University of Ottawa — Attraction in Ottawa

Honestly, this university is riding on cherry picked reputations achieved years ago. They sold and manipulated me to pursue an undergraduate degree here. Although you'll find some good associate professors on the undergraduate side, going to upper years, especially in the engineering department, they may be super smart and super innovative on the research side, but from a teaching perspective, they make it ever so hard to even enjoy the content you're attempting to learn either because they cannot convey the material sufficiently or put unreasonable regulations and expectations of students. At this university, they assume good researcher = good teacher. Wrong. There is no standards for teaching which means you'll get professors all across the spectrum with no consistency whatsoever.

And don't get me started on admin, if you need anything from them, you'll either spend hours on hold or wait weeks for emails to be replied to.

The co-op program? There's nothing special about it. They advertise there's an 80% placement rate but it's all government jobs. Government jobs have not helped me further my career, in my honest opinion. I've gotten better jobs looking for internships on my own.

I've even found the cleanliness of the various facilities to be abysmal at best; if you want to build new buildings (which is fine), but at least maintain the buildings you already have.

Website is hard to navigate, jobs on campus are hard to find and they are relatively disorganized as well.

Some pros however, are the location (you're conviently located near the heart of the downtown core) and maybe the high-traffic bus terminals (you'll never miss a bus because there will probably be another one in 5-10 minutes.

I wish I had more nice things to...

I'm so sad and sorry to say this: if you are a new student with big dreams and goals in life, trust me, do not enroll at the University of Ottawa. It's a trap and a dream killer. I'm speaking from my experience, especially in the science faculty, particularly in the chemistry lab. The university lacks proper communication and professionalism. Many students are complaining about receiving zeros in their lab work for reasons unrelated to the actual lab performance. This is because the person in charge is abusive and sadistic, and they assign TAs who behave like submissive enforcers.

Moreover, whoever is supposed to ensure the university upholds the quality of education standards seems either to be on vacation, asleep, or simply unqualified. I say this because all first-year students are shocked and disappointed. They lack experience and don't know their rights, and the chemistry lab staff take advantage of this, knowing that no one will check or hold them accountable. They are confident they won't face any consequences.

The final proof that I’m speaking the truth is simple: no one from the university will respond to this review, and they won’t seek feedback from students to understand what’s...

UOttawa engineering student, hate the school, most of my profs couldn't speak english clearly, not that it mattered because the students end up teaching themselves. I lived in Brooks, wouldn't advise anyone to live there, its very expensive and you WILL NOT be able to find someone to sublet in the summer, so be prepared to be stuck with a $3000 rent over the summer months while you're not there. Administration will charge you for every document you send their way and no one will give you guidance anywhere. I can't even call my faculty when I have a question because they no longer answer phone calls. Perfect example of a greedy institution. If you go there you will feel like the school is trying to make you give up on your education. They don't want you to succeed, and if you're a Canadian citizen, the don't care about you at all because you are only one small tuition payment. International students get special treatment, but thats no big surprise since they're tuition is like 10 grand per semester. Good luck to everyone who has no other choice, you'll...