When I first moved to Winnipeg and locals found out that I hailed from Toronto, they would often…read moreask, "Winnipeg? Why?!" My short answer is that I got accepted into the Computer Science graduate program at the University of Manitoba. The wrinkled brows that said folks had then dissipated and life carried on. Unfortunately, a month into my first semester, the entire faculty went on strike. I had one professor who did not cross the picket lines. Instead, he continued holding classes at his home, which was generous of him. After roughly ten weeks of this strike's duration, I decided to drop out of my master's program. I do enjoy saying that I am a master's dropout. However, I eventually did get my degree over a decade later, at a different university, in a completely different field. The campus is similar to York University, which is my alma mater. You are either taking Winnipeg Transit (I was either on the 60 or 78 bus) or you are driving 60 km/h for a stretch before things slow down. It's still quite odd to me to accelerate towards campus. I went back in July 2016 and the speed limit has dropped to 50 km/h. Woo hoo! During my brief experience as a graduate student, I was pleased with my professors and advisor. I liked the courses that I was in. It was unfortunately that I didn't finish them, but I don't regret my decision to put my studies on hold and go into the workforce. I knew that I could cycle back to being a student again. So, if I ever lose my mind and go for a PhD, I'll do it in my sixties, after I retire... haha! The only negative experience that I had was dealing with the Registrar's Office. I had to settle a matter in-person with my registration. The woman there was unpleasant and asked if I was a foreign exchange student. I said that I was from the province of Ontario. At last check, it was still considered a part of Canada. She probably rubbed me the wrong way because she was picking her teeth with the blue cap on her BIC pen. Yeah, that memory is still incredibly vivid. I spent a decent amount of time on campus and can generally get around just fine if I'm walking around. When Winnipeg hosted the Pan-Am Games years ago, I volunteered as a technology expert for media people and reporters, and worked at the Max Bell Centre. It was great taking in snippets of volleyball games between servicing printers and more. I don't envision returning as a student at this university. However, I felt comfortable here during my brief stint as a student. (135)

MacLean's does not rate Manitoba highly…read more Bear in mind, Manitoba is financially a so-so province, and the winter weather is a big turnoff. These two factors in combination don't help in the "reputation" part of the survey. It's not exactly a huge surprise that better weather locations such as Simon Fraser and U.Victoria generally rank high in the comprehensive rankings. And ranking faculty based in large part on awards won (which MacLean's does, and it is a heavily weighted factor), not sure about that. Those tenured profs who are good at winning awards often times are lousy lecturers, and are inclined to delegate part of their lecture duties, as well as paper grading duties, to grad students. So the benefit students get from having award winners on staff can be dubious. To be fair, though, professors who have a choice among job offers, will often choose a city with a better winter, and/or that is more cosmopolitan. Though some of my profs liked the house you can get for your money in the 'peg, and actually chose Manitoba over opportunities in Alberta, Ontario and BC. So your profs are not purely gonna be those who couldn't get a job in Vancouver. Canada's winter is Canada's winter, everywhere but southern BC, its gonna happen. Sometimes we make too big a deal out of -22 versus -14 (though when you are standing at a bus stop - which you might do as a student - it does matter some). The experience I had at U of M was a very good one. I'll say what anybody with wisdom says about university - what you get out of it depends a lot on what you put into it. Self-motivation goes a long way. The particular name of the school matters less than you might think (as long as we're not talking a community college or technical institute). If you're actually there to study hard, get good grades and a degree to help you with the rest of your life, and do it in a city large enough to have some semblance of culture so you can have at least some fun along they way, U of M is a legit option. In my work life, I've never felt like the profs forgot to teach me the core things I needed to know to succeed in my profession.