<p>No, I didn’t study abroad, although Desautels offers a semester or year abroad program. Some of the exchange schools are MBA only, others are BCom only.</p>
<p>thank you for doing this! I’m actually also a BCOM student at McGill right now, it is my first year here. I’m wondering how strong is the alumni connections at McGill? As in helping current students with internship opportunities, etc.</p>
<p>The alumni network at McGill and in Desautels is fairly strong across Canada and the US. Here is a link to some of the services that alumni volunteers provide:
[Get</a> Involved](<a href=“http://www.mcgill.ca/desautels/alumni/getinvolved/]Get”>http://www.mcgill.ca/desautels/alumni/getinvolved/)
When it is time, the Desautels Career Office will be able to provide you with contacts in your desired area.</p>
<p>What are the honors/joint honors programs like? Are they very different from a non-honors curriculum? Online it says honors is more specific or something?</p>
<p>^I am not the best person to ask about academic specifics, I am 10 years out, but here goes: McGill does not have an Honors College or university wide honors program liike some American schools. An Honours degree consists of specific sequences of honours courses (generally small classes) in that field. A second, related minor is sometimes required. When I was a student, I remember that getting an Honours degree greatly lessened the number of free electives, especially in later years. Also, if a student planned on going into a graduate program in that field in Canada, an Honours degree was usually required. </p>
<p>Specifics vary greatly by department or faculty. </p>
<p>So basically, more specialization, smaller classes, better prep for grad school!</p>
<p>Thanks for the thread tomofboston, as well as for easing my qualms about McGill. </p>
<p>And just an FYI to anyone who was wondering in reagrad to the above post; depending on your grades in first year, you are sent into the Honours Program (if you choose to do so), this USUALLY requires a GPA>3.0</p>
<p>Yeah what’s been said here is pretty much true. McGill is an excellent school in a very exciting and diverse city. From what I’ve heard, McGill’s name is internationally well-regarded and in Canada is known as “Canada’s Harvard”. </p>
<p>A Note on McGill and other big Canadian schools (specifically University of Toronto, McGill’s main competitor). Althought the acceptance rates are pretty high compared to the Ivy league schools, the academic program itself is very challenging and many students are forced to drop out. At UofT competition is so fierce that students rip out library book pages and dont give any help to other students. McGill is definitely less exteme, but as a high ranking school in Canada, it is very competitive. </p>
<p>Partying-haha. Yeah Playboy did rank it as one of their Top Ten Party Schools and it is somewhat. Mainly though its due to Quebec’s drinking age of 18. So youre not doing anything illegal. Most kids go clubbing on weekends, and partying starts thursday night. Alcohol is pretty much availible at corner stores and supermarkets. Even under 18, Montreal is well known (im from Toronto) to be very liberal in terms of underage drinking. Of course everyone parties quite hard at mcgill, but eventually people get used to it and pay more attention to class</p>
<p>Another Thing. An advantage (or disadvantage to some, probably parents!) is that some professors at Mcgill post their lectures on line, through videos. It definitely helps if you had to miss class for sickness or you want to review the lesson but a problem happens when you skip class and depend on it. Mcgill really tests your responsibility and independence and you have to act for yourself.</p>
<p>Student-wise, Mcgill is great. Lots of international students. TO note though, McGill is known to be quite “preppy” in a sense. As i mentioned im from Toronto, i attended a private school with a yearly tuiton of $30, 000, so interacted with a lot of the wealthiest kids in the city. Mcgill is a very popular choice, but still the students who do study hard are the ones that get in. the others go to notorious party schools like queens or western ontario. </p>
<p>Montreal is a great city. it was mentioned that french really helps. It does in a way but DO NOT BE WORRIED ABOUT NOT SPEAKIGN FRENCH. Fascinatingly, many Montrealers are very bilingual and its usually pretty easy to get around. In order to have a job (like at Starbucks or in a store) it is mainly required to be bilignual so most service people will speak English. </p>
<p>So yeah, the pros and cons of McGill. OVerall its a great school and I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>Whatever77: Thanks for a Canadian viewpoint. A bit of clarification. You said that “everyone parties quite hard at McGill”. A big generalization. It is not difficult to find students who do not party, or at least do not “party hard”, if you look in the right places. </p>
<p>Posting class Power Points and notes on line for students is increasingly common at most universities everywhere. Some professors even have their classes taped and available on line. </p>
<p>Also, I agree that a knowledge of French is not required at McGill, except in the bilingual Faculty of Law, nor for living in Montreal as a student. However, it is the French atmosphere of Montreal that is one of the attractions of the city for many Americans. Not bothering to gain at least a basic understanding of French while living in Montreal is a waste of an opportunity. No need to spend Junior Year Abroad in France, just take the metro to the east!</p>
