Waterloo Regional Campus is situated on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Specifically, our Campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometers on each side of the Grand River.

Learn more about the significance of land acknowledgment here.

The Waterloo Region is a mid-sized community located in the heart of southwestern Ontario’s greenbelt. This region offers three cities that offer their own unique attractions.

The City of Waterloo is home to two of the highest-ranked universities in the country. Uptown Waterloo is a thriving urban center with award-winning architecture, unique shops, and fantastic restaurants. Due to the close proximity of the City of Kitchener to Waterloo, the two together are often referred to as the “Twin Cities”.

The City of Kitchener, the Region’s largest city, is a hub of urban activity. Kitchener is an innovative, caring, and vibrant city and a place for everyone. The city is where beautiful brick factories have been transformed into condos that flank a modern light rail system. Kitchener is also a City of the Future, anchored by Canada’s Innovation Corridor, and its startup density is second only to Silicon Valley. Kitchener is famous for Canada’s largest Bavarian Festival, Oktoberfest, held over nine days in the twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo.

Kitchener-Waterloo is steeped in the Mennonite culture with one of the best farmers’ markets in the province, St. Jacob. The region is one of the provinces’ leading tech hubs with Google Canada’s Waterloo-based engineering headquarters, just at the Waterloo Regional Campus’ backyard, and the University of Waterloo’s Velocity Incubator, which equips and guides founders to build companies that scale at the earliest stages of business building.

Waterloo-Wellington Region is a combination of several cities and many rural communities. Due to the growing technology sector, Waterloo Region is also one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. Whether or not you choose to make the Waterloo Region your home, between Medical Foundations and Clerkship, you will get to know these communities well.

The City of Cambridge forms communities of Galt, Preston, Hespeler, and Blair to make up the current city of Cambridge. Cambridge is a modern city with a rich architectural heritage still clearly seen today. Cambridge is now the second largest community within Waterloo Region, partly due to their strong economy and culture. Cambridge is famous for the filming location of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

The City of Guelph has an unmistakable identity, also known as “The Royal City”, named after one of the family names of the British royal family. From its booming craft beer scene, and a vast array of independent eateries, Guelph is a city to be savored. Guelph is one of Canada’s largest cities that relies entirely on groundwater for its drinking water supply. Guelph has 1000 hectares of parks and open space with over 70km of trails.

Surrounding peaceful rural landscape, comprising the townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich, in addition to Wellington North, Elora, and Fergus. These distinct towns and historic communities as well as farms offer maple syrup, apple butter, cheese, and Mennonite furniture and quilts.

Many points in the area have easy access off the 401 which leads to beautiful rural rolling hills, conservation area hiking, and a range of farm gate experiences. The villages provide respite to the traveler with opportunities to rest, relax and enjoy specialty retail.

To learn more about what these regions offer, visit:

Explore Waterloo Region

Visit Guelph

Discover Wellington County

Elora & Fergus Tourism

Grand River Transit (GRT) offers transit services in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Elmira, St. Jacobs and New Hamburg. This system includes the ION light rail system. To plan your route, use the GRT trip planner.

GO Transit has a Kitchener station, which is a railway station located slightly to the northeast of downtown Kitchener at 126 Weber Street East, near the corner of Victoria Street. The GO Transit operates a train from Kitchener GO to Toronto Union Station every 4 hours. Via Rail also services this route twice daily.

Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft services are offered in the region.

Owning or having access to a vehicle can be beneficial for the students’ learner experience at all three McMaster campuses.

Every year our current medical students advertise housing opportunities through the Facebook group for incoming students. A link to the group page will be shared via a welcome email from the O-Week team.

There are plenty of options for students looking for housing in Kitchener or Waterloo. Please use the “University of Waterloo’s Off-Campus Housing” website, Kijiji, and other local housing companies including Domus Housing and Rentals.ca.