<p>How are they as compared to US?Which are the top ones?what are the various scholarships/loans available?</p>
<p>University of Toronto (ranked somewhere around# 19 worldwide)
Mcgill University
Queen's University
University of British Columbia
University of Western Ontario (you can actually transferto/study at London School of E. and Poli after your sophomore year)</p>
<p>University of Waterloo is one of the best for engineering or science.</p>
<p>How about University of Alberta?</p>
<p>Eh... So, so.</p>
<p>My guess is that Alberta will be top 3-4 in Canada within the next 15-20 years. But it's just a guess... based on the massive amount of oil money in that province, some of which will be spent on universities there. Meanwhile, Ontario is broke.</p>
<p>Why people with good marks pay money to go to Western and sit in a room with 1500 other students watching the professor on tv screens because he's too far away to see properly, is beyond me.</p>
<p>Umm...I've never heard of a class with "1500 students watching the professor on tv screens..." here at UBC. UBC's one of the best (within the top 4) in Canada, and I can guarantee that things here in vancouver are in a much better state than gloomy, middle-of-no-where places like Waterloo. </p>
<p>True, Alberta's going to be the next richest province in Canada, but the entire place is like "Texas of the North": Politically Conservative/ultra right wing. There's not even a single Liberal MP elected in that province since last Federal Election of 2006.</p>
<p>
[quote]
middle-of-no-where places like Waterloo.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Waterloo is far from civilization. But if you want to study it's a good place because there's nothing else to do there...</p>
<p>/in Waterloo, but I'm getting paid for it</p>
<p>Ontario isn't broke at all. It's still one of the economic engines for this country.</p>
<p>If you've never heard of a class of 1500 students, check out UofT's Convocation Hall. First year classes can be up to 2000 students large, sometimes they actually have two separate locations, one with the professor and the other with a giant screen with a live feed into the other class.</p>
<p>Personally, I would never attend a school in a city with less than a million people (with the exception of perhaps Ottawa or Calgary). I just don't find the university town culture to be very appealing, that's just due to my bias growing up in a large city though.</p>
<p>I don't know what political conservatism has to do with the strength of education in Alberta.</p>
<p>Jimmy- </p>
<p>I think there was a misunderstanding. The "1500 students in a class" comment was regarding Western not UBC. You know, the University of Western Ontario. I wasn't talking about universities in western Canada. </p>
<p>And I wouldn't say UBC is top 4; more like top 3. Toronto and McGill are always the top 2, and the only other school that comes close to them is UBC. After that the ranking gets muddled, but those three are pretty firm I think.</p>
<p>About Alberta: I wouldn't want to live in a place with such a high concentration of bible thumpers and extreme-right wing nutjobs. But public universities require public funds. Alberta has lots of money to spend on universities, while Ontario is having massive financial problems and cutting funding all over the place. Better funding usually means higher quality universities. So it's something to be considered. Local politics doesn't really matter, but money does.</p>
<p>Have you even been to Alberta?! Sorry but there are Dem's in Texas just like not everyone in Alberta is right-wing. I grew up in Saskatchewan which is just as hoboken as Alberta and yet we consistently elect an NDP government in provincial elections. The only really right wing person I've run into in Alberta is my grandma. lol. I consider myself to be left wing but I have no issue with Albertans. They are generally a really warm and caring province. I know that if I had road troubles in Alberta or Saskatchewan that someone would be more likely to pull over and help me than if it happened in Ontario or Quebec. Does anyone really find it surprising that a farming province would be more right wing than a much more urban province?</p>
<p>No of course not EVERYONE in Alberta is right-wing. I know several left-wingers from there personally. There is just a higher concentration of extremely right wing people. (I am a religious conservative by the way, just not the kind of religious conservative that wants to force my views and way of life on 32 million people that I don't even know.) </p>
<p>This has nothing to do with the quality of education in that province, and nothing to do with whether or not they are nice people.</p>
<p>Actually, I think the thing about Alberta and Western Conservatism in general is that they need to have those religious crazies in their party to have a voice, they'd kick them out if they could but then we'd just have two conservative parties again and neither of them would have much of a voice.</p>
<p>i recommend paying more attention to our domestic politics, folks. During last Federal Election of January 2006, Alberta turned entirely blue (conservative). Out of the 20 some seats for member of parliament, every single one has taken up by a right wing conservative follower of PM Stephen harper's "new right." Even the last remaining liberal mp, who's the former vice-PM of Paul Martin's administration, was kicked out of office. By the way, Alberta (Calgary south) is also home to our western cowboy PM stephen harper (who of course is trying his best to conceal his western cowboy looks by occasionally wearing glasses so to look like an Eastern scholar...)</p>
<p>Just because stephen harper's riding is in Calgary does not make him a Calgarian. He was born and raised in Ontario, which is really not a giant surprise considering there have been very very few PM's who have been born and raised in the West. </p>
<p>Jimmy - who are you referring to? I hope not Ralph Goodale who is still a Liberal MP and a really great politican and person(though he represents a Saskatchewan riding not an alberta one).</p>
<p>I never said Alberta didn't vote Conservative, but I said to label them as right wing bible thumpers was not only an extreme exaggeration but untrue. Sorry I always get extremely heated about this but it frustrates me to no end the lack of knowledge there is in Ontario about the west. I have gone to school there and have a lot of great friends from there (as well as friends who moved from Ontario to Sk.) and they are always amazed that Westerners really feel politically and culturally isolated from the East to the point that there is a growing separatist movement. Just google it and you will links like this <a href="http://www.westcan.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.westcan.org/</a> anyway sorry I just went on a long rant there and totally hijacked this thread but I do wish there was more understanding from Easterners about Western Canada</p>
<p>J@K, Once again, what does Alberta's conservatism have anything to do with universities in Alberta? It's not as though professors at U of A are indoctrinating reactionary views on their students or something. You're certainly welcome to your opinions, but your political diatribes are irrelevant to the discussion in this thread. I think universities in Alberta offer great education at good value.</p>
<p>Once again, what does Alberta's conservatism have anything to do with universities in Alberta?</p>
<p>Thats like saying what does El Marasamap Islam's terrorist links have anything to do with the universities run by it?</p>
<p>No it's not like saying that at all, that is a completely irrelevant example. U of A prof's are not all from Alberta nor were they all educated there. In fact, a great deal of them weren't. So whether or not the province votes a certain way, does not mean that the prof's are indoctrinating their students. Esp. considering the province of Alberta while providing funding does not authorize the curriculums. Using your reasoning, because Canada is run by a conservative government, all the federal funding for university's would support converservative university's or their curriculum's when this is not the case. Regardless, I still probably wouldn't go to the U of A.</p>
<p>Folks, I sincerely apologize. I'm serious!</p>