Waterloo University Reputation

Hi everyone, thanks again for all your help with my former question. I have done a lot of thinking and if I have to I will get my Bachelors in History either online or close to home. But I have been wondering if anyone has any knowledge on Waterloo University's "Extended Learning" aka distance learning program? I have checked and they do offer a Bachelors in Classics and I am pretty sure they offer financial assistance (sadly University of London does not) I also am wondering if getting my Bachelors in Canada will hurt me since I live in America really I don't see why this would be but you never know.

 

I live in Canada, in Ontario ... Waterloo has a good reputation, although it is most well known for its engineering/CS programs. The school's campus is literally right beside RIM's headquarters (the makers of those Blackberry mobile devices) so AFAIK Waterloo is known more for the sciences than the arts. But I imagine they have a good arts/classics program too.

In terms of international rankings, Times Higher Education ranks Waterloo 113 in the world:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=438

In Canada, Macleans magazine is the most popular ranking standard. They break Canadian universities into three categories: Medical/doctoral, comprehensive, and primarily undergraduate. Waterloo is in the comprehensive category, and is currently ranked #3 in Canada in that category:
http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/wp-content/uploads/091104g_comprehensive_chart.jpg
... narrowly beating my alma mater

Anyways, if anyone has a problem with doing your education at Waterloo, you can just tell them that Stephen Hawking teaches there
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1000369

 

Thank you for your quick response. Sounds like Waterloo is a great school, I had searched around but didnt find much. I have to admit at first I was nervous about attending a school outside of the US but now not so much. Thanks again.

 

I agree with emmzee that the University of Waterloo has a good reputation, especially in science and engineering. Waterloo also has one of the largest co-op education programs (where students alternate school and work terms) in the world. In addition, Waterloo grads in engineering and computer science are heavily recruited by Microsoft.

The Accounting and Finance programs at Waterloo are also reputable, in that they have forged strong alliances with the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and other accounting organizations. While these programs at Waterloo are not AACSB accredited, their placement record for PhD Accounting grads is excellent:

http://accounting.uwaterloo.ca/phd/alumni-then.html

I must add that it is great to see Canadians on the board. I live in Winnipeg, MB and I graduated from the University of Winnipeg with a 3 year BA in Administrative Studies.

Regards,

Michael Weedon, CA

 

Some distance degrees from U of Waterloo are three year degrees. This used to be standard in Ontario (and some other Canadian provinces) when the high schools had grade 13 (i.e., five years of high school). However Ontario has gone to the grade 12 (four years) model that is standard now in the US and Canada. This means that a three year BA is three years beyond grade 12. I really dont know why they continue to exist.

You need to make sure that your degree is a four year degree (which is sometimes called an honours degree)

Some universities in the US know that Canadian degrees are the same as US degrees and accept them as equivalent. But some are not aware of Canada (beyond the pale!) and will require an education evaluation for grad school.

As for the work world, my brother has a Canadian three year BA in Economics from York University and an MBA from Hofstra University in New York and he never had any difficulty in the NY banking industry. The only problem was the locals kept confusing York University with New York university!

Best wishes----Jim

 

I can verify that if you will be going on to do grad work at US schools, you will likely need to do an evauation of your transcripts to have them accepted by the US school (through ECE.org or somesuch). This was the case when I applied to APU last year. It was just a minor inconvenience and an extra $100 or so expense, so it certainly shouldn't prevent you from earning a degree from a Canadian school. It's more of a formality the school has to go through, you should have no trouble getting an accredited degree from a school like Waterloo accepted in the US as being equivalent to a RA degree there.

 

Thanks so much, especially about the 3 year vs 4 year degree's I didnt know the difference between them and have held out on applying because of that. I think I'm going to give it a shot. I don't understand why the university's around me (there are two community colleges and 2 small universitys) that don't offer any type of degree in Classics I guess its just a fading degree.

 

Actually, I'm surprised that AMU required an evaluation. They appear now not to require it. (Wow, what an awkward sentence!)

See: http://www.amu.apus.edu/admission/international-students/

LilKatie24:do a search here on recommended evaluators so that you can have confidence that they will do a proper evaluation.

I'm going to Tim Hortons for coffee; I can't seem to compose a sentence this morning!

(BTW, if you get a Canadian degree, you have to know what/who Tim Hortons is/was. Yes, it's on the exam. Can you say double-double!)

Best wishes----Jim

Best wishes----Jim

 

Ranked by ARWU between 201-302 in the world, 7-18 in Canada, 100-134 in the Americas.

Similarly ranked US schools include Brandeis, SUNY Albany, RPI, and the University of Notre Dame.

 

Thanks for the rankings Rich