<p>Does anyone know anything about these colleges? Looking for a bilingual college, English/French.
Decent tuition price, good campus life, diverse and variety of majors.</p>
<p>Thanks,
Jane</p>
<p>In Canada, college generally refers to what Americans call a community college. Colleges generally do not grant degrees.</p>
<p>The only bilingual universities in Canada are University of Ottawa and Laurentian University. </p>
<p>The websites for each school should provide all the information you need. International tuition at most Canadian universities has risen significantly in the past decade. </p>
<p>Thanks tomofboston, what are these universities like? It’s hard to get an idea based on just their website. Do you know anything about Concordia University and
Queen’s university?</p>
<p>University of Alberta has Campus St Jean also.
Concordia is very good, especially engineering and business. But it’s not bilingual, it’s English-speaking.</p>
<p>I have heard that Queen’s is the most like an American style university of the schools on your list. Ie. very self contained and in a “College town”, and a lot of people live on residence. Concordia is in downtown montreal so, while the university is English, the city it is in is French (albeit pretty bilingual) so if you want to learn french Concordia isn’t a bad idea (or the other English language university in the the city, McGill). Ottawa has a significant French population as well. Bishop’s is an english university in Quebec (French speaking province, so you are never that far from the French language, even if you go to an English speaking school) and it has a reputation of being like a liberal arts college- small, tight knit and undergraduate focussed. Out of curiosity, why isn’t McGill on your list?</p>
My son is actually a freshman in engineering at Queen’s, and he has had a great experience so far. Each “faculty” (or school) at Queen’s has a somewhat different culture, and the engineering students are known for having a lot of traditions and a very strong sense of community. Engineering frosh week, in particular, is pretty memorable, and includes dying their hair crazy colors, learning Engineering songs, and a bunch of silly competitions. That said, it’s academically pretty rigorous. My son went to a very competitive high school (among the highest SAT average in the US) and was used to demanding academics, but he was surprised by the workload. The rigor of each faculty varies; the business school (Commerce) is among the most selective in Canada is is very demanding as well. Not sure about Arts & Science, which is the biggest faculty. My son made an effort to become involved in a lot of extracurriculars early on, which helped him connect with students with common interests - it’s still a reasonably big school with 16,000 undergrads. On the whole, Queen’s is big on traditions, singing their fight song, connections to the school’s Scottish roots - so if you don’t get into that kind of thing, it might not be a good fit.
As a parent, I love Kingston. It definitely has a bit more of a British vibe that US cities, interesting architecture, great views of Lake Ontario, and a pretty campus with lots of limestone buildings. Lots of great restaurants in town, which is very walkable. I’ve really enjoyed all of our visits there. (Note: as you enter Kingston from the highway, it’s not very attractive, but the more historic downtown area is very nice!)
I’ve also visited Bishop’s University, because my younger son is interested in that school. It has a VERY small feel. Although my younger son loved our visit, I can imagine a lot of students visiting and deciding they just don’t want to be in such a small school. At 2,000 students, it’s on par with a lot of US liberal arts colleges, but somehow the campus just feels super small. That said, everyone was really friendly, they have small classes, a nice sense of community, etc. So we are going back this spring. I should note it’s a relative bargain compared to a lot of US colleges, so that’s something to consider.
Quebec schools in general require you to choose a major on the application…
i heard that it’s a little harder to start in Queen’s, especially if u r an Asian, cuz many students there r Caucasian kids from same private schools, and they usually already have their own groups. But it has an awesome business program.