University of Waterloo ECE 1A Wrap-Up

Three months have passed since I started at the University of Waterloo. For prospective students curious about what first-year engineering is really like—or anyone interested in an unfiltered account of 1A in Computer Engineering—here’s my honest breakdown covering courses, co-op, health, and food.

Courses

If there’s one takeaway from my 1A term in Computer Engineering, it’s this: the curriculum feels designed without much consideration for whether it’s actually realistic for first-year students.

ECE 105 (Classical Mechanics): Easily the hardest and, for computer engineers, least relevant course of the term. I genuinely love physics, which made this experience all the more disappointing. The teaching approach covers principles in lectures while expecting students to figure out applications independently. Tutorial problems are so difficult they never appear on actual assessments—and it seems like even the instructors aren’t sure what the quizzes and exams should look like. The kicker? ECE 105 covers more material and is harder than PHYS 111 and PHYS 121, which are designed for physics majors.

ECE 150 (Fundamentals of Programming): Learning C++ fundamentals in three months is ambitious, to put it mildly. Unless you’ve already programmed in C++ before arriving, expecting above a 70 is optimistic. I feel for the electrical engineering students—most of them will never use this material again.

ECE 190 (Engineering Profession and Practice): This course isn’t really about ethics; it’s about memorizing slides. The exams are full of gotcha questions that test trivia rather than understanding. You’ll need to remember obscure facts (how many undergraduate engineering programs exist in Canada?) and distinguish between nearly identical terms (in “E-coop,” does the “E” stand for “Enterprise” or “Entrepreneurial”?). It’s more IQ test than ethics course.

ECE 198 (Project Studio): The professor allowed AI usage, which was fortunate because I had no time to do anything else. I essentially vibe-coded my way through with Claude Code—GenAI usage isn’t against Policy 71 for this course, after all. The group project was painful; I had a teammate who was equal parts arrogant and uninformed, which is the worst combination. Also, they scheduled our symposium on a Sunday. That presentation was worth around 30% of our grade. Do student labour protections not apply here?

MATH 115 & MATH 117 (Linear Algebra and Calculus): These were manageable. If you finished high school math with 85+ and stayed awake during lectures, you should be fine. The conventional wisdom that university grades drop 15% from high school doesn’t seem to apply here. Credit where it’s due: the Faculty of Mathematics has excellent professors and TAs.

COMMST 192 (Communication in Engineering): Fun and genuinely useful, but the workload was enormous. I spent most of my after-class time on COMMST 192 assignments, which is why I never finished the problem sets for ECE 105, MATH 115, and MATH 117. For me, this course had more work than everything else combined—though for most people, ECE 150 probably takes that crown. My Grammarly Pro subscription expired after reading week, which made catching errors significantly harder without AI assistance.

The Bottom Line: The schedule and workload are brutal for first-year students. It feels like the institution prioritizes tuition revenue over student well-being. If I were an MPP, I’d propose legislation requiring curriculum coordinators to complete their own programs before implementing them.

Co-op

This was the easiest part of my term, though I know it’s the hardest for most people. I was one of the lucky few who secured a good placement quickly. Many friends—including my roommate—are still searching. I’ve noticed tension building as some students without placements grow envious of those who have them.

The fantasy that everyone will land great co-ops for five years and walk into FAANG after graduation is starting to crumble. I knew this going in—friends with older siblings in CS and CE had warned me—but I applied anyway.

I taught myself most of this material before university and had two successful work experiences under my belt. Academically, 1A taught me almost nothing new. What I did discover was an unexpected passion for theoretical physics and pure mathematics. It’s too late to switch programs, though I don’t regret choosing computer engineering. I’m pragmatic enough to acknowledge that physics and math degrees don’t pay the same way.

Health

Now I understand why engineering and math students have certain reputations at this university.

Yes, the gym is open until midnight. But when you’re drowning in assignments, who has time to go? Before reading week, I’d see engineering students working out regularly. Now? I don’t know anyone in my cohort who still makes it to the gym. We’re all burnt out. Even the walk there feels like too much.

Mental health is worse. Friends from high school keep suggesting I date someone. But making a girlfriend—or even talking to women—isn’t realistic here. Achieving 80+ and finishing everything on time requires isolation. The gender ratio doesn’t help either. I don’t have exact numbers (and collecting them would be awkward), but it feels like somewhere between 10:1 and 15:1. We joke that finding a girl in our cohort is harder than finding a unicorn.

When you’re one week from finals, fighting a cold because the university didn’t call a snow day during an actual snowstorm, and you got sick trudging between classes—the combination of physical and mental strain is indescribable.

Food

The best thing about my first 18 years of life was that my mom is the best chef in the world. Food here tastes like sewage and costs a fortune. It’s borderline fraudulent.

I’m fortunate to be in a residence with the best dining hall on campus, but it doesn’t come close to what I ate at home in Ottawa. I’ve also learned that nutritional balance matters more than I thought. I got sick at least once a month because I refused to eat vegetables. The vegetables here don’t help—they’re not the fresh greens I had back home; they taste like they survived some kind of biohazard incident.

I don’t know why I was so stubborn about vegetables in Ottawa. I swear I’ll eat them happily when I go back after finals.

Conclusion

I wish I could have skipped first year entirely. There’s nothing here that matches what I expected back in June. A physics or mathematics degree might have been more intellectually fulfilling, but it would have left me broke after graduation. The current economy leaves little room for idealism.

On the bright side, I’ve discovered a genuine interest in physics and am now pursuing a joint honours. Hopefully this will make my tuition feel less wasted while I continue learning almost nothing new in my core engineering courses.

Resources

If you’re navigating Waterloo, I highly recommend Xierumeng’s “Guide to UW” blog series. It offers detailed guidance for each academic term, co-op terms, and other essential skills for succeeding here.

Have questions about 1A at Waterloo? Drop them in the comments.