<p>I am considering applying to McGill, but I have only spent limited time in Canada. I was wondering if any of you could give me some of the major cultural differences between the US and Canada. Thanks :)</p>
<p>Being a native Canadian from Vancouver, I experienced much cultural difference when I was advanced to Washington State University.</p>
<p>I guess the main difference is that in Canada, we tend to support a cultural “mosaic”, in which public money is used to promote immigrant groups cultural societies, to carry on their folklore, as opposed to them being expected to blend in to the country. In contrast, in United States, in a sense, especially in California or other urban cities, the government policies are more focusing on creating lower-class jobs for the immigrants to support upper-majorities in a sense. </p>
<p>Additionally, individualism is more often practiced and nuturely equipped for the United States folks. What I truly experienced in my university life in Washington, was that people do not care about morals any more–seems like only legal complications matters.</p>
<p>We all heard what “ex-presidential candidate of United States” excused about his wrongdoings: “I did wrong. But I didn’t do anything illegal!” It is just sad that this country becomes a hard separations and isolates themselves from other.</p>
<p>Canadian in the states here. American arrogance is very real. It’s something so inherent that sometimes they don’t even realize they’ve said something ignorant or completely untrue about USA and its capabilities. I will the lump other poster’s “individualism” here, although I wouldn’t go as far as saying that people don’t care about morals. I suppose that’s a geographic thing.</p>
<p>Health care is another noticeable difference. I went to the clinic for a cough and they prescribed: antihistamines, Ibuprofen, cough medicine and nasal spray (only got the cough medicine and it helped). They don’t force you to buy the stuff but overkill imo but they make money off their pharmacies so…</p>
<p>Think about what hockey is to Canada, and you have half of what football is to USA. baseball, lacrosse, basketball all much more prominent in USA as well. Curling is seen as the possibly the most idiotic thing Canada has come up with ever.</p>
<p>Besides that, I didn’t really feel any significant/mind-blowing differences between Canada and USA culture.</p>
<p>Lived in both countries, and the only thing I really noticed was that Canadians, barring people in Toronto, are generally more pleasant.</p>
<p>As an American who married a Canadian, lives in the US but has a vacation house in Canada, and is on the boards of a couple of Canadian companies, with a daughter starting university in Canada (and one in university in the US), I have a useful vantage point.</p>
<p>There is an awful lot of regional variation. There are big differences between Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, and the Maritimes. Vancouver is in some ways more similar to Seattle than it is to the Maritimes. Ditto Calgary and Denver (oil patch cities in the Rockies). Parts of Quebec are more similar to Maine than they are to Manitoba. So, the between region variation may be bigger than the between country variation.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, there are significant differences between the countries. Canada is generally a kinder and gentler place. In the US, the founding philosophical principal, as enunciated in the Constitution, is individual liberty. In Canada, the Constitution enshrines group rights more than individual ones, so you get the institutionalized multi-culturalism that novastic mentions. The US West was tamed by individuals with guns. The Canadian West was first tamed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and individuals followed. So, in one case, civilization followed individuals with guns. In the other case, civilization preceded the individuals. It shows in how rule-abiding people are, etc. It shows in the attitudes toward universal health care – Canada has it and the US is being dragged kicking and screaming into it. For most people, I’d say the quality of life would be better in Canada than the US.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Canadians who want to be the best in the world at something typically move to the US. That is true (with very limited exceptions) in academia generally, science, medicine, biotech, hi-tech, the arts, finance, management consulting, … . Other than hockey and perhaps oil-industry related stuff, I can’t think of an area in which the most ambitious Canadians don’t move to the US. And, the rewards for success are typically much greater in the US.</p>
<p>McGill is a major part of Montreal, which is a great city. Most of the folks I know who went to McGill like (but don’t love) McGill (some more and some less) but they all uniformly love/loved living in Montreal.</p>
<p>My D goes to University in the States and the other posters have pretty much covered the big difference but if you are coming to Canada I would suggest you take a Canadian History course. One of the big things my D has run into is the American total lack of knowledge about Canada or anyplace else in the world. An example of this was when ad to take an American History course and they were studying the first and second world wars. She lost it when they started talking about the dates of the wars and she litteraly stood up in class and raised the issue that Canada had been fighting in those wars for 2 years prior to American involvement. There was some very heavy discussion about this and the Prof proved that she was right but the students did not it because it because they were never taught it and it is not in the textbooks. She has found that in general the American students know very little about the world outside their borders, socially, politically or economically. She has made some fantastic American friends but has had to eduate them a bit as well. We (Canadians) will am sure welcome you whole heartedly to Canada but to help yourself I would strongly suggest you do a bit of research into what we are and how we work. Also do not forget that Montreal is fairly different from the rest of Canada has it has very French culture which is very rich and enjoyable. If you do not speak French dont worry about it , you will get along fine but the culture is somewhat different than say Toronto or Vancouver. Good Luck and I wish you the best</p>
<p>I agree with many of the prior posts but I will try to add to it a bit. We are a dual-citizen, sometimes dual-residing family, and spouse and I have both gone to school and taught at universities in both countries. </p>
