Hey, just a quick question. (didn't want to make a topic in general).

How hard would it be to go into first year @ UWaterloo in computer engineering,software engineering or computer science with no previous programming experience? I know there are alot of Waterloo guys on here so I don't think there's any better place to ask!

ManaBlue

Canada10458 Posts

March 25 2008 23:29 GMT

Do you mean no experience as in you didn't take a comp sci course in high school or anything?

Damn, way to set your sights high dude. I went to school in the city and had a lot of friends in comp sci at waterloo, and let me tell you those fellas know their shit.

Doesn't mean you can't do it, but I could make a list a mile long of easier comp sci programs to get into. Waterloo is one of the top schools in the province for that program.

ATeddyBear

Canada2843 Posts

March 25 2008 23:37 GMT

how crazy is it that manablue replies to a dude with mbl as his tag!

JeeJee

Canada5652 Posts

March 25 2008 23:40 GMT

i think all 3 of those require a cs course without which they wont even look at you. but if you wanted to go into cs, i can't imagine you didn't take a single cs course. if you took 1 cs course (even gr 11 is fine), then it's pretty easy, waterloo's not so tough on admissions, particularly for general cs. becoming a softie a tad more difficult, i'd imagine you'd probably need some good ccc placements with only one cs course. with 2 (gr11 and 12) you should be fine.

can't speak for comp eng, i'd imagine it's something alongside general cs though

Vin{MBL}

5185 Posts

March 25 2008 23:47 GMT

On March 26 2008 08:29 ManaBlue wrote:
Do you mean no experience as in you didn't take a comp sci course in high school or anything?

Damn, way to set your sights high dude. I went to school in the city and had a lot of friends in comp sci at waterloo, and let me tell you those fellas know their shit.

Doesn't mean you can't do it, but I could make a list a mile long of easier comp sci programs to get into. Waterloo is one of the top schools in the province for that program.

According to Waterloo's website, the requirements for Comp Sci are:

A score of "5" on the AP Calculus exam (I'm taking it in May)
A 90% grade 12 average ( I have this)

That's it... >_>.

I took a computer course in HS but the programming was in BASIC... which is way too easy to be useful in university.

Yea well I was thinking I was gonna get owned in CompSci because of the programming. And from your post this seems true. T_T

http://www.findoutmore.uwaterloo.ca/admissions/international.php?id=8

Scroll down to faculty of math and it's there :/

JeeJee

Canada5652 Posts

March 26 2008 00:12 GMT

oh well international admission criteria are definitely different from local, you should've specified that.

Vin{MBL}

5185 Posts

March 26 2008 00:21 GMT

Yea but I'm not worried about admission criteria. I'm worried about getting owned when I reach there

Polemarch

Canada1564 Posts

March 26 2008 00:58 GMT

I don't think anyone here can tell you whether you're going to get owned or not. I'm pretty confident that whether or not you'll do well doesn't depend very much on how much programming experience you have beforehand. If you have strong math/analytical/logical skills and have a reasonably good attitude towards studying, projects, etc., you'll do fine. If you're pretty confident about getting in then you should do fine. Most people take a bit of an ego hit when going to university (no matter where they go) if they're used to being at the top of their class though.

Computer Engineering (CE) is quite different from Computer Science (CS). CS is a lot of math, analyzing things, proving theoretical things about computers, and more software oriented. CS will involve lots of programming later on, but they'll teach you what you need to know. CE focuses more on lower-level hardware details all the way down to the electric signals - with not nearly as much programming. Also a lot of math, but of a different sort.

The CE program is a lot more structured; they put you into groups of about 90 people, which stay about the same for the whole 5 years, and you pretty much all take the same classes. You'll probably get to know these people pretty well. They work you really hard on projects and stuff.

CS is a lot more freeform. You can take 10 or so elective classes, schedules are much more flexible, etc. There's less emphasis on doing tons of big projects (although still a fair bit compared to most programs!)

Software engineering seems like a specialty within computer science dealing with things like processes for managing large software projects. It's quite practical, but arguably boring. e.g. writing large documents about how exactly a piece of software should be designed for some problem, and planning out how you'll test it. (I'm not sure if this has changed recently, so take this with a grain of salt.)

ManaBlue

Canada10458 Posts

March 26 2008 01:15 GMT

Now THAT is an informative post. Well done.

It's very competative Vin, but no one did anything great by taking the easy road. If you're willing to be a study machine and pour your heart into it, I'm sure you'll do fine.

You've got a 90 average, so you've obviously got the mind for it. Also, keep in mind that most high schools don't offer any programing courses outside of basic VB and some C++.

It's all about whether you're committed. No one can tell you that but yourself.

Vin{MBL}

5185 Posts

March 26 2008 01:24 GMT

#10

Well I have pretty strong math skills and a good attitude towards studying so I might be okay. When I said I'm not worried about admission criteria I meant admission requirements. I didn't mean it in a way that I'm confident I'm getting in...(I'm actually worried about getting in >_>)

Cambium

United States16368 Posts

March 26 2008 01:27 GMT

#11

Most of the people I know switched out of Software Eng into Comp Sci because CS gives you more freedom.

Computer Engineering is different from the other two.

Because I am in engineering, I think you should do CompEng.

Or Syde.

Polemarch

Canada1564 Posts

March 26 2008 01:59 GMT

#12

Regarding getting in, computer science departments in Canada are all trying hard to attract more applicants these days, so it may be easier than before. (I think the main reason for this is because they're comparing to the numbers from the dot-com boom.)

Do your own research/thinking about what you want to do, but as a rule of thumb I'd say if you like tinkering with gadgets and physical things, then CE. If you're more an ideas guy, then CS. Of course there are tons of different things you could study, but the ones you've mentioned are the ones Waterloo is most known for, AFAIK.

In terms of the job market, CE is mainly geared towards hardware jobs - you can do software jobs too but you'd probably be at a bit of a disadvantage compared to CS students. e.g. Google hires mostly CS students. CS students aren't really qualified for hardware jobs though. I think there are many more software jobs than hardware though (most CE students end up doing software anyway). If you have dreams of starting a company CS/SE give you some of the skills to start a software company (that's what I did, but it's not all that common), and more flexibility to take random classes in business, psych, etc.