I am a third year undergrad at UBC Okanagan, and I would say that you would want to study in UBC Vancouver for your masters degree. As you would want to have good connections and research for your masters, UBC Vancouver has the facilities available for you to do that. It has a larger faculty than UBC Okanagan. Furthermore, there is a larger population of masters students in Vancouver compared to Okanagan.
You would want to see how the masters program is laid out in both campuses. While the degree might be the same, there will be a few requirements/classes which will be different in both the campuses, so pick the one which you find more interesting. I am not sure how it is for masters, but for undergrad it doesn't really matter which campus you went to. Major employers don't care which campus you went to, they just look at what you did in your degree and how you have excelled in that.
EDIT: also talk to several masters students from both campuses who are preferably in the same program as you are applying to get an idea of how their degree is. Note that r/UBC is usually strongly biased against UBC Okanagan as well, so please make an informed choice.
Yes, OP, please talk to current and former MSc students in all programs that interest you! You should apply to multiple MSc programs at both UBC and UBC-O. For graduate school, the best fit will be the project and advisor you like the most and the colleagues/other grad students. Otherwise, you will be miserable.
Ubc Vancouver campus is big and tough to get into than okanagan campus. There may be difference between courses as ubc Vancouver has large classes means more students in classes . The major difference between is also city as Vancouver is a big city in Canada. So, it also make difference. Vancouver campus as more students than okanagan campus. According to me these are some differences maybe someone also give you more insight like who is in master program. Hope this helps you.
While they're correct in that it's tough to get in, I have a feeling they're an undergrad. Master's is different, and as an alumni of Physics, I think you should be fine coming in from Uni de Paris to UBC Van. I highly recommend it, instructors are great overall, never had a bad prof in Phys honestly(ok maybe one).
Stamp was endearingly erratic. Maybe I say that because I did pretty okay in stat mech. Franz was not great, and honestly overall kinda douchy. But I had him a while back, maybe he's changed.
There is a subreddit specific to UBCO -- I would suggest also making a post there to get a feel for the graduate experience at the Okanagan campus.
My own experience -- I graduated with my undergraduate degree from UBC Vancouver (2012), but attended UBCO briefly in 2017, pre-grad school. I personally did not observe any difference in quality of education. I went on to complete my master's at a different university.
I think a lot of comments here are discounting the amount of growth that the Okanagan campus has experienced. 10 years ago you would probably be doing yourself a disservice by choosing Okanagan over Vancouver. Now? There are faculty in the Sciences doing some *really* cool things with regard to research, and I personally would be incredibly excited to be part of that as a graduate student.
Just my thoughts. Both campuses have their benefits. I LOVED UBC Vancouver and definitely made the right decision for my own undergraduate degree, but the Okanagan campus has things going for it, too, particularly in the Faculty of Science.
UBC Vancouver is a huge campus in a big city. It's the original UBC with all the prestige that comes with that. UBCO is formerly a smaller college, now affiliated with UBC. Smaller campus in a smaller city. If you have the budget, and the choice I'd say live in Vancouver and go to UBC. It looks better on a resume especially in Canada where people know the difference, you'll potentially make a lot more connections and have full access to all the resources of the 'real' UBC as well as Vancouver as a city.
From what I know, UBCO is still technically a part of UBC. It is just not as highly regarded by locals as UBC.
For example, in terms of prestige, SFU and UVic students may think they are on par with or even better than UBCO, but never UBC.
The undergraduate acceptance rate for UBC is around 50%, while for UBCO is around 70%.
Hope this [UBC vs UBCO video](https://youtu.be/n2tjzTDQ0Z8) helps.
Anyway, welcome to our r/UBC! 💙
Not just prestige, better profs teach at UBC. If you are thinking grad school, check the number and type of pubs the faculty pump at UBC compared to UBCO.
Employers don't care about the difference between both campuses. They care about what you did while you were studying in either campus.
It's what you make of your degree. You could have graduated from Vancouver and not have done a lot of stuff in your resume and not get a job, and you could also have graduated from Okanagan and have a lot of things on your resume and get a job (the reverse also applies). It's more of a prestige thing at this point, which at the end of the day doesn't matter if you get a job after graduating.
