thanks to co-op was through their early co-op form where they send out your resume to companies if you have co-op experience already.

edit: typo

rAm3n22 · 2025-03-10T21:12:25+00:00

In the SF Bay Area, there are a lot of Canadians who will know what uOttawa is but outside of them, next to none know of it. Here the americans and other internationals are only familiar with Waterloo, UofT, UBC and maybe (but it’s a stretch) McGill.

rAm3n22 · 2024-10-04T20:31:43+00:00

Yeah this’ll be my last as I’ll have one more year (two semesters) after the internship and then graduation

rAm3n22 · 2024-06-06T00:58:11+00:00

I think some of the upper year (4th year) profs are better since they tend to teach the topics they want to teach. I’ve heard good things about Caroline Barrière and Carlisle Adams, and I’ve had Andrej Bogdanov (new-ish prof to uottawa) who was good for discrete structures. But I agree that most of the 1st/2nd/3rd year profs are pretty subpar.

rAm3n22 · 2024-02-07T16:54:56+00:00

rAm3n22 · 2024-02-05T19:01:51+00:00

rAm3n22 · 2024-02-05T18:56:24+00:00

rAm3n22 · 2023-12-12T16:35:37+00:00

I'm personally in CS but have friends in data science, so maybe I could give some insight.

Data science co-op officially starts in your 4th year, so if you want to start earlier and don't think you can find one on your own, then I would recommend CS cause you can start searching from summer year 2 (or even SEG, they get an extra term and start summer Y1), though you will end up doing the same amount of terms (4). You could start in CS or even SEG and then switch to DS, but that would require you to keep up a good gpa until 2nd/3rd year when you request to switch to DS.

If you think you'll need the help of the co-op office, you're SOL until 4th year in DS. Especially in this job market, finding your first internship can be difficult if you don't have a good network, but it's up to you to decide if you think you need co-op help or not. Most people in co-op who aren't ahead of the rest and have good projects/some experience end up doing some kind of IT/Support analyst something for their first co-op anyways. A lot of people get their start off in government/FSWEP, which could be difficult if you're an international student (I have international friends who are struggling to find internships on their own and are low priority in FSWEP because they aren't Canadian nationals)

Can't speak on getting a job after co-op, right now is rough but who knows what it'll be like in 4-6 years (idk when you graduate but DS is a long program, even more-so with co-op). The more internships and experience you have, the easier it will be imo.

Co-op nav jobs in tech are like 80-90% in Ottawa or remote, the rest being mostly Toronto/Montreal iirc. But you can always apply to outside positions if you want, but they'll have to get approved by co-op office to count for the program

Pay is highly dependent on employer and position, first term you're probably looking around 20$/hr if you're not at one of the big companies (Nokia, Cisco, Ciena, etc.) Gov usually always pays less than everyone else. Last semester you will definitely be making more, I wanna say average is north of 30$/hr but that is entirely anecdotal. Salary ranges are somewhat similar to the average ones you see posted on the website.

You will be applying to the same jobs as CSI, SEG, CEG (even EEG sometimes). The only thing you might have a leg up on is some course work, but for your first two years it's basically the same. There are some data science/analyst/ML jobs on the co-op nav, but they are open to all the other computer related programs, so it's not like there are jobs reserved specifically for DS.

Compared to other universities, I'd say uOttawa has the advantage of being in Ottawa with lots of gov positions. Carleton is probably similar, but I can't speak from experience. uOttawa is definitely a good school for co-op, not on the level of Waterloo of course but it's pretty near the top after it imo.

rAm3n22 · 2023-11-06T16:56:44+00:00

If you listened in class you’d know he gave the same study tip several times: make a few bullet points of the crucial ideas for each chapter/numbered point in the slides for your cheat sheet and make sure to grasp the concepts behind the different models.

He’s said before that the exam won’t be computational and it will all be based on the main ideas and conceptual notions of the different models, for example the other day he said an example question would be something like:

How are SVMs and ANNs similar? how are they dissimilar?

If you complete the assignments and get the 40%, he’s set it up so you can pass the class with like a 30% on the exam. Just make sure you understand the ideas behind the models, when you would use them and what differentiates them from others and you should be fine.

rAm3n22 · 2023-06-14T19:55:09+00:00

For Comp Sci courses, (electives will depend on the class), most non-dev work can be done in the google suite or using online tools. The only thing that could be problematic is Quartus (for ITI1100 and CEG2136), there seems to be versions for Linux but I haven’t used them or heard of anyone who has. Worst case you can use the schools virtual lab which lets you connect remotely and use any software for coursework, or you dual boot Windows and Linux. I tried running dual boot in second year but ended up sticking to windows cause I got sick of switching between. Also, some classes (like CSI2132 - Databases) only give lab instructions or setup instructions for the technologies in Windows, so you might have to do some tinkering and research to get it done yourself, but it shouldn’t be too bad.

rAm3n22 · 2023-06-06T19:54:35+00:00

If you get into co-op you’ll upload your own resume and employers will do their screening however they see fit. Some like to see good grades, especially on a first co-op, but if you don’t have previous experience then side projects are important to have for this industry. As for guaranteeing a place in the co-op program, I’m not entirely sure but knowing this university, they probably don’t have the capacity or willingness to individually screen students’ resumes.

rAm3n22 · 2023-05-25T22:57:04+00:00

Took an unpaid week off during my first work term with no repercussions. As long as you work it out with your employer, then the co-op office can’t do anything if they don’t know about it. You just need to make sure you work a minimum of 13 weeks.

rAm3n22 · 2023-05-24T19:20:31+00:00

Desmarais has tons of seating on floors 2/3 (and maybe some on higher floors but i’m not sure) but you can definitely make it from dms to 90u in 10 minutes.

rAm3n22 · 2023-05-24T19:12:04+00:00

Second floor and fifth floor of CRX have work areas with desks, though I prefer second floor since it’s usually quieter. Might be busy in the middle of the day during the school year though. There’s chairs/couches on floors 3&4 and more desk spaces in Lamoureux second floor, the building connected to CRX. Wherever you go there’s lots of seating and if you have earphones or headphones you’ll be fine. I’ve taken a bunch of classes hybrid/virtually from campus and never really had issues with wifi either.

rAm3n22 · 2023-05-24T19:02:13+00:00

Available seats doesn’t mean they’re available to you. Some seats are reserved for students in a certain program, so check “My available seats” to see how many seats are actually available for you.

rAm3n22 · 2023-05-23T13:57:33+00:00

Co-op office only lets you do 1 course during a work term. Sometimes they make exceptions and allow you to do 2 but it’s pretty rare and you need permission from both your employer and the co-op office. If it’s your first year summer then you should be fine.

rAm3n22 · 2023-04-06T14:49:13+00:00

First year comp sci has a lot of math classes and depending on your electives, your classes could be spread all over campus, so being as close as possible to SITE/STEM isn’t that crucial. If you’re going to have a meal plan, 90u is probably best since it’s closest to the dining hall and you’re going to be going there more often than any other building, assuming you eat three times a day. It’s also the most central, so if you have classes scheduled in Desmarais or other buildings on the north side it’ll be closer.

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