Simon Fraser UBC

[BFD]

I thought offspring #2 was set on MSU Bozeman. Do the Bridger thing. Now offspring #1 says Simon Fraser, UBC do the surf and ski thing. So now #2 is applying. Is this realistic? How hard is it to get out of Vancouver? anyone here attending these schools?

[waxman]

surf? i guess if you're motivated
UBC and Simon Fraser are two different schools
the travel distance to Whistler is "kind of similar" depending on traffic and bridge delays
local hills like Grouse/Cypress/Seymour accessed easier from Simon Fraser i guess
what's the gig for USAians going to school in Canuckistan as opposed to the lower 48?
there has to be a better surf/ski option in the states?

[ferniebiker]

I went to ubc, getting up to whistler is pretty easy now with the "ubc ski and board club" ride share Facebook page. They are also affiliated with the surf club that goes out fairly often. Ubc "VOC" is an incredible outdoor club. Basically if you want to get out and ski, bike, surf ect, there are tons of options. They will need to be motivated to join clubs and meet new people and work hard to keep up with school while playing. Balancing school and outdoor fun was more challenging than getting out and doing said activities for me anyways

[BFD]

brother is in the Bay Area going to school. Does not really like the traffic and crowds of CA.
We live in a coastal community. My son grew up skiing steep maritime snowpack. The Whistler Pemberton terrain looks allot more interesting than CA.
There maybe a better surf ski option in the states but that is what I hoped to figure out from this post. We really do not know anything about Vancouver.
Thank's Ferniebiker that is the type of info we are hoping for.

[XXX-er]

Wreck beach is right across the street from the UBC campus

from Uvic on vancover island jordan river is 1hr I think OR long beach is 3hr, and there is mnt washington

This maybe a stupid question but how about the actual education

[BFD]

I thought they offered an education. Looks like UBC engineering department is supposed to be good.
just checked out Wreck beach. Is there surf?

[waxman]

UBC is usually ranked very high in Canadian universities, don't know about SFU as much
on a side note the best Ultimate teams in the country are usually from Vancouver and ulti chicks close the deal so be aware if that interests him

[ferniebiker]

I thought they offered an education. Looks like UBC engineering department is supposed to be good.
just checked out Wreck beach. Is there surf?

PM me if u want more info, I took engineering BTW

[XXX-er]

Yeah I am sure they all offer an education, I have been told when attending uni don't worry about curriculum ... just pick a place to go

I think for surf you need to get off thewest coast of vancover island, Wreck beach just has a lot of necked people when the weather is warm

[todug27]

no surfing in vancouver... gotta head to tofino on the island, which is a doable, but long weekend.

plenty of options to get up to whistler from ubc, i assume its the same at sfu.

[davep]

UBC and SFU are both good schools. Keep in mind that variations between 'quality' of Canadian public universities are TINY compared with variations between American colleges - all of the big-ish Unis offer solid educations. There is no Harvard of Canada, and there is also no Alabama State (I have no idea if Alabama state sucks, sorry if it does not. )

I did engineering at SFU - at the time I went (~10 years ago) SFU pretty much only had electrical engineering but was very strong in that field. I think they've expanded into biomedical eng and maybe other areas since then. UBC eng had broader programs. (I'm talking about engineering here since the OP brought it up so I'm guessing that's what your kid is in to).

Both have good access to whistler, SFU probably has better mountain biking access, UBC has better beach and nightlife access. Being on top of a mountain in the burbs, SFU felt a bit isolated when I was there and only ~1000 students lived on campus, but I had a car so I could go where I wanted. I think the campus has grown a lot recently so it's probably a bigger community and better connected with non-mountain-top life now. SFU and UBC both have shit weather with UBC being on the coast and SFU being in a cloud.

If your kid knows what they want to do then it's worth checking whether one or the other has a program that focuses on that. If they don't know what to do, then UBC probably offers broader choices and probably more clubs/activities since it's a larger school.

[XXX-er]

SFU is pretty new it was built in the 60's we were playing up there as 10 yr old kids before it was open and later I used to ride dirt bikes up there, UBC is way closer to the downtown, great shops on broadway kits a REALLY nice end of town while SFU is on top of Burnaby mountain in the burbs, often when it snow you can't can't get up there

IS it costly for an american going to uni in canada? A friends kid is going to an American uni on a skiing scholarship and with free books/tuition she is paying about what she would at UBC without a scholarship and she sez it seems to be way easyier than UBC

[Beaver]

I thought they offered an education. Looks like UBC engineering department is supposed to be good.
just checked out Wreck beach. Is there surf?

No surf, but lots of naked fat people in the summer.

[farmer]

Yeah I am sure they all offer an education, I have been told when attending uni don't worry about curriculum ... just pick a place to go

I think for surf you need to get off thewest coast of vancover island, Wreck beach just has a lot of necked people when the weather is warm

That's why unemployment is so high with college / uni grads. OTOH if the OP's offspring are looking at enginerding, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. THat said....

UBC is basically the Royal Academy of western Canada when it comes to engineering. Much more focused on research and academics, not so much on industry. I guess that's fine if you're into that sort of thing. I prefer to actually get shit done.

MSU has a very good civil engineering program, but civils are a dime a dozen. Probably the most common type of engineering student, so less demand than anything resource based (sorry, obligatory mining plug had to be in there somewhere)

If you want them to make $150k right out of college, look into Petroleum. If you want 100% job placement, almost anything eng degree at Montana Tech will do, and still lots of good skiing around. Plus you get to go to Bozeman on weekends and steal their women.

