Best Liberal Arts School in Canada(?)---What do you think?

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>What do you think is the best liberal arts university in Canada?? I would like a strong philosophy department, as well political science and all those other fascinating subjects. A little bit of international prestige also would hurt in your selection....</p>

<p>thanks for the input (in advance)</p>

2

<p>Mount Allison, Simon Fraser or Saint Franics Xavier (St. FX)</p>

3

<p>canadian liberal arts colleges are really, really different than their american counterparts. The principle reason? Theyre public. If you want to compare them something in the states (public), try Winthrop in SC or St. Mary's in MN. </p>

<p>However, Mount Allison and STFX are probably the closest things to good american LACs. I personally favor STFX.</p>

4

<p>The University of Alberta has an amazing poli sci department. Especially if you're into globalization and governance, international affairs or just north american politics. They have an amazing phsychology department along with other amazing programs (I'm not sure about their philosophy department). I know I'm bragging but I'll be attendind it in a little while, so I'm allowed to. Check out <a href="http://www.ualberta.ca%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.ualberta.ca&lt;/a> for more info. It is recognized world wide.</p>

5

<p>If you're into international relations (specializing in Asian studies because they're on the coast) or education, check out University of Victoria. It's small, but the programs are supposed to be great (not to mention they have the best weather lol). My friend's older brother goes there and loves it. </p>

<p>Also St.FX is great, but I was in NS this summer and you'd seriously have to consider the facts - Antigonish is really small, and it is a 2 hour drive to Halifax. Maybe it's just me, but I love cities... there are usually a lot more opportunities to explore museums/cultural events (<-- hello to a real liberal arts education) as well as get internships or co-ops.</p>

6

<p>I'm fairly new at the whole college buisiness, so bear with me here if I come off as completely naive. I am. </p>

<p>I'm considering colleges in Canada, and I'm interested in liberal arts and social sciences (I was going to major in political science, but I figured you don't study political science in Canada to go work in the US government). I'd like to go to an Ivy League for graduate school and take law or political science (although for that I might apply to Georgetown) there, but what would happen if I went to a Canadian LAC? How do the Canadian LACs compare to our LACs? Do top US universities know of Canadian LACs like St.FXU? I like rural areas or suburban at most and try to avoid huge metropolitan cities and gigantic universities, and St. Francis Xavier seems really beautiful. Would I have an even more difficult time trying to get into Columbia or Yale if I went to St. Francis instead of Williams, which I'm not even sure I can get into. </p>

<p>Also, what other quality LACs are there in Canada? St. Francis is pretty, but it doesn't offer the types of programs I'm interested in like Classical Civilizations.</p>

7

<p>The difference between American and Canadian colleges is ALL colleges in Canada are run by the government, in otherwords- they are public. There ARE NO small, private liberal arts colleges- most schools are minimum 4000-5000 students and many are HUGE- think 20,000 students and up.</p>

8

<p>what about university of british columbia: vancouver. is that liberal arts? is it good/respected/good? :D</p>

9

<p>Rather than a liberal arts school, which is really an American specialty, I would look for select liberal arts programmes within Canadian Universities. Some examples that may interest you are Arts1 at UBC, the humanities programme at Carleton, the great books programme at Brock, History 121 at Queen's, and the Foundation Year at King's/Dalhousie. These are very distinguished programmes for select students and easily equivalent to US offerings. Graduates from Canadian universities go to US grad schools in some numbers. The current president of Princeton if it interests you graduated from Queen's, The chief glory of the Canadian system was the honours programme which at every school was a university within a university. That died at the University of Toronto in the early seventies. Some remnants of the old separate honours stream still survive at Queen's, University of Toronto and maybe Western and McGill. Trent is also a suprisingly strong school for liberal arts.</p>

10

<p>Here is a great website that shows the status of canadian unis relative to the American ones you know better. This is a list of Arts & Humanities, but you can select on other categories too.</p>

<p>QS</a> Top Universities: University rankings in the Arts & Humanities</p>

11

<p>haha this thread is over two years old :P</p>

12

<p>I'd really recommend that you stay in the U.S. if you want a liberal arts education. Canada doesn't really have any real liberal arts colleges, though they have a bunch of small universities like St. Francis Xavier university and Acadia University near Maine. If you don't go to these schools near New England, your college experience will basically be a number amidst 25,000-50,000 students in narrow disciplines such as engineering, life science, and commerce.</p>

<p>Trust me, the dollars you save will get you a better job if you stay in the U.S. and maintain a high GPA.</p>

13

<p>Wow, this information is completely wrong Vicente. There are many Canadian Universities that are small liberal arts schools. Some like St FX and Acadia in Nova Scotia have 3 or 4000 students, Kings College in Halifax has just over 1,000, the very highly ranked Mount Allison in New Brunswick has about 2,500 students, and Bishops in Quebec has about 1800… but there are lots more like Huron College in Ontario with about 1500 and Simon Fraser in BC with 3500. They cost a lot less than American colleges because they receive government money in order to make them more accessible, and they provide high quality education. I don’t know where those huge numbers came from, even big schools like Dalhousie or Queens that provide professional training in medicine, dentistry, law etc still only have 15,000 students, not 25,000 to 50,000!!</p>

14

<p>Why you people saying Simon Fraser is small? It’s got over 35,000 students.</p>

