If you are going for an undergraduate degree, a bad academic reputation due to lack of research emphasis is a plus. Research universities do not care about undergraduates, and professors in research universities tend not to even like teaching (with some exceptions).
Ties to industry are perfectly fine in the applied fields, where students are undertaking a degree for the purpose of becoming professionals at a particular occupation. It would be more of a concern in a pure science field.
A bad academic reputation is not really a plus, but fortunately this really isn't true at Waterloo. At minimum, it depends on what your goals are after graduation. For those wishing to continue on in academia, high quality research is a nice bonus. There are plenty of opportunties for undergrads to get involved in research, and even have this be part of the internship progream.
Even for those who don't, high quality research tends to attract high quality professors. It's true that some of these professors dislike teaching, but I think there are enough who do to make up for it.
Comments
If you are going for an undergraduate degree, a bad academic reputation due to lack of research emphasis is a plus. Research universities do not care about undergraduates, and professors in research universities tend not to even like teaching (with some exceptions).
Ties to industry are perfectly fine in the applied fields, where students are undertaking a degree for the purpose of becoming professionals at a particular occupation. It would be more of a concern in a pure science field.
A bad academic reputation is not really a plus, but fortunately this really isn't true at Waterloo. At minimum, it depends on what your goals are after graduation. For those wishing to continue on in academia, high quality research is a nice bonus. There are plenty of opportunties for undergrads to get involved in research, and even have this be part of the internship progream.
Even for those who don't, high quality research tends to attract high quality professors. It's true that some of these professors dislike teaching, but I think there are enough who do to make up for it.
Disclaimer: I'm a PhD student at UoW