<p>Hey guys, just wondering how hard it is to get into McGill. I'm an international student(the US). I got a 30 on my ACT, and my GPA in 3.74UW/4.3W (dont know if weighted vs unweighted matters at McGill). Do I have a shot? I would probably apply to arts and sciences and science. Also, I am considering retaking my ACT in October, what score should I am for for a better shot at McGill?</p>
<p>Umm, getting into McGill as a US student is actually easier because McGill is out for your international tuition. Your GPA is fine, if you're applying to arts and science, take one or two SAT II in that area and as long as your scores are above 600-650, you're safe. Any extracurricular activities do not help you at all. McGill isn't a hard school to get into...</p>
<p>u dont need SAT2s for Arts and science if you take ACT</p>
<p>You have a very good chance</p>
<p>Is McGill Engineering demanding on American students who are applying. I have a son who has a 3.6 unweighted and a 31 ACT score. What are his chances. How well does a McGill degree convert ot American Graduate School programs n Engineering?</p>
<p>Engineering is a difficult major for any school. My roommate is in engineering at McGill and it seems to me that she doesn't have a heavy workload. I'm a science major...so this is only from what I've heard. The classes are way smaller than other general majors. Engineering students are required to take 18 credits per semester, which is more than the regular expected workload for other faculties such as management or arts.</p>
<p>Your son has a good chance of getting in, most american applicants do. McGill is not a hard school to get into compared to US schools.</p>
<p>Personally I'm not a big fan of McGill and I definitely regret coming here. The bureaucratic system at McGill is hella frustrating, not to mention that students basically are not recognized as individuals. To survive at McGill, communication is the key. You just have to learn how to get out there and mooch up to TAs and professors to achieve academic success. </p>
<p>If your son is interested in Engineering, look into HMC in sounthern CA. It has a world class engineering program with 200-people per graduating class, so students receive way more personal attention. HMC was ranked number 1 for undergraduate engineering. </p>
<p>Also I would recommend applying to places like Michigan, Georgia Tech, Case Western as matches. HMC seems like a high reach. </p>
<p>As some other McGill student said in another thread, McGill is for beer, girls and some halfassed diploma in between...</p>
<p>Sounds like you should have chosen McGill for med school, 13tranger, not undergrad. At least you'll have saved enough $ on tuition to afford your education. Your glass is half full, not half empty.</p>
<p>Find my post in another thread for reasons why I chose McGill for undergrad. I'm one of those tragic international students who gets too few options to even have a smooth sailing future.</p>
<p>l3tranger said it perfectly. I regret coming to McGill as well. In fairness, most Canadians recognize that's its a school on the decline. It's Americans without access to complete information who come here, thinking "it's cheap, easy to get into, and prestigous, how can I loose?." When anything seems too good to be true, it usually is. </p>
<p>Whatever. One thing I've learned how to do since being at McGill is how to survive in a giant, beaurcratic environment. And honeslty, anybody hoping to work for a large company should learn such a skill. I've never, ever talked to a professor, and even most TA's are unreachable. The workload is too light to adequately prepare you for exams. So I've learned how to look out for number one.</p>
<p>So, if I understand correctly, the major complaint and why you feel the school is on the decline is because teachers and TAs aren't reachable? Well first off, I would have to ask what year / major are you in, because thats a major complaint at MOST schools with over 10k undergrads before junior or even senior year (hell I've had friends in their senior year who still have the occasional 60 - 100 person class), and your complaint about teachers not being available certainly doesn't mean the school is on the decline. It just means that YOU have to learn how to research and actually educate yourself sometimes, teachers are there to provide the information, but YOU must learn it. You can get the same thing out of a book that a teacher can give, so in this sense you shouldn't claim that this detracts from the overall academic prestige of the school. Maybe in YOUR eyes its a negative, in many peoples eyes its a positive, I mean one of the traits thats almost a necessity to me is a place where I'm going to have to learn everything for MYSELF, no hand holding, and limited amount of help. When you get out there in the real world people aren't going to be going out of their way to help you.</p>
<p>Through her history of posts, it may be fair to take anything l'etranger says with a grain of salt. Honey, you're too smart for your own good. If l'etranger's room-mate has a "light" engineering load, it's because of personal reasons. I can speak from personal experience, that as an American, as well as engineering student, the workload is no where near light. </p>
<p>I thought I was a fairly attentive and decent student back in high school. I've attended every lecture, worked on all the webwork/CAPA, and gone to the help desk for help when I had problems, but the fact of the matter is: this is the first time I've ever had to work this hard before (i.e. McGill isn't easy). </p>
<p>A few things to address: eng. students don't HAVE to take 18 credits/semester; I'm only taking 13/14. Also, management and engineering are two COMPLETELY different faculties, and to be fair, management is kind of a joke. So wutang, I normally agree with you, but if your workload is too light, perhaps it's time you crack out a book, and trying learning outside of the lecture. Or maybe instead of pining over the fact that god blessed you with some serious amount of intelligence, you just appreciate the fact that you're very smart (and make sure your marks reflect that). </p>
<p>This post once had a point, but I quickly forgot it as I went through the process of typing this out. </p>
<p>PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, to the people considering mcgill, realize that this isn't your average American institution. The fact that an 85% denotes an A should say enough for itself. If you have any qualms over big schools, look at everything relatively; if you're applying to McGill, you should also be able to see yourself in other big environments like U of I, UW Madison, U Michigan, etc. Yes, the school isn't small, but you can make it feel however big you like. If you want alot of attention, stay in the states, and find a smaller, private school. If you want an environment that'll force you to grow up, consider McGill. </p>
<p>I'm sorry that both Wutang and L'etranger regret coming here, that honestly makes me feel sad, but in all reality, you'll always have people who love their school, and hate their school.</p>
<p>Drmambo you might have just sold me on McGill, its becoming a close second choice.</p>
<p>
[quote]
but if your workload is too light, perhaps it's time you crack out a book, and trying learning outside of the lecture.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Or pick harder courses, or change majors. Unlike in high school, university offers you freedom of choice. Smart people challenge themselves instead of wasting their time complaining and regretting their school choices...</p>
<p>I've been in university for 1 month, taking 200 and 300 level courses, 18 credits total first semester, majoring in neuroscience and mathematical biology. So given this background, I am challenging myself to the best of my abilities. I have a 20-hour per week job as a research technician analyzing spss and writing reports. In my opinion, I've taken on almost everything McGill has to offer to first years. </p>
<p>Just to give examples of why I think McGill isn't exactly world class for undergrad: BIOL 309 , first lecture, the prof asked about that "middle point" on a logistics curve, apparently someone claimed to never heard of an inflection point. Later on, when i went to see him during office hours, he showed me a very odd mbquotient rule that a student wrote when seeking for help. One hour later in lecture, more than half of the class can't do taylor series. Those are all first year calculus skills that all first years should have mastered.</p>
<p>Just last night, I told my friend at Yale about my classes. She's a humanities major, which is more popular at Yale than science. And her biggest class contains no more than 50 people, while I have to sit in Leacock auditorium with 500-600 other people for half of mine.</p>
<p>"It just means that YOU have to learn how to research and actually educate yourself sometimes, teachers are there to provide the information, but YOU must learn it. You can get the same thing out of a book that a teacher can give, so in this sense you shouldn't claim that this detracts from the overall academic prestige of the school." - hyakku</p>
<p>If this is true, then why don't we all just go to public libraries, sit there and read the books. Why are we paying tuition to teachers who are just teaching you everything from the book anyway?</p>
<p>In my humble opinion, a good school is a school that teaches students HOW to solve problem instead of handing students mechanical steps to solve problems in the same genre. McGill, at least sciences, teaches you what to do, what to expect, but not how to react or how to solve an emergency at hand.</p>
<p>Personal choice of workload isn't really an issue, but think about it this way. Something is wrong with this school when there are genius people who also got into Harvard or MIT and others who have failed MATH 133 multiple times ( wait, and some posing for playboy...). The distribution is far from equal. </p>
<p>People have preferences to their best environments, so i'm just throwing in my two cents.</p>
<p>Sounds like you weren't expecting large classes. Now, given that bio is the most popular science major (correlates with lesser degree of difficulty to complete), I'm not sure why you'd expect an entire class of 600 bio kids to remember calculus 2 (though Taylor series are part of calculus 3 at McGill, don't ask me why). </p>
<p>And course numbers are meaningless in terms of degree of difficulty: some 300 or 400 level courses are easier than 200 level ones (e.g. "honours" ad. cal is MATH 248, "regular" ad cal is MATH 314). You can do 600 or 700 level courses with approval of the instructor (I know a few people who took such classes in their second undergrad year, including one who completed both her undergrad and master's together in 3 years). If you know the prerequisite material (credits be damned, take more higher level classes to compensate for the intro stuff you skip), you can register for pretty much any class you want if you bother to get the right people to sign the appropriate forms. Harder classes tend to be smaller classes too...</p>
<p>Kids who were enrolled in BIOL 200 would probably have completed first year science program, which includes calculus, somewhere, either at McGill or another school. Besides, that taylor series incident happened in a 300 level course, with some advanced calculus background as a prerequisite. Another fact that was shocking was that out of a class of 77 upperclassmen, over half did not know how to solve a taylor series. That is sad. This sort of thing should not happen at a school that people rate as "world class". Either the school needs some improvements, or its students need to step up to the game.</p>
<p>Course number does not matter in some cases. But, of course, a 100-level physics course is no where near as challenging as a 400-level physics course. </p>
<p>Btw, I am taking a 500 level seminar course Systems in Biology in winter.</p>
<p>13tranger: See the Parents Forum for the discussion addressed to IVY LEAGUE ALUMNI AND CURRENT IVY PARENTS RE CLASS SIZE AND TAs in the Ivy League. Seems there are core classes at Harvard with 1000 students. Seems this is not unheard of at the Ivies or other leading universities. The most popular professors have huge classes. Go figure.
I'm sure it's not the case, but your complaining that the average McGill student isn't as intelligent as you, while it may be true, comes off as self-aggrandizing. I know you don't mean to convey that attitude. The best med school candidate likely will not be the one who raced through the most 500-level courses by year two but rather the one who persevered through absurdities and mastered self-teaching, who learned to react to stressful situations with calm, and, of course, who honed their people skills along the way. Don't sweat the small stuff, think big picture. And there's a beautiful city out there, get outside and enjoy yourself!</p>
<p>In fariness, l3tranger seems smarter than most people at any school. In a weird way, that shows that McGill IS decent at attracting overqualified students.
l3tranger isn;t bsing..the courses she's taking are seriously challenging. I'm sorry, I'm pretty smart, and some of the math courses l3tranger is taking are hard for most Harvard students. l3tranger got into Caltech! Come on, everything is relative.
I'm pretty smart, but I'm kind of lazy. I do think my cognitive ability is beyond that of most students here, and I don't mean that in a bragging sense-l3tranger, for example, is much brighter than me. l3tranger has more right to complain. I'm an alcoholic who does well when sober, relapses, and then fails at life. So my frustration is similar to a lot of McGill students-a whole lot of potential squandered.</p>
<p>BTW, I was talking to a kid from Hamilton, a very respectable liberal arts school, and he said McGill was wayyyy more challenging (his gf goes to McGill).</p>
<p>Whoa, now I'm a pompous brag? I don't feel like sharing my personal life to justify my arguments, so I guess people can assume my immaturity. If I told my college admissions story, I bet half of my audience would really shed tears for me and the other half wouldn't believe me at all.</p>
<p>McGill is attractive to students because of its cheap tuition, the prestige, the legal drinking age and all that. The difference between any Ivy League and McGill is that Ivy Leagues are way harder to get into. McGill's undergraduate application is just another electronic form that can be completed in 20 minutes. No personal essay required, no extracurricular activities considered. The school doesn't appreciate students' individuality even in their applications. Admission procedure seems like an formula:
if (totalAcademicScore > x)
student = accepted;</p>
<p>I'm sure there are people who love the city vibe and don't mind big classes, thus love McGill to death. But for everyone else who'd like another opinion from a person who doesn't embrace the school as much, here are my two cents.</p>
<p>McGill seems like a big state school. These schools don't have time to look at more than grades and scores. There are those who thrive in these schools, and others who drown. Many grads of big state schools have gone on to do very well in life- an Ivy or exclusive LAC degree by no means guarantees success in life. Sounds like McGill has warts. Show me a school that doesn't. As a Penn undergrad, bio major, classes were big and impersonal all the way thru. Research project obtained via initiative- no handing anything to anyone.</p>