Toronto Metropolitan University — Attraction in Toronto

Ryerson has tranformed over the last 7 years, shifting it's focus from establishing itself as a real university and not a polytechnical institute, to becoming a leader in racial and indigenous activism. I think the latter is an incredibly important, and it will have a strong impact on these communities as TMU elevates students that belong to them through grants, programs, and spaces where they can create. At the end of the day, Canada needs universities like this, and this change is the right one for the GTA and its communities as a whole.

That being said, potential students interested in TMU should recognize that it is not pooling resources into being an elite school that competes with UofT. With the radical shifts in focus the school is experiencing, anyone who is not dedicated to supporting these communities on an active level will quickly find the same interest is not given to athletics, professional development, or academics. TMU still has quite a few strong programs, but people should know it is not a traditional university when it comes to day-to-day activities. Going to Ryerson definitely means giving up the "university experience".

Besides all that, the number one issue with Ryerson and probably the sole reason for my rating is safety. This school is not safe. It just isn't. Not for students, not for visitors, and especially not for women. I did not go a single week in my undergraduate degree without an email alerting me to another assault, robbery, or sexual harassment. Nearly all of my peers who were women experienced some form of harassment or assault while on campus, as did I myself.

The school is nestled between a safe injection site (essentially located on campus) and a homeless shelter/youth services center. While both locations provide essential support to communities in need, the amount of dangerous people in the area as a result is ridiculous. I've watched people screamed at by drug addicts, robbed at knifepoint by thugs, and catcalled, groped, or threatened by middle aged men without teeth. I worked in the area as well and had needles thrown at me, people pretend to have guns to scare me- addicts would come in and drink our hand sanitizer for a buzz! While it is incredibly unfortunate, it is still an inexcusable environment for young men and women.

While the extremely activism-focused community at TMU is doing wonders for advancing the interests of minority groups across the country, it also prevents the school from taking any action to protect its students from these dangers. A few years ago the student body voted not to increase the number of security staff around the school for fears of racial discrimination against its black population. Students cannot speak up, security can't do their job, and things are only slated to get worse.

Is there a solution to this? I don't think so, at least not one where everyone wins. Shifting resources away from vulnerable groups will hurt those who need help the most, while not doing so will hurt Ryerson students in other ways. Overall, I would not suggest attending Ryerson unless you are highly focused on the issues of indigenous peoples or visible minorities, and are willing to give up your safety and the typical "university experience" to do so. After visiting Guelph, Waterloo, York, and UofT many times throughout my degree, I can definitely say any one of those universities offer safer, more focused environments for learning and getting started with...

While Ryerson (or TMU) horrible new name by the way, they should have left it at the temporary name all the students were using X university, that does not erase what happened in history but rather a symbol of what happened and the future generation's intolerance to discrimination. (Or actually taking student's opinions into consideration rather than completely ignoring their surveys to pick a generic, detached and just so impersonal to their students and community that does represent them at all. Even going so far as to change the mascot from a Ram to Falcons that do not represent at all, I personally thought that just changing the Ram's name to Zibi the Ram (Indigenous for 'River') or 'River the Ram'

That being said I do not agree with other comments stating that other universities in Ontario (such as York, UofT, Western, Laurier, Queen's etc) I would say the complaints of academic quality, professor, issues, and safety can be similar or often times even worse. Especially with the more secluded and "quiet" universities being more of a risk for vulnerable people.

Ryerson (TMU) has increased safety risks as all cities have had during this post covid, recession period, precautions include the same as you would in any big city. (Stick to yourself, walk directly to your classes or well-lit/ crowded/ populated areas (easy in this city) but they have increased security presence.

I would compare the academics as varying depending on department and professor but as comparable to the other schools mentioned. There is an upper-hand to the more 'secluded' universities as the school takes place in the hub of toronto and I genuinely feel (again depending on program) that the school does a good job of offering networking opportunities, professional positions and connections. Most of the professors in my personal experience in the Law, Criminology and History sectors as satisfying as the professors genuinely want to see their students succeed and offer a lot of advice when asked, it is also very easy to communicate with them.

I think every school has its advantages and disadvantages and this school while frustrating at times has more upsides to downsides. It is also very easy to connect and meet with other students if you are a social person. Students usually help each other out and there isn't usually a harsh competitive atmosphere.

I hope in the new year and upcoming years the school continues to improve through these tough times or else this...

Took the accounting program here. A lot of professors are subpar and just read powerpoint slides and cannot explain things in detail because they clearly did not review the materials themselves. I ended up skipping the majority of classes of any professors like this because the lectures were useless and my 3 hours could be spent much more effectively. I ended up graduating with honours but it felt like half my classes had unmotivated professors who did nothing to contribute to your learning.

Next, when I was attending school there was no career guidance system set up and pretty much 0 support for helping you find employment. All we had in the accounting program was the Big4 recruiters who only recruit a handful of people from our program of hundreds. There were no medium/small accounting firm recruiters, no industry recruiters, and no government recruiters coming to the school making post graduation job hunting very bleak. The online job site Ryerson launched is full of sales job with very little jobs related to your degree.

All in all, I got my degree here but the school did not help open much doors. It's still a relatively new University so I hope that can change in the future. If you're looking for an good Accounting program I would highly suggest looking elsewhere. It's impossibly hard to land an accounting career job in Toronto without an excellent recruitment program. There are many accounting grads from U of T that are still struggling to find work in the area. Many have finished their first designation exam and still have to get their masters to be competitive. Your odds of getting an accounting designation tracked job before they do with just a Ryerons degree will be challenging. Just a fair warning if you decide to come here...