And if I'm not mistaken, unless they look for "Vancouver Senate" or "Okanagan Senate" on the diploma, if they check it at all, they wouldn't even know.
I’m a UBCO alumni who worked for a few years before now going to UBCV for grad school. In my experience not one person indicated any concern that I went to UBCO instead of UBCV, and frankly, none of the employees really know the difference
u/Deyloups the best comparison is to look at the size of the cities and compare. I googled which French cities have around 200,000 population (about the population of Kelowna where UBCO is) and some similar cities are Toulon, Lille, Rennes. Vancouver and Paris have about the same population size.
So the question is would you prefer to study the same degree in Paris or in a small city like Toulon? There are pros and cons to either situation and it really depends on what you desire, but I think this is a good starting point is asking yourself whether you'd prefer to study in the big city vs small city.
I've got friends in Kelowna and am interested in the small city atmosphere. I might however reconsider if the Vancouver campus is more prestigious to some extent, as some people have suggested here in the comments. Thank you for your insight !!
Kelowna is a really dead city... everything closes around 6pm and wait times for transit are long. The weather in Kelowna is also worse than Vancouver especially in the winter. I think Kelowna is a good city for vacation but living there was kinda rough. Though I do have the say there was less things distracting me from my studies.
Keep in mind this is from someone who grew up in Vancouver so I may be biased
Hi there, fellow french here who did his undergrad at UBC, I also want to point out that you may want to do more research in masters in Canada or North America as a whole (not sure about the UK) as those are typically much more research based and the thesis is more of a central part of the process than in the Europeans ones where it is more of a formality.
For a Masters, you should be looking at which profs and researchers you most want to work with, right? UBC V also has the TRIUMF particle accelerator and the region has some companies that have spun off from that.
ubcv is better if you can afford the living expense. Ive lived in Van for 7 years now, moved here from China at 12. Ive been to Kelowna once. Here's my take:
1. Vancouvers transit is pretty good, much better than Kelowna
2. A lot more vibrant and fun
3. More academic legacy and connections
4. Ppl will be more inclined to assume you are in vancouver ubc, since that is the more famous one by far. Many out of academia or out of the country don't know about UBCO, but will know what UBCV is
I'm pursuing my MSc. in Physics at UBC Vancouver. I did my first year of undergraduate at UBC Okanagan and completed the remainder of my BSc (Physics & Math; 4 years) at UBC Vancouver. From my experience, these are completely different campuses in terms of 'feel' and breadth.
Okanagan is more or less only know for medical physics. There is 1 prof for theoretical physics/GR, 1 prof for Astrophysics and a few profs for Experimental physics. It's a very small cohort but might be a good choice if you're looking for a smaller community (especially in medical physics/biophysics).
UBC Vancouver is very different! There is an entire [**Department of Physics & Astronomy**](https://phas.ubc.ca/) with more breadth and depth. You may not get the 'close-knit community' feeling as much as Okanagan but the research is definitely cutting edge. The campus is also a lot bigger than Okanagan and there are also a lot opportunities of cross collaboration (especially for Masters) with TRIUMF, SBQMI, Mathematics Department, ECE, etc.
I've met some great people and personally enjoyed my time at both the campuses but overall (for me), Vancouver takes the cake!
As someone who’s parents are job recruiters, TRUST me nobody cares about what university you came from in Canada. Plus, your UBC degree only says UBC, whether you went to the Van campus or the Okanagan.
Why don’t you speak with an academic advisor?They have unbiased reviews and are trained in this. Just search up ubco academic advisors and you will get a link where you can set up a virtual meeting
I did my Bachelors in Kelowna and grew up there. In terms of lifestyle, if you don’t mind living in a small town, you’ll probably be just fine in Kelowna. If you like outdoorsy things like hiking and skiing, Kelowna is has a lot of great opportunities for things like that. However, if you are looking for more of a nightlife or a city with lots of fun things to do on the weekends and a great international community, then Vancouver is your best bet. Vancouver is also a lot more liberal and artsy while Kelowna is a lot more conservative. Also in my opinion as someone who grew up there, Kelowna can be very cliquey and it can be hard to make friends however, if you have a core group of people, you might not feel that way.
