Hi,
First of all, sorry if this topic isn’t in the right section, my issue is pretty vast and I wasn’t sure where to put it.
I’m a french highschooler in senior year, and I’m going to pass my final exams next week.
Here lies my issue : I submitted an application for McGill Desautels but I also got accepted in a french preparatory class in economics, and a very good one (those usually last 2 years). The preparatory class I’m talking about is very well ranked and sends most of its students to the best business schools in France.
The thing is, Montréal is REALLY far from France, and I truly want to end up in an english-speaking country (studywise and jobwise), but maybe not Canada since it’s so far from France : that’s why I was considering England.
That’s what my goal would be : if I get into McGill I’d like to transfer to an english business school after a couple of years, and if I decide to go into my preparatory class, I’d like to submit an application to a few english schools for the year after or the year after that…
The questions are : what would be the best way the get into a good business school in Great Britain? Is a transfer from McGill to such schools wise? I mean, to which schools do transfer students from McGill usually go to? Would it be wiser for me to go to that preparatory class and send applications as a freshman?
I guess what I’m basically asking is: what are my chances as a transfer student from McGill to a good english business school (and which schools)?
I’m sorry if this message is a bit unstructured, I am currently facing a lot of stress concerning all those big life decisions and am having a hard time seeing through all this.
I’d appreciate any help provided,
If you need any more informations, please, ask me.
It is always better to get into a school you want to learn and work afterwards from the get go. Transfer is always problematic. First of all, admission rate is lower in transfer. Secondly, target school will not take all the credits in a transfer. It normally will set you back one semester, some times one year. Especially if you are transferring from one country to another in different languages.
You don’t have to decide right now, you have a couple days to accept your APB offer, right? And you’re even allowed to accept it and not turn up in September (programs will admit about 60 students if they want 50, because they know some students won’t come). You can also ask the prépa if you can defer for a year, see if they’d let you study abroad for a year, decide for yourself, and save your spot for the following year. This way you could spend a year in Montreal and Desautels and decide for yourself whether you want to stay or return to the prépa.
I’m not sure if you’re really that scared about going far away - perhaps you’re getting cold feet because your life is about to change, and also perhaps because there’s a lot of pressure that you’ve internalized that “prépa” is the way to go. Resisting that much pressure when everyone around you assume prépa is where you ought to go can be tough.
BTW, have you already been admitted to Desautels or are you just assuming you will?
Your decision really comes down to a few conditions:
1° do you want the prépa “cram school” lifestyle (ie., 8 hours of class a day + 4 hours prep in the evening, no more than 2 hours of sports or “fun” activities per week allowed, dramatic grade deflation, and, depending on the school, illegal hazing and/or cut-throat competition)? You’ve probably been prepared for it, many of your classmates are probably into it, so what about you, what do you want?
At McGill, your lifestyle will be more balanced: you’ll have 3-4 hours of class/lab per day, some in large lecture halls and some in small discussion groups, plus about 4-6 hours of preparation a day (often in the library and not necessarily of the memorize+synthesize type like in a prépa), then you’ll be free to join clubs, participate in sports or arts, work, etc. The skill set you’ll gain will be far greater (ie., people skills, leadership, real-world skills, etc). However, it’s more fraught with risk: if you don’t do well, no one will be yelling at you. You’ll have to want to succeed. You won’t be “on rails” anymore, you’ll have more freedom to make your own choices and make mistakes. (An advantage is that in North America, making mistakes is considered part of learning, and “learning from mistakes” is a key skill - not the end of everything, you always get second chances.)
2° Will the British universities even care that you attended a prépa? Many don’t, you could go on a gap year tour of Europe and they’d be fine with it. Email the British universities you’re interested in: would they take into account your prépa results or only your bac results, when they determine whether you can enter one of their programs? If only the bac results, do you want to do the prépa anyway? If they take into the prépa results, do they account for the different grading scale (because getting a 14 in prépa is near impossible even if you could get 14 for your bac.) How do they handle transfer credit from a prepa? From Canadian universities such as McGill?
3° McGill is well-known in France and relatively so in the UK, but while a McGill degree will let you bypass prépa and try the “concours, voie internationale” for French Grandes Ecoles de Commerce, just doing a year there won’t help you much (in that respect/ although it’ll open your mind to new ways of living and thinking as well as help you become bilingual, both of which are always useful). In the UK, if you have a full degree, you can try and apply to top Master’s programs as long as you have the grades, but if you only do a year, it’s unlikely anything will transfer, you’ll probably start from scratch.
At least, coming from an English-speaking school, you’d get the required IELTS score :).
4° Are you going after prestige or an experience?
5° Can your parents afford McGill without debt?
First of all, thank you both for your answers ! They were really helpful.
@artloversplus so planning on transferring before even getting in wouldn’t be very wise…
@MYOS1634 Indeed, I do have a couple of weeks before having to submit the first check for my preparatory class, so that gives me some time. I actually got admitted pending final results to McGill Desautels today.
I’m not sure if one can truly want the prépa lifestyle as you say, but I understand the concept of it : a 2 years engagement to obtain some pretty solid skills. I actually talked about it with some of my teachers and they all told me I could make it through the prépa.
From what I understand here, I have to choose between the pure academic experience of a prépa and the academic but also human experience of McGill… Unfortunately, as you say, I have no idea if I’m going after prestige or experience.
I have to mail the British universities to see if they’d care about the prépa, I’ll do it in the next few days.
I’m also wondering about McGill and its academic standards : I know it’s really, really good in scientific fields and medecine, but what about Desautels ? I’ve heard everything and its opposit: it does sound like a good program, but are there many job perspective for graduate in the UK?
For the IELTS, I actually passed my TOEFL and got a pretty good score, but from a quick look at the british entry requirements of some schools, the TOEFL doesn’t seem to be well accepted… Would I have to pass the IELTS ?
As of the financial point of view, the prépa would, indeed, be a lot cheaper.
I also thought of something : I could defer my McGill admission from one year and maybe do the prépa for one year… Though it is written on the McGill website that post secondary studies aren’t possible if you defer your admission, but exceptions could be made. What kind of exceptions would that be? Would that be possible? It would give me time to 1) see how the prépa would work for me 2) plan for some UK schools 3) keep McGill as a safety net if nothing works out (I know that sounds pretty dumb since Desautels would be a pretty comfortable safety net).
Thank you again for your answers, and sorry if I asked any stupid questions.
What goals do you have? I doubt the English and Scottish unis would give you anything extra with that cram school thing, so it is likely only useful within the French system (well, the Scottish ones may let you skip a year, but it will be 3 years instead of 4).
“Transferring” also isn’t a thing that the English unis do; you would start at the beginning of their 3 year program no matter how many you spend at McGill (though Scottish unis may give you credit for 1 year).
I thought McGill was almost free for French citizens?
IMHO, if save money is the most important factor in your education, you should finish UG education in France and apply advanced degrees in target nations where you want to work. Going back and forth across the boarder is not best interest for your future, including defer enrollment in McGill etc. In some graduate programs, it is almost free with research grants.
However, his/her English probably would improve if they go to an English-language uni.
Some grad programs are free, but they would be mostly STEM PhD programs, not business-related Masters.
BTW, if the UK is your goal, you could pick up a Masters in the UK after undergraduate in France or McGill.
McGill would open up more opportunities in Canada and the US, though. However, it’s really suited for a self-starter who is self-disciplined.