@TomSrOfBoston 's advice from the thread he posted is solid, and the OP should definitely read it. All Canadian universities have a much, much higher requirement for independence. Though there is little hand-holding at large American universities, what guidance and one-on-one help there is is much more than you’ll find at U of Toronto, McGill, and so on. I am not trying to scare U.S students away, since in US dollars Canadian universities can be a modest bargain, but if an eighteen-year-old is not ready to hit the ground running with relatively little guidance, a Canadian university should perhaps give one pause.
If the OP (or others) need confirmation of this, visit Students Review. Yes, it’s a very basic website that clearly hasn’t changed its style in over a decade. And, yes, you need to sort through the reviews to discern which comments are useful and which ones are purely idiosyncratic. But guess what? When one looks for patterns–repeated comments that say the same thing–you’ll see that there’s definitely an adjustment for those students who were not expecting the “sink or swim” environment of a Canadian university. Again, for those students who are aware of this and possess a high degree of independence, ambition, and determination, the benefits would be sizable, especially since McGill and U of Toronto are Canada’s two most prestigious post-secondary institutions.