CS at York vs Ryerson

[luckyalan]

Hi! I got accepted at both York and Ryerson University for Computer Science.
I just have a question regarding which school would be better?
As in, which school is more popular for CS, which school has better graduating student rate for CS, which school has better employment rate for CS students?

Also, is CS at UofT better than York or Ryerson?

I would really appreciate what you guys think. Thanks

PS. In my future, I would like to study something like AI. Maybe go to graduate school. But not 100% sure, depending on how I would do at school.

[Nahirk]

I would think that CS at Toronto is much more intense than at York. CS at UofT is part of their Engineering Faculty which we all know about it. I have only heard bad things from York about CS saying courses are not taken seriously and things such as that. I am from UW and on my current co-op have met a lot of CS and ITM students from Ryerson and they seem to know their stuff pretty well.

If I was to chose between York or Ryerson I would definitely go with Ryerson, but I'll let other people with more knowledge chip in.

[luckyalan]

oh??? thank you for your opinion!

[man_alone]

Well, I just finished my third year of CS at Ryerson. I can't really compare York and Ryerson CS programs but I am pretty sure that Ryerson is not worse than York, if not better. Ryerson has Co-op program, don't know about York though. AI course is currently taught by graduate from Moscow University, he has heavy accent but overall he knows his stuff though a lot of students find his courses a bit on the hard side. Here is link to his webpage (http://www.scs.ryerson.ca/~mes/) in case you're interested. Overall my I found that university only teaches basic and general stuff. When it comes to finding a real life job without previous experience it is tough since they don't teach such important technologies as Java EE, Advanced C++, C#, in depth scripting languages (PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Perl, ASP, etc) and a lot of other stuff that is used in industry. Also many jobs require some kind of certification (like ComTIA A+, etc) and you will not get those out of university. My point is that there isn't a lot of hands-on programming training. They pretty much try to load you up with lots of theory which you tend to forget next year. Maybe it is just me but I am starting to really regret choosing to go into university instead of some tech college. I know one guy from my program who went to university after a college and he learned most of the stuff for real world jobs through taking more practical college courses. Only reason why he decided to go to university was that some employers prefer and will pay more those who has a degree. Also CS programs are updated every 4 years and I think that it is not frequent enough to keep up with fast changing computer world.

[Homer88]

I would think that CS at Toronto is much more intense than at York. CS at UofT is part of their Engineering Faculty which we all know about it. I have only heard bad things from York about CS saying courses are not taken seriously and things such as that. I am from UW and on my current co-op have met a lot of CS and ITM students from Ryerson and they seem to know their stuff pretty well.

If I was to chose between York or Ryerson I would definitely go with Ryerson, but I'll let other people with more knowledge chip in.

You're wrong. CS at UofT is part of the Faculty of Arts and Science. Unlike Waterloo where its part of the Faculty of Math. That being said, its still a very tough program, lots of theories and logic... its a huge grind.

[luckyalan]

ohhhh i see
thank you everyone for your opinions.
I think I have decided that im almost very sure I will go to Ryerson now.
I am already taking a couple of courses thru Chang school (CMTH & CECN), which will get me thru university faster.
i figured there wouldnt be much difference between York and Ryerson, but now i know Ryerson offers co-op and all.
anyways, thank you all.

oh! 1 more question: so would it be necessary for me to transfer to UofT for Computer Science after 1st/2nd year at Ryerson? would that do any good for me? considering I do very well at school and getting like 90% avg? maybe close to?

[Nahirk]

You're wrong. CS at UofT is part of the Faculty of Arts and Science. Unlike Waterloo where its part of the Faculty of Math. That being said, its still a very tough program, lots of theories and logic... its a huge grind.

Ah I was mistaken then. A comp-eng from UofT was telling me something about it, granted I wasn't paying much attention!

[xt21]

I go to ryerson for ITM right now and I would say go to Ryerson for the Internship / Co-op connections our school has. You can get good experience working for some big companies and make some money out of it too.

[pitz]

Employment for CS (or EE) grads is pretty lousy all around right now, but right now, its pretty easy to get into UW. I suggest you go there, not as an endorsement of their profs or curriculum, but rather, as an endorsement of the deep and rich industry connections that UW has compared to most other Universities in Canada when it comes to CS employment.

[Aznsilvrboy]

Employment for CS (or EE) grads is pretty lousy all around right now, but right now, its pretty easy to get into UW. I suggest you go there, not as an endorsement of their profs or curriculum, but rather, as an endorsement of the deep and rich industry connections that UW has compared to most other Universities in Canada when it comes to CS employment.

What about employment prospects in 4-5 years when he graduates?