SFU: Debunking the Rumors and Revealing the Truth about its Reputation

[Larrytsai]

Ive heard rumors that Sfu has the highest suicidal rate. Also i want to know why Sfu is so much hated by a lot of people. Alot of people tell me not to consider sfu for business courses or engineering course but people that go to sfu tells me to consider it, so I am confused.

 

[JasonRox]

SFU is...?

I have an idea, but be more clear!

 

[Larrytsai]

Sfu is a university in Canada. Its called Simon Fraser University.

 

[CPL.Luke]

ah yeah SFU in the US is southern florida university, a place you prolly don't want to go to. Perhaps this is part of your confusion?

 

[mgb_phys]

Simon Fraser University is in Vancouver BC (Canada)
Possibly not as well known as nearby UBC (University of British Columbia) but very pleasant place in very nice surroundings.
I think its business school is quite well regarded.

 

[mace2]

It's isolated on a hill with dark, dreary, drab weather most of the time. Also the campus is very... full of concrete. Not a very welcoming place in my opinion. :P Supposedly the campus was designed by someone known for designing prisons.

 

[mgb_phys]

It's isolated on a hill with dark, dreary, drab weather most of the time.

Yep that's Vancouver - at least the hill means it doesn't flood.

... full of concrete. Not a very welcoming place in my opinion. :P Supposedly the campus was designed by someone known for designing prisons.

All universities look like that - I assume that in Vancouver they at least (re)discovered the water shedding sloping roof! ps. You should see the Cavendish lab at Cambridge.

 

[Poop-Loops]

My school actually looks fairly pretty from the outside. When you step inside any of the buildings, you start to feel bad for the students, though. The music building is by far the worst that I've seen. Whereas Mary Gates Hall and that Comp Sci building Paul Allen funded are really nice. I hate comp sci majors... :(

 

[vincebs]

Are you serious? I was thinking of applying there. I know that one of the postdocs who made the first BEC in Colorado is now teaching there.

Where did you get this rumor?

 

[mace2]

Are you serious? I was thinking of applying there. I know that one of the postdocs who made the first BEC in Colorado is now teaching there.

Where did you get this rumor?

No reason not to apply. There's no curse or anything. I have a bunch of friends that went there and enjoyed it.

If you can, visit it in person.

 

[Mute]

Ive heard rumors that Sfu has the highest suicidal rate. Also i want to know why Sfu is so much hated by a lot of people. Alot of people tell me not to consider sfu for business courses or engineering course but people that go to sfu tells me to consider it, so I am confused.

I would very much distrust the rumour about the high suicide rate. I have heard of only one (successful) student suicide, at least in the residences, and that happened off the hill. An article in the student newspaper about this suicide (http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/2006-1/issue13/ne-staiger.html) notes:

"Notably, some may use this as evidence that SFU’s suicide rate is higher than most. But a recent study by the National College Health Assessment shows that while more than 12 per cent of students have seriously considered suicide and two per cent have attempted it, SFU is at similar levels to universities across the nation."

As for the Burnaby mountain campus being drab and dreary and depressing, sure, it's mostly made of concrete, but I think getting depressed by the grey you would see lots of is more a reflection of a person's general attitude about everything. If one finds the campus really depressing, then that person probably has a negative outlook and tendency to be depressed by such things anyways. Quite frankly, when it's sunny out (which does happen with reasonable frequency, especially in spring and summer), I think the campus is gorgeous. When it's overcast out and everything looks grey, I don't think the campus looks fantastic, but I'm not going to go pout about it.

The campus isn't quite so isolated, either. Sure, it's up on a mountain of sorts, but there's constant bus transit off of it. Every student gets a bus pass each semester (it's about $90-$100 per semester, but that's well worth it if you would have to be buying monthly bus passes otherwise), so it's really very easy to get off the hill and go downtown, which only takes about 45 minutes to go all the way to downtown Vancouver.

I don't know much about the business program there, but I think you can take some courses at the two other SFU campuses in Surrey and Downtown Vancouver. Both of these campus are very nice, though not very large - they both fit in single buildings. I don't know too much about the engineering courses, either, though I think the engineering options are biomedical, electrical engineering, engineering physics, and maybe a few others, but I'm pretty sure civil engineering is not one of the options, so if that's the kind of engineering you're looking for you might want to consider other options.

Program information:

http://business.sfu.ca/

http://www.ensc.sfu.ca/

Academic Calendar for 07/08:

http://students.sfu.ca/calendar/