Canadian Education Acceptable for Career in U.S?

[dedakia]

Hello,

I am a student who is currently in high school and will be attending university next year. I live in Canada, and was am planning on going into engineering. I wish to work in the United States after obtaining my degree, and was just wondering whether it would be more beneficial to get a degree in America as opposed to Canada for getting a job. For example, if I got a degree from either the University of Toronto or University of Waterloo, would I still have a good chance of employment in the U.S? I would like to get a degree in Canada instead of going to the states for financial reasons, seeing as a degree in America will cost more than double what it does here.

Thank you very much for your time!

 

[Terraist]

Unless you're aiming at Harvard or Ivy League, then no. I wouldn't get worked up over it if I were you. The quality of education is as good as there, and employers won't care if you got your degree across the border.

Keep in mind that only 7% of applications to Ivy League get accepted, so you have to be a really outstanding student and community member.

 

[dedakia]

Thank you very much for your quick and informative response!

 

[Ryker]

Unless you're aiming at Harvard or Ivy League, then no. I wouldn't get worked up over it if I were you. The quality of education is as good as there, and employers won't care if you got your degree across the border.

While I agree with what you said, I'm not sure if I agree with the conclusion. The advantage of getting a degree in the US I presume is that it's easier to obtain a working visa after finishing school than it would be had you gone to university somewhere else. Perhaps someone else can shed some light on this aspect of schooling in the US, since Canada, for example, does have a scheme that allows foreign students to stay there and work after they're done with studying. Granted, this isn't a permanent work permit, but I assume it's easier to get your foot in the door when you're already in a position of legal entitlement to work in the country than it is having to depend on a job offer for such entitlement. But like I said, I don't know how this is dealt with between Canada and the US, so my comment might not apply. It is something to look into, however.

 

[lisab]

In my industry, I have contact with American- and Canadian-trained engineers. Based on my experiences, the Canadians are equal in quality to the Americans. I've never heard anyone say Canadian engineers are inferior.

 

[MATLABdude]

I'm Canadian, and went to a Canadian University for my (undergrad) engineering degree. DISCLAIMER: my idiocy and nonsense is purely a function of me and not of my (Canadian) education!

I believe all of the various provincial engineering regulatory bodies (APEGGA, PEO, etc.) offer sittings of the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering), allowing you to start becoming an 'official' licensed professional engineer down in the states.

I've had friends that've taken it (FWIW, I recall hearing that the Canadian pass rate is higher than the American one, but don't know if there's anything to it, or even the veracity of that) and a smaller subset of those who have actually gone down and now practice in the US.

All that aside, I don't really think you're behind the 8-ball any when it comes to quality of education.

 

[twofish-quant]

I don't think that there are major differences between Canada and US as far as education goes.

Also Canadian professionals can get into the US rather easily

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TN_status

 

[dedakia]

Thank you all very much for your help! I'm very relieved, so now I just have to decide between Waterloo or UFT now!

 

[fss]

Also Canadian professionals can get into the US rather easily

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TN_status

Ease of obtaining TN status and working in the US depends somewhat on the industry they want to work in, but for the most part Canadians can work fairly easily in the US.