Hey! Here's a little insight on a relatively new program at Waterloo!
- by Alvin Li (freshman at uWaterloo)
( + ) What I like about Waterloo:
Geese.
University with a good undergraduate reputation, especially for software development
Good co-op program! Stressful but definitely pushed me to learn a lot outside of class
( - ) What I'm not too fond of at Waterloo:
Geese.
Waterloo is not a very big city and there's not a lot of things to do
Some residence buildings don't have air conditioning
Biomedical Engineering is one of the VERY new engineering programs at Waterloo (it's first graduating class was in 2019!) Based on Systems Design Engineering (SYDE), it is one of the most competitive programs at Waterloo (just behind software engineering). It seems like the perfect fit for a person who is interesting in both coding, engineering and medical stuff... but is it?
( + ) PROS:
You will get a pretty good social life. By the end of first year, you would have known most of your cohort and everyone is very nice in the program. One would think it would be pretty cutthroat because of the averages of the people coming into the program, but BME and SYDE kids are naturally very nice!
Your first year is most likely going to be rather "chill". You will have plenty of time to do side projects and other things especially in first semester.
We clap after every class... this is definitely very unique for our program and (SYDE).
Most of your courses will be in the same classroom... Less walking = more free time!
I haven't had the need to buy any textbooks yet! That saves a lot of money.
( - ) CONS:
Since the program is rather new, not a lot of people know about the program. You may get a lot of confused looks when you tell people about your program.
The program's perceived quality depends on how much you expect to gain from it. Personally, I expected A LOT going in. If you are expecting biomedical courses, or if you want to go into med school, chances are you won't get much exposure to bio content (especially in first year).
Limited exposure to a lot of technical contents in your first year. Physics and CS may seem a bit simpler than other programs (but calc can get really hard really quickly). It does get better in 2nd year though!
It's rather expensive. It costs the same as other eng programs, which is around twice as much (~$7000 per term) as an average life science program. But as someone wise once said to me, you are not paying just for the courses, you are paying for the experience and the people you get to meet and connect with :)
Definitely less parties than at Western, but there are parties, if you were wondering.
What I wish I knew going in...
It's lot more engineering than biomedical than you think!
Before first year, make sure you prep your coding skills and do a few projects over the summer!
Definitely talk to more people in the program, don't come into this program JUST because of its reputation and difficulty of getting in.
Comments