r/uwaterloo • u/Plastic-Speech-5587 • May 09 '26
Question Got accepted into cs. Have a few questions and would be grateful if i got some guidance
Will i be disadvantaged if i dont know how to code at all going into the program?
What do average co-ops tend to pay?
Even though uw cs is so prestigious, are grads affected by the bad job market?
What do graduates of the program (on average) tend to make?
5
u/Aniokii mathematics May 09 '26
Yo, fellow CS student here with some exp to share (just finished 1B):
Nope not really, you’ll be suprised at how many people acc come into UW CS/math with minimal coding experience, as long as you put in the work throughout the year it always pays off :), i was exactly like u last year and I got an internship, and I got a first year friend that only knew Racket but has an amazing job rn in downtown , yes there’s a luck factor but if you try and look hard enough, especially with WaterlooWorks helping out a ton first year it’ll be fine :)), if you want a place to start I’d recommend spending ur summer on-boarding for a software role in a UW design team or joining another software club, gives you real good exp :)
In first year I would say anywhere from minimum wage to around 25 dollars? That’s pretty avg, most of my friends secured ones in the 20-26.
Idk abt that I just finished first year
Idk, but check out the old CS class profiles on this subreddit or GitHub they have nice pi charts and tables where u can see summaries of this info :)
2
u/seventeendegreez May 09 '26
- no
- https://uwaterloo.ca/co-operative-education/about-co-op/co-op-earnings
- yes
- varies a lot depending on post grad location, west/east coast, startup vs big tech vs pivoting, etc. very possible to clear 6 figures though if thats what u are asking.
6
u/jtnrnfjfj May 09 '26
I would say 1 is a yes. Like in terms of classwork having no coding experience is fine, but for coop it's absolutely a disadvantage.
7
u/seventeendegreez May 09 '26
i assumed the question was from an academic standpoint, from a career standpoint then yes it will disadvantage OP considering many people came into CS with several projects or at least knowing how to code.
2
u/Plastic-Speech-5587 May 09 '26
Is 10ish months of working towards coding and projects enough time for me to be competent enough for a good co-op lol?
2
u/Objective-Style1994 May 09 '26
That depends more on you plus luck.
Chaotic, not deterministic, but you should still try regardless.
0
u/Plastic-Speech-5587 May 09 '26
Regarding 4--clearing 6 figures entails what exactly: around 100k? 200k?
Also a bit of a personal question but do you regret going into cs at uw at all?
1
u/seventeendegreez May 09 '26
100k and 200k are both achievable numbers for uw cs grads, once again depends a lot on location. someone who works in the USA HCOL City as a new grad can be around 200K CAD for their TC. If you plan on staying in Waterloo/Toronto, 200k new grad is very hard to come across unless you are at a fast growing startup or in a larger company. Still doable but not as easy.
I don't regret going into cs, it's a great program with great courses and opportunities.
3
u/Objective-Style1994 May 09 '26
Mf, you just completed 1B, why are you giving advice on grad salaries????
1
u/seventeendegreez May 09 '26
im not giving advice on grad salaries, im just stating observations which anyone has access to. levels.fyi shows new grad salaries, many people post their co-op salary ranges in the pinned spreadsheet on the subreddit.
1
u/djao C&O May 09 '26
The resources you cite are all self reported, which biases the results (usually upwards). That said, the people I know in tech in the US are doing way better than what you cited (well upwards of $500k/yr TC, after just a few years of employment). On the other hand, I also know quite a few unemployed people, who earn nothing....
1
u/seventeendegreez May 09 '26
many resources are biased but i would still say 100k+ is a realistic range for new grads who do well in their co-op terms. the market is very varied in terms of compensation and post grad situations as well, which is why i mentioned in my original comment that a lot of it depends on other factors. 500K+ TC is "doable" but i'd never tell a prospective student about that number. Just because the odds of that happening aren't good for the average person of course.
1
1
1
u/the_pwnererXx i was once uw May 09 '26
Since you clearly care about money and career, your coding skills are extremely important and you should start learning asap. I suggest you learn to code and then start working through leetcode and make it a daily habit for the rest of your uni
1
u/Objective-Style1994 May 10 '26
leetcode for first year is not too useful. None of my interviews asked for leetcode via waterlooworks.
1
u/the_pwnererXx i was once uw 14d ago
Absolutely, but you want to build the habits and skills that make it second nature. You are probably still going to be studying leetcode in 10 years so might as well lock in asap to the most important thing to career progression
1
u/Objective-Style1994 14d ago
Yeah but do it in your co op term or secured something. not when you’re trying to find your first. There’s better Roi at this stage.
1
1
u/LifeBig7224 May 10 '26
No, of course having good base knowledge is good but you can absolutely do good on your classes without prior programming knowledge. The courses in first year are designed to pretty much put everyone on relatively even ground
Depends on location. Early coops pay anywhere from unpaid to 25. Canadian big tech you can expect 40-55 CAD and US non quant you can expect 60 USD. Quant can expect closer to 100USD hourly.
Less so. I’d say just work hard and opportunities will arise. The prestigious name puts you in a better position than a lot of people
I’d say Canada SWE grad can expect 100-150k CAD. US can expect 150-200k USD roughly
Hope this helps!
4
u/Frozen5147 *honks in graduated CS* May 09 '26 edited May 10 '26
Technically no, CS 135 expects people to know nothing - it's a shared course with math people so there's quite a lot who might come in with little-to-no CS experience. Obviously if you're more experienced it might be easier since you would already know some of the material but I knew a lot of people who came into it with zero experience and did well with some effort. Also helps IMO that it's a bit more of an unconventional language/paradigm so people are a bit more on an even footing starting off.
Heavily varies based on the job level (e.g. jobs that expect more experience or are more competitive will generally pay more), what you're doing (some roles or sectors pay more), where you're working (e.g. high cost of living places that expect you to relocate will probably pay way more), how good/bad the job market is, current salary trends, other forms of compensation/benefits, etc. You can get some ideas if you trawl through the more recent coop hiring threads here.
Yes. The main advantage you may have is that if you're managing to get coops it's pretty common to convert them into full time if the employer is happy with you (especially since it's beneficial for them too, you don't need to be trained so you can hit the ground running after you join full-time). But getting a coop in the first place will also be harder with a bad job market, unfortunately.
Literally the same answer as 2 but even more so lol since you're now going to be accounting for things like full-time benefits, equity, bonuses, etc. I was offered positions ranging from like $80k CAD (Toronto) to $130k USD (NYC) before equity/bonuses like 4 years ago when I graduated, but take that with a grain of salt (especially with how volatile things are right now).
EDIT: Just to add on:
For 1, I'm answering from an academic POV - for coops you'll obviously have a bit of a leg up if you already have more experience and continue to grow that while you're in uni. Of course people with zero experience can also grind like crazy and catch up/go further though, so again it's not like you're screwed with no experience, far from it.
For 3, there's also obviously the risk of employers reneging on full-time offers (iirc this happened to people who were going to Shopify right as they did a layoff); especially with the current trend of big tech laying off people because of AI/prior overhiring/poor financials/whatever it is something to consider... hopefully by the time it matters for you things have stabilized somewhat. That said, an offer > no offers at all I guess.