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U of T's Urban Studies program VS. Ryerson's Urban Planning program?

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popkornage

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Hey guys, I was looking into university programs that I'm interested in. Right now, I'm looking into a career in urban planning, with a focus on transportation planning.
I came across two programs that looked similar to me: U of T offers a program called 'Urban Studies' and Ryerson offers 'Urban and Regional Planning'. My question is this - what's the difference between the two? Any feedback from people that are/were in these programs? Which one do you think would be better?
 
Urban Studies at Innis is not an accredited planning program - there are only two at the bachelor level in Ontario - at Waterloo and Ryerson. As for transit planning - you might want to looking into doing a degree in civil engineering.

AoD
 
I'm a UofT person and I can tell you that the difference is probably that the Ryerson program is useful and hands-on and the UofT program is "conceptual" and academic, and a hands-off approach that is, well, not useful, unless you want to do a Masters or something.

For what you want to do, I'd highly suggest Ryerson.
 
As a Ryerson alumn, You will get hands on experience at Ryerson, whereas UofT is more theory. A lot of the Rye proffs still work in the industry that they teach in.

UofT has great name recognition though and is a superior school overall. Not sure which program is better though.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Urban Studies at Innis is not an accredited planning program - there are only two at the bachelor level in Ontario - at Waterloo and Ryerson. As for transit planning - you might want to looking into doing a degree in civil engineering.

AoD
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I'm definitely looking at a master's in urban planning. McGill offers a graduate program with a focus on transportation planning. I've heard good things about Waterloo's planning programs - but honestly, I live in Waterloo right now and want to get out. Waterloo is a good school, but... it's in Waterloo. Ryerson's program is accredited too, right?
 
JayBee said:
As a Ryerson alumn, You will get hands on experience at Ryerson, whereas UofT is more theory. A lot of the Rye proffs still work in the industry that they teach in.

UofT has great name recognition though and is a superior school overall. Not sure which program is better though.
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Yeah, I hear that a lot, where U of T has a general better 'reputation', I guess you could say.
 
I'll assume U of T is more if you want to get into politics than into planning...
 
popkornage said:
Yeah, I hear that a lot, where U of T has a general better 'reputation', I guess you could say.
Click to expand...

That won't last long, if we're talking about undergrad studies. My experience there has been awful. Impersonal, massive classes, and every small thing there has been a big difficult bureaucratic mess. Absolutely awful experience. You have to be an extremely high-functioning academic thinker to survive there, and you have to be okay with getting no real-life, hands-on experience.
 
popkornage said:
I'm definitely looking at a master's in urban planning. McGill offers a graduate program with a focus on transportation planning. I've heard good things about Waterloo's planning programs - but honestly, I live in Waterloo right now and want to get out. Waterloo is a good school, but... it's in Waterloo. Ryerson's program is accredited too, right?
Click to expand...

Thank you for bringing this up. I'm in Waterloo's School of Planning and I agree that it is good. Issue is that it's in Waterloo, which doesn't happen to really represent any of the knowledge we gain from the program.

As for Ryerson, I think they just lost their accreditation. York still has it, and Ryerson's urban development (MA?) has it also. From what I know from professionals... Waterloo and Toronto are way more academic focused, where as Ryerson, Queens, York has been know for more "colourful" planners.

AoD also makes a huge point. A lot of us in our undergrad are thinking of civil engineering after our undergrad. Since it has really 'become' the profession for transit. Same with urban design and architecture/landscape architecture.
 
Rowe said:
As for Ryerson, I think they just lost their accreditation.
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No, it just GOT its accreditation... see the website:

"The M.PI. is fully accredited by the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Ontario Professional Planners Institute."

That is due to the fact that the M.Pl is a new program and it takes 2 years to become accredited. The Bachelor program has been accredited for ages and continues to be accredited.
 
Urbantoronto ought to apply to a university to run a course through UT Forum.
Class requirement is to send out papers, plans and proposals for UT review and rebut.
Require a certain number of posts in a variety of forums. A certain number of assignments posted to the forum.
They'd probably learn more than by sitting in a classroom.
For sure you could sell it to smaller or community colleges.
 
Tuscani01 said:
No, it just GOT its accreditation... see the website:

"The M.PI. is fully accredited by the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Ontario Professional Planners Institute."

That is due to the fact that the M.Pl is a new program and it takes 2 years to become accredited. The Bachelor program has been accredited for ages and continues to be accredited.
Click to expand...

Yea, I just went on their website today and saw.
 
I've been looking into programs more and I'm really keen on doing my undergrad at Ryerson for Urban Planning. McGill's urban planning graduate program offers specialization on transport planning, as well as UBC's SCARP graduate program.

So, any input on McGill and UBC for their graduate programs?
 
popkornage:

Ryerson Planning is fun - though I would strongly advise acquiring/polishing up your drafting skills - you will need it for studio work, and it can be bit of a shock if you aren't used to it for hours on end. Be ready for tons of groupwork as well - and you will likely have to deal with personality issues and drama that will inevitably arise. Competency with MS Office (Word/Excel/PPT), familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite will be extremely helpful. And yes, coffee will be your best friend.

AoD
 
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Sound similar to my position about a year ago. I want to get into urban and transportation planning as well, so I applied to York University's Urban Studies program and Ryerson's Urban Planning program. Unfortunately I didn't get into Ryerson, so I'm now at York. I can't speak for UfT, but what I find odd with York is that with the first year, it is no different than an Undecided Major in that there are no courses specific to the program which you have to take. However, there are courses which are related to this field which you should try to take (ie: Human Geography and a course titled Urban Studies). There are courses in years 2-4 which must be taken to earn a US diploma, however.

With an Urban Studies diploma, you'll probably have to go to graduate school where as with Ryerson you might be employable after 4 years. If you don't get into Ryerson though, another university US course is a fine choice.

If you decide to go to York University, here are a couple of links:

York University Federation of Urban Studies (FUSS) homepage: http://www.yorku.ca/fuss/
FUSS Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Federation-of-Urban-Studies-Students/107415499329443
 
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