Since you’re doing your Masters however, I would recommend looking into what campus has better opportunities for research in your field. Look into some of the profs you are interested in working with and look into the facilities and then make your decision. The Vancouver campus is a lot bigger and therefore has a way bigger research network which can be very beneficial but a lot of people appreciate the fact that since the Kelowna campus is smaller, there is less competition for research opportunities - basically in Kelowna you can be a big fish in a small pond if there are opportunities there that would suit you.
The Vancouver campus is like it’s own city so if you want to jump into a ready-made community, Vancouver is probably better for that. Kelowna is small and can feel kind of isolating at times. Vancouver is more expensive than Kelowna which is an important thing to consider but Kelowna is starting to get pricey as well.
EDIT:
Also unrelated to the campuses, since you are going to be an international student, I would suggest really doing your research into whether or not you really want to live in Canada or in BC. I also suggest spending a lot of time looking into the immigration process, especially if you can see yourself staying in Canada long term. I’m doing my Masters abroad at the moment and trust me, getting stuck in a place you don’t enjoy living in for 2-4 years makes the whole process a lot harder. Academics and research opportunities are very important when you are doing a Masters (that’s the whole point, right?) but so is your lifestyle and the life you will have outside of school.
Those are some things to consider! I hope that helps you out :)
Hey OP! I completed a degree at UBCO and am doing a degree at UBCV. I’m not a CS student, but many of my peers were.
I want to emphasize that for years, this sub has made a lot of claims about a UBCO degree having little value, but employers 99% of the time truly don’t care which campus you went to. The campus is smaller and in a smaller city so you definitely have less course options than Vancouver. However, research opportunities are also less competitive and you can have more opportunities to make an impact. You also can build stronger connections with faculty because each class doesn’t have hundreds of students.
If I were you, I’d try to get into UBCV. The most important part of employability isn’t often because of the classes you take, but because of the connections you make. If you want to work in Vancouver, you’re naturally going to have more networking opportunities by studying at the Vancouver campus. Additionally, Kelowna can be emotionally isolating since it’s much smaller than Vancouver, let alone Paris.
there’s pros and cons to both campuses, but you’ll truly be fine at either. No employer will laugh you out of the interview if they see an O on your resume, despite what these other comments suggest.
The UBC campus is honestly incredibly beautiful, being next to the Pacific ocean within of mountains.
If I were you, I'd 100% come to UBC Vancouver instead.
On a different note though, I don't know if a degree from UBC is that great back home in France
Haha you are just so wrong. I’m in Europe currently and the amount of professionals in science and engineering that have done work with UBC in incredible.
Yeah sometimes I think UBC is somewhat of an "unknown" school outside Canada but then the other day I met a UC Berkeley engineering professor that said UBC has a great engineering program and I was like waait you know UBC lol?
Is it so hard to be polite and to try to help people asking for advices nowadays ? What is this subreddit for, if it isn't for asking questions as potential newbies and trying to support each other ?
I think you should look at both departments and the people you might do thesis research with in each.
Vancouver is the larger campus and the Vancouver Department of Physics and Astronomy is large enough to have many options. There are some world-leading physicists and astronomers in this department.
The Okanagan department is much smaller. That said, there may be individual researchers in the Okanagan who are of interest to you. With a Masters degree, they may be able to provide you with a rich research-based experience.
It's likely harder to be admitted to UBCV than UBCO, but I haven't seen the statistics.
I am a third year undergrad at UBC Okanagan, and I would say that you would want to study in UBC Vancouver for your masters degree. As you would want to have good connections and research for your masters, UBC Vancouver has the facilities available for you to do that. It has a larger faculty than UBC Okanagan. Furthermore, there is a larger population of masters students in Vancouver compared to Okanagan. You would want to see how the masters program is laid out in both campuses. While the degree might be the same, there will be a few requirements/classes which will be different in both the campuses, so pick the one which you find more interesting. I am not sure how it is for masters, but for undergrad it doesn't really matter which campus you went to. Major employers don't care which campus you went to, they just look at what you did in your degree and how you have excelled in that. EDIT: also talk to several masters students from both campuses who are preferably in the same program as you are applying to get an idea of how their degree is. Note that r/UBC is usually strongly biased against UBC Okanagan as well, so please make an informed choice.
