<p>So everyone advertises McGill's diversity. The website say's "We are diverse cause we have anglophones Canadians, Francophones, and Internationals"</p>
<p>How much of the diversity is true? Is it really very diverse? At least ethnically?</p>
<p>Because websites really don't say. They say that having lots of international students= diversity. But they don't a have any charts on racial demographics of the campus.</p>
<p>Im curious as to how white the school really is.</p>
<p>Does anyone have information or charts or percentages of Whites, Asians,Indians,Blacks,Hispanics, etc? That would be really interesting, and good if someone could show one.</p>
<p>Also, personal input from students would be great too.</p>
<p>Im not sure, but when I visited, I thought I saw that the ratio of whites and asians were comparable, but I def think whites outnumbered asians. Other than that, theres a small population of blacks and hispanics. But thats just from a single visit so Im not sure.</p>
<p>hmmm back when i was applying, i saw this really great chart that had all teh flags of the international countries represented at mcgill with the numbers of students enrolled over 3 years. i googled it... no luck. but anyway, from it i realized that the most int'l students were from the us, china, and france in that order.
but judging from the number of cultural events i get facebook invites to- like the bangladeshi student's show, or the african student society gala etc. there are more nationalities that have a presence on campus
not to lie to you though, there are some classes you can walk in to and basically count the non-whites or asians on one hand</p>
<p>yea, i think you would expect that from most universities, as although they claim they are "diverse" it just so happens that of those 100 (made up number) different nationalities, asians and whites make up 90 percent of the population.</p>
<p>Im mostly curious as to the Diversity of the Canadian populations and American populations at McGill, because i too have seen numbers on internationls, but American and Canadian arent races, just people of places.</p>
<p>I think the truth is that mainly, in Canada anyways, many white parents are more accepting of allowing their kids to move away to a place like McGill whilst Asian parents arent (Im asian, and my parents were reluctant but they understood). This is what I think leads to there being more white ppl in McGill, most the out of province kids are white and as we all know, the population of in province kids in mcgill is very small compared to other universities. And im not trying to be racist, its just how i see things! :P</p>
<p>Because skin color is the only thing that defines diversity, right? Chinese, Japanese, it's all the same. And and a white guy from Quebec's the same as a white guy from France and is also exactly the same as some white guy from Texas, because they're all white. And if one of your parents is from Uganda and the other from Laos, you're black and not asian because of the pigmentation of your skin...</p>
<p>OK, enough sarcasm. For historical reasons, the US likes to define diversity in terms of skin color (except for people whose mother-tongue happens to be Spanish, because somehow they can't be considered white). In Canada, it's in terms of culture/country of origin. So yeah, you'll have a harder time getting demographics in term of skin color/ethnicity. And the Canadian contingent at McGill hides a lot of children of immigrants from various countries. I knew probably over a dozen Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Maurician...) who were all technically from Quebec or the rest of Canada. And that's not including a number of students of mixed ethnicities...</p>
<p>srry if i seemed to be racist :) its just that its true i often look at skin colour first...I AM raised in Canada/America, so you know, i sumtimes dont think:P</p>
<p>Wait...arent all asians the same. Chinese right?
JK. I know. Im really just curious about diversity overall. Cause numbers listed only list specific diversity of internationals, in which case, ethinicity is sometimes obvious, but with americans it isnt, as well as canadians.</p>
<p>Well, that's the entire problem. McGill keeps no such statistics as far as I know. And people like myself still measure diversity in terms of cultural background. So I never bothered to try to measure how many, say, East Asians were there compared to white people (but I can tell you there aren't quite as many Chinese at McGill than I've seen in Waterloo, which makes McGill actually much more diverse). But, just for the sake of argument, I'll list the countries of origin of people I met at McGill:</p>
<p>Albania
Argentina
Australia
Bangladesh
Belgium
Benin
Bulgaria
Cambodia
China
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Ireland
India
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Japan
Korea
Kuwait
Laos
Lebanon
Mauritius
Mexico
Mauritius
New Zealand
Palestine
Pakistan
Peru
Poland
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
Switzerland
USA
UK
Vietnam
Venezuela</p>
<p>That's over 40 countries, from memory. I know I forget a few. If that still doesn't feel as diverse as a bunch of Americans with 4 different skin-tones, I don't know how else to convince you...</p>
<p>Great answer, Blobof. Refreshingly, McGill doesn't have an affirmative action program based on skin color, where someone with lower marks and standardized test scores automatically because of that skin color gets extra points and admission preference over someone (of a nonpreferred skin color) with higher marks and standardized test scores.</p>
<p>Uh, I can tell you when I went to visit, I saw a lot of Indians, people speaking arabic, a chinese guy speaking split mandarin and quebec french, the woman at front desk was african american, and she had a french accent. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.</p>
<p>mike, i wouldn't be so quick to call the woman african american when shes speaking with a french accent. i'm sure you're just trying to be politically correct but i highly doubt she is american. sorry, thats just something that has always really bothered me. i had a teacher one time call people from ethiopia "african american" and couldn't believe she was actually trying to teach me.</p>
<p>^^. My mom is white, and from Algeria (born back when it was a colony), so by all means, wouldn't I be part-african-american? The answer is yes. Now what happens when I tell someone that? If they have no tact, they mention something about me having pretty white skin for someone who's half black. </p>
<p>Nothing sounds "dumber" than when people use African-American instead of black. News flash, Jamaican's aren't from Africa; it's just silly avoiding terms like white and black. Ask an "african-american" what they'd prefer you refer to them as. Most of the people I've asked don't mind or think twice about black.</p>
<p>my best friend was born and raised in ivory coast, so she's african as far as she's concerned. but her parents are from illinois and colorado (both white) so she's american. has she had any luck introducing herself as "african-american?"
nope</p>
<p>Alright, lesson number 1 about racial politics in Canada.</p>
<p>The term African-American (or African-Canadian as I guess the equivalent) is generally not used unless you're referring to someone who has actually come over from Africa which can apply to people of various skin colours.</p>
<p>The majority of the black population in Canada have arrived (1) Within the past 25 years and (2) from the Caribbean.</p>
<p>huh. i've never heard anyone say "african-canadian"
especially not when referring to someone "who has actually come over from africa"
i hear a lot more of- "i'm canadian". or "i'm senegalese... nigerian... kenyan etc."</p>