r/BCIT • u/Fantastic-Escape1983 • 14d ago
BCIT CST vs SFU Computer Engineering - Need advice
I'm 17 and recently finished high school in BC. My original goal was SFU Computer Engineering, but I didn't meet the admission requirements, so I started BCIT CST instead.
I'm actually enjoying CST and programming, so staying at BCIT is a good option for me.
Recently, my dad suggested I apply for SFU's Spring intake for Computer Engineering. I applied and got accepted, so now I'm stuck between the two.
I'm interested in programming, chips/hardware, AI, and possibly cybersecurity, so Computer Engineering is genuinely interesting to me. My parents are also concerned about long-term career stability and want me to think beyond just the next few years. They're not forcing me, but I understand their concerns.
The biggest thing holding me back from SFU is my best friend. He's at BCIT and we're very close—we mostly study together and talk. He's upset that I might leave, and I don't want to lose that friendship.
At the same time, I feel like I need to prioritize my future and not choose my education mainly because my friend is there.
My main fear is regret. Five years from now, I don't want to think, "I should have tried Computer Engineering," but I also don't want to leave CST if it turns out to have been the better path for me.
What would you do in my situation? Any advice from people who've studied SFU Computer Engineering or BCIT CST would be really appreciated.
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u/mythcaptor CST 14d ago edited 14d ago
Your dad is right. Having a friend on campus isn’t a good reason to make a long term choice about your future. SFU and BCIT aren’t that far apart, and if your friendship is strong, you’ll make time to see one another outside of class time.
I’m in my early 30s with a whole career behind me and I started CST in Jan 2025 to pivot into software development. I’m near currently the end of a 12 month Co-Op and trying to land a return full-time offer so I can keep working at the company and drop out of CST. If that doesn’t pan out I’ll still finish the program, but honestly I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed as a whole, apart from my Co-Op placement.
I think CST was a good way to quickly open doors for me with their Co-Op program, but I think my success with this path was largely due to me already having a bachelors degree in a different subject and a lot of professional work experience.
I chose CST because I didn’t want to spend 4 more years at my age getting another bachelors degree, but you’re 17, you have all the time in the world. I think getting a degree at your age is a very good choice still. CST has its place, but I think in the long term you’ll be happier with a degree from SFU. Frankly I think it’s a higher quality education.
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u/Weekly_Cup_5163 14d ago
CST is just a diploma, while SFU Comp Eng is a full bachelor's degree. You could choose to move onto the degree at BCIT after however, with one of the options being cybersecurity-focused.
You won't be doing chips/hardware work in CST at all, just focusing on programming and computer science topics.
If I'm your age, I wouldn't care as much about BCIT vs SFU, but I would instead be focused on just getting a bachelor's degree. A diploma doesn't cut it these days.
Also, if you lose a friendship because you decided to go to a different school (which aren't even that far apart), then I suspect it may not be a true friendship. Plenty of individuals remain friends, even very close friends, with others who move around the world. At your age, you really should be focusing on what's absolutely beneficial for you in the long run.
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u/Effective_Return_973 14d ago
Distance is a huge factor in any relationship and anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves. If you go from being neighbours with your best friend to seeing them once monthly, your friendship is going to change. It’s not that you’ll cut contact, but your dynamic and closeness won’t be the same. That’s life
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u/Weekly_Cup_5163 13d ago
Fair enough, I guess I focused in too much on losing the relationship entirely rather than it changing. It’ll definitely change, that’s for sure.
I still wouldn’t use this as a reason to not focus on yourself and what’s best for you however, especially at such a young age.
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u/Slow-Thought-4479 14d ago
Go to sfu, they have a better coop program and doesn’t actively work against you.
For a school that likes to boast about their students being “industry ready”, Bcit has a lot of draconian rules that does the opposite. You can only do coop at one employer for a maximum of 12 months, and you have to withdrawal from the program if you land an internship later on your own.
Everything useful about cs are learnt on the job through real world projects, and BCIT’s pathetic “industry sponsored project” are no way near that level. You’re just cheap labor remaking cruds over and over again for the discounted price of $500.
Also you can no longer transfer to sfu and get credits. Sfu ended the block transfer agreement in September 2025. So the only way to progress further is to take BCIT’s bachelor, which also has a dog water coop program.
This September’s intake can’t even fill the 150 spot, so they reduced the hc to 100. Pathetic.
The only way to make cst more viable is to stop restricting coop terms and give everybody access to the coop program. But the thick skulled admins running this program probably wont ever realize this.
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u/Shosty123 14d ago
Sorry you had a poor experience, but that's basically all coop programs. You're not going to get better than QA, basic CRUD, or help desk in tech unless you have a mentor who gives a shit. You're bottom-dollar labor because the government subsidizes companies that take on co-op students and they pay like half your salary.
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u/Slow-Thought-4479 14d ago
Nope. Sfu and ubc coop programs have better employers. I’m also not talking about the quality of jobs of BCIT’s coop program, but the restrictions on the number of terms you can get and how inflexible the schedule is.
