r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/InsaneMocktail • Sep 08 '26

Video University of Waterloo Students Launch Rocket Breaking World Record

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57

u/Chrisnessbae6 Sep 08 '26

This is outstanding work for a University. I'm impressed and curious to see how their rocket evolves.

Off topic: Not to start a fight with anyone....

I've seen many clips similiar to this and I still can not understand why some people think the earth is flat.

39

u/Dear_Half2871 Sep 08 '26

Waterloo is our Caltech / MIT / IIT in terms of STEM major prestige, it’s crazy competitive to get in. This is the work of some of our brightest students!

7

u/m_ttl_ng Sep 08 '26

Their student team facilities are some of the best in the world as well.

4

u/No_News_1712 Sep 09 '26

MIT is the Waterloo of the South!

5

u/VP007clips Sep 09 '26

The real advantage Waterloo has is the co-op program. It's the largest and highest ranked co-op program in the world.

It's tough to get through, alternating school and internship every term somewhere else is exhausting with needing to find a new place to live 3x/year and a co-op 1.5x/year. I got pretty lucky with mine, since most of my jobs gave me free housing and food on site, and flights to and from home every other week.

It puts you very far ahead of students from other schools. You'll have work experience at 5-6 relevant jobs by the end.

And especially in engineering, Waterloo students are well known. I've heard that there are enough Waterloo interns at companies like Google, Lockheed, Microsoft, etc that they often have several large tables in the lunchroom dedicated just to them, and that's in an entirely different country, local companies approach 100% Waterloo interns and graduates.

3

u/bob888w Sep 09 '26

Not UWaterloo... But trust me when I say I know a fair share of people from back when I was Uni student that complained just how much industry 'insider-knowledge' the co-op system got students. Even my pretty great uni had some jealousy over it. Some pretty exclusive companies essentially offered Spring internships ONLY for UWaterloo too.

1

u/Fuzzlechan Sep 09 '26

From the company side, UW co-op is a hassle. You have to sign up and interview them months before co-ops from any other school, and there’s no guarantee you get a match. You basically commit to either all UW co-ops, or no UW co-ops.

Great program and fantastic school, though.