Pretty self-explanatory title, just wanted to know if it really is worth the extra year. My options right now are UTM, western and mcmaster, which are all achievable but I just want to expand my options.

How is the co-op program? What's the process to get into the program?

Are there many job listings (or exclusive ones) on the co-op portal and do they help you in landing a job or did you have to apply externally?

Thank you

Hey guys, I'm going to Ryerson next year for computer science, and wanted to get into the co-op program. But I can't seem to figure out how it works. The website tells me co-op is depends on first year marks, and you apply for coop during second year. 2nd year students, however, tell me that co op depends on 2 years worth of marks, and you apply for 3rd year. Can anyone verify this? Also, the GPA requirement is 3.0, is that incredibly difficult to get? Someone told me roughly 20 students a year get into co op... Thanks

Recently I was accepted to TMU civil engineering! I was just wondering how the co-op program at TMU is? I went to this Women in engineering workshop they did today and when I was asking about it, many of the speakers/alumnis/students said they didn't do it.

Is it worth it? Can you get a job without doing co op?

I've always wanted to do co op, so how are the actual positions offered good? ik it prolly cant compete w Waterloo or Uft but...

thanks in advance :)

1. Terrible Computer Science co-op program.

The co-op department at TMU appears to lack interest in assisting students with securing co-op opportunities, offering minimal guidance on resume writing and job applications. With a fee of $750 per semester, this service falls short of its value, as equivalent information can be easily accessed through numerous online resources. The limited job listings posted on the portal are also unimpressive, with few major companies apart from AMD and IBM.

In my experience, it's much better to search for your own position and save money. This approach allows you to develop valuable skills and even find a job before your peers in the co-op program. Unfortunately, many of my peers in the program seem to believe that simply being accepted is enough. However, they fail to realize that they are just one of many candidates and may not necessarily secure a position.

2. The professors.

I know some amazing professors genuinely care about the well-being of the students and want the class to be engaged and learn. These include and are not limited to:

Dr. Yeganeh Bahoo

Dr. Alex Ferworn

Dr. Rick Valenzano

Daniel Franklin

Alex Ufkes and many more!

In contrast, some professors create challenging grading rubrics, unreasonable assignments, and tests that may leave a significant percentage of students feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about their ability to pass the course. While the top-performing students may fare well under such conditions, the majority of students may experience prolonged stress and anxiety.

Furthermore, I'd like to add that about half of the professors I had while studying computer science simply read off the slides without adding any additional value. On top of that, it was not uncommon for them to change the lab requirements right before the submission deadline. Although this may be a common occurrence in other universities, I can confidently say that every semester, you will have at least one bad professor in the computer science department.

3. Course Structures

Some courses lack structure and feel like a mere exercise in memorization, with the professor merely reading off slides without conveying any real understanding. CPS 406 is a prime example of this. If the goal is to teach students the fundamentals of engineering, it would be more effective to provide a clear project outline with consistent guidelines, rather than changing them every week. In general, some courses can be disorganized, with TAs and professors appearing uncertain about what they are teaching.

4. Unfair midterms

While I must admit that this occurrence is not extremely prevalent, it has become quite noticeable since TMU resumed on-campus classes. It is apparent that certain sections of a course have considerably simpler midterms than others. This creates an unfair advantage for the students in the easier sections, and the professor may utilize this as a justification to fail more students in the following course, thereby maintaining a balance in the number of students passing per semester. In my opinion, this approach is simply illogical.

5. Academic Accommodations Students.

If you don't know what that is here is a link that explains it, https://www.torontomu.ca/accommodations/

Despite the fact that some students in the program may have disabilities such as anxiety and depression, it appears that some TAs and professors exacerbate these students' stress and anxiety levels. For instance, even though the drop date for a course is rapidly approaching, some AAS students have yet to receive their midterms, which account for a significant portion of their grades. When AAS students inquire about their test scores during their lab section, TAs may respond with phrases like "We didn't pick up your tests to mark yet," adding further stress to an already challenging situation. This treatment can be particularly harmful to students who are already struggling with mental health issues.

