I run an internship program placing Canadian interns in the valley, and have interviewed plenty of students from US schools.
There's some amazing students coming out of Waterloo and UBC in particular.
Waterloo grads are as competent and hungry as grads from MIT or Stanford.
I've been amazed with them.
I'm sorry, but are you claiming that the education has been dumbed down post-2001? As a computer science student that witnessed the shift in education, I can assure you that the system has only increased the level of breadth and depth (and therefore academic difficulty) since the pre-2001 period.
Before 2001, Waterloo Computer Science offered Java courses and taught "more industry focused" material. Ever since, with the aid of a certain PhD here, the curriculum teaches functional programming (via Racket) from the start and carries its focus over the entirety of first year.
Following this, the second year courses are standard at any university and act as precursors to the third year Operating Systems and Algorithms courses, the most difficult required CS courses offered here.
I don't buy that. MIT and Stanford are the undisputed best in the world. Waterloo would be closer to "University of Texas-Austin" which is still excellent.
I don't buy that MIT and Stanford are undisputed "best" either. But they're damn good. And definitely top tier ... my point is that Waterloo and UBC are in the same ball park as the top ones.
My comment of "not buying it" was that there was no evidence (other than your opinion) to support your claim. Honestly, I would like to hear more about how you came to that conclusion.
I know the rankings are only one way to estimate (and would like to hear a better way :)
Is there a list that puts Waterloo or UBC better than Stanford or MIT? ANY LIST BY ANY MAGAZINE?
