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I'm having a hard time picking btw these two schools... How do they compare to each other, and which departments are stronger in each school?

Also, how do these two compare to the best US schools-- esp. the top schools like the ivies?

By Hkriffraff (Hkriffraff) on Saturday, November 29, 2003 - 03:40 am: Edit

I'm not so knowledgeable, but I have lived in both Montreal and Toronto and took a few elective courses at McGill once. Firstly, Canadians are not such university snobs and you don't find so many high schoolers scrutinizing college stats to see which has the maginally better reputation. You won't find a McGill grad looking down upon a Simon Fraser grad (ok, you might find some), the way a Yale grad might regard his Texas A&M counterpart.

As for other comparisons with US schools, it depends on your criteria. If it's the campus experience, quality of teaching, intellectual quality of students, and other such measures, then they compare with the best. If you're talking about scientific research, # of Nobel laureates based at the institution, starting salary of graduates and measures like that, then they would not even compare with good US state schools like Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, UT-Austin. I have never understood why American HS students obsess over faculty rankings, thinking such and such a school has a top 5 economics deparment or whatever. As an undergrad, the majority of your classes will not be taught by any star faculty members, instead you will become well acquainted with the foreign teaching assistant with the funny accent. Canadian universities get nowhere near the funding that major US universities receive. Toronto is the bigger research university, while McGill has been in a really dire funding situation for some years (however it has a historically important medical faculty). Having said that, if you are after a quality undergraduate education, you'll find McGill students are an extremely bright set of peers, the university is well respected internationally and Montreal is one of the loveliest cities in the world (if you can deal with the brutal winter). Toronto is a nice enough place too.

By Nifty101 (Nifty101) on Saturday, November 29, 2003 - 06:29 pm: Edit

Thanks for the input!

I've heard that Toronto has better departments, though, and is better well-rounded, so you can't go wrong with whatever you pick. (While McGill may be older but is only strong in the medical/science fields.)
How true is this?