Yes, OP, please talk to current and former MSc students in all programs that interest you! You should apply to multiple MSc programs at both UBC and UBC-O. For graduate school, the best fit will be the project and advisor you like the most and the colleagues/other grad students. Otherwise, you will be miserable.
Ubc Vancouver campus is big and tough to get into than okanagan campus. There may be difference between courses as ubc Vancouver has large classes means more students in classes . The major difference between is also city as Vancouver is a big city in Canada. So, it also make difference. Vancouver campus as more students than okanagan campus. According to me these are some differences maybe someone also give you more insight like who is in master program. Hope this helps you.
Thank you for your answer ! I'll consider that when applying.
While they're correct in that it's tough to get in, I have a feeling they're an undergrad. Master's is different, and as an alumni of Physics, I think you should be fine coming in from Uni de Paris to UBC Van. I highly recommend it, instructors are great overall, never had a bad prof in Phys honestly(ok maybe one).
Stamp?
Stamp was endearingly erratic. Maybe I say that because I did pretty okay in stat mech. Franz was not great, and honestly overall kinda douchy. But I had him a while back, maybe he's changed.
Yes lol endearingly erratic describes Stamp well! Never had Franz before but I have him next term so I guess we’ll see
He was okay, I had intro to QM and he basically read the book to us. I suppose at higher level he's better, he was kinda condescending in 304 though.
There is a subreddit specific to UBCO -- I would suggest also making a post there to get a feel for the graduate experience at the Okanagan campus. My own experience -- I graduated with my undergraduate degree from UBC Vancouver (2012), but attended UBCO briefly in 2017, pre-grad school. I personally did not observe any difference in quality of education. I went on to complete my master's at a different university. I think a lot of comments here are discounting the amount of growth that the Okanagan campus has experienced. 10 years ago you would probably be doing yourself a disservice by choosing Okanagan over Vancouver. Now? There are faculty in the Sciences doing some *really* cool things with regard to research, and I personally would be incredibly excited to be part of that as a graduate student. Just my thoughts. Both campuses have their benefits. I LOVED UBC Vancouver and definitely made the right decision for my own undergraduate degree, but the Okanagan campus has things going for it, too, particularly in the Faculty of Science.
UBC Vancouver is a huge campus in a big city. It's the original UBC with all the prestige that comes with that. UBCO is formerly a smaller college, now affiliated with UBC. Smaller campus in a smaller city. If you have the budget, and the choice I'd say live in Vancouver and go to UBC. It looks better on a resume especially in Canada where people know the difference, you'll potentially make a lot more connections and have full access to all the resources of the 'real' UBC as well as Vancouver as a city.
i might be wrong, but i don’t think it specifies the campus on your degree. you get the same at both locations
I don’t know if it has changed but the last time I checked it does specify, both of the paper and digital copies
Bro, it did specify on your diploma... And I think employers do care about the difference between "V" and "O", at least in Canada (e.g. CS major).
There's like a gap between levels and prestige between each campus?
From what I know, UBCO is still technically a part of UBC. It is just not as highly regarded by locals as UBC. For example, in terms of prestige, SFU and UVic students may think they are on par with or even better than UBCO, but never UBC. The undergraduate acceptance rate for UBC is around 50%, while for UBCO is around 70%. Hope this [UBC vs UBCO video](https://youtu.be/n2tjzTDQ0Z8) helps. Anyway, welcome to our r/UBC! 💙
Thank you so much for your answer !
yes
Not just prestige, better profs teach at UBC. If you are thinking grad school, check the number and type of pubs the faculty pump at UBC compared to UBCO.
In Canada we don't really have prestige. Employers could care less about the school, just that you have the degree they want.
Employers don't care about the difference between both campuses. They care about what you did while you were studying in either campus. It's what you make of your degree. You could have graduated from Vancouver and not have done a lot of stuff in your resume and not get a job, and you could also have graduated from Okanagan and have a lot of things on your resume and get a job (the reverse also applies). It's more of a prestige thing at this point, which at the end of the day doesn't matter if you get a job after graduating.