<p>Surely it’s not comparable to a liberal arts college…</p>

15

<p>I realize your post is seven years old but you seemed so knowledgable about hte Canadian higher ed system I thought it worth writing you. I have twin daughters, high school juniors, with dual status, American and Canadian, and am looking for best urban colleges (Toronto, Montreal, possibly Vancouver) for Fine Arts, Music, and Asian studies. Uof Toronto, U of BC U of Victoria, and U of Montreal and Concordia have all come up. Can you think of any others?</p>

16

<p>QUEST is a very interesting private non-profit school:</p>

<p>[Quest</a> University Canada - Welcome](<a href=“http://www.questu.ca/]Quest”>http://www.questu.ca/)</p>

<p>the students there don’t have to follow a timetable with different classes each day.
instead each class lasts for about a month (block-plan)!</p>

<p>Though tuition is $28,000 per year + $9,000 room and board</p>

<p>I guess at the end of the day, you just have to make a choice and make the best of it.
There are lots of decisions:</p>

<p>small school vs. big school
city OR country
cost
PROGRAM of study
co-op
job prospects
interest
university reputation
undergrad vs. grad school
education vs. research focus
campus environment
culture
diversity
flexibility
room to move / change programs / schools /
jobs
industry connections
professional linkages
political orientation
internal school faculty cohesiveness
administration of the school
red tape
social life
experience
people
etc…</p>

17

<p>summary
partial keywords list</p>

<p>great books
liberal arts
humanities</p>

<p>arts and sciences
big ideas discussion
history philosophy classics western thought civilization world religions music art history
greek latin primary sources social theory political science democracy
equality freedom race gender identity state language culture power evolution reformation</p>

<p>plato aristotle bible dante descartes hegel rousseau marx
renaissance modern post-modern enlightenment reason european
theology atheism agnosticism animism pantheism panentheism
existence science jesuit calvin t.s. eliot poetry? drama theology morality ethics</p>

<p>carleton
<a href=“http://www2.carleton.ca/chum/ccms/wp-content/ccms-files/2011-2012-BHUM-HONOURS-June-28.pdf[/url]”>http://www2.carleton.ca/chum/ccms/wp-content/ccms-files/2011-2012-BHUM-HONOURS-June-28.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>brock
[Liberal</a> Arts | Brock University](<a href=“http://www.brocku.ca/humanities/departments-and-centres/liberal-arts]Liberal”>http://www.brocku.ca/humanities/departments-and-centres/liberal-arts)
[2012-2013</a> Undergraduate Calendar - Liberal Arts](<a href=“Not Found”>Not Found)</p>

<p>concordia
[Welcome</a> - Liberal Arts College - Concordia University - Montreal, Quebec, Canada](<a href=“http://liberalartscollege.concordia.ca/]Welcome”>http://liberalartscollege.concordia.ca/)
[Current</a> Course Outlines - Liberal Arts College - Concordia University - Montreal, Quebec, Canada](<a href=“http://liberalartscollege.concordia.ca/programs/current-course-outlines/]Current”>http://liberalartscollege.concordia.ca/programs/current-course-outlines/)</p>

<p>st. francis x
[Humanities</a> Colloquium | St. Francis Xavier University](<a href=“http://www.stfx.ca/faculties/arts/humanities_colloquium/]Humanities”>Humanities Colloquium | StFX University)</p>

<p>ubc
[Welcome[/url</a>]</p>

<p>university king’s college (@ dalhousie)
[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.ukings.ns.ca/foundation-year-programme]Foundation”&gt;http://www.ukings.ns.ca/foundation-year-programme]Foundation</a> Year Programme | University of King’s College](<a href=“http://artsone.arts.ubc.ca/]Welcome[/url”>http://artsone.arts.ubc.ca/)</p>

<p>[Kings</a> Bookstore](<a href=“King's Co-op Bookstore”>http://www.kingsbookstore.ca/)
<a href=“http://www.ukings.ca/files/u16/reading[/url]”>www.ukings.ca/files/u16/reading</a> list - 2010-11.pdf
<a href=“https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:iy5Y88ve8xUJ:www.ukings.ns.ca/files/u22/reading%2520list,%25202011-2012edit_0.pdf+&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiOAm2pRdqTXOJM7cXdvzR3o6UzlyovrQYpSa9GkVK3xB4NF_kf-cCr8mRe64jUeb4NdSTKvaY__DcYMOjV2art-tuUaHpdT7U03xU0QKa_dBadJiW0xBt_Fp3UzHgiJYGGiENe&sig=AHIEtbTr2gsYocjJvrnaDJkW338s1sKrwQ&pli=1[/url]”>https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:iy5Y88ve8xUJ:www.ukings.ns.ca/files/u22/reading%2520list,%25202011-2012edit_0.pdf+&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiOAm2pRdqTXOJM7cXdvzR3o6UzlyovrQYpSa9GkVK3xB4NF_kf-cCr8mRe64jUeb4NdSTKvaY__DcYMOjV2art-tuUaHpdT7U03xU0QKa_dBadJiW0xBt_Fp3UzHgiJYGGiENe&sig=AHIEtbTr2gsYocjJvrnaDJkW338s1sKrwQ&pli=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Alberta?
Quebec?
Saksatchewan?
Manitoba?</p>

18

<p>I am in Final year IB at an International school in SE Asia.I am looking for a good LAC in Canada where the fees are reasonable ( read less than what prevails in US) Is there possibility of aid for International students in Canada.
Any advise on this is highly appreciated.</p>