<p>Personally, I would go to Queen's. Toronto is a nice city though, but Queen's has the bigger reputation with respect to commerce by far. From what I've heard, Queen's undergrad commerce program is much better than Toronto's. Are you from the states? When did your decisions come out? I'm still waiting for half of my universities to recieve my domcumentation. I don't think they like Ontario students...lol</p>
<p>Actually, University of Toronto probably has the biggest reputation in Canada, 2nd McGill and 3rd Queen's. (and for commerce, UofT #1, Queen's #2)</p>
<p>The problem with UofT is the overall low marks that are handed out. Grade deflation, heh.</p>
<p>Toronto's program doesn't seem to be as competitive to get into though. It has a huge reputation as a school, that's no doubt, but I would have to say that while Toronto is best known for areas like sciences (or engineering?), Queen's is best known for its commerce program.</p>
<p>Business weekly (I'm pretty sure it was them anyway) put Queen's MBA program in #1 in the world excluding American universities. Toronto was definately in the top 10 though.</p>
<p>Queen's will prob give me a lot more money though.
4000 for 2 years, 1130 grant first year, renewable to an extent, plus 2000 work study. UT is stingy, 3000 first year, then 1500 renewable each subsequent year.
I'm Canadian, but I am in HS in the states.</p>
<p>It is so hard to find good Canadian school rankings.</p>
<p>UK ranked Queen's at top 5 in the world or something for MBAs, and a US ranking placed it as the top ranking non-US school.</p>
<p>I'm still hoping for Wharton, but since I can't count on that, I'm trying to narrow my Canadian schools down to one.
McGill is outta the picture,</p>
<p>If you're making your decision on ranking or whatever alone, you definately can't go wrong with Queen's. It's too bad that McGill is out of the picture. I've applied to all 3, and it's actually Toronto that sort of out of the picture for me. I guess I am a little biased though, seeing as I've lived here almost all my life. Montreal is a great place. Toronto is too though. Congrats PGSS04 for getting into Trinity! It is really beautiful and really competitive. One of my friends applied there and wrote something really funny for that essay thing about the bike picture. My first choice was Victoria College, but you know...are you planning on going to Toronto? There's lots to do here..I don't know if you know already. Queen's is a nice little university town. It's very quaint and friendly. Although it's got basically one main street, Princess Ave. and that's pretty much it. There are pubs and clubs and whatever for the students though, so it's not to say that there's nothing to do. It's right on the lake, so the scenery is really nice. But don't rule things out yet.</p>
<p>I can totally relate. I've lived in Toronto forever and that's one of my main reasons for wanting to go somewhere else. It's a stupid reason, sort of, but what can you do?</p>
<p>Also, the school of business facilities are new and nice! ...a striking contrast to the condition of the facilities at McGill in general. Canadian schools are supposedly struggling with funding but at Queen's the library is new, the chemistry building is new, the engineering building is new, the biology building is new, there are 2 new dorms, and many of the older buildings have been renovated inside and are really nice.</p>
<p>yea, if you want to compare that way, McGill doesn't really compare to a lot of schools. Queen's buildings are pretty amazing, but that's not everything, right?</p>
<p>hey i like mcgill's campus, i think there are some really pretty buildings... and the fact its centralized unlike most metropolitan universities also makes it nice.</p>
<p>I'm in first year at Queen's (biology), and from Toronto.
I applied to commerce at both Queen's and Toronto. I got accepted early at Toronto and was rejected by Queen's. Toronto is definitely a lot easier to get into. Although I'm glad Queen's commerce rejected me (one of my best friends here is in commerce and I know I wouldn't enjoy it from what I know about the courses they take; I'm not a business person), it's an amazing program. They are very realistic, you WILL get very practical preparation for the business world from the beginning. It's tough - I know many very smart people who are close to flunking. But they treat the commerce kids like gold here. Not to mention 75% of them go on exchanges in third year. Also, they recruit like hell and you're pretty much guaranteed to get a decent job straight out of school.
