<p>nbachris, the biggest difference between U of T, Queens, and McGill is probably their respective locations. U of T and McGill both are urban campuses and Queens is in a smaller city, about equi-distant to Toronto and Montreal. Going to Queens if you're from the U.S. will present the travel issues that Ontario and Quebec residents won't have. You'd have to go to the airports in either Toronto or Montreal to get flights to and from home. Each city is approximately a three hour drive from Kingston where Queens is located. </p>
<p>Yes, U of T is a large uni but it really doesn't have the feel of one. It's run on the college system which means that every student is a member of one of the ten colleges and this dictates housing, scholarships, dining halls, etc. Classes however can be taken university wide. It's a system that works to create a much closer feeling of community than one would think at such a large school. Also the campus in Toronto , although in the middle of the city, is fairly well self-contained and is actually smaller in area than that of York University which is in the northern part of the city, which is completely self contained. Toronto will offer pretty much everything a large American city would, including professional sports in NHL, NBA, and MLB, if that's important to you. </p>
<p>McGill is also in a city environment but the city of Montreal is quite different than Toronto. It is, as I'm sure you know, a French city, although McGill is an English institution. Montreal is a beautiful and cosmopolitan city but the province, as a whole, has fallen on hard economic times in recent years, and this has been reflected in reduced funding to the Quebec universities. Some people feel uncomfortable living in the city if they do not speak French, but I doubt that any students would find this a problem. </p>
<p>Queens is in Kingston, a small city on the shores of Lake Ontario. It's a more traditional college town with a beautiful campus and more of a reputation for having a party-type student population from affluent families. Obviously, reputations are not always entirely accurate but you will find less diversity at Queens, probably, than you will at either U of T or McGill. </p>
<p>If weather is a concern for you, Montreal has the longest and most snow-filled winters of the three, with Kingston second, and Toronto last. </p>
<p>If you're interested in the arts, then U of T is definitely the top choice of those three. They are well-known for their programs in drama and music. There are hundreds of opportunities for performance both in class and extra-curricularly. They have many wonderful theatres available for their drama students and the performances I've seen have been excellent. The same goes for their music students. Toronto itself will provide you with many more cultural and artistic events than either Kingston or Montreal. There is a large theatre community there and every big Broadway-type tour visits there. This doesn't happen in Kingston, due to size, and not in Montreal due to language.
This was a big concern for my D3 who has applied this year so I'm very familiar with that aspect of the comparison. :)</p>
<p>Academically, you'll get a good education at any of the three. The fact that U of T has a huge endowment (unheard of at Canadian universities) makes it a good choice in that they have the $$ to have several new expansion projects on the go, so their facilities are more extensive and up to date than McGill's, and they also offer more scholarships per capita than either of the others. The dorms we visited at each were clearly much nicer at U of T and Queens than at McGill. McGill seemed to have a lot of buildings in great need of repair and/or renovation.</p>