Can anyone give me the 100-word summary of Simon Frazer?

[punpirate]

Friend's kid is thinking of going there. What are the strong departments, and any downsides?

Cheers, and thanks.

[Maple]

1. Simon Fraser University

http://www.sfu.ca/

What you need is the Maclean's annual university ranking, and articles about life on campus. Unfortunately at the moment you can only buy it on the stands.

This url only gives the generalities about the survey

http://www.macleans.ca/universities/index.jsp

[punpirate]

2. Actually, I was hoping for comments from BCers who had personal...

... or anecdotal knowledge of the school.

Cheers.

[Maple]

3. Guess yer outta luck then

Cheers.

[tuvor]

5. FWIW

Last year I heard on News1130 in Vancouver that rankings in Macleans could be "influenced" by things it shouldn't be influenced by.

I wasn't able to find the story on their website, though.

[Lisa]

4. well, the SFU campus is very attractive

A friend of mine did his undergrad at UVic, his MSc at UBC, and is working on his PhD at Simon Fraser. His area is in physical geography (modelling impacts of global warming on forest ecosystems).

I get the impression that Simon Fraser is pretty strong in the humanities and social sciences (a high-school classmate of mine is an Anthro prof and seems to be content with the facilities etc.). But if you're in the hard sciences, it may depend a lot on the department. (Then again, the needs of a grad student are different from undergrad courses ... there are plenty of schools with good undergrad programmes but much less support for graduate degrees. My friend's had to change supervisors a couple of times, because it's been hard to find someone on campus whose research interests match his.)

[punpirate]

6. Thanks... that was the sort of reply I was seeking.

The question was put to me by a friend in Illinois whose son was contemplating Canadian schools. His kid seems to be computer-centered, as are most kids these days in the US, but I don't know whether or not his interests lie in programming, or whatever.

The comments you provide would be helpful, I think.

Cheers, and thanks.

[Lisa]

12. I had lunch with my SFU friend today

He says that the undergrad Comp Sci program there is pretty highly subscribed. If people are competing to get into it, that's actually a good sign (that it's viewed as desirable).

He did add that the campus looks kind of drab during the winter.

[HEyHEY]

7. I grew up looking at it everyday

It's on top of Burnaby mountain, so the view is stellar, especially to the North. But the design of the buildings is very depressing and was actually blamed for the high suicide rate there.
THe Kinesiology department is well known, and the student paper is pretty killer for a student paper. It's a bit of a pain to get into Vancouver to do stuff because, although Vancouver (Lower Mainland) surrounds it, you gotta take a bus up and down the mountain to do anything.

[punpirate]

8. High suicide rate?

Is this something that persists, or was this something in the school's history?

[HEyHEY]

9. Still happens

Don't worry about we're only talking like one or two a year... Usually Kinese students that couldn't get into med school.

[V. Kid]

10. I agree with those who said..

...that it's kind of a hassle to get to. In a way so is UBC, but at least it's not too out of the way like SFU is, cause it's right next to Vancouver and has a busy small-townish atmosphere whereas SFU is more just a school on a hill in the eastern edge of the suburb of Burnaby (it's a pretty good suburb though, its not like the desperate housewife-ish cookie-cutter suburbia sort of thing if you didn't live on campus, it's also close to Coquitlam and Port Moody). I agree with those who said they have a good arts programme. Apparently their criminology department is really good, same with their polisci department. One bad thing, weather wise, is that while it might be raining in the rest of the lower mainland, if it's cold enough, it'll be snowing on Burnaby Mountain (where the main campus is located), cause it's higher up then the rest of the area.

[yvr girl]

11. They're known for their co-op programs

The Communications program is strong.