Reputation in industry. If they’re viewed as crap, your degree could actually hurt you in the job market.

First year residence guarantee. Unless you’re commuting from home, see who guarantees first year residence. Depending on the city, housing could be hard to come by.

Related: distance between housing and your lecture halls. If there’s multiple campuses, make sure your housing is near the one you’ll be at.

Co-op. If applicable, you want this.

All the universities may have majors in your field but it doesn’t necessarily mean their programs are their main focus or have been updated at all lately.

Edit: it doesn’t necessarily need to be their main focus but look for signs that’s at least still a priority (assuming other factors make the particulier uni appealing)

Getting a university degree is essential for a lot of professions, but it should not be your only purpose in attending. It’s an opportunity expand yourself as a person while training for a job. Take some classes in non-technical areas that you know very little about. A few of them may lead to lifelong interests. Even if they don’t, they will give you a broader view of the world and the people in it.

Even if you end up loving your job, there is more to life than work.

I have a computer science degree and work as a developer and consultant. The most important things I learned in college were from some anthropology classes I took out of curiosity. Technical knowledge is not that hard to acquire. Gaining new perspectives on the world is a lot harder to come by. Take advantage of the opportunities.

Depending on what you’re planning on going into, don’t lock yourself into going to university. My wife spent 3 years of half course load at university while working in the same field she was trying to study in and didn’t get her degree, or actually get into the faculty she needed for that degree. She is now 5 months from her degree after spending a year and a half at college in a workplace program. Academia is disgustingly bloated and “you have to prove you want to be here before you can go into what you actually want to learn” for certain disciplines. College is a perfectly good, or better option depending on what you are going into.

I am not sure if this applies in Canada, but make sure that the program offered by the school is accredited. For example, I’m an engineer in the US and one of the bigger accreditation agencies is ABET. Some companies won’t hire you unless the school you want to is accredited by ABET.

Scholarship info. When I was picking schools, I lucked out and found one with great scholarship options and a good reputation.

Hi. My kids went to university in Ontario. Graduated 2 years ago. One engineering. One media and publishing.

My son had amazing high school grades. He had early admission to every program he applied to. Scholarship offers too. He picked a school based on employability and coop. He went to a program that the school specialized in. Some engineering programs have a general first year with program selection following that. While others have a direct entry to their selected program. Difference being if his grades tanked he would lose his ability to get top pick. Then the support they offered for coops. Some said they had coops but very little staffing, other had a building dedicated to it. Engineering and nursing have structured programs. So many hours of a subject as a requirement. The school reserves placement for them. Open degrees are a free for all.

My other child did the arts thing. Her program was so over booked she didn’t get any courses in her major the first 3 semesters. But she still had to take courses. Waste of money in my mind. The last year was a grind getting all her credits for her major. Work experience was also hard to get in her field. No support from her school.

A friend of an ours went to Trent. Economics. He had great grades and took the full ride scholarship they offer. He’s making really good money now even though people bash on the school.

Go to a school for a career. Plan for some versatility in employment. CPA Accountants can work anywhere where as nurses have limited employers- government.

Watch out for rent availability. Lot of colleges are packing in the students and rooms aren’t available. Universities aren’t as bad for this but one college can soak up all the free rooms. Waterloo is a great example of this. 2 universities and 1 college there. The college doubled their enrolment. Now things are a struggle.

Look at commute times. You can’t afford to spend hours on a bus or 2. No time to study.

Feel free to message me if you want to talk.