<p>I think Americans see Toronto as Chicago with a dramatically lower crime rate. Toronto is a fantastic city, but not really that different from big American cities.</p>
<p>Thank You tomofboston and whatever77!</p>
<p>But, if I knew only English, would it be possible for me to get a job ON CAMPUS? </p>
<p>And did any of you guys work while attending class? Were you still able to manage your time to do school work well?</p>
<p>And this is a rather odd question; but, I’ve been switching schools every two to three years as my family moves around a lot, and this is the first time I’ll be in a school for four straight years. Did you guys find that you were able to make lasting friendships at McGill? I’ve heard that unless you’re about getting ****faced every weekend, chances are you’ll have a lot of friends but none of them close…? An acquaintance told me that people at McGill rely on alcohol to bond; and unless you drink - well you probably get what I’m hitting at. </p>
<p>And finally, the rent outside of the McGill campus… Where did you guys stay after first year? BEcause I’ve read that only freshers are guaranteed residence. And, how is the rent oustide of the campus for the later years?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>At this point, I’m pretty much set on McGill; I’m just trying to clarify any doubts I have about it.</p>
<p>The party scene at McGill is still a concern. HMMM, how to explain this. Here goes:</p>
<p>Some people say that McGill has a “fragmented” student body. It is not meant as a compliment. As I said earlier, there is no typical McGill undergraduate student. Friends who say that the only way to make “close” friends is to get seriously drunk each weekend have chosen to socialize with that type of fellow student. How throwing up in adjacent toilets weekly is a bonding experience is beyond me. For hard partying students, their frame of reference is perhaps as clouded as their brains. It is up to you to choose friends with like interests or dispositions. I graduated 10 years ago and visit Montreal every summer and occasionally in the winter. I have never had to stay in a hotel! I have also visited friends in Toronto, Saskatoon and Nashville that I made at McGill, and they have visited me. I have also been in a few wedding parties. And yes, I drank at McGill and most of them drank too, but it was never the defining point of our lives.</p>
<p>For better or for worse, McGill has long ties to Quebec’s liquor industry. As a freshman, I lived on the mountain in Molson Hall, which overlooked Molson Stadium. The Management school is housed in the Samuel Bronfman building, named for the founder of Seagram’s. A few years ago, the Bronfman family donated the former Seagram’s corporate headquarters building in downtown Montreal to the university and it is now used for administrative offices. </p>
<p>Only freshman are guaranteed on campus housing. Later year students only live on campus if they are RA’s. Second year I lived in the McGill Ghetto in a 1960’s era highrise. Not the best of accomodation (mice). I then moved to the Plateau which was a working class francophone neighborhood with some artsy types moving in. It was incredibly affordable and my apartment was a lot nicer than in the Ghetto, even though it was a century old building. The Plateau has since been “discovered” and has been gentrified so it is no longer inexpensive. Ten year old rent figures are meaningless but people I knew in Boston at the time couldn’t believe how little I was paying. Check out the McGill Off Campus Housing website or listings in The Gazette on line for an idea of what current prices are. If you are coming from Boston or New York or Chicago or even Toronto, you will be impressed. If you are coming from say Cleveland or Indianapolis or Windsor, they may seem high. </p>
<p>From your postings, I am not sure if you are Canadian or not. Without French, you should be able to get a job on campus with no problem. Also, jobs downtown or in the West End may not require French, but you will likely be put to work in a position where you do not have contact with customers, those jobs usually require French, even in the English speaking neighborhoods. If you are not Canadian, working may be an issue. I worked summers for a small company owned by a friend’s dad. I was paid under the counter as some type of “consultant”. Yes, I was an undocumented worker! Check with McGill or Immigration Canada for current work rules. I believe Canada has eased limitations in the last decade. I didn’t work there during the school year but many students worked part time. Having to work Saturday morning will lessen the temptation to overindulge Friday night!</p>
<p>Thank you Tom and whatever77, this is a very helpful thread!</p>
<p>I have never had hard liquor in my life and I found a bunch of people like me in McGill. We gather during weekends in a nice cozy restaurant and talk about all sorts things. All my roommates are drunkards and we still get a long just fine. I don’t speak French and am working on campus 15h/week and still maintaining a 3.75 GPA. If you are in Engineering, you can even do paid summer research (:</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the insight on Mcgill.</p>
<p>I’m an international applicant from Latin America.</p>
<p>I have two questions, concerning free time and transferring in a faculty (not sure if ‘changing major’ is a correct term).</p>