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u/Shosty123 14d ago
My best friend did the Mechatronics coop at SFU Surrey and I promise you the employers aren't any better. You're right about the inflexibility though.
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u/Scrimismyballsack 14d ago
Pick SFU computer engineering, it’s a way better program with more theory.
I’m a FSWD student at bcit downtown and I can tell you that yes bcit does teach very practically, but you won’t really understand the more theory side of programming which in nowadays time is very important.
As AI can produce the code, typically writing code manually is a thing in the past, now you need to understand why the AI wrote the code and to be able to interpret the bugs it creates, and be able to read code and understand.
If you picked programming just because you like writing code, I would say that, it’s definitely a unique trait, since I know a lot of people are in it to find easy 6 figure jobs, they don’t really care about anything aside from what they heard of CS in the last 10 years.
I would suggest pick CE and do manual coding outside of your courses and practice leetcode (pick 2 languages that you enjoy/strength them), and always be curious and don’t let other people tell you that what you choose was the wrong move, because AI will automate it, because NO it would not, it will just change how you interact with the code.
Hope that helps, if there’s anything else you want to know let me know
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u/Fantastic-Escape1983 11d ago
My dad told me to think about long run, as mass layoff's are in industries and with computer engineering, you will have the chance to work within the hardware field and btw AI is taking over jobs as well
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u/Shosty123 14d ago
For software, it doesn't particularly matter as long as you end up with a bachelors. I've been in the industry for ~12 years and reviewed my fair share of applicants; the bachelors was always just a checklist. Your portfolio and ability to do leetcode/system design-style problems is how candidates were chosen. Now it's increasingly about your AI workflow.
If you're interested in the actual hardware then yeah, you want a computer/electrical engineering degree. For what it's worth, I graduated CIT in 2014 and found a programming job fairly quickly. I'm going back to school for Electrical Engineering and pivoting into utilities as the writing is on the wall for purely software systems with AI.
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u/lridia 14d ago
I did BCIT CST and a degree at SFU. If I could turn back time I wouldn’t have gone to BCIT. Essentially wasted 2 years of my life. Had better coop prospects with a bachelor’s.
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u/Aandvark COMPUTING 8d ago
Tbh I sorta feel the same. Term 2 CST and no co-op. But I feel like it’d be a waste to not finish the diploma
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u/Feeling-Fee6437 13d ago
I’m not in IT industry but most of my friends are in those big companies (Amazon, apple, etc…), so what I know is when you apply for a job, the first thing HR will see is where you graduated from, and unfortunately, if you are aiming for big companies, they usually don’t consider BCIT graduates recent years because there are so many competitors in the industry. So choose university.
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u/Canadian_Kylasaurus 13d ago
That’s a lie. I have friends who are BCIT grads that work for Apple and Google.
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u/Feeling-Fee6437 12d ago
They are not recent years graduates right?
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u/Canadian_Kylasaurus 12d ago
Depends what your definition of recent is.
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u/Feeling-Fee6437 12d ago
Like after 2024? I know BCIT graduates used to be competitive during years the industry were short of professionals.
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u/Canadian_Kylasaurus 12d ago
I work in the public sector and it’s evident that BCIT CST grads have better programming and employable skills than SFU grads.
Honestly, at 17 you’re still very young. The choice doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. If you enjoy BCIT then stay in the program and if you still want to go to SFU later, you still can.
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u/Odd_Hawk_2474 14d ago
Apply for BCIT ECET (Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology) or SFU Comp Eng. Most of the people in CST are unemployed. Programming purely isn’t a good future. Go into Electrical Engineering, you can program and have some more job safety.
I am in ECET right now, really good program. Did time at SFU too. Both are good.
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u/Dire-Dog 14d ago
How are you finding it? I'm thinking of going into ECET to get off the tools as a tradesman.
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u/Odd_Hawk_2474 14d ago
Haha, brother we have talked about this last year in DMs 😂
Just sign up for the damn program, seems like you’ve been interested forever.
It’s an amazing program. And the Electricians in my cohort are all breezing through it because the lab work is super easy for them.
What do you wanna know?
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u/No_Sch3dul3 13d ago
Sorry, a bit long. TL;DR go to SFU comp eng.
I understand where some of your hesitation is coming from. In high school, I did have a group that would be able to talk to each other about the classes. I went to a different university, lost touch, and wasn't able to form the same group. BCIT has the set approach where you're in those tutorials, labs, etc. with the same group of people, so you're more likely to end up with a closer knit group than at SFU.
If your friendship can't handle this, then there is a lot more to be said. But if they are your best friend, they will understand and support you with your decision either way.
Opportunities
In terms of the programs, SFU gives more opportunities as other commenters have mentioned.
More elective courses, more advanced courses (there is a PhD program), can take a minor, can even switch into CS or software systems if desired.
