Comparing Western & McMaster for Engineering

[aestas]

I'm trying to decide between two universities... University of Western Ontario and McMaster for engineering (hopefully mechanical). I didn't apply to U of T (want to move out) and got accepted to chemical at waterloo but don't want to go into that anymore (not to mention I just couldn't see myself at the campus...).

Western
Pros
- great student life
- flexibility of the degree (concurrent degree in any area... looking at applying to Ivey or maybe law)
- internship placements - people are happy with the co-op office and their placement
- can take a combination of mech and materials courses in senior years
- industry connections seem to be stronger...
- smaller faculty?
- good for future in business/law... favor their own undergrads...

Cons
- professors are so-so (but this is only from one student there)
- not as much research; reputation is ok
- facilities are a bit dated

Mac
Pros
- nice facilities... but usually for grad students
- lots of research; reputation-wise seems to be better than western due to the amount of research it's churning out...
- engineering + management is their equivalent of their business + engineering... their business school isn't as well known as ivey...
- heard professors were good... but that's according to one person...
- separate materials/mech department... may not be able to take all the courses I want

Cons
- heard good (one person satisfied)and bad things (3 people unhappy) about co-op
- huge faculty... first year classes are like 300-400 people
- personally, I find the social scene mediocre... I find Hamilton so-so and slightly worse than london

Any thoughts on which I should choose? Any current/former students that can elaborate on how those two universities are?

 

[CaptainQuaser]

Undergrad or grad?

 

[aestas]

Undergrad. Sorry, I probably should have mentioned that in my first post.

 

[vincebs]

One thing I know now as a senior at U of T that I wish I knew when I was in high school is that the "prestige" and research of your undergraduate institution doesn't really matter, it is where you do your Ph.D. and who you work with then that matters.

With that in mind, you should definitely go to UWO. Internships are very important for networking helping you land future high paying jobs.

I wish I went to UWO or Queens. U of T sucks.

 

[hiddenmist]

I would recommend Mac engineering because of engineering + management program. It is very wise to have both knowledge in business and engineering as you may not be sure what kind of career you want in the future.

I think Mac is really good for chemical or biomedical engineering but other engineering programs are good as well.

Though seems like you really care about the campus life. If so, I would definitely go western. I think they have one of the best campus life in Canada. Also their engineering program are still very good.

 

[aestas]

I've gotten the impression that prestige is important in terms of recruiting. I'm a bit hesitant in choosing UWO as there may be less recruiting going on due to the small size of their faculty...

 

[hiddenmist]

It really depends on you. Even if you go to a more well known engineering university, if you are student with poor grades, it wouldn't help you. Personally, i would recommend you to visit both Mac and UWO campus and go to university that you think will enjoy.

 

[aestas]

I've visited UWO and enjoyed their campus. I'm not sure I'll have time to visit Mac's campus before the deadline to accept the offers (taking final exams in May)...

hiddenmist, are you by any chance a student at Mac? If so, how did you find the profs? Everyone I know at Mac (in various faculties) really liked their profs, but the person I know at UWO think their profs are only so-so... I also checked ratemyprofs.com (I know, not reliable) but the info there seems to correlate with what I've been hearing about the quality of the profs at both universities... where there tends to be better profs at Mac than UWO... :\ and I was leaning towards UWO...

 

[hiddenmist]

nope I go to waterloo but I am not in engineering but in math. Though I have friends in Mac engineering and they really enjoy their program. Most of them are in engineering + management program and they really like learning both fields. The profs are really nice but it does tend to get boring somewhat. But it doesn't mean you won't have fun at all. I go to waterloo (prob worse than mac or uwo in terms of campus life) and I love it here.

Anyways don't worry about the profs too much. Every university has both bad and good profs so just hope that you will be in class with very entertaining professors.

 

[aestas]

Thanks for the advice... I'm an oral learner, so the only think I'm really worried about is whether or not the profs have heavy accents... It's a lot faster for me to pick up material if it's orally taught, so the quality of the profs really do play a factor in my decision.