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McGill and Toronto - any opinions vs UK?

Reply 20

yawn1

The numbers at ALL Canadian university are rising fast - as they seem to be in many countries.

Reply 21

ben2111

ccc

Actually Toronto, not Simon Fraser, has been consistenly ranked 1 and still is... (in the doctoral category - the most importna I think)... "Building on 150 years of fostering excellence, Canada's premier research powerhouse University of Toronto continues to reshape itself as it makes way for a new generation of undergraduates" (and those numbers are rising sharply...!
http://www.macleans.ca/universities/article.jsp?content=20031106_133132_3296

Radagasty, what evidence do you have to say McGill better?

Sorry, I swapped Simon Fraser and Francis Xavier which was ranked 1 in the undergrad category.

Reply 22

jammyd

7

Chicken

Out of interest, do you know anything about the uni's in Calgary or B.C? I know about the cities, as I've been to both, but i haven;t seen either uni...

Unfortunately I don't know anything about Calgary, but I applied to UBC for my semester abroad. I know the city is so cool, and the campus is wicked too. The Uni is top class, highly academic and very accomplished.

Reply 23

Chicken

12

jammyd

Unfortunately I don't know anything about Calgary, but I applied to UBC for my semester abroad. I know the city is so cool, and the campus is wicked too. The Uni is top class, highly academic and very accomplished.

Hmmm, I'm just a bit scared about the size of Vancouver, thats all. I think i'd feel a bit lost (I'm not a big fan of huge cities). Calgary is more my size, plus they have an analytical chemistry research centre, which would help towards that part of my degree.

Reply 24

jammyd

7

Chicken

Hmmm, I'm just a bit scared about the size of Vancouver, thats all. I think i'd feel a bit lost (I'm not a big fan of huge cities). Calgary is more my size, plus they have an analytical chemistry research centre, which would help towards that part of my degree.

I don't think that Vancouver is that big is it? It is a big Uni though, something like 30,000 students. UBC is really good for one of my subjects, International Relations, but I don't think it has a rep for History. Won't there be more going on in Vancouver? Its got a nice harbour hasn't it?

Reply 25

Chicken

12

jammyd

I don't think that Vancouver is that big is it? It is a big Uni though, something like 30,000 students. UBC is really good for one of my subjects, International Relations, but I don't think it has a rep for History. Won't there be more going on in Vancouver? Its got a nice harbour hasn't it?

Yeah the harbour is gorgeous, but it is a very big city. Something like a third of all the population of BC live in Vancouver (or it might be two thirds). Its not necessarily the downtown area thats huge but the outskirts and surrounding areas. Though I haven't seen the uni....

Reply 26

africa

Anyone know if winter is better or worse in TOronot or Montreal?

Reply 27

ben2111

africa

Anyone know if winter is better or worse in TOronot or Montreal?

You really from Africa? I´´d understand your worries....
anyway, I think Toronto is a bit more in the south, probably slightly warmer. But don´t bother, you´re going to find both VERY VERY cold!

Reply 28

RaiderXs

Anyone know what sort of grades usually get you accepted to Mcgill or Toronto?
Already applied there, and also filled in the SPF, (Personal statement look alike)
IMO Toronto is better because of the city and language, can't speak french to save my life!

Reply 29

canuck7

Toronto may have great teachers, but you will never get to see them, b/c your classes will be huge for the first two years unless you go to one of the smaller colleges, like Trinity. I'd pick McGill anyday. Toronto has no campus feel, and at least McGill has some. Toronto has absolutely no campus spirit. None whatsoever. It is the ultimate commuter school. Residence is better at U of T though, b/c some of McGill's are really far away from campus. Living in Montreal is also way cheaper. And Montreal, as a city, is way cooler than Toronto. You've got the best bagels, St.Catherines St., and $2.99 breakfast at SuperSex!
But both would be good if you were looking for a commuter Canadian university that is large and well-known.

ccc

Actually I thought the cotnrary was true. Tornotno seemed a bit aspish and stuck-up. Montreal, because of the clash of cultures maybe, seemed more vibrant. Toronto's reputation is part derived from its huge size (40k+ students) which means it has to have great teachers in every area. Classe sizes seem larger in McGill.

Reply 30

canuck7

UBC has the most gorgeous location in Canada, on the Endowment Lands, temperate rainforest, right on the ocean. However, housing is a bitch if you don't get residence b/c it is so expensive, but I'm sure they guarantee international students housing. If you're at UBC, you'll never have to see the horror than is Surrey, or Burnaby or any of the other suburbs b/c you will probably never leave downtown, unless it is to head up to Whistler to stay at the UBC ski chalet. However, Calgary is getting cooler by the minute (I'm from there) and the uni's got some good programs. And it is way smaller and easier to get a handle on. But if you've got UBC, go for it. Vancouver is awesome, especially if you're an outdoorsy person.

Chicken

Yeah the harbour is gorgeous, but it is a very big city. Something like a third of all the population of BC live in Vancouvetr (or it might be two thirds). Its not necessarily the downtown area thats huge but the outskirts and surrounding areas. Though I haven't seen the uni....

Reply 31

RaiderXs

Hey, i was interested in doing Computer Engineering, and found out that UofT only offers a B.A.Sc (Bachelors of Applied Science) so i started looking at other uni's in OUAC and well, found McMaster to be one great uni. they give a B.Eng Degree and they are like 60km from Toronto....
prolly my first choice... any input on McMaster?

Reply 32

anonymity

McGill has the reputation for being the best university in Canada.
York and Nottingham are good universities but not nearly as renowned as McGill.
UoT also has a good rep outside canada, esp. for law but I would definitely choose McGill.
Also, if you're an international student you will be paying MUCH MORE than 1000$ to attend university in the UK.

