ClasPin

Thanks for your reply. The problem here in Waterloo is that, I feel myself lacking passion on the research topics. I can try to get the M.S. degree first, but I am not confident that I can publish anything impressive in the following 2 years. People say that when professors pick students, they will pay more attention to the applicant's publication if he or she is a graduate student. I'm just fearing that if staying in Waterloo will make things worse after 2 years.

If you want to stop by master, then I think Waterloo is a good choice. People I knew here are competitive in job markets. Are you applying to CS? Just note that some professors in ECE also do software engineering research, and you may want to check it out.

Hi, I am an international student. I applied for PhD programs last year but got no offers from U.S. schools. I am now in U of Waterloo, Canada and enrolled as a master student. Recently a professor in PSU informed me that he just received a new grant and would be able to take me in his research group. If I accept the invitation, I will have to make a transfer before receiving my master's degree here in Waterloo. Meanwhile, I also have the option to continue my Ph.D. study in the same place (no problem in admission). My first choice for future career is to pursue a position in academia. Waterloo is a good university and has great reputation in Canada. However, I just feel that it is mainly because of their undergraduate programs (Waterloo has great co-op programs and sends a lot of students to Microsoft every year). PSU seems better in terms of pure research and academic environment, but I am not sure if that is really the truth, or if the advantage is that significant to make the transfer worthwhile. My research interest is system software related things, e.g., OS, VM, and it seems that the professor of PSU is better match to me, who is now digging into system security issues. While in Waterloo, I am doing reliable software research, kind of math but more software engineering thing. Any suggestions? I am more interested in how academic people in the U.S. view Waterloo. Thank you in advance.