Mcmaster University

How can I dare give anything less than a five star for THE BEST UNIVERSITY AROUND.
GOOOOOOOO MAC!
As a Marauder, my blood bleeds maroon, but I’m going to be an alumni REAL soon :(
My reason for choosing this university still remains true, because of Science, because of the students, because of the campus, to that I say I do!
McMaster has been around for almost 130 years (next year I believe is the 130^th year). Originally built in Toronto, later moved to Hamilton, McMaster is located in the city of the falls– definitely a beautiful place in the summer and fall to go hiking and explore all of the waterfalls and the trails. Spring, summer, fall and winter, McMaster is beautiful, well actually, spring is not so beautiful, but hey, that’s when Lake McMaster reappears in the middle of the campus. Fall however, is LOVELY. Definitely see quite a few people taking their wedding photos here!
Centro, Bistro and Bridges are delicious places to eat. I’m so proud that Mac has such great chefs! Mary Keyes, Bates, Brandon Hall, Hedden Hall, Les Prince, Matthews, McKay, Moulton, Wallingford, Whidden and Woodstock — you’ve been home to many students at McMaster each year!
Cheers to graduates of 2016!

I’m slightly biased and I haven’t been back here in close to 8 years (crap, I’m old), but I would like to say the following:
–From 2001 to 2005, while I attended, they were constantly adding new buildings, such as new residences, new food vendors, new facilities, etc.
–One of the new facilities was a state-​of-​the-​art gym (as of 2006 when it was built) with an indoor rock climbing wall.
–The schooling itself was pretty good. I would say that the math, science and medical programs are excellent while the business (Degroote) is not bad either.
–I studied business there and while I wouldn’t say the actual education was the best, they are very good at placing people in jobs. I did an internship after my 3^rd year and I got placed at PwC as an associate for 1 year.
While I didn’t go back to PwC after my 4^th year, it proved to be invaluable experience as it taught me that the real world isn’t anything like university. That you couldn’t slack off and have no consequences. That you can’t just «cram» your work like you do for test. It also helped me get a job after graduating.
Verdict: if you study business, try to do an internship. It’ll be very valuable.

My alma mater so kinda bias that way. It does have a world class Health Sciences faculty :))) and kick-​ass history department. Where else can u study Russian, Habsburg, Imperial Germany and Imperial Islamic empires under one Humanities roof??? I should have gotten into grad school :(maybe not cause ‘gotten’ is not a word, baaaaa!

(For some time I’ve wanted to do a review to the tune of a song. In honour of my 100^th review, and the place I spent the majority of the last decade, I present «House of Mac Eng Fun», my review of McMaster University, to the tune of House of the Rising Sun, as performed by (and with apologies to) The Animals
For those not familiar with the song,
)
There is a school in Hamilton
They caaaall McMaster, son
And it’s been the home of many a techie
And god, I know, I’m one
My fiiirrst year was a big one
Compleeete with head inj’ry
The claaases: tough but fun and fair
’cept Comm 1-​S-​O-​3
Startin’ Seeecond year there’s more to see
It’s coooooler, to be blunt
From theeen on things got specialised,
Doin’ thiiings you’d never thunk
Oh Mother, tell your children
They should do what I have done
Spend your lives learnin’ to do stuff
In the House of Mac Eng Fun
Well, I made tons of friends while bein’ there
You’ll do the same, you’ll see
I’m goin’ back to McMaster
’Cause I can’t seem to leave
Well, there is a school in Hamilton
They caaaall McMaster, son
And it’s been the home of many a techie
And god, I know, I’m one
(Thank you)
I’ll be brief to finish this off: I spent six years here on my Bachelor’s degree (legitimately — Engineering and Management program with a year of Internship) and I don’t regret a second of being there. Great people, and I learned a ton (obviously). Obviously my viewpoint is that of an Engineering student, but I can share the following good things:
— The McMaster Engineering Society is a great group of people, no matter what anyone else on campus says
— The location of the school — the edge of Dundas and Hamilton — is perfect, in my opinion. Being close to a reasonable-​sized city there are things to do, but being somewhat isolated you can actually get work done.
— The neighbourhood — Westdale — is great, even if not all the residents appreciate the presence of the university (that’s been there longer than they have)
— Engineering and Management is a great way to learn about technology and how you’ll actually wind up working with it (the business side). It’s not a great way to become supremely technical.
— There’s a definite sense of camaraderie amongst students — we work together to make sure everyone learns what they need to. My impression of some other schools from some profs — I’m lookin’ at you, Waterloo — is that some students would copy the solutions from the library, then destroy them to have an advantage over other students. Mac is more collaborative than that, which is great.
A few bad points:
— The hours of operation of most campus services are not conducive to true technical education (geekery). The computer labs close at like 9pm most days, and the coffee place — in the TECHNOLOGY BUILDING — closed by 4pm most days! (it’s gone now).
— The libraries are well-​known for not having incredibly current literature. The recent reaction seems to be to remove books.
— The student registration system should be nuked from orbit — it’s the only way to be sure. It just. Doesn’t. Work.
— The bookstores seldom can keep up with the first-​week traffic, but that’s probably endemic to all other University campuses.
— Food Services doesn’t take credit cards or Interac, just cash and their own cards. BS.
Come to think of it, most of my problems with McMaster are also probably going to be repeated at campus after campus across the country. For me, it’s a great community of students (and profs, I guess) working together to learn something cool.
(I apologize for this review being a bit disjointed — I just had too good a time over the years to pick out a few things that I loved)