<p>the fact american schooling costs so much, I think, has some effect on the competitiveness of american students to pay off their loans. this only drives up the costs and intensity of education in america. Again, america is older than canada, so obviously their system and networks are more developed. Again, this is based on what you’re studying, which was the point of my last post.</p>
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<p>Could you elaborate on this statement, preferably with data that would support your claims. As a graduate student, i assume you are familiar with the notion of providing proof for your hypotheses.</p>
<p>Canada, eh?</p>
<p>Hey this is a little irrelevant but i think you guys can help me out. I want to do a BA in econ and im currently studying IB. I want to drop from math SL to math studies because its just way to difficult. UBC said that they dont require math since its an arts program but im unsure about other unis. HELP?!</p>
<p>and these are the rest of my subjects.</p>
<p>French, Theater, Math- SL
English, Biology, Business- HL</p>
<p>stanfordlover. That is not true at all. Canadian high schools are not, in your words, "
way way harder than american ones". I’m in the number one public school in B.C and i can tell you school marks wise it’s too easy. People are getting into universities like U of T and UBC with marks taken online. What’s even more funny is that most Canadian Universities only look at your Grade 12 term 2 marks. It is not way in any perspective harder than the high schools in the States.</p>
<p>^ So true.</p>
<p>I am another student in a well respected public high school in BC. And I can say that the course rigor here is not even close to that in the elite public schools in US. As the above poster said, people are applying to top Canadian universities with classes taken online and horrendous grades prior to Grade 12(senior year) and ARE GETTING ACCEPTED. Besides a few truly dedicated and talented ones,the students at top Canadian universities really cannot be compared to those at Duke, NU, and WashU alike, let alone those at HYPSM.</p>
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<p>tomofboston, nicely said. For the first time we agree on something. LOL.</p>
<p>A further note. It’s kind of strange that some people bunch Canadians universities into one basket. Queen’s for instance is smaller and more intimate and is highly selective. Places like Mount Allison and Arcadia are smaller and intimate and are like liberal arts colleges in the U.S with top academics and small class sizes. U of T, McGill and UBC don’t represent and are not indicative of all Canadian universities just as the Ivies are not indicative of all American ones. However, at the graduate level, you find places like U of T and McGill more selective than many programs in the Ivies. As for those saying that their public high schools in B.C are too easy. Try attending some public ones in New York City. Cities and schools in B.C again are not indicative of all Canadian high schools just as the public schools in New York city are not. An Ivy degree in Canada will not get you any further than a similar degree from a Canadian university, especially out of the gate. Canadian employers are less impressed about what school you went to and just want to make sure you have a degree. I remember right out of school a recruiter I went to see in Toronto, could not find a job for a client who just graduated Princeton. the feedback she got from potential employers was “he’s junior”. they didn’t care about his Princeton degree, It could have been from the University of Alberta as far as they were concerned. While where you graduated from is a huge deal in the U.S. for reasons I do in fact understand, the Canadian education and employment system is not really impressed by what schools people go to. Many Canadians go the schools closest to them and many prefer to commute from their house to get there. it’s a hard system for Americans to understand and we probably understand their education/employment system better than they do ours. By the same token, they should not try to compare theirs to ours. As a society I do believe our educational goals are different. We try to give students with the marks a chance and weed out the students who can’t cut it once they arrive in university. So drop out rates can be harsh for sophomores and juniors. half of my friends got dropped from their programs in their sophomore year. While in the Ivies they try to weed out those students before they even apply with high Gpa’s, test scores and essays. The way we approach education is different. It really depends on what you are looking for in the end and where you plan to live and work.</p>
<p>So many silly and unsubstantiated statements on this thread. </p>
<p>I’ve taught at both super top schools in the US, including an Ivy, as well as at a very well known Canadian University. About the same number of years at each. The top 40% of students at both schools are basically the same, as is their prior preparation. The only difference is more variance at Canadian schools because the bar to entry is lower. </p>
<p>I’ve also sent many an undergrad from our Canadian university to top US schools for graduate degrees, and they do perfectly fabulous. They are really well prepared.</p>
<p>As for highschool comparisons: I would trust the results of PISA over a highschooler student’s personal opinion about rigor from just one school in one country. PISA shows us that Canadian students far surpass their American counterparts in math, reading and science knowledge. Now you might say well the US has a bimodal educational system, which is true…so if it makes you feel better, look at the testing results for the top 5% of students in each country: Canadians still scoring much higher. This does not remotely surprise me but it might to those of you who have grown up only hearing about those ‘famous’ American schools from popular media. </p>
<p>[PISA</a> Country Profiles](<a href=“http://pisacountry.acer.edu.au/]PISA”>http://pisacountry.acer.edu.au/)</p>
<p>i 100% agree with starbright.
american and canadian universities are basicly the same thing. american universities have some better aspects then canadian universities but it goes vise-versa also.
alot of canadian highschools are much harder then the ones in america, so no one should be arguing becuase if anything, canada has a better educational system then we do here in america.</p>