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Ontario Planning Schools Ranking

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flexicitus

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Please rank the schools below according to the following categories:

Queen's, U of T, Ryerson (new MPl), Waterloo, York

Categories:

1. Reputation
2. Employment rate (within 6 months after graduation)
3. Student funding
4. Quality of professional preparation
5. Quality of professional network
6. Quality of teachers
7. Quality of student body
8. Overall

Ranking example:
Overall: Queen's, U of T, Ryerson, Waterloo, York

Cheers!!
 
I doubt many people are actually qualified to give such a ranking in anything approaching an impartial manner.
 
Thanks for your post. I am looking exclusively at the master's programs, trying to gather some ideas especially with reference to employment rate. Any input will help!

Cheers
 
You can't be that specific though. It's going to mostly depend on the professor your working with. You can be with a lousy prof in a great program, and not have a great experience. Or a good prof in so-so program, and have a great experience.

So it would depend not only on faculty, but also the department, program, and the prof.
 
I guess what you should do is speak to faculty members from some of those schools and get a better idea of what you're looking for. I doubt there is any one best school for planning. Your graduate studies experience will have a lot to do with your interests and whether that school has the right faculty for them.
 
Thanks for your kind comments! From what I gather, it seems that post-graduation employment depends on your supervisory professor or his/her connection, or both. Does that sound right? Do certain schools come out on top in the competition for jobs because of their alumni network and overall reputation in the profession? Or does it all come down to the one-on-one connection between the students' primary referees and the firm/employer in question? I mean, does where you went for your MPL matter at the end of the day?

:)
 
Well you cant compare Ryerson's Masters program to any of the others. It hasn't even started yet. 08 will be the first year.

Basing it on the bachelor program though...

1. Reputation - There are many Ryerson graduates in the workforce who are eager to hire other graduates. Toronto City Hall is also pretty friendly with Ryerson's students. With Ryerson's hands on approach to learning, you don't only leave Ryerson knowing what to do, but also how to do it. If you go to any public meetings and speak with anyone, mention you are from Ryersons planning program. Kyle Rae introduced me and a group of students to a planner when we told him where we were from and mentioned that many of the planners at city hall came from Ryerson.

2. Employment rate (within 6 months after graduation) - no clue

3. Student funding (Do you mean awards & bursaries?) There are some offered directly to planning students as well as some which are open to anyone in the Faculty of Community services.

4. Quality of professional preparation - Studios give you hands on experience. Client based studios prepare you to work in the professional world.

5. Quality of professional network - Some prof's hold high positions in the field. Considering the school is in Toronto, networking is simple. You are close to City Hall, Queens Park and the head offices of many large corporations. The program pretty much forces you out there in the first year by requiring that you attend a certain number of public meetings. Use them to your advantage!

6. Quality of teachers - 50/50 here. There are bad and there are good. Most of the ones you will be dealing with for the 4 years are great people both inside and outside of school. You are known by name, not a number.

7. Quality of student body - With about 100 students accepted each year, the program is small and its easy to connect with people from other years. You become close to the people in your year seeing as you are with them for all 4 years. Bad apples drop out within the first year or two.

8. Overall - Im very satisfied with my experience in the bachelors program and will most likely continue onto Ryerson's new masters program once I get my bachelor. Its really what you make of it that determines how satisfied you are. If you are into it and keep up with the work, while enjoying yourself... you will have a great time.

The only other program I would consider is Waterloo's. They have a pretty good reputation and a pretty good program themselves. The only reason I picked Ryerson over Waterloo was because of location.
 
That's why I'm happy I'm in a large program... you're not stuck with the same faces over and over. It's easy for major personality conflicts to arise when there's a class of 20 or so.
 
I was kind of hoping this thread would have a bit more info since I've applied to Planning Masters programs as well, but no big deal. I applied to York, Toronto, Mcgill and Dalhousie, and from what I gather all have their strong points. It's all subjective anyways as someone mentioned above. I went to Trent for my undergrad and you could ask 10 people if they like it there and 9 will love it and the other will hate it.

Flexicitus: I wouldn't be so concerned with jobs and such right now. You still have a year or two of school before you need to worry about it, and there are no guarantees that simply because you have a degree from X you'll end up with an amazing job. Most programs have an internship component as well, which is surely a step in the door. I'm more concerned with just getting my education and taking as much from it as possible. Other things will fall into place eventually.
 
It's interesting that Waterloo is synonymous with math and engineering. There's a whole other half to UW: arts, science, applied health science and environmental studies, all of which are majority female. Arts is also the largest faculty.
 
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