<p>Hi, I transferred to McGill from a major American University after my second year (a Pac-12) so I have an idea of both systems.</p>
<p>McGill is strictly grades and test scores, no ecs, no essays, nada. Do all you can to keep them up. As for acts, I took the SATs, but just do all you can to max out your score. </p>
<p>If I remember correctly, scholarships are given out to certain students, but I wouldn’t count on one unless your gpa is high (like 3.9-4.0 unweighted high). I think there might be some to apply for, and that’s where you have to write an essay. Otherwise, outside scholarships are a better bet.</p>
<p>McGill is right in the city, and it offers all the perks of being in the city. It’s not like a traditional american school. Sports really are not that big of a deal, and there isn’t quite that same feel. But at the same time, you get to experience something else, so it’s great for some. Just don’t go there hoping for that traditional experience. Drinking… is honestly the same at any other school. Here, you just don’t have to worry about getting caught by the cops, and you can drink in the bars and clubs instead of a smelly frat house. People make way too big a deal of it. Pretty much the rest of the world has the drinking age at 18, and they live, and in fact have less problems with binge drinking. </p>
<p>I think your experience also very much depends on your faculty. Sciences is tough. And I mean intense. More so than the American school I was at. The finals tend to be worth anywhere from 80-100% of your grade which can be daunting. I heard that a lot of people just fail certain classes as well, like the calc 1 and 2 classes. In the arts I think it’s rarer to fail, but I also heard it’s harder to get an A than it might be at an american school. You’re more likely to end up with a B or C in my opinion. Granted McGill knows this and on your transcript you’ll have your grade and next to it is a column with the class average grade, so grad schools know you weren’t slacking if you got a B in a class where everyone failed. Although I heard management students had it fairly easy? Just a rumor. And as for career oriented. hmmm maybe not much more. I think the major difference is the Quebec school system where all quebecois students come in having done cegep (basically they finish high school after grade 11, then go to a prep school for 2 years, doing prereq classes and then only take 3 years of university. their grades at cegep and their english/french preference/ability pretty much determines which schools in quebec they can get into). So these students are coming in and pretty much just doing their major classes. </p>
<p>Now for the arts faculty, you HAVE to have a major and a minor, or two majors to graduate, so that is easy. For sciences, the credits demanded to get a major are more and sequences come into play, so you have to plan a lot more carefully and check to see if a dual major is even plausible. This is the case everywhere though. You’ll find engineering and science majors eat away elective freedom in American schools too. At my American University engineering majors were allowed to modify the core curriculum for the whole school to take less arts classes in an effort to give them enough time to take all their requirements.</p>