<p>So, first of all, in my application I indicated the Management and the Life Sciences faculties. If, for example, I had the crazy idea I wanted to study engineering, would that be possible? It would be easy in the USA, but it’s not so clear in Canadian system.</p>
<p>Desaultes Management is my main interest, so I wondered about the free time you got when you were at Mcgill. In the application they had me choose between Commerce, Accounting, Finance, etc. Does that have any effect on my free time? Because I would really like to use my free time to study French like you did (absolutely great opportunity) and hopefully Chinese too.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for taking your time to answer us here in CC. Also thanks to the other contributors.</p>
<p>I found the Management faculty to be challenging but not overwhelming. I had a decent amount of free time MOST of the semester. There was no real difference among the management majors in terms of free time. I think the most demanding major at McGill is Information Technology in engineering. McGill built a new IT building a few years ago that is open 24/7 I believe. </p>
<p>I came to McGill with four years of US high school French which meant I had a decent reading knowledge of the language. I was able to fit in one French class as an elective each semester. I took intensive “immersion” French classes for two summers. I also discovered that allowed me to complete a double major in Management and French, although that was not my original intention. I ended up taking a couple of advanced French literature courses that didn’t really interest me but gave me a chance to be in a French speaking environment. </p>
<p>As for transferring between faculties, I am not an expert. I know that if you are accepted into say Management, you can’t just request to transfer your acceptance to another faculty. Each program has its own cutoffs and enrolment limits. Internal transfers during and after first year are possible though.</p>
<p>You really have to have good time management if you want to excel in Engineering. It’s real challenging, especially mechanical and electrical. And only these two offer Honours programme. The materials are sometimes overwhelming too. And Engineering require many more credits than other courses, you might have to study an extra year if you only take 4 courses per semester. So I advise you to think carefully (:</p>
<p>@tomofboston, I am a U0 students in the Desautels faculty of Management, a big reason for why i chose McGill is because it is very well known where I come from, the Middle East. My question to you is did you find the McGill name to be a huge asset when you were looking for jobs after graduation?
Thank you.</p>
<p>@MHussain</p>
<p>I can only speak for McGill’s reputation in the U.S. While grad and professional schools in the U.S. are fully aware of the quality of the various Canadian universities, very few Americans have ever heard of a Canadian school other than McGill. Few would guess that the University of Toronto is the number 2 school in Canada, for example. </p>
<p>I got my first job in New York through a chance encounter with the Montreal office of BNP Paribas. When I sought a career change two years ago, the McGill name on my resume was fully recognized by potential employers. American friends at McGill had no trouble with potential employers. Some were impressed that they had taken the initiative to study in another country. It gave them a “cosmopolitan” feel if that’s the right word. It showed they were willing to “live outside the box”, as opposed to attending a nearby school with half their senior class from high school. </p>
<p>The large number of McGill alumni overseas, including the Middle East, have spread the word about McGill. Also, McGill has a long tradition of having a large international student population, both American and overseas. For many schools, international students are a small and fairly recent group. I am sure the school is recognized as a fantastic place to get a North American education that isn’t necessarily American.</p>
<p>If there is one subject overdone with the whole college selection discussion its prestige.</p>
<p>With a few obvious and notable exceptions I don’t think it matters much which college you graduated from if you are looking for a job internationally. To an HR admin, an applicant from Warwick or Edinburgh in the UK, University of Melbourne or McGill starts out pretty equal. They don’t think, oh look, here’s a candidate from a college that just slipped 10 places in the latest ranking survey, drop them from the list.</p>
<p>Obviously grades matter, internships matter and yes, contacts matter too, just to get you past the initial screening process and into the game. </p>
<p>As I posted before, the McGill names travels well, but overwhelmingly success in landing that first post graduation job relies with the individual.</p>
<p>And yes, a little luck helps too.</p>
<p>Is it true that Concordia girls > McGill girls > everywhere else? :p</p>
<p>nice question. it’s hard not to notice a few dozens of beautiful well-dressed girls walking pass you everyday in school; and I’m the nerdy type who spend most my time doing homework in the library 
And btw, many of them are the serious type that has no taste in typical american guys who get drunk every friday night and stoned on saturday night. They actually prefer conversation about world peace or Obama, when you’re SOBER. So yey for nerds :D</p>