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How many of us can name five famous Canadians?
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<p>C'mon, you know, you just don't know that you know:</p>
<p>Mike Meyers, Joni Mitchel, Lorne Greene (Bonanza), Lorne Michaels (SNL),
Donald Sutherland, the author of Anne of Green Gables, Michael J. Fox, Celine Dion, all the good hockey players.</p>
<p>McGill is well-recognized in the Northeast where I grew up. To be comfortable in the surrounding community, work on some French now. Although it's a bilingual country, that's a French-speaking area. Re: scheduling, check a course catalogue now for how many classes are taught in English. For many Canadian students it's no impediment to sign up for a class in English or French. </p>
<p>If the field were business, where networking and contacts mattered, it could be an impediment to study across the border. But in Psychology, I'd think the teachings are universal.</p>
<p>It's also BEAUTIFUL architecture, Gothic as I recall.</p>
<p>Montreal itself has tremendous international diversity, with Canadian-born students whose parents come from Asia and Africa. One-third of Canada is neither British nor French ethnicity, but global in background, with significant immigration in the past 50 years. TO me, that is great training to work in any modern American setting! Very international.</p>
<p>McGill is highly-regarded by well-educated people in the midwest, but completely unknown by the general populace, as is my son's current school...Dartmouth!</p>
<p>McGill has a very good reputation in the US. A couple of my former classmates (IB kids at a Florida public school) really considered going there because of its good reputation and because they loved the campus and surrounding area, but eventually ended up staying in-state for financial reasons.</p>
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How many of us can name five famous Canadians?
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<p>Six or so more without even thinking about it: Gordon Lightfoot, William Shatner,James Doohan, Dan Akroyd, Christopher Plummer, Peter Jennings, Robert MacNeil.</p>
<p>My daughter (who has dual citizenship) went to McGill after turning down University of Chicago, Barnard, Macalester, and a full scholarship at Lewis and Clark. She absolutely loves both the school and the city. It is academically challenging, she has made many friends, is learning a new kind of French, has learned to love poutine and has a very enviable life. This is all far less then half the price of the above schools. McGill is very well known in academic circles in both North America and Europe, so your friend should not worry about that. It sounds to me that she may not want to live in Canada for whatever reason. But, Montreal is very different from the rest of Canada, and she really should consider it.</p>
<p>No worries about having to take classes in French at McGill. McGill is an English university and no one has to take anything in French if they don't want to. I do agree that it helps to be able to speak French in Quebec but it certainly isn't necessary, especially in Montreal. Canada has two official languages but it is not a bilingual country. Most people outside of Quebec do not speak French.</p>
<p>I doubt that there are as many of you as you think who couldn't name five Canadians, and if there are, that's very sad! Certainly you people have heard of Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Sidney Crosby (and hundreds of other hockey players!), for basketball fans - Steve Nash, for golfers - Mike Weir, auto racing - Paul Tracy and Gilles Villeneuve, Jim Carrey, Nelly Furtado, Jann Arden, Sarah McLachlan, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Norman Jewison, Lorne Michaels, John Candy, Howie Mandel, Kim Cattrall, Colleen Dewhurst, Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, Paul Anka, Martin Short, Rachel McAdams, the Barenaked Ladies, Leslie Neilsen, Christopher Plummer, Morley Safer. Do any of those ring a bell? :)</p>
<p>To be honest, McGill is the most highly regarded Canadian university in America... and it's for no good reason that I can discern. Here in Canada, McGill is popular and well-regarded, but it plays second fiddle to Queen's in the humanities, UofT in sciences (some social sciences too) and engineering, Waterloo for CS and engineering.</p>
<p>^^ Yes, that was something that I learned when DS was considering McGill. There are several top-quality Canadian universities - not a few considered superior to McGill by those in the know. But, for whatever reason, we in the US tend to only know McGill.</p>
<p>Had the OP asked whether UofT might hinder her in US job search/grad school apps, I wouldn't have known what to say. Which is odd and unfortunate.</p>
<p>But, then again, I'm sure many Canadians do not know, say, Bowdoin, Pomona, Emory, Vanderbilt (name your top quality but not household word school), where they will know HYPS and the big sports schools.</p>
<p>McGill is a great school- well regardes and agreed, probably the most well known in the US of the Canadian schools. A good friend of mine's son is planning to attend McGill next year, majoring in music (Schulick School of Music at McGill). He commented that the cost was reasonable, but I wonder what the ever-weakening dollar will do to this???</p>
<p>As for famous canadians-- those are great lists above-- especially alwaysamom's. I love the pronunciation of "about"-- sounds like "aboot". Love it!</p>
<p>jym, you're right. McGill is a great school and, in many circles, the best known in the U.S. I think this is largely because McGill markets itself to the New England/northeastern U.S., in a way that other Canadian universities don't. There are certainly American students at other universities here, and as others have stated, McGill, as good as it is, is not looked on as the best Canadian school, by Canadians, although I've heard from many Americans who think that it is. :) The weakening U.S. dollar is probably a concern to prospective students, and Canadian schools certainly aren't the bargain they used to be for Americans, but it's likely to still be a reasonable price.</p>
<p>A few more famous Canadians that came to mind this morning after a discussion with one of my Ds - Anne Murray, Michael Buble, Burton Cummings, Diana Krall, Shania Twain, K.D. Lang, Oscar Peterson, Rufus Wainwright, David Clayton Thomas, Hank Snow, Lynn Johnston (anyone read For Better or For Worse?), Terry Fox. For the oldies in the audience - Guy Lombardo! And for the young - Feist! :)</p>
<p>