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Added by Jopie, at 02 February 2017
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14 Reviews
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29 November 2017
Really depressing in the winter. But great view from the top of the mountain. Good university overall to go too.
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21 November 2017
WHY DO THIS PLACE EVEN EXIST?
Ignore those Latinos saying GOOD VIEWS .
This is not tourist attraction place
I cannot find any other sentence to describe this place other than RIP OFF and DIRTY LOOP HOLE.
Just search ANDREW PETTER biography, you will understand why University is a Joke, and Why it will fail by the end.response / report this review -
07 November 2017
SFU's Communication program is the best in the country. Top profs and well-trained TAs for the most part. People complain about the social scene (or lack thereof) but I enjoyed the atmosphere actually. No annoying rowdyness or contrived party culture. Beautiful campus. I am now doing my M.A. at a different uni, and realize how high quality SFU is. I wish I had applied for my M.A. at SFU. The only downside of SFU is the excessive pandering to "diversity."
It is awesome to be able to take classes on all 3 campuses. I miss SFU!response / report this review -
25 October 2017
The experience in sfu is a total misery for some students especially those in applied science. You rarely see joy or happiness on their faces. I would summarize what makes it the worst university in north America as follows.
1. Profs and TAs have 0 sense of responsibility on teaching, and most of them dont dont how to teach.
2. More than 60% of profs cannot speak proper English.
3. Grading is incredibly strict.
4. for some of courses, very weak corelation between lecture, assignments/lab and exams. The reason behind that is they dont know to how to teach and steal exams from MIT.
5. The main building air ventilation system is rotten and transmitting mould and toxic smells all over. It makes me feel sick and depressed while staying for more than 2 hours.response / report this review -
20 September 2017
Top university. SFU has one of the best library in town. Computers, quiet area, meeting room etc. All I need is in the library, I can even spend the whole day here without leaving it.
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23 August 2017
First, I'd like to make it clear that my last review was removed. I'm not sure why, so I am reiterating it again as I feel it is important that people know this:
1) The president of this university is corrupt in more ways than one. First, there is the situation of international students. I was born in Canada & graduated from high school with honours, & my application to SFU was flat out rejected. I had to start at Douglas College and then transfer to SFU 2 years later in order to get in. Once I arrived, there were numerous international students who I spoke to who could barely speak English & who got in on their first try and they didn't even have a HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA! Why? Because they pay 4 times more in tuition than Canadian citizens. Hence, the school allows in a massive amount of international students, who are given priority because they pay more, as well as priority for on-campus student housing. Don't get me wrong, diversity is a beautiful thing, but this is a complete inequity to locals' access to education, & the president is taking advantage of these international students.
An example of this - when Trump became president and immigrants were fleeing to Canada, SFU stated that they would "waive application fees". This is a $75 fee. In contrast, The University of Ottawa stated that they would help these people by waiving international student fees (a TON of money). What did SFU's president want to gain from this? An influx of international students and a lot of extra cash in his pocketcompletely taking advantage of the situation of these desperate people. He was not "helping" them whatsoever.
2) TAs & profs are completely disconnected. There is a complete lack of communication on a) how to do assignments/papers & b) how to grade them. Hence, you have overworked TAs grading in a very haphazard way. The professor rarely ever sees anything that's graded. This makes for many problems when it comes to exam time.
Moreover, the TAs are always on strike. I was not able to get into grad school (at a different uni) on time because the TAs were again on strike and withholding grades. Why do they keep doing this? For good reason. The president of SFU (Andrew Petter) pays them in dog food, i.e., minimal wages. They basically do the jobs of the profs &, in my opinion, are almost replacing the profs - grading, teaching, dealing with students' inquiries, all while studying their own higher degrees. Hence, they are demanding a higher wage & more respect, & it is never given to them because Petter is a thief.
3) Many of the profs don't speak English well (I was in the Faculty of Science). Try doing integral calculus with a prof that you can barely understand. It's very difficult. I am positive that SFU hires these profs from overseas & pays them unfair wages (see the theme here?).
4) The grading at this university is crazy hard. I'm not sure if it's because of the disconnect between profs & TAs, or the grading scheme, but you can bet that you won't have a social life while going to this school.
5) WARNING: It will take 5-6 years to get an undergraduate degree. Myself and almost all of my friends took about 5.5 years to complete our undergrads (with no breaks). I found that this is because upper level courses are never offered. Either they don't have enough profs to teach them or the courses are full half a day after the registration system opens and you have to wait another year or more to take a required course. And the university knows this, but does nothing about it because they make more money if you're here longer.