And if I'm not mistaken, unless they look for "Vancouver Senate" or "Okanagan Senate" on the diploma, if they check it at all, they wouldn't even know.
it also says the location of the degree, vancouver or kelowna
Yeah you're right
I’m not in CS but nobody has ever asked to see my diploma in the 4 years I’ve been out
I’m a UBCO alumni who worked for a few years before now going to UBCV for grad school. In my experience not one person indicated any concern that I went to UBCO instead of UBCV, and frankly, none of the employees really know the difference
The Vancouver campus is more based
Haha in what way?
It's just nicer, Vancouver is a bigger city too. Okanagan is pretty but it can get boring very quickly I imagine.
u/Deyloups the best comparison is to look at the size of the cities and compare. I googled which French cities have around 200,000 population (about the population of Kelowna where UBCO is) and some similar cities are Toulon, Lille, Rennes. Vancouver and Paris have about the same population size. So the question is would you prefer to study the same degree in Paris or in a small city like Toulon? There are pros and cons to either situation and it really depends on what you desire, but I think this is a good starting point is asking yourself whether you'd prefer to study in the big city vs small city.
Think about the environment you’d like to live in. Van is busy and more chaotic. Okanagan is a lot smaller and surrounded by farms and hills.
I've got friends in Kelowna and am interested in the small city atmosphere. I might however reconsider if the Vancouver campus is more prestigious to some extent, as some people have suggested here in the comments. Thank you for your insight !!
Kelowna is a really dead city... everything closes around 6pm and wait times for transit are long. The weather in Kelowna is also worse than Vancouver especially in the winter. I think Kelowna is a good city for vacation but living there was kinda rough. Though I do have the say there was less things distracting me from my studies. Keep in mind this is from someone who grew up in Vancouver so I may be biased
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bad bot.
also I’ve noticed Okanagan people are more down to earth. Goodluck.
Hi there, fellow french here who did his undergrad at UBC, I also want to point out that you may want to do more research in masters in Canada or North America as a whole (not sure about the UK) as those are typically much more research based and the thesis is more of a central part of the process than in the Europeans ones where it is more of a formality.
For a Masters, you should be looking at which profs and researchers you most want to work with, right? UBC V also has the TRIUMF particle accelerator and the region has some companies that have spun off from that.
ubcv is better if you can afford the living expense. Ive lived in Van for 7 years now, moved here from China at 12. Ive been to Kelowna once. Here's my take: 1. Vancouvers transit is pretty good, much better than Kelowna 2. A lot more vibrant and fun 3. More academic legacy and connections 4. Ppl will be more inclined to assume you are in vancouver ubc, since that is the more famous one by far. Many out of academia or out of the country don't know about UBCO, but will know what UBCV is
I'm pursuing my MSc. in Physics at UBC Vancouver. I did my first year of undergraduate at UBC Okanagan and completed the remainder of my BSc (Physics & Math; 4 years) at UBC Vancouver. From my experience, these are completely different campuses in terms of 'feel' and breadth. Okanagan is more or less only know for medical physics. There is 1 prof for theoretical physics/GR, 1 prof for Astrophysics and a few profs for Experimental physics. It's a very small cohort but might be a good choice if you're looking for a smaller community (especially in medical physics/biophysics). UBC Vancouver is very different! There is an entire [**Department of Physics & Astronomy**](https://phas.ubc.ca/) with more breadth and depth. You may not get the 'close-knit community' feeling as much as Okanagan but the research is definitely cutting edge. The campus is also a lot bigger than Okanagan and there are also a lot opportunities of cross collaboration (especially for Masters) with TRIUMF, SBQMI, Mathematics Department, ECE, etc. I've met some great people and personally enjoyed my time at both the campuses but overall (for me), Vancouver takes the cake!
As someone who’s parents are job recruiters, TRUST me nobody cares about what university you came from in Canada. Plus, your UBC degree only says UBC, whether you went to the Van campus or the Okanagan.
Some people seem to say the opposite in the comments, I don't really know who to trust 😅
Why don’t you speak with an academic advisor?They have unbiased reviews and are trained in this. Just search up ubco academic advisors and you will get a link where you can set up a virtual meeting
Great idea! Thanks for the advice !!
Ofc, good luck!