There is one thing about Queen's - the facilities are excellent, Stauffer library is amazing and lecture halls and buildings are really nice - the commerce building especially is very impressive (much nicer than that of U of T... I am familiar with both). BUT: Queen's is all about looking good from the outside, collecting money from students in every way possible (the biggest mystery here is where that money goes) and not seeming to care once they have you. A really good example of this is the food service. Leonard cafeteria was recently renovated, it looks amazing, it's huge and even has restaurant-type booths. But the food sucks. It's ranked slightly worse than the prison food. They'll do anything they can to make it look good from the outside... my main source of entertainment is seeing what kind of "home-style" or "farmer's-style" pasta that's the same **** as every day they have for the day. The other day they even had a little something called "pasta fantastica". It was hilarious.
Queen's student life is good... it's known in Canada to be extremely whitewashed and snobby but all the Americans I know think the opposite (by the average Canadian's standards the stereotypes are somewhat true). It's all relative. And no matter what you're going to find all kinds of people. I think I'm kind of a city person and I didn't think I would like Kingston but I do. Princess St. is really nice and just a few minutes walk from campus. Students have basically taken over the town so there is a nightlife and it's surprisingly not bad. I like the fact that it's a university town.
I've lived in the Toronto area my whole life and both of my parents are graduates of U of T (my dad is a commerce grad). The commerce program is undoubtedly good and it is a good school overall, but I do have my reasons (and there are a few) for not going there:
-it's mainly a commuter school, the majority of students there are from the GTA and as a result it's kind of lacking student life; not nearly as much of a tight-knit community as Queen's.
-it's known for having the greatest percentage of unhappy students and I have a very good friend there who isn't too happy.
-i don't know if it's because I grew up in Toronto but for some reason it just doesn't appeal to me and I knew even when I applied that I would never go there.
I'm not saying you should base your decision on what I'm saying. These are just my opinions. But I can be almost completely certain that first year tends to go more smoothly at Queen's and that it is probably a safer choice.</p>
<p>I'm in Commerce at Queen's, and I would definetely choose it over UofT. Queen's is just such an amazing school in general, Kingston is a really good size. I'm from Toronto, and a lot of my friends who went to UofT really wish they went somewhere smaller and more personable. </p>
<p>If you're outgoing and really involved, you'll love commerce. There are a million opportunities to get involved in conferences, committees, clubs...pretty much everyone is on something. The fact that there are only 270 of us means that you pretty much know everyones face, and are friends with a pretty good group in your year. You spend a ton of time together and become super tight - i LOVE the people in my year. Commerce is ridiculously social, there are always parties events going on - you'll never be bored. </p>
<p>In terms of the work, it is difficult, but manageable. My marks dropped a ton, but I have friends who work very hard (or are just geniuses) and have kept their marks pretty high. It's definetely not unheard of. Be prepared for a TON of group work. Almost all the assignments are group-based. At first is seems weird, but you get really used to it after a while and you'll meet a lot of your friends through groups. </p>
<p>Commerce grads definetely get amazing jobs. Grads are recruited pretty early, and there are sooo many opportunities to network. There is a pretty intense career center, unfortunately I'm not too familiar with it yet. But even first years can get amazing summer jobs (including me)! </p>
<p>Thanks for the comments about Queen's. You 2 might be the only Queen's students posting on CC since they changed over the format. You (and your friends) might considering filling out the survey at studentsreview.com since Queen's has very little there right now. Thanks.</p>
<p>would anyone like to comment on McGill Management? I don't want to start leaning towards Queen's now. I'd really like to hear something good about Mcgill management..haven't heard too much about it...starting to get a little worried. Does anyone know if summer jobs or internships generally happen in Montreal or in other big cities like Toronto? What about Richard Ivey? That's the only one I've gotten into so far, but it's pretty expensive.</p>