6. School location

Especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the safety of TMU's campus has become increasingly questionable. While the university does have security personnel in place, their focus appears to be more on social media trends than on patrolling our campus. It is not unusual to witness drug addicts or other dangerous individuals chasing people down Gould street or shouting at unsuspecting students. My female friends, in particular, always report feeling uneasy both inside and outside of campus premises as they are usually the ones targeted.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9425573/sexual-assaults-toronto-metropolitan-university-safety-concerns/

Hey I’m a grade 12 student who got accepted to TMU CS and was thinking of accepting my offer here? Any of you currently in the program who can tell me more about it? How’s the coop? How hard is it to get the coop? Is it worth going to TMU for CS?

I was granted admission for TMU CE, and I wanted to pursue the coop option in the future. However, I know that TMU isn't as well known as UofT.

I was given an alternate admission for physical and environmental science in UofT instead of the direct entrance for UofT computer science.

My alternate admission states that I am able to switch to computer science coop in second year as long as I take the same first year CS courses, but I've heard that it is super hard to switch programs, even if it is basically the same courses.

I am super torn between both of the universities, and I would really appreciate some help for my decision.

One factor that is really making me think about my choices is the coop options that both universities offer. It would be absolutely amazing if you would like to describe your coop experience at said universities, or if you know any other information about the coop program offered at TMU; or even if you can talk about the employability in the future.

Thank you so much and I really appreciate any help!

I have found out that in order to get into co-op, you have to complete your first year within TMU itself . So as someone who completed first year in another university I probably have to go through first year again but with lesser classes considering transfer credits. Although I would love to begin 2nd year and also get into Co-op , it seems unlikely . I hope to get suggestions about how I can excel and increase my chances of co-op for Computer Science , also please let me know if there are any possibilities if I can move forward as a 2nd year student after the transfer and still get the Co-op. Good day.

I've applied and got accepted into tmu but I'm wondering how it's like if i wanna consider. If you are currently taking the CS program here could you please tell me how you feel about it?

I noticed that you could look up the number of students enrolled in co-op terms on MyServiceHub, so I counted all the computer science students doing their first co-op work term (arguably the one most difficult to obtain) and compared that to the total number of students who entered that cohort. For convenience I assumed that students doing their first work term in the Fall or Winter semesters are in the same cohort as students doing their first work term in the previous Summer semester, and that no students dropped out between entering first year and finishing second year.

The numbers highlighted in blue are the total number of students who could get their first co-op after second year when you begin your search. The numbers in green are the percentage of all students in that cohort who got co-op positions. To be clear, these are students who both got into the co-op program after 1st year, and got their first co-op position.

Last year, 201 out of 388 students in the cohort that started in 2021 got their first co-op, which is around 52%.

The overall trend from Summer 2021 to Winter 2024 shows some interesting things:

1. The absolute number of students getting co-ops each year is increasing, from 141 to 201.

2. The percentage of students getting co-ops is decreasing, from 60% to 52%. This may be due to the massive increase in student enrolments in the past 3 years, which has currently levelled off to between 381-400 new first years (there were 400 new first years last year).

3. The number and percentage of students getting summer co-ops has been decreasing, but this has been more than made up for by an increase in students getting fall co-ops instead. Whether or not this increase will continue has yet to be seen.

4. Therefore, even if you don't get a co-op in the summer, if you keep trying there's still a chance that you'll get something in the Fall or Winter. Slightly under 1/3rd of co-op positions are obtained after the Summer by people who keep persevering.

Caveats:

• The # of first years does not account for students transferring in, dropping out, or otherwise not finishing their second year in time for them to being looking for co-op positions. Therefore the final percentages given may be lower than in reality.

• Positions that are found outside the co-op program and not reported to the co-op department are not counted here. Therefore the final percentages given may be lower than in reality.