Full disclosure: I'm from Waterloo. University of Waterloo is a relatively young university - established in 1959 - so it may look unattractive compared to old

Full disclosure: I'm from Waterloo. University of Waterloo is a relatively young university - established in 1959 - so it may look unattractive compared to old big name universities, especially on the usual metrics used for ranking universities. However, UWaterloo positioned itself into a very peculiar position by offering the most extensive undergraduate co-op program. Co-op students graduates with up to 2 years of field experience, and many of them get offers from the companies they worked for during co-op terms (and among them are Big Tech and other IT giants). This allows Waterloo graduates to get high-end jobs pretty quickly, and, as a result, it's currently one of the most popular universities in SV and Big Tech[1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Waterloo#Rankings_and_reputation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Waterloo#Ranking... > The quality of students is also just above mediocre given the smaller talent pool of that exists in Canada. The pool is NOT limited to the population of Canada, because Canadian immigration policy create a lot of synergy here. Canada has a very lax immigration policy compared to US, so it's very easy for foreign students to settle in Canada after finishing their co-op. IIRC, both the federal gov and provincial gov roll their own immigration programs, so there's practically no shortage of immigration options when you graduate from a Canadian university. Hell, some people even use their shiny new Canadian PR/citizenship to re-immigrate to US, while a lot of foreign students in US get kicked out after graduation. The door is much more wide open in Canada. So, Waterloo co-op program is a great opportunity for foreign students to get a decent SWE job in North America - one of the most well paying jobs in the world. This makes Waterloo attract talents from abroad.