SFU, U of A or U of Cal

[Sapnil Mohanty]

Hey everyone,

I want to know which university is better simon fraser university or unversity of alberta or university of calgary in canada? In terms of academics, international students, job placements and social life?

Plz..need as much advice as possible!!

[Neeraj Chawla]

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/canada/1219482-university-alberta.html

this is a seperate forum discussing the former 2 unis

[Da Wong]

I will speak from what I heard from my peers and parents from BC. Therefore I can only speak of prestige...


SFU is okay, Business and Crim are relatively good, but not really comparable to UBC (Pretty much anyone who doesn't make it into UBC goes there, from my school, or you like their scholarships, which is an automatic $7000 if you get over 34 <idk if it's only for Beedie though>)

U of A - pretty good for engineering if you have around 30-32; Heard business is okay too, but not the best. I know 2 people who applied there.

University of Calgary - I don't think it's really big yet since it's new, right?

BUT. In my opinion, if you have over 34 and money is not a HUGE issue , I'd suggest going to a bigger university. Unless, of course, you know that a program at those schools are highly regarded (such as Beedie at SFU <kind of>)

Since I live a 15 min car ride away from the Surrey Campus of Beedie I shall state what I see: SFU has more international students, and the Co-op program for Beedie is fair if you want to stay in BC and work, social life... I don't think Beedie is the ideal place to go if you want to make connections.

The other schools, I don't know.

I know U of A gives out Unconditional acceptances though, my friend with 31 got one.

[Sapnil Mohanty]

hey Da Wong,

I saw that u got accepted into rotman commerce at utoronto! That's great! can you please tell me whether getting into utoronto is very tough or relatively easier than UBC? And did utoronto accept u with ur predicted grades? When did the colleges give u ur admission offers, in march or april?

Plz reply soon..

[Da Wong]

hey Da Wong,

I saw that u got accepted into rotman commerce at utoronto! That's great! can you please tell me whether getting into utoronto is very tough or relatively easier than UBC? And did utoronto accept u with ur predicted grades? When did the colleges give u ur admission offers, in march or april?

Plz reply soon..

tbh, although UBC is called the "IB friendly school of Canada" competition is pretty high at the moment. Last year, people made it into Applied Sciences with 30 (with amazing ECs) and 34/35 was the cut off for Sciences I believe? And Sauder has always been like minimum 36-38. But this year, UBC has been acting really weird, since 38s are getting cut off for sciences. I personally got into Econ, but am waitlisted for Sciences. Also, my friends with 39-41 got NO scholarships at all, and I have only heard of one 36 getting into Science this year. (Which I'm bitter about). But my neighbor, who is in the regular BC curriculum got this huge scholarship with a mid 80s average and a pretty good personal profile. I think either has to do with lack of money for scholarships for the people with high marks or the phenomon that they're trying to lessen the asian population.

I say arts is getting harder too, but if you have 35 or above, there's pretty much nothing stopping you from getting into arts. Oh ya, I got into Econ around 4 monthes after I applied (early March) But then again, UBC is always slow.

U of T accepted me a week after I finished my supplemental for Rotman (April 11, I believe), but I missed the deadline to accept my offer cause I was studying so hard for my exams... BUT I managed to get back in through the internal system. I actually called myself and they told me competition is extremely high and there was no way I could get back in ... but I did , and the cut off is 35, so I just got in ). Also, Rotman only has around 600 spots, so I'd say it's pretty hard to get in, I was just lucky. Twice. Funny thing is, I worked harder on my ECs for UBC than for U of T, but I know UT looks a grades more than supplementals.

Beedie accepted me about 2 weeks after I applied (Mid March, I think), but I think it's relatively easy to get in with 36, but my friend with 34 had to wait about 2 monthes to get accepted so I guess you should aim higher to ensure a spot for you. Though it's not too bad at SFU. Beedie is just a little more competitive than the other programs.

UNBC was a joke, and I skipped biology with my friends to apply because it was free... I got in right when I applied, so around December.

I say THIS YEAR: UBC is harder than U of T, but usually, I believe it's harder to get into U of T because UBC is just acting weird.

PM me if you have any questions