Overall, the experience is bad. It particularly worries me about the future of locals' access to our universities. Petter treats it as a business, and is only out to maximize profits at the expense of hard working students. Scary. This university has a complete lack of caring for students' education. It's all about the profit with these people, which makes the quality lack severely.response / report this review -
26 July 2017
Nice campus and even safe at night time. I went here for a meetup and I enjoyed the visit.
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26 July 2017
Jst luv it frm deep of my heart))) I will be the best luckiest person in this universe if i get a opportunity to study such glorious university.. Love u SF ))))
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11 July 2017
You are here for study, not the stupid NATURAL VIEWS, OR FOOD..
Plus, food in this place is for sure OVERPRICED.. Imagine in a hot sunny day, where the entire concrete building has no air condition, i swear if you stay this building for more than 20 minutes, you will feel choked.. Dirty washrooms
HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT GOING THIS PLACE!!!
Even the son of the SFU PRESIDENT HIMSELF, does not come to this place. He goes to University of Lethbridge in Alberta, transferred to HARVARD for MBA right away!!response / report this review -
06 April 2017
Would strongly suggesting not to go there, everything is in a simple word, CHEAP!
If you graduate from BC high school, you need to be aware of the DIRTY TRICKS that exist in this place.
Some thing regarding your academics: Back in high school, there is a CLEAR marking rubric:
86%-100% A
73%-85% B
In this place, a totally different story.
SFU claims that each professor has the right to decide what he/she thinks is appropriate.
So let's say if your chem prof is quite strict, he might say
94%-100% A
88%-93% B
80-87% C-
So if you get 65% in this course, you FAIL, and you have to spend 700 CAD again, to take this course again, and waste one of your 5 chances of REPEAT. 5 times all used up? KICK OUT!!
Or you are in a good prof class, he says
85%-100% A
50%-60% C-
So again, if you get 65%, you PASS!!!
There is just too many sketchy things going on, and school tries to make everything looks unpredictable and gloomy. Some prof, will tell you the grade criteria before class starts, but MOST prod, never tell you, until 2 or 3 weeks after the end of your FINAL EXAM
Another situation might be, Same course, let's say BISC 101 ( BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 101, where ALL students MUST take it, no matter you are in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, or Molecular Biology)
If you take this course at Fall, 2014, with horrible prof, you failed, due to RIDICULOUSLY HARD EXAM, or stupid marking rubric.
The term after, which is Spring 2015, you got a different prof, and everything is so much easier, and you easily get an A..
What happens is that yourself does not change at all, the only thing changed is your prof. That's why so many people said the stuff you learn, is not hard at all. What makes it hard, is that the people who teaches you, DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO TEACH!!!
Same problem happens in high school, BUT high school is FREE!!! Plus, majority will pass.
But we paid 700-800 CAD per course, so if you are a full time student, that means minimum 9 credits per term ( 3-4 months ), that is roughly 1700 CAD, ONLY FOR TUITION per term, each credit worth 180 CAD.
What you get? A person who cannot teach, or possible cannot even speak fluent English, disqualified Education? Where you have to study all the stuff by yourself, go online? TA ( teacher assistant ) not helpful at all, and hosting boring tutorials?
Remain calm, and rethink what you are doing.
For policies,
First, most students would planning to take course at other institution while you are enrolled in SFU, that's for sure gonna fail why? SFU has a bunch of so called policies, that prevent you from taking course at other institution although BC transfer guide lists the equivalence of each course. Reasons like tuition is cheaper, is closer to my home, are all INVALID REASONS!!! SFU is designed to ditch you, and obviously it had made all the traps already for you!
Second, there is no fairness in this school, like it keeps saying No Break of rules, no cheating,etc But in reality, the circumstance forces you to cheat, I mean not necessarily myself.
For instance parking, each term (3 months), the cheapest parking permit is nearly 300CAD, and prevent you from Parking inside the building. But 60% never pay for the parking fee, and they parked where ever they want!!! The reality is people who follow the rule, does not get any benefit, like discount in future purchase, while on the other hand, the people who broke the rule had huge benefits, while rarely got punished..
When is raining, the entire school central is like a swamp, in one sentence you do not wanna spent 1 more second in this place. Strongly suggest to consider other institutions if possible!!
Sincerelyresponse / report this review -
05 March 2017
6/8 professors did not speak English. They sent my transcript to the wrong address and never accepted their mistake. Residence was filled with foreign high school, yes high school students, who very loud and rude. Every time I call them I wait at least 45 minutes. School wastes tons of money on really lame art.
