The program provided matched exactly to my expectations. The university has a good reputation not in just rankings but also in terms of good profs. This was also fitting into my budget as other comparable universities in US are approximately double the cost.
Course Curriculum
Highly Academic. You will have to learn 80% of the course yourself and not expect Profs to teach and spoon-feed you. That being said there are a lot of resources, including profs themselves to help you on that. Every question gets answered and Profs take time and confirmation of understanding before proceeding. There will be a pressure of assignments and there is no like getting answers from the internet. One will have to invest time and mental effort to complete those.
Exams
IELTS 7.5(Listening - 7.0 Reading - 8.5 Writing 6.5 Speaking 7.0) GRE 311(Quantitative- 159, Verbal-152, AWA - 3.5)
Placement
There is a huge demand for all the subdomains of Engineering as a whole. Specifically for software/IT, the waterloo region is known for startups as well as big companies who hire uWaterloo grads with good pay. For research, there is always an open door for doing Ph.D., even if you are currently in a non-research-based program. There are few department-specific pre-requisite that needs to be met first.
Fees
Tuition is approx 14,000 CAD for my program per term and you can finish the program in 3-6 terms depending upon the number of courses you take per term. For full-time students, they can take min of 2 and max of 3 courses per term. For the degree to be completed, you need to finish 8 total courses. The 14,000 includes tuition, for campus fees and student health insurance.
Faculty
Profs are very helpful. You can reach out to them anytime(there are tools to do that) with academic or personal problems and they can guide well. They often consider the request of late submissions with a valid reason. Highly knowledgeable faculty who have achieved and achieving a lot in their respective domains.
Campus Life
The has been very limited access to the campus infra and resources because of covid-19 but it was enough to add excitement for the students. There are reading-pods/world-class labs/ libraries/ hang out places and what not.
Hostel
On-campus housing is obviously the best option if you can afford it. If not you can get a single room for $550-700 and 2-sharing for 350-450. Housing near the university is mostly advance booked for up to 2 semesters, so students can choose to live a bit far which is less expensive but adds up the traveling time. You get free unlimited public transport within the waterloo-Kitchener-Cambridge region on your university card.