I think u vic on vancouver island has civil. That would be my first option as it's something like 5:1 girls:guys (at the school. probably not in engineering). Might be worth checking into western WA U in Bellingham as well. I sort of think they might have engineering.

[Atrain505]

I went to UBC from the states. Thought I got a great education. I skied 80+ days a year by overloading and working my ass off first semester. Had fun. Surfed a fair bit. And at the time it was far cheaper for me to go to UBC then out of state in the US. Now the exchange rate is even.
Can't recommend it enough. Amazing city, mountains, ocean. I still live here and in Whistler in the winters. Wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

[Schemeboat]

Save money and ski more:
Do the first two years at capilano university. Nicer campus, cheaper rent, half the tuition cost, and 20 minutes closer to whis.

[Alaskan Rover]

I'm not sure what your son wants to major in, but if it's at all relating to wildlife management, wildlife biology or geophysics, I highly recommend University of Alaska-Fairbanks...my post-grad studies alma mater...they have excellent undergrad and graduate programs in the above endeavors...and have the logistics advantage of being in-state.

Skiing?? Well, lol, on the UAF campus you just have to shift emphasis from downhill to cross-country. There is, of course, some decent BC in the Nenana area foothills, but it's nothing huge. Good quality BC is a haul from Fairbanks. Ski-jorring on the big parking lots near the athletic center is an illegal but fun and worthy blast, though!

--

[XXX-er]

.

I think u vic on vancouver island has civil. That would be my first option as it's something like 5:1 girls:guys (at the school. probably not in engineering). Might be worth checking into western WA U in Bellingham as well. I sort of think they might have engineering.

Uvic would be the closest to surfing, the weather is pretty good and Victoria is pretty nice , a lot of bike racers and tri-atheletes like to school, live & train there

Is Cap a uni now, I remember it as being a community college, is it affiliated with SFU or UBC or on its own??

[kevin267]

brother is in the Bay Area going to school. Does not really like the traffic and crowds of CA.

Vancouver has way too much traffic and crowds for me lol, but I grew up outside of Victoria and have since only lived in Sechelt and Whistler so never had to deal with too much

Uvic would be the closest to surfing, the weather is pretty good and Victoria is pretty nice , a lot of bike racers and tri-atheletes like to school, live & train there

Is Cap a uni now, I remember it as being a community college, is it affiliated with SFU or UBC or on its own??

Cap is a uni on it's own offers a handful of bach degrees, not engineering though.

My little bro is in engineering at UBC, doing well and skiing a lot, started at the Okanagan campus in Kelowna so even more skiing there (at Big White). I dunno about the lack of hands on stuff Farmer is talking about, my bro is getting shipped to northern Ontario building a hydro dam for co-op terms between school. I went to Uvic for a bit, their ski club is pretty cool especially when you're on the bus to silver star with 5 dudes 20 girls, but UBC isn't so bad either. Also you can actually go surfing out at Jordan River (about an hour away from Uvic).

UBC is a good school but you said he wants to go there to do the ski+surf thing, Skiing at whistler is 1.5-2hrs (more like 2 from UBC) away, the smaller local hills maybe 45 mins-hr but I don't know never really done that trip. Baker is a sweet option too similar distance as whis just other direction. Surfing, you could see what you can get around campus there but to get to the coast on Van isle it is 30 min drive+1hr 40 min ferry (expensive with a car) then 3hrs-ish to tofino or 1.5hrs if you're going to J river but not really worth the trip over tofino... There must be somewhere that can beat all that for ski+surf? Or am I too used to being spoiled with 10 minutes door to chairlift now. My buddy makes it work, going to school in van and sleeping on my floor and boarding every weekend lately lol.

[BFD]

Thank's for the information. He got his application in. After looking at the out of country tuition costs it maybe prohibitive without a scholarship.

[farmer]

I dunno about the lack of hands on stuff Farmer is talking about, my bro is getting shipped to northern Ontario building a hydro dam for co-op terms between school.

That's my experience from the half dozen or so UBC enginerds I've met at various conferences. I also have a good friend who I worked several summers with who is a UBC geo end grad and that was his complaint with the place. That and the cockfagness of many of their eng's. The bright red ENGINEER jackets are a prime example.

[keipow]

why do folks on tgr always ask for college advice without stating the major or past grades?

good suggestions on this topic can never come without these 2 pieces of information. i can't imagine a ski recommendation thread without skier weight+height+skill level+location.

[legallyillegal]

If mountain access is your thing (ski/bike/whatever), the University of the Fraser Valley offers the best access to Baker, the 3 NorthShore hills, Hemlock, Manning Park, and the BC interior.

[XXX-er]

You know its spring in vancover when the UBC engineers hang a VW under the lions gate bridge and you see it front page Vancover Sun

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/B...nk-2955618.php

This time ^^ they went international & did the golden gate bridge .

[ferniebiker]

That's my experience from the half dozen or so UBC enginerds I've met at various conferences. I also have a good friend who I worked several summers with who is a UBC geo end grad and that was his complaint with the place. That and the cockfagness of many of their eng's. The bright red ENGINEER jackets are a prime example.

You really have a hate for ubc eng don't you? I had a bunch of ubc geo friends and they had mandatory field school ever spring once everyone else was done class and on summer break. You can't group all of us into the "red" wearing group. By cockfagness do you mean engineers that like to think they are smarter than everyone and make up BS? Sounds like u