<p>Are McGill students intellectual? Intelligent? Do they like to party, but also do academic related things. (All of these things compared to a top 20 or 30 American school.)</p>
<p>I ask this because McGill's SAT percentiles are lower than top American schools, and their acceptance rate is higher. But, do top Canadian students go to McGill?</p>
<p>I don't mean this post to be rude. I am just wondering how the student population compares.</p>
<p>McGill’s considered a tough school to get into; for sciences your average has to be around 93% (two sciences, math/calc, english, and another academic subject) and for arts its around 87%. About the SAT thing that’s because (i’m guessing) that most people who submit their SATs are American/international and standards are lower for them because they pay more. Also, because it’s not necessary for admission for Canadians, there is no pressure to take and retake the SAT and do SAT tutoring so the SAT scores submitted are usually done without studying (this is from anecdotal evidence/personal experience). But yeah, basically if you’re intelligent and high-achieving, it’s likely that you’d go to McGill. (not saying that McGill has a monopoly on smart people). And I couldn’t really relate this to an American school, but McGill is ranked 17th in the world.</p>
<p>also, this may help: [Admissions</a> standards (outside QC, ON)](<a href=“http://www.mcgill.ca/applying/standards/canada/]Admissions”>http://www.mcgill.ca/applying/standards/canada/)</p>
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<p>This is not true at all.</p>
<p>The admissions standard for English students is very low compared to English universities. The McGill website states that admission requirements for A-level students is BBC. To put this in perspective, academic courses at nearly every single top 100 English university will require grades of ABB or higher. It seems to me that McGill will attract English students looking to capitalize on lower entry requirements, and also students who missed out on places at their preferred English university (remember, in England you are only allowed to apply for 5 universities in one year). So yeh, from an English perspective - 90% of the top students in England will go to Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and LSE (with others such as Imperial and UCL being subject specific) and therefore you probably won’t see many English students at McGill who are the cream of the crop.</p>
<p>McGill’s not trying to compete with Oxbridge for top British students at the undergraduate level. Since it will only get a very small number of applicants from the UK, it doesn’t need to be particularly stringent. From an international perspective, it has bigger pools to concentrate on, such as the neighboring US applicants.</p>
<p>Of course, how smart students are is quite variable. I had many high school valedictorians among my classmates. But there are really smart people that no one could stand and surprisingly not so smart people too.</p>
<p>AFAIK they like to party, although the party culture differs from one residence to another.</p>
<p>I also want to know how intellectual McGill students are.</p>
<p>Just visited McGill last week. Here is the breakdown of the student population:</p>
<p>40% Quebec
20% Canadian Provinces other than Quebec
20% US
20% International other than US</p>
@theunforgiven hmm which rez(s) are considered party ones and which ones are not? thanks
Check the Unofficial McGill page and it’ll give you a nice break down of the rez.
As for the first question - that made me laugh so hard. As a McGill student let me say: yes you’ll get the cream of the crop, but yes the “smart” people will flee to better schools (namely in the US and UK).
I ask myself how a number of students got here as well - you’ll have your typical airheads (who you reckon must have bribed someone because they have no substance).
I don’t know if this is true but my American friend (who is at McGill) agreed that the American standards are lower simply because they can charge international tuition. (Honestly, as a for-profit institution, can you blame them?)
I hope that adequately sums up your question. If not, feel free to ask away. These forums humour me deeply.