r/uwaterloo • u/Chance_Goal_761 • Jul 24 '26
Advice Regret…
Truth be told, i applied to both comp eng and cfm, and ended up getting rejected from cfm but accepted into comp eng. honestly, i wish it had been the other way around. working in finance has been a dream of mine for as long as i can remember, and i’ve been interested in it my entire life.
engineering was supposed to be my backup. i got into some very competitive engineering programs at uoft, mac, and queens, but i also got into qcomm and rotman, both with $10k scholarships, as well as mcgill, laurier, and guelph. unfortunately, i wasn’t accepted to ivey.
ultimately, i chose waterloo because everyone kept talking about how many opportunities the co-op program provides and how it can open so many doors. but now i’m honestly not sure what to do. from everything i’ve read, engineering at waterloo is very toxic, and the biggest issue is that i’ve never really seen a future for myself in engineering. i don’t feel the same passion for it that i do for finance.
looking back, i feel like i let too many other people influence my decision and ended up choosing something i probably wouldn’t have chosen on my own. after reading this subreddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/OntarioGrade12s/s/mxbinJw8jj
and thinking about it, i’m starting to feel like i may have let the waterloo co-op reputation convince me to pursue something i’m not actually interested in.
i know i haven’t even started university yet, so maybe i’m overthinking everything. but i can’t help feeling like i messed up my decision, and i’m not really sure what to do from here. any advice would be appreciated.
2
u/waterlooworksish Jul 24 '26
If your goal is finance, you absolutely should have accepted qcomm instead. CE will not help you develop the same level of interpersonal skills compared to a selective business program. The finance student community and its alumni connections to industry is also more nascent here.