<p>I agree that many Canadians of the most career-ambitious kind move to the US at some point in their careers. In some cases to get started, in others to go to the best grad school in some fields. But likewise, so many move back for a whole host of reasons. In academia, some of the superstars in my field are at Canadian schools- outstripping anyone at HYPs for example. Salaries are on par, teaching loads the same, world level research productivity, and in the social sciences, grants in in Canada are big and easy to get, and simply not available in the same way in the US (and that will be even moreso when the republicans kill NSF for social sciences).</p>
<p>Likewise it is both true and not always true to say you are better rewarded being south of the border as it depends so much on your occupation and phase of your career. Very very true if you are in senior management, finance, or in the medical field. Perhaps not so true if you are pursuing a career as a teacher or engineer, for example. But also it’s a bit apples and oranges when it comes to ‘rewards’ too- as salary and marginal tax rate tells only part of the story. What doesn’t show up on paper is that compared to Americans, Canadians aren’t worrying about saving for education, paying healthcare premiums, paying super-high property taxes to get a half decent public education for their kids, worrying about care expenses in their senior years, or worrying about losing their jobs without cause, or whether their kids have healthcare when they take a leave from school, or whether their aging parents will get into a nursing home. Not only is tuition relative cheap but we saved for it without noticing (especially as the govt gave us a 20% return on our savings plan). My aunt immigrated and now has her gerontologist does home visits! In contrast, I have an aging MIL who won’t quit work because she is fearful of losing her health insurance. Its crazy!</p>
<p>I suppose the earlier comments about ‘kinder and gentler’ fits here: if you are in a very high income earning occupation or with a lot of power the US to easily afford high end medical insurance/treatment, private schools or a gated community life, the US looks like a great place; but if you aren’t in that bracket, the ‘kinder and gentler’ aspect of Canada may make it a better choice.</p>
<p>I would like to also point out that the anti-american sentiment is alive and well. Not with your friends of course or if someone knows you are American (they will usually be polite)-- but in a more general sense. Still it can be hurtful. I still remember someone was upset that our dog ran out of the house and wasn’t on a leash, they were upset with us because they were afraid of dogs, but before I could apologize she saw our American plated car in the driveway and said, “Americans! It figures!”. If you filled in any other nationality there, it would have been called racism but somehow this was okay. Grr. It’s also almost a national sport to make fun of Americans in Canada, or for Canadians to have this sort of love-hate with Americans (Americans are admired and Canadians are constantly comparing and differentiating themselves from Americans, but also can’t stand what seems to them like American arrogance and ignorance). They get that impression because Americans seem to know relatively little outside their country (or specifically about Canada) than Canadians feel they know, Americans seem to often assume everything is superior in the US (and thinking people around you agree so you say it out loud!), and interpersonally coming across as over confident. I do think on average Americans might be more extrovert, or more self-promotional where Canadians might be somewhat more introvert and self-efficacy (maybe I don’t know for sure). But also I think too often Americans, especially young people, come to Canada thinking they’ll be big people on campus, maybe in some kind of superior position academically and are shocked to discover they actually are struggling because their college classmates had a more challenging education prior or have more knowledge about the world around them. I see that in undergrads and graduate students. </p>
<p>Related to the above, this is the land of lower levels of grade inflation and related adornments such as ‘extra marks’. One tends to take heavier workloads each semester and with far fewer “fun” courses available (courses that Canadian unis would consider entirely extra-curricular and not part of an academic schedule worthy of a transcript grade). There is usually more reading and a lot more writing. And as you may have heard, bigger schools with much less ‘hand holding’. Universities in Canada work more as places you go for an academic education and not as oriented as a “life changing experience” that Americans look for. Don’t get me wrong- there are just as many ECs, clubs and such on campus in either country and you can have a fabulous full college experience in Canada, but Canadians are more like Europeans: they use a more pragmatist model. You go to the university (most often not too far from home), primarily to get a degree in your major, and its less about searching for the right fit and the ultimate ‘total college experience’ which gets closer to the summer camp model. Likewise, Canadian universities, just like many research intensive American publics, are not trying to market themselves to competing consumers (nor have the funds for) all these peripheral extras. You may get a great education, but not necessarily a beautiful garden or fancy dorms.</p>
<p>I agree with much of what starbright has said regarding cultural differences. In terms of academics, I know that there are no A+ given at McGill and that anything above 85% is considered an A. However, some dorms at McGill (new new rez and new rez) are beautiful converted 4 star hotels, with queen sized beds and private bathrooms!</p>
<p>Social life at McGill is a lot different than that of an equivalent American schools. The legal drinking age is 18, which means that almost everyone comes to McGill being allowed to buy alcohol, go to bars and clubs, and openly drink in their rooms. Weed is also more open and the punishment for smoking it is a lot less severe than in the US. While not legal, it is typical to see people smoking weed in downtown Montreal in broad daylight. This all has a big effect on how people interact and party. Drinking and getting drunk is not as much as a big deal - there are situations where people drink socially because they like the taste of alcohol, not necessarily because they want to get drunk.</p>
<p>I think McGill is 25% American or a large portion of the student body comes from America. You’ll fit in perfectly.</p>
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<p>It’s nowhere near that number. It varies year to year between 8-10% of undergrads, of total students, it’s even fewer.</p>