University of Calgary — Attraction in Calgary

This university is a joke, and I pity those who go here. I myself dropped out in my 4th year to finally head to Europe to start over. (I may sadly have to come back someday due to sunk costs). I got bullied and harassed by professors, called a "useless broken kitten that no one would ever pick up from the animal shelter," etc etc. The university involved various associate deans and hired lawyers and such just to gaslight me on these issues, so I sincerely apologize to note that students' tuition fees are going towards useless legal fees. But hey, where I'm headed next to study engineering and physics, tuition is free. Just wish I'd gotten that heads-up earlier in life. Do not go here unless you truly have zero other options. It's just a bunch of powerful people drunk on power while the students faint of starvation because they can't afford the tuition fees and food.

This is an edited review at this time, because I wound up (very sadly) going back to U of C. I was a senior and trying to complete my studies (because of all I had invested to date). My return was nothing but a deplorable hell that resulted in me filing a lawsuit against the university, finally. (However, I'm not suing for much money at all, just the bare minimum refunds that I'm owing, and I've requested select punitive damages be paid from the university to the human rights commission). What happened? I accidentally noted that someone was a sneaky snake human type of thing in a very private email to the student ombuds. However, the student ombuds and the associate dean of science - of the time - decided to throw me under the bus multiple times, and had me called to the non-academic misconduct office multiple times that semseter. I wound up filing police reports to report this insane harassment. However, the university had the hilarious audacity to call me the harasser, through their non-academic misconduct reports. Well, the student ombuds and the associate dean both determine student conduct outcomes, so I was sentenced to meetings over my alleged harassment. I was further called a harasser because I had had to file police reports for harassment. The university also decided, at this point, to stalk me on the internet, and to call me to the non-academic misconduct office because I had called them the University of Clowns online. Well, guess what? Stalking your students is also harassment, and I made another police report in this respect. Furthermore, I implored people to just sue me so that I could counter-sue. Nope, they could not sue me (magically), because they don't have a case. Fortunately, though, that one particular dean got fired (bless your souls for that).

You'd think that that was enough horror with this university. Right ... right?! Nope, the horror show didn't end there. I wound up taking 4 W's over that spring term, due to the severe harassment, and my being hospitalized temporarily due to my health failing by now. However, the school refused to refund me for having sent me to the hospital, so they took my money, gave me W's instead of EW's, and of course, this got me kicked out of my program. I was given an RTW standing (required to withdraw), and I was also asked to drop from 6-8 to 3 courses a term so that I could fulfill this petty little academic rehab program, and I said no. So, I got kicked out. Well, guess what? That prompted me to file a 20-page human rights complaint against the institution. I got kicked out well into my 4th year. Apparently, U of C likes to get rid of students who are just en route towards graduation. I mean, why not, when they're clearly hoarding money somewhere.

If that isn't a horror show worthy of the devil's circus, then I don't know what is.

Edit 2025: Wait for it, it gets even weirder, this long and convoluted rabbit hole of bizarreness. U of C sued me twice for $0, and I reported that clowney lawyer to the law society of Alberta. I subsequently got banned from campus, as this lawyer was annoyed and informed the president I’m banned. My honour...

I've been to three universities over the course of my academic career (undergrad, master's, and now PhD). Never have a encountered a department (Werklund School of Education), or a university, which cares so little for students or the quality of education they receive. It appears to me this university has for a very long time rested on its outdated reputation as a quality institution rather than investing in modernizing pedagogy, adequate student funding, and administrative communication and transparency. As a result, the university feels like a university from 20 years ago. Classrooms stuffed to the gills with undergrad students; mediocre professors producing mediocre research with no professorial/pedagogical skills; no spirit of learning; departments engaging in predatory recruitment practices involving intentionally vague and legally questionable funding letters to attract students, especially international students, then entrap them in this shoddy institution with no financial support and no way to leave lest they risk their status as a full-time student (e.g., tuition is not covered by my department [most funded graduate positions at universities do cover tuition], and tuition is not lowered after PhD candidacy [another thing common at other universities], meaning you must pay tuition when not in courses. I did not know these things until I spent my savings to move here and, in fact, was told these would not be issues by my department). The administration and departments blame Alberta's fiscal policies and funding cuts. That is not our problem as students. This university still turns a profit, raises tuition, and cuts departmental funding while we struggle to afford food, housing, and tuition.

Undergraduates, your experiences here likely vary from department to department, but know that the quality of education you will get or currently get at UofC is, most likely, not on par with what you would have at other universities.

Graduate students considering this school, especially international ones, carefully review your funding offer letters. Inquire about whether or not tuition is covered by your department. Ask how much you will be paid monthly. Ask if they have enough TA positions to ensure you're fully funded. Finally, reach out to your departmental student reps to get to know current graduate students. Ask them to speak candidly about their experiences as you decided if you truly want to attend UofC.

Post-docs/faculty looking to come here, if you care about quality learning environments, rigorous departmental and administrative support for your research (including funding opportunities beyond SHRCC), and a kind, student-centric atmosphere... don't. Most departments hire internally from their pool of former graduate students, anyway.

Do heed my warning, dear people of the internet. Be wary of this diploma mill...

Despite having some very good professors in the upper years and in the Humanities, this is not a very good academic university. I got my undergrad here in the Sciences and my significant-other attended first year engineering. I'm now a graduate student at the University of Alberta and my significant-other has transferred as an engineering undergraduate. I can tell you that the difference is like night and day! The facilities at U of C are very poor by comparison, the teaching labs are really bad and students are required to shoulder way more of the costs for lab equipment than they are at U of A. The quality of teaching is also HUGELY superior at the University of Alberta. At the University of Calgary, the city's hostility transfers to the professors. Whether the hostility is from terrible traffic congestion or overpopulation, I can't say but the profs in Calgary seemed very "out to get you". After enrolling in the University of Alberta, we were both surprised to find ALL of our profs to be engaging and genuinely concerned about students. I was blown away. My significant other says that his homework assignments are more straight forward, there is more guidance and more available help to answer questions, tests are graded in a more timely fashion and web assignments have more support (you can actually argue a grade when your answer is correct but the program disagrees with your alternate format). All and all, the University of Alberta is just plain better. Better instruction, better facilities, lower overall costs to students, better student housing (like WAY better), the university is even in a better area of town within walking distance of all kinds of services (medical/dentist, groceries, festivals, parks etc.). People are also in general happier in Edmonton, don't ask me why. Quantitatively, my partner's GPA have improved by 1.5 points which is massive. As an undergraduate at the University of Calgary, I didn't know what I was missing and I assumed that the "throw you to the wolves" approach used by the U of C was how all universities were, but I was so wrong. Don't go to school here, it is the exception not the rule. Universities are...