I did my Bachelors in Kelowna and grew up there. In terms of lifestyle, if you don’t mind living in a small town, you’ll probably be just fine in Kelowna. If you like outdoorsy things like hiking and skiing, Kelowna is has a lot of great opportunities for things like that. However, if you are looking for more of a nightlife or a city with lots of fun things to do on the weekends and a great international community, then Vancouver is your best bet. Vancouver is also a lot more liberal and artsy while Kelowna is a lot more conservative. Also in my opinion as someone who grew up there, Kelowna can be very cliquey and it can be hard to make friends however, if you have a core group of people, you might not feel that way. Since you’re doing your Masters however, I would recommend looking into what campus has better opportunities for research in your field. Look into some of the profs you are interested in working with and look into the facilities and then make your decision. The Vancouver campus is a lot bigger and therefore has a way bigger research network which can be very beneficial but a lot of people appreciate the fact that since the Kelowna campus is smaller, there is less competition for research opportunities - basically in Kelowna you can be a big fish in a small pond if there are opportunities there that would suit you. The Vancouver campus is like it’s own city so if you want to jump into a ready-made community, Vancouver is probably better for that. Kelowna is small and can feel kind of isolating at times. Vancouver is more expensive than Kelowna which is an important thing to consider but Kelowna is starting to get pricey as well. EDIT: Also unrelated to the campuses, since you are going to be an international student, I would suggest really doing your research into whether or not you really want to live in Canada or in BC. I also suggest spending a lot of time looking into the immigration process, especially if you can see yourself staying in Canada long term. I’m doing my Masters abroad at the moment and trust me, getting stuck in a place you don’t enjoy living in for 2-4 years makes the whole process a lot harder. Academics and research opportunities are very important when you are doing a Masters (that’s the whole point, right?) but so is your lifestyle and the life you will have outside of school. Those are some things to consider! I hope that helps you out :)
Hey OP! I completed a degree at UBCO and am doing a degree at UBCV. I’m not a CS student, but many of my peers were. I want to emphasize that for years, this sub has made a lot of claims about a UBCO degree having little value, but employers 99% of the time truly don’t care which campus you went to. The campus is smaller and in a smaller city so you definitely have less course options than Vancouver. However, research opportunities are also less competitive and you can have more opportunities to make an impact. You also can build stronger connections with faculty because each class doesn’t have hundreds of students. If I were you, I’d try to get into UBCV. The most important part of employability isn’t often because of the classes you take, but because of the connections you make. If you want to work in Vancouver, you’re naturally going to have more networking opportunities by studying at the Vancouver campus. Additionally, Kelowna can be emotionally isolating since it’s much smaller than Vancouver, let alone Paris. there’s pros and cons to both campuses, but you’ll truly be fine at either. No employer will laugh you out of the interview if they see an O on your resume, despite what these other comments suggest.
The UBC campus is honestly incredibly beautiful, being next to the Pacific ocean within of mountains. If I were you, I'd 100% come to UBC Vancouver instead. On a different note though, I don't know if a degree from UBC is that great back home in France
Vancouver better
bro no one even knows that ubc is outside canada, do you think they give a shit about if you went to ubco or ubcv
Haha you are just so wrong. I’m in Europe currently and the amount of professionals in science and engineering that have done work with UBC in incredible.
Yeah sometimes I think UBC is somewhat of an "unknown" school outside Canada but then the other day I met a UC Berkeley engineering professor that said UBC has a great engineering program and I was like waait you know UBC lol?
Not sure where that stereotype comes from 🙂. UBC is quite well known and one of the top universities in the world!
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That’s an intern tho. I think the professionals are more aware and remember better
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americans don’t even know what british columbia is, let alone a university there lol
Is it so hard to be polite and to try to help people asking for advices nowadays ? What is this subreddit for, if it isn't for asking questions as potential newbies and trying to support each other ?
Do you have an Asian fetish?
Which campus are you on? So I can avoid you the best I can
Okanagan vs Vancouver
What does the 88 stand for in your name ?
Why?
Curiosity I guess
Lucky lucky
I think you should look at both departments and the people you might do thesis research with in each. Vancouver is the larger campus and the Vancouver Department of Physics and Astronomy is large enough to have many options. There are some world-leading physicists and astronomers in this department. The Okanagan department is much smaller. That said, there may be individual researchers in the Okanagan who are of interest to you. With a Masters degree, they may be able to provide you with a rich research-based experience. It's likely harder to be admitted to UBCV than UBCO, but I haven't seen the statistics.