<p>^.....ya....the cold is very bitter.....well,all these wont happen much if ur going to a top college(but cant help thinking if these things happens...)..</p>
<p>The positives:</p>
<p>Canadian universities are a lot cheaper than others worldwide (and I mean a lot!). [That is if you have the $30,000 to $50,000 for the whole 4 years].</p>
<p>Admissions criteria are a lot lower, and most get into the program they want with so-so high school grades. Plus it isn’t a large process like US schools have with the SAT’s, ACT and all the extracurricular stuff that’s required.</p>
<p>If you are able to befriend a prof and volunteer to help out with lab or research work in the field you want, then the letters of recommendation are of huge value when it comes to grad school admissions. (I knew people that had grades in the 50% range but had excellent letters of recommendation and were admitted and got their Masters and Ph.D.s).</p>
<p>The other thing is if you know for a fact that you will have the full maximum amount of funding or money to complete the degree than many more options are open to you, and school will not seem like such a hassle in terms of getting the courses you want or getting the extra help if you need it.</p>
<p>But the negatives outweigh the positives. The Macleans university ranking system noticed the negative downward trend, and the growing negative responses from students and they published these issues and facts (and it hurt their admission prospects for the future)…..that’s why last year 70% of the universities said they won’t participate in it anymore!</p>
<p>Those 70% then went to the Globe and Mail ranking system. Which published only a small amount of the negatives (aren’t weren’t so brutally honest like Macleans). But the little known fact is that those schools paid the Globe and Mail to create then ranking system, and the larger the contribution, the higher the ranking…….so you see, if the schools were great, then why do they need to pay to get a higher rank? Hmmm…it’s pretty obvious!</p>
<p>It seems like false advertising to me.</p>
<p>But I still think if you are not guaranteed to get into the course that you need for that degree then its a huge issue!</p>
<p>Many people had to wait to graduate in their 5th or 6th year of university because of this. And most universities arent fixing the problem by increasing the amount of courses they have, in fact most have eliminated the ones they had. (And some of these courses are essential for future employment).</p>
<p>For example in my situation (I did a science degree in biology) my school had a huge course selection in first year, and each year after 10 courses would get eliminated. The ones first to go were ones that taught direct laboratory techniques.......then they started to eliminate the lab sections of the other courses, so by the time I was in 3rd and 4th year I had only touched a microscope twice [in a group of 5 people] and never directly got to handle any other lab equipment.</p>
<p>Now compare that to the universities in the US.........its a huge difference.</p>
<p>Sure it costs an arm and leg to get educated there, but I would have paid those fees if it meant actually getting to learn the lab techniques, actually handling the wide variey of lab material, and having the option to do so!</p>
<p>"Admissions criteria are a lot lower, and most get into the program they want with so-so high school grades."</p>
<p>The Canadian grading system is drastically different than the ones in American schools, that's why the cutoff marks at even the top Universities seem quite low, but in actuality it takes a lot of work to achieve those marks.</p>
<p>"The Canadian grading system is drastically different than the ones in American schools, that's why the cutoff marks at even the top Universities seem quite low, but in actuality it takes a lot of work to achieve those marks."</p>
<p>Not really. Most admission cut-offs are around 70% (in most US schools thats considered a "C" grade where here its considered a "B").</p>
<p>And it wasnt up until two years ago that Ontario high schools revamped their courses into the "U" and "M" format, which still isnt as difficult as US honours or AP courses in terms of course-load and work. Plus we dont have any standardized tests here like the SAT's or ACT's that require a lot of prep work and are very grueling. The other factor is the extracurricular activities, here they dont really care if you have them or not in high school (I had none), whereas in the US its a contributing factor to admission decisions.</p>
<p>i've heard that the quality of education is not that good at Utoronto, esp if you're not a pre-med major, is this true? and which Canadian schools are good for econ majors?</p>
<p>If rankings are anything to go by, UToronto and UMontreal are the best in Canada as far as economics is concerned, but remember most rankings are useful for grad school only.</p>
<p>"And it wasnt up until two years ago that Ontario high schools revamped their courses into the "U" and "M" format, which still isnt as difficult as US honours or AP courses in terms of course-load and work"</p>
<p>Having been to both Canadian and American high schools the U Level courses in Canada are much harder and require a lot more effort than a lot of AP and honours courses in the United States.</p>
<p>
[quote]
UToronto and UMontreal are the best in Canada as far as economics is concerned
[/quote]
</p>
<p>UBC has a pretty good economics department too, or so it claims.</p>
<p>cowgirlatheart, which Arts One section are you in, A or B? I'm in the Arts One program at UBC too. For those of you who are wondering, it is an interdisciplinary first-year program that combines English, History, and Philosophy, making space for a couple of electives. I think it's a good program, especially if you're interested in the Arts, and it definitely personalizes school a lot more. There's a one-hour lecture per week, and two one-and-a-half hour seminars, so it doesn't really involve that much class time, for an 18-credit program. However, it is reading and writing intensive.</p>
<p>The problem with smaller schools imo is that they are not too well known outside of Canada, and if you're going into a field that is more "international" (bussiness NGO's) or you simply are a foreigner who has no plans of living in Canada later, not that many people know schools other that Toronto or UBC or MgGill so changes are your country may not others as well.
Most people I have talked to outside of Canada don't even know McGill, but they do know UofT (though many of these aren't national employers or PhD's that 'know the ropes' so maybe they are not the best example).</p>
<p>Personally, I am not sure what it is like to be in a class with 1800 people (mine currently have about 15-25) but I would imagine its pretty intimidating like a student factory or something. I like personal attention from my teachers and when it comes to recomendations for grad schools, I would not want to be in a class with 200 other people (assuming that's what the class size number drops down to in the 3rd and 4th years) to ask my profs for one.
It all depends on priorities I guess. I've been to the UofT campus, its a really neat place but all those people...ughh.</p>