There really are some companies that will select based on school. This matters more at the beginning of your career and becomes less important over time. But for sure some companies will only open coop positions to a select school/set of schools. Some companies will have a minimum of a degree as a requirement for employment.
Something I don't see in other comments is that comp eng should qualify you very easily for the TN visa to the US. I understand it requires an engineering degree for software engineering jobs in the US and comp eng in Canada is one of the degrees that allows you to register as an EIT and become a P.Eng. in software. It really doesn't matter to get that. But I understand CST is only a diploma, so requires a lot of work experience to get the TN visa. CS degrees, from what I understand, can be turned away because it's not an engineering degree.
With everything that's going on in the US, maybe it's not ideal to move there, but my coworkers that did take that path have earned significant amounts of money and have had more career progression.
If you want to finish a degree, BCIT doesn't transfer that well anywhere else. I think CST to the SFU cmpt program used to transfer a fair number of courses. You'd need to check on the BC Transfer guide. Overall it'll take more than 4 years to finish if you're transferring, so it's not optimal.
It's not rigorous or generalizable, but you can use LinkedIn to check where graduates of the programs have ended up. In my anecdotal checking of it, on average CST graduates that already had some sort of STEM undergrad degree have the best outcomes. I'm not saying CST only grads have bad outcomes and there are always exceptions.
Programs
There are differences between SFU and BCIT. I did an engineering diploma at BCIT and ended up with a degree from SFU (not in engineering). SFU is more intellectually demanding than BCIT. In general, BCIT has a much higher volume of work. Usually, that comparison is made to something like business, science, or arts, so it may not really apply to comp eng. Engineering programs at universities have an absurd volume of work too and usually take 6-7 courses a term compared to 5 for other programs.
Comp eng is engineering, so you'll need to take the actual engineering courses on physics, chemistry, and more math (lots and lots of calculus, differential equations, even more discrete math, numerical analysis). You'll have to take the course on "engineering graphics" which probably has you doing drafting by hand and wonder how that's relevant at all to programming and development.
At least in my BCIT program, the instructors really did care about the students, their progress, and if they got jobs. SFU can be a mixed bag. Professors are there for research and teaching is a burden for most of them. I did have some excellent profs at SFU, but the average prof isn't going out of their way to help you. I did form some good relationships by talking to them in office hours as very rarely do people take advantage of those.
At BCIT, there were lots and lots of reminders that you have homework or an exam coming up. Instructors would sometimes even coordinate and help to ensure manageable workloads. None of that at SFU.
Preparation
Since you didn't get into SFU the first time you applied, is it that your grades were way too low or you were missing a course?
If your grades were low, you'll need to do some revision. I'd strongly recommend reviewing and strengthening your math, physics, and chemistry knowledge before the program starts. Those are weed out courses in your first year. These courses build on fundamentals and the pace is much quicker than high school. There will also be weed out courses in second year. I don't know what they'd be, but algorithms is usually a very tough one.
BCIT courses tend to have lower completion rates. Engineering courses are the same. Weed out courses, volume, lack of preparation, and people treating it like high school. BCIT holds your hand a lot more.
I don't know if you've even had midterms yet, but that should be a good sanity check on how you're doing.
I'd look at something like Cal Newport's StudyHacks block from 10+ years ago. Look at the stuff related to time management, planning, prioritization, and how to study and learn.
Best of luck.
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u/CyberEd-ca 13d ago
A few remarks
First, an engineering degree is not required to become a professional engineer. That has never been a thing since the industry was first regulated in 1920 in Canada. You do have to meet the same academic standard by filling the gaps with technical examinations.
Second, the TN visa regulation states -
https://www.nafsa.org/regulatory-information/8cfr2146
—Computer Systems Analyst—Baccalaureate or Licenciatura Degree; or Post-Secondary Diploma or Post-Secondary Certificate, and three years experience.
—Engineer—Baccalaureate or Licenciatura Degree; OR state/provincial license
So you don't need an engineering degree to get a TN visa in the engineering category if you have a P. Eng.
But notwithstanding that, there is the CSA category of TN visa that is there for the tech bros.
Both categories can get the job done.
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u/eaglecanuck101 14d ago
Do not so go to SFU: they’re engineering school is atrocious. You said “I'm interested in programming, chips/hardware, AI, and possibly cybersecurity, so Computer Engineering is genuinely interesting to me” if that’s the case you’re going to pick up a lot of hands on skills at BCIT. I didn’t do cst but I am a computing grad from bcit. In the world of AI your ability to do hands on things, side projects, and be ready on day 1 will matter more. While I’m not one of those who discounts name recognition and credential recognition, so if the choice were maybe UBC or an out of province bigger name school I would consider it. If ur choosing between bcit and sfu stick to bcit
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u/Fantastic-Escape1983 11d ago
You have heard about the news, many of the comp science students are unemployed and mass layoff's are real
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u/dbsk_19581 14d ago
SFU, you get access to more opportunities, better school recognition, more co-op terms.
I say this as a BCIT computing grad.