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26 February 2017
Stay away! This university's upper admin and president are greedy thieves. Just read the reviews and you will see the staggering number of international students they accept vs domestic students. Why? Because Intl students pay 4-5x more for tuition than Canadian students. I assume this is to make sure that local Canadians have priority for getting an education - HA! SFU completely takes advantage of this. For example - I am local to the area and graduated high school with honours and I did not get into SFU. I had to go through Douglas College for my first 2 years and then transfer to SFU once I had a 4.0 GPA. Once at SFU, I was told by several Intl students that they got in without even finishing high school! Essentially, many of these students come and get degrees and then leave the country, while domestic students can't even get in because the university is full (of intl students). Don't get me wrong, diversity is a beautiful thing and I met great people from all over the world, but this is taking advantage and seriously detrimental to domestic students' access to education. What I also find amazing is that SFU is claiming to be "helping" migrants fleeing the US/other countries by "waiving their application fee", i.e., $75. Haha! Whereas the University of Ottawa is TRULY helping this same group of people by waiving international tuition rates. SFU is only helping themselves to the money in these desperate people's pockets.
Profs - In a similar vein, I'd say about 70% of my profs at SFU (I was in the faculty of science) were also international and could barely even speak English. Try doing calculus with a prof that no one can understand! Again, I assume it's because SFU is seriously greedy/taking advantage and pays these profs minimal wages. Profs were also constantly changing and were only there short-term. Hence, a lot of the profs didn't really care about how they were teaching.
Course scheduling - dear lord, this was a disaster. Once you get into the upper level courses, they are never offered. Some of the courses you need are offered once every year or once every two years. This is a major problem and degrees tend to take VERY LONG to complete because of this. I was waiting around for an extra TWO YEARS because of this issue. That's right, it took 6 years to get a degree, and many of my friends were in the same boat. This benefits the university though because you have to keep taking courses in the time that aren't applicable to your degree (so that you can continue to get student loans), so this translates to more $$$ for SFU, and they know this.
Grading - TAs do all of the grading and there is a huge disconnect between most TAs and the profs. Hence, grading is disastrous and very very tough.
TAs - the TAs are always on strike because of the slave wages they receive. Hence, they withhold your grades, so you have no idea what you even got in a course or on an exam sometimes for months. I couldn't get into graduate school on time (at another uni) because of the strike issue. But TAs certainly have a good reason to strike. They are replacing profs in a very real way and doing all of the work and sometimes the teaching for the prof and getting paid in dog food. AGAIN - another way SFU is taking advantage all for the profit in their pockets. Meanwhile the TA union released a document that stated the president of SFU was making $400,000-500,000 per year, and couldn't afford to pay the TAs more than minimum wage.
Conclusion - this is a terrible university. Expect to be chained down studying because that's the only way you can get decent grades. Your degree will take much longer than 4 years. The atmosphere is depressing. Upper admin and president are corrupt.response / report this review -
12 February 2017
Best service ever and great food! The guy working behind the counter literally made my day with his upbeat and positive energy. Gave me free samples of everything (I didn't even have to ask). Food itself was great, and it's hard to go wrong when you customize everything, and you've had the samples so you know you'll like it. Will definitely come back here again!
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09 February 2017
This review is in regards to the graduate admissions process. I found the program and only had a week to submit my materials, so I didn't have time to spare. On the first Monday after I applied I needed to make a change to my online application. I called and was told to send an email to the grad department, and it would get updated immediately. Two days later no change. I repeatedly called the department but could only get voicemail. Eventually I found someone who told me again to send an email but no change. I called repeatedly for two days. Finally, on the following Monday (a day before the deadline) I got through and spoke to someone who said they'd make the change that afternoon. I then received an email from her saying she couldn't remember what change she was supposed to make. I emailed her right away and heard nothing. I emailed again with no response. ON THE DAY of the deadline, I spoke to another woman who told me to email the grad department and that she would cc me in her email to them. Nothing. I did, however, hear back from the grad department that they might be able to make the change but considering it was the day of the deadline there wouldn't be any guarantees. (There is a special circle in hell for people that blame you for their disorganization imho.) It has a happy ending, however. I got the following email, "The academic coordinator has agreed to review your file once your new referee has been swapped in and reference received. I have sent an urgent ticket to the Dean of Graduate Studies requesting for the swap."
Update: Two hours since the last email, I received the following message, "Thank you for contacting our office with your requests. Unfortunately, we are unable to delete a referee who has already submitted a reference." This is from someone that I have not spoken with previously. She's finally responding to the several emails I sent last week.
2nd Update: I have been informed by the dean that they can not change my references, but they are adding a fourth.response / report this review