Reply 33

koalapiyo

anonymity

McGill has the reputation for being the best university in Canada.

it's debatable i believe mcgill's worldwide reputation stems in no small part to its medical school and worldclass research. however, UofT is widely acknowledged to be the premier institution in Canada. macleans describes it as Canada's premier research powerhouse. it has the most money too - it's endowment can compete with some US schools. they have nobel prize winners in their faculty. it consistently comes no.1 in the medical doctoral category. mcgill is no.2, Queen's and Western are joint no.3.

http://www.macleans.ca/universities/article.jsp?content=20031106_133202_2948
http://www.macleans.ca/universities/article.jsp?content=20031106_133132_3296

if there were a reputation ranking, certainly McGill would be in the top 3 i think but probably not no.1. certainly, McGill and UofT are the most famous outside of Canada. interestingly, for research environemnt, dalhousie was voted the no.1 non-commercial institution outside of the US for where post-docs wanted to work in a recent issue of the Scientist. alberta, mcmaster, UofT also figured in the top 10.

http://www.schoolfinder.com/news/pressrls.asp?ID=398&From=

Top 10 Research Institutions Outside the U.S.
1. Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
2. National Institute for Agricultural Research, Versailles, France
3. University of Dundee, Scotland
4. University of Alberta, Canada
5. McMaster University, Canada
6. Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
7. University of Manchester, England
8. University of Toronto, Canada
9. Ghent University, Belgium
10. Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

Reply 34

koalapiyo

RaiderXs

Hey, i was interested in doing Computer Engineering, and found out that UofT only offers a B.A.Sc (Bachelors of Applied Science) so i started looking at other uni's in OUAC and well, found McMaster to be one great uni. they give a B.Eng Degree and they are like 60km from Toronto....
prolly my first choice... any input on McMaster?

mcmaster is a well-regarded school. my classmate from my year at Queen's is doing her Phd there. i'm not too sure about its computer courses tho.

i have another good friend at UofT in the final year of computer
science, with a year in industry. wonder if he knows anything about mcmaster's com eng program. UofT's computer faculty is very good.

i think mcmaster enjoys a good reputation inside of canada, and has very good programs. if you look at the results of the poll which the scientist
published last year, which i copied and pasted in the previous post, you'll see Mcmaster figures on it. it certainly has a reputation for a place where postdocs would like to research in. so reputation wise, it's certainly up there - perhaps not amongst the general public, but certainly with senior academics around the world.

Reply 35

anonymity

i said it had the reputation, not that it necessarily *was* the best uni in canada.
warwick, for ex., has a really good standing within the UK but your average joe outside great britain will never have heard of it.
people in academia will know the rankings, i suppose, everyone else will just identify a couple of big names and mcgill [in my experiece] is a bigger name than UoT.

Reply 36

koalapiyo

anonymity

i said it had the reputation, not that it necessarily *was* the best uni in canada.
warwick, for ex., has a really good standing within the UK but your average joe outside great britain will never have heard of it.
people in academia will know the rankings, i suppose, everyone else will just identify a couple of big names and mcgill [in my experiece] is a bigger name than UoT.

you may assert that mcgill is a bigger name than UofT; that may be true in the past, where reputation wise and reality wise, it was definitely no. 1 but most people would argue that UofT has outpaced it in recent years. read this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGill_University

UofT exceeds McGill's percieved reputation and in objective rankings.
However, McGill is a very very fine institution, and its research is worldclass and respected worldwide.

Reply 37

africa

Has some acccurate and revealing info on unis. Think of all the subjects we could contribute to, without any of the publicity claptrap. Power to us!

Reply 38

Chicken

12

canuck7

UBC has the most gorgeous location in Canada, on the Endowment Lands, temperate rainforest, right on the ocean. However, housing is a bitch if you don't get residence b/c it is so expensive, but I'm sure they guarantee international students housing. If you're at UBC, you'll never have to see the horror than is Surrey, or Burnaby or any of the other suburbs b/c you will probably never leave downtown, unless it is to head up to Whistler to stay at the UBC ski chalet. However, Calgary is getting cooler by the minute (I'm from there) and the uni's got some good programs. And it is way smaller and easier to get a handle on. But if you've got UBC, go for it. Vancouver is awesome, especially if you're an outdoorsy person.

I've already seen some of the suburbs - Surrey in particular doesn't have much to it! I've been to both Calgary and Vancouver - both are very different places but I do lika Calcary, its much smaller and feels a little friendlier and safer. Its also nearer to the side of the Rockies that I like, I know the Rockies go all the way to Vancouver, but there's something about them that change...i prefer the Alberta side - Banff ismy favourite place ever!

Reply 39

katherine346

Hey,
I'm currently a high school student from Toronto where I have lived my entire life. Although it is not a bad city to live in, I'd much rather live in Montreal. Montreal is an awesome city, lots of fun, lower drinking age. However, the winters are considerably worse in Montreal. It is a bit warmer in Toronto and we get less snow because of the Lake Ontario system I think. Montreal is about 5 hours away and gets much more snow and cold. Many people assume that it is incrediably cold here in Canada but that is not so! Many places in the United States are as cold or even worse than Toronto. If choosing a university, I'd definately opt for McGill. The campus is beautiful and located in a fun part of town. Not speaking French is not a problem, most people in Montreal speak English anyways. U of T has a huge very spread out campus which makes the university very impersonal. Other popular universities over here include Queens, University of Western Ontario, Mcgill, University of British Columbia, U of T, and of course, McGill.

McGill and Toronto - any opinions vs UK?

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