McGill or Warwick for Literature/Philosophy?

I have an offer from both McGill and Warwick. I am an international student so both locations would be at least a little bit exotic for me. The tuition fee and the accommodation fee are roughly the same for citizens of my country so it is not a criteria.
Any thoughts on the courses/student life/assets the two universities could give me to apply for graduate studies and jobs? I will take any advice that can help me make a choice.

Thanks

Hello there! I'm studying Philosophy and Literature at Warwick right now. One thing that's nice about studying what I do at Warwick is that we have a research strength in Philosophy of Literature. In the Philosophy department, we have a Centre for Research in Philosophy and the Arts. Lots of the academics who are part of this research cluster are specifically interested in the Philosophy of literature, including our wonderful degree convenor in the Philosophy department, Eileen John, whom you can hear speaking here:

http://philosophybites.com/2017/03/eileen-john-on-art-and-morality.html

There are also quite a few people in the literature department who have significant interdisciplinary interests, and there are modules in both departments that deal with both traditionally literary concerns and traditionally philosophical concerns, and try to make the two work together.

You might be familiar with the Analytic / Continental divide that's sometimes posited within Philosophy. If not, it's worth looking up. In Warwick's Philosophy department, you should have a chance to deal with philosophers who are often considered continental, like Foucault, Nietzsche, and de Beauvoir - and this probably won't be the case in most English-speaking Philosophy departments (though McGill may be an exception, I'm not sure).

That said, we don't offer any modules in medieval philosophy, and our ancient philosophy offerings are relatively slim (though I hear the ancient modules we do offer are very strong) - I'd strongly recommend checking out this:

http://readinglists.warwick.ac.uk/departments/ph.html

and comparing it to McGill's Philosophy offerings. Our Literature modules are much less canon-oritented than those of many English departments here in the UK (though it may be different in Canada), so you'll have a chance to do more theory, more contemporary literature, and more world and comparative literature than you probably would elsewhere, but it's possible your grounding in the 'classics' may be a little less secure (though we do offer modules in Shakespeare, Restoration drama, Middle English Literature, etc.). You may consider this a good thing or a bad thing depending on your attitude towards literature degrees.

Sometimes (not always) our literature department can seem (to me) like a parody of itself, spouting profound-sounding things without too much concern about making them meaningful to their audience. However, (a) I've also had some lecturers I've really liked in this department, (b) this might be true of almost all literature departments, and (c) it's possible they're making complete sense and it's just going over my head.

I can't really speak to nightlife firsthand, sorry, but we have a student union club and bar on campus, and several clubs and bars nearby if that is your bag.

We have loads of societies! Like, loads. Here's a list:

https://www.warwicksu.com/societies/

Some of them are great, some of them are not. Sports can get very hardcore, sometimes with fraternity-style 'initiations' (though the Student Union is cracking down on this) and I think we have a slightly stronger drinking culture than most universities.

We're a campus university. I think the campus is very pretty, although it has some very ugly buildings. On one hand, it can isolate you from the rest of the world (we call it the 'bubble' sometimes); on the other, it can be incredibly convenient, and means that it's much easier to meet up and organise stuff for societies, etc.

Philosophy and Literature can be a very tightly knit degree. This is perhaps partly because we all take an exclusive compulsory module together through the first term of the first year, and all of the third year. At its best, this can lead to a great sense of community. At its worst, it can lead to significant clique-iness. our members sometimes look down on single-honours students. I'd say I've seen both these sides through my time at Warwick.

I can't speak to jobs or graduate studies except to say that Warwick has a good reputation in general (usually ranking somewhere in the top 10 in the UK and the top 100 in the world), and possibly the best reputation for continental philosophy in the UK.

I hope some of this has helped! If you get a chance, try to visit both universities. If you're an international student, I imagine this will be difficult, but I strongly recommend it if it's within your means. Try and meet as many people (students, faculty, etc.) as possible. If visiting isn't an option, I recommend trying to find out if either uni offers a skype session or something for international applicants. Youtube videos, google maps, etc., are also all your friends. Good luck with your application!

Thank you so much for this detailed answer it actually helped me know what to look for!
I think I will finally go to McGill because their literature courses seem more appealing to me and I got a scholarship which is really practical.
Thank you

Hmm, so OP asks for advice in the Warwick Forum about choosing between Warwick & McGill and indicates money isn't a consideration.

Some kind poster replies with a long and detailed post pro-Warwick and OP says thanks but no thanks, McGill wins because they'll give them a scholarship...