Schools Which School Should I Choose: Waterloo or UofT for Mathematical Physics?

[physicsfreaktor]

I've been accepted to waterloo and uoft, but can't decide between the two. I plan on majoring in physics and both schools have an option for specialization in mathematical physics. Anyone one have any ideas on which is ultimately the better school?

 

[vincebs]

Definitely UW, the environment and people are more friendlier there, and they have more courses during the summer due to the co-op students.

U of T's "Mathematics and Physics Specialist" program has too much emphasis on pure math, you will be taking subjects that only mathematicians and the hardest-core theoretical physicists care about.

I really regret going to U of T, should have gone to UW instead. Who cares about the "reputation", at least for undergraduate. Here in Canada the two most important things to get into grad school are GPA and reference letters. Doesnt matter how hard your program was or what you got on your GREs. So go to UW.

 

[Sisyphus]

In my opinion, both are very good schools, and you will receive a top notch education wherever you go. I think in the end, your choice should depend on details like which city you prefer to live in, university size, whether you're interested in UW's co-op, etc.

I'm headed for UW this September into the math faculty myself, and although I'm happy with my decision, in retrospect, I probably should have looked around more in terms of universities. I didn't even apply to UofT.

By the way, are you talking about choosing schools for September? I thought OUAC needed you to make this decision back in June for the upcomming semester.

Oh, and on a passing note, there's a bit of a difference between faculties in UW's mathematical physics program. If you're going through the math faculty, you'll focus more on math/CS classes alongside with your physics classes whereas the mathematical physics program through the science faculty will involve more labs and other science courses as opposed to math. Although, I was looking through the first year classes, and for the most part, they looked the same no matter which faculty you were in, so I'd imagine that it wouldn't be too hard to switch faculties after first year, assuming that you're sticking to the mathematical physics major.

cheers