Frankly, Canada has a fetish for Waterloo. I think you have some misconceptions though: their placement rate for co-ops is like 98%. Students aren't dropping out because they can't find a position, although they are forced to travel for their placements in some cases. Most of the students I know who selected UW wanted to end up at a Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, or start a company - academia is definitely not the emphasis, and I think students know that going in.