Choosing a University: Campus vs Program

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I recently returned from a trip out east to tour my top two colleges, McGill and U of T. Unfortunately, I loved them both (I was hoping I'd hate one of them to make my decision easy). I've now made a pro and con list for each, and even though U of T "won", I've noticed that it really only comes down to two factors. Campus/atmosphere and program/research.</p>

<p>The McGill campus just clicked with me. I could definitely see myself there. It was the perfect balance of campus and city that I'm looking for. The U of T campus was also nice, but not on the same level as McGill.</p>

<p>I want to do linguistics and computer science, and at McGill, I'd have to double major, while U of T has a joint major (meaning there's quite a bit of interaction between the two departments). McGill has a limited number of comp sci courses that Arts (my faculty) students can take, and virtually no computational linguistics (what I want to get my Masters in) courses. But at U of T, I can take any comp sci course I want, and they have at least 5 or 6 computational linguistics courses. They also have a research group for computational linguistics, while McGill has none.</p>

<p>They both have awesome linguistics programs and overall reputations. I like both Montreal and Toronto, and all the other factors are either comparable or negligible. </p>

<p>I'd appreciate any advice on which factor, campus or program, is more important. I'd be inclined to say the program is, then I realize that it's possible that I change my mind and do something totally different, in which case the campus is more relevant. </p>

<p>TL;DR version: I love both School A and School B. School A has an amazing campus and a pretty good program for what I want to do. School B has a nice campus and a great program for what I want to do. Which do I choose?</p>

2

<p>Assuming you’re a high school senior (or whatever the Canadian equivalent is), you wait to be accepted at both schools before you stress over something like this.</p>

3

<p>Ask yourself if ‘pretty good’ is fine. In other words, would you be put at a significant (or maybe even insignificant) disadvantage by going to McGill?</p>

4

<p>For me, program is way more important than the campus. Of course you don’t want to hate it, but you’re paying for your education now so you want to make sure its a good one. I’d definitely check out the faculty members…where they went to school, how many academic awards they’ve won, how many books/articles they’ve published and so forth. You really want professors who actually know what they’re talking about. Another idea is to talk to your guidance counsellor. It’s their job to know the ins and outs of the schools and which one is a better fit. And of course there’s always the issue of what schools you get into.</p>

5

<p>Program was everything to me when it came to choosing a college. If they didn’t have an in-depth program with lots of opportunities then I didn’t care how nice the campus was or anything else. </p>

<p>Cost was also a major issue with me, so that’s always a tie-breaker as well.</p>