How are Canadian Universities?

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>If I were thinking of moving to Alberta, I'd be very interested in the proportion of liberal to conservative politicians elected.</p>

<p>But if I'm thinking of going to school in Edmonton, what I'm trying to figure out is: is the university chock full of right-wing students and faculty? </p>

<p>Is this the Bob Jones University of the northland? </p>

<p>I don't think so but if anyone here has been there and has observed that it is, please post!</p>

<p>I know it's cold in Alberta. Cold is okay. UND in Fargo is freezing and lots of people love it there.</p>

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<p>well, I would say UBC is better known worldwide, only after UT.
but in Canada, people always rank it after UT and Q, or even M.</p>

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<p>Q = Queens
M = McGill</p>

<p>Queens is overrated.</p>

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<p>I don't think Queens is overrated. Just look at the international rankings; it doesn't even break the top 100 worldwide, and sometimes not even the top 200.</p>

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<p>Personally, I don't enjoy edmonton as a city I prefer Calgary but U of A is alright. The winters are bearable definately. I find the student population there to be a bit same-y but what do you expect? The people are friendly if a bit clique-y.</p>

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<p>Waterloo and U of T for math, computer science and engineering.</p>

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<p>McGill University (ranked 21st in the world according to the London Times Higher Education Supplement _ THES) and the University of Toronto (29th in the world in the THES ranking) are the only Canadian universities that could be described as being truly world-class.</p>

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<p>I agree bruno, although i'd add UBC in there because it is generally inside the top 50. But that's it, since no other canadian schools even make the top 100.</p>

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<p>I'm trying to point out that Queens is overrated domestically in Canada. One of their marketing schemes is that they are "internationally renowned". In fact I live in Ontario and many many people seem to think that this is true. Definitely McGill and U of T are true world class univs.</p>

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<p>yayatime, I agree with you on Queen's being overrated within Canada. Universities will say anything to try to boost their prestige... who actually believes Queen's is "internationally renowned"? (other than Queen's students, lol) Have these people ever spent time outside Canada? I guess it's a clever marketing campaign by Queen's, although it is dishonest. It's kind of like "Fox News: Fair and Balanced", the idea being if they keep bleating it people will eventually start to believe it.</p>

<p>The only Canadian schools that people (profs, international students) seem to be consistently familiar with here in Europe are U of T and UBC. McGill is hit and miss, and the rest of the Canadian unis - from Western to Queen's to Calgary to Saskatchewan - draw blank stares. This is also reflected in international rankings, where Toronto, McGill and UBC score far higher than the next tier of Canadian unis.</p>

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<p>Tell me about it. The marketing schemes of Ontario universities sicken me. The phrase "I get treated like a number" I hear so many times as a reason for people to disdain great universities like U of T in favour of places like Lakehead and Trent. U of T may lack personal attention and interaction with profs in the early years of undergraduate education, but definitely not in later years.</p>

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<p>Wow! I am a former U of Alberta student and the whole political aspect of this thread blows me away.
The student population is so diverse that I can't imagine anyone labelling all of us as "right-wing bible thumpers"- that is just so off the mark!!
I could rant and rave about how students and people here represent all points on the political spectrum, but to sum it up, I will just say that the posts in this thread generalizing the people in Alberta are completely untrue. You will just have to take my word for it, or come and see for yourself.</p>

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<p>If people aren't exceedingly right wing in Alberta, why did every Albertan consistuent vote conservative mp during the last fed election?</p>

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<p>We aren't saying every single person in Alberta is on the far right. We're just saying that there is a much higher concentration of very right wing people in Alberta than in the rest of Canada. (which, according to election results and every other source I've encountered, is true)</p>

<p>As I said before, this probably doesn't affect education at universities there. But it does affect people's decisions on whether or not they would want to attend university in the province, and thus spend several years living in that kind of environment.</p>

<p>This is reality. Sorry if I've hurt anyone's feelings by stating some pretty obvious stuff.</p>

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<p>Carleton For Any Of You Interested In Journalism!!!</p>

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<p>Like the last federal election was an indicator of anything, voting against someone doesn't not mean voting in favor of someone else. It more was punishment for the liberals than endorsing the Conservatives.</p>

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<p>My feelings aren't hurt because I live here and I know what it is like. I just think that this thread is totally weird. :)</p>

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<p>Politics of Alberta 101: A Brief Overview</p>

<p>Urban centres tend to be more liberal, rural communities tend to be more conservative. Also, the level of conservatism varies from national --> provincial --> municipal politics.</p>

<p>National: Very conservative, but this is because of the first past the post system. If we went by popular vote, you would see that yes, some people vote Liberal, NDP, and Green. A lot of the conservatism also has to do with the ever-lingering hatred towards Trudeau's NEP. That program cost Alberta thousands of dollars and thousands of jobs and many many people suffered because of it. They aren't about to forget it. </p>

<p>Provincial:There are Liberal MLAs. Including Dave Taylor, from somewhere in the centre of Calgary, and he's brilliant (they did a debate at my school and he was one of the candidates at the time). Also, the race for Ralph Klein's successor will tell us a lot about the future of provincial politics in Alberta. The second vote for this leadership race is tomorrow (so keep your ears open!), and the two top contenders are said to be Dinning and Morton. Jim Dinning is much more liberal than Ralph, despite being part of the Alberta PC party, and Ted Morton is pretty much a fascist (ask any poli prof or student at U of Calgary and they'll testify to that effect). </p>

<p>Municipal: Depends on rural vs. urban. Calgary's mayor, Dave Bronconnier, is known to be much more liberal than his provincial and national counterparts. </p>

<p>What does this have to do with education?
Okay, so Alberta has money, but the real question is will they put it into education. They haven't so far, and Ralph Klein's legacy of millions of dollars of deferred maintenance in our schools in favor of "debt reduction" is a testament to that. Part of my high school's roof collapsed last year, and they apologized but said that they didnt know where they could find the funds to fix it. Hmm. </p>

<p>If Dinning gets elected, then they will give money to our schools. He has even made education one of the top priorities in his campaign for Ralph's position. Despite Morton being a poli prof at U of C, he won't make the same promise. </p>

<p>U of A and U of C are really great schools for science in Canada, especially in oil-related engineering and business. Go figure.</p>

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<p>you guys have to seriously stop caring about worthless rankings. They place alot of weight on research, and thus doctoral schools will always prevail. This basically has no consequence for you directly...this is more relevant for grad school students and PhD candidates. For example, if you check out the Shanghai rankings, Emory Dartmouth and Tufts are all ranked behind Arizona State and Texas A&M...as an American, I can tell you right now that this ranking may be amusing to look at but it has no credibility in determining where Im going to go...Ill go to Dartmouth (Ivy) every single time over Texas A&M. The same goes for Queen's...that school suffered incredibly in its faculty research ranking on the THES but for every other category it was top-notch. Moreover, Queen's students scored the highest avg LSAT scores in Canada if this means anything to ppl wanting to go to law school. McGill btw was very close behind. Anyways the difference between schools in Canada is marginal...either they are all of the same caliber or they all offer very unique programs that are tops in the country (Ryerson Journalism, Carleton public policy). </p>

<p>oh yeah and Waterloo is def not in the "middle of nowhere" in terms of employment and exposure. Every year they have some conference in which all the top CTOs of North America major companies head out there. Bill Gates and the like have also spoken on campus. Waterloo is in the so-called "Technology Triangle" of Canada.</p>

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<p>^agreed, the rankings are garbage</p>