For the last year I've been aware of the impact of Waterloo in tech and have conducted some research into why this might be so. Two things I've discovered:<p>1. Academic staff own any IP resulting from their research, making it very attractive and easy to recruit top academics. Almost all other universities assume ownership of IP.<p>2. An intern program that requires students to take an internship every other semester, enabling students to gain valuable experience within top-tier tech companies.<p>It would be great to hear of any other reasons for their success.
My understanding is that Waterloo has been a Microsoft and RIM software talent poaching ground for over a decade. The Waterloo Engineering and CS programs are known for their extremely high quality and rigour.<p>The recent string of higher profile alumni successes reinforces this reputation and serves as a beacon for Canadian high-school graduate intake. Now if only they would do something about the concrete jungle they call their campus :)
If you are interested in browsing the source for our hack it is on GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/sgreenlay/PYLONS" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/sgreenlay/PYLONS</a>.
Congrats on the win, and cool publicity... but how can I get in there at 12k$ a year, plus a rent and food and other expenses. How much will it pay off, versus my education at the University of Ottawa?<p>Given that I learn much more by myself, reading reference books, taking online courses with coursera, doing projects by myself. Is there any return on investment that I could expect from an education there, instead of my current university?
I was just in Waterloo at a database technical conference and most of the folks I worked with were very smart people with BMaths from UW. Google, Sybase , SAP, Oracle, Intel, etc.. all have offices to snap up the technical talent there.
Actually facebook has been recruiting a lot too, they had a meetup for facebook interviewees the day before the official interviews, there were 100+ students there, I was really suprised
Scott talked about the win on CTV National News tonight, you can watch it here! <a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=820148&playlistId=1.1066270&binId=1.811536" rel="nofollow">http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=820148&playlistId=1.1...</a>
In the US, there is Drexel University which also has an awesome co-op program. Many students here had worked in employers like Fb, Google, MS, Amazon, ... and then have fulltime offers.<p>So if you want to stay in the US and have the co-op, go to Drexel.