Just from my own personal perspective, I’ve never understood the appeal of tiny LACs for the vast majority of people. (I can definitely see some niche reasons why they’d be appealing)
My high school had about 6200 students and colleges smaller than that are just mindboggling to me. It just doesn’t seem (to me, rightly or wrongly- I’m done with undergrad and won’t have kids going for at least two decades so it’s not something I really have to look into now 
) that these small schools have the resources and class selection that large unis have.
@gwnorth The location of McGill in francophone Montréal is a turn off to many Canadians but a turn on to many Americans. McGill enrolment is 30% out of province Canadian though.
@romanigypsyeyes I agree that at the really small schools you could run into issues with resources and selection. The schools I mentioned in Nova Scotia are smaller than I think is ideal though King’s is affiliated with the much larger Dalhousie University next door which may make for the best of both worlds. I’d just like a happy medium where my son won’t be invisible and will have a chance to have contact with his professors, opportunities for in class discussion, and have a reasonable amount of choice. For comparison the enrolment at the big 3 here in Canada:
UBC - 61,113
McGill - 40,493
Toronto - 84,556
Now that includes graduate studies and for U of T that is spread across 3 campuses. Still that is huge.
For comparison, my son’s high school has 1300 students and that’s pretty typical for high schools in our city.
“I’d just like a happy medium where my son won’t be invisible and will have a chance to have contact with his professors, opportunities for in class discussion”
Professors all have office hours, correct?
From what I understand, at the big Canadian universities there are two hours of lecture, then a one hour tutorial each week. Tutorials are small and discussion-based. My D is very attracted to the first-year seminars at U of T. I know that the grass is always greener…but the Canadian university system doesn’t look so bad from this American’s perspective.
McGill alumni have won 10 Nobel Prizes (4 in the last 6 years) and 141 Rhodes Scholars. Not too shabby!
@lookingforward few would argue that “nameless faceless revenue generating bums” is a model anyone should aspire to emulate. 
. I really don’t think the US needs to take a page from Canada’s playbook in that regard.
Many universities in the US also have first and second year classes in the hundreds of students.
@gwnorth, Americans would like to have private LACs at Canadian prices too.
But the reality is that nobody (unless you’re below-average in income/wealth and get in to one of the elite private LACs rich enough to give out humongous amounts of financial aid) does.
And most people aren’t jealous of the financial conditions those families are in.
And yes, giant public unis also exist in the US. Classes in the hundreds exist at both big public and mid-sized private research U’s in the US.
I wouldn’t say McGill is on par with Harvard, but somewhere between UMich and UDub (and around UCLA/UW-Madison/UT-Austin)? Definitely (minus the big time sports and with the addition of French and Quebecois political leanings).
Another nice thing about the Canadian model is that its universities are largely affordable to all on a national basis - no instate/OOS issues (make that provinces) to deal with. Sure a Quebec student may pay a little less to attend McGill than an Ontario student but the difference is minimal.
@my2caligirls, that is definitely true. It would be great if more American states had compacts like the one WI and MN have (where each offers in-state rates to residents in the other state) and more flagships participated in them, but right now, in-state costs could vary significantly depending on where you live (though various publics offer OOS rates or scholarships to be competitive with in-state rates at other states).
Though you’re a bit lucky, being in CA, where your options among publics is about as great as the Canadians.
@PurpleTitan agree that scholarships can open many doors across state lines for those that have the stats. True that CA has lots of publics but competition is insane getting into the small handful of really good ones. Daughter is just a junior but OOS and Canada on her list for top tier bus schools.
Quebec is the only province to have official in province/out of province tuition fees. However Nova Scotia and I believe Ontario offer automatic grants to all residents who attend an in province university.
Berkeley is ranked 4th, UCLA is ranked 10th in global rankings according to US News and World report due to the strength of their elite research prowess, while Princeton is ranked 8th along with Yale at 14th.
Most global rankings show similar results. Depends on how you “measure” excellence… and you’ll get different results.
The right question to ask when comparing Candadian and American schools is why Canada doesn’t have private schools?
@TomSrOfBoston actually tuition fees in Ontario are the same for all Canadian residents regardless of province. We don’t get a break on our rates unless you qualify for financial aid. The provincial government has recently revamped the tuition support program making it more restrictive. You are correct however that Nova Scotia does give an automatic grant to their residents making the tuition a bit cheaper for them. Their tuition on average is a bit higher than that of Ontario’s. The cheapest tuition by far though for both Canadians and international students is in Newfoundland. There the rates for both are highly subsidized by the province. For international students it is $8800 CAD per year.
You’ve convinced me to give McGill a second look, though I still think DS15 would be better served at a smaller school. He’s not the most outgoing of individuals and I think he would feel more comfortable at a more intimate school. He is very intellectual and the college model of Oxford and Cambridge and the intimacy of Harvard has always appealed. The problem is the big fish little pond vs little fish big pond debate. I think he would be better served by the former but we will see. We will tour a variety of schools and ultimately it will be his choice. I might encourage him to apply to MIT just for the fun of it. I have no idea if his stats are competitive or not since he has not written SATs or ACTs. He is in a regional AP program though and will most likely write 4 AP exams between junior and senior years.
@gwnorth, UToronto has a collegiate system, no?
I had heard that in some of the colleges (in some majors), you would be able to find even small intro classes.
@my2caligirls I think the cost of post-secondary education in Canada is still too high. If you live away from home you are easily looking at spending $100,000 for a 4 year university degree. I know that doesn’t seem like much compared to prices in the US ($60,000 a year boggles my mind) but a college or university degree has pretty much become a necessity for employment. The chances for anything more than a minimum wage job with just a high school diploma is virtually negligible. I personally think that there should be free tuition for everyone for the first degree/diploma.
@PurpleTitan the downtown campus of UofT does have a collegiate system though I’m not 100% sure how it works. I’d like DS15 to experience going away to school and UofT is a commuter school for us. We are fairly centrally located to Toronto so there are a number of top universities within commuting distance. I suppose that doesn’t prohibit him from living on campus at least for first year but I’m still not sold on UofT. If he stays in province I see Western, Queens, McMaster, and potentially Waterloo as better fits depending on what he decides to study. I admit I am biased against the bigger universities but ultimately it will be his choice. We will be checking them all out. I suppose the first consideration is what he wants to study which is still up in the air.
@gwnorth, not really true.
There is a discussion on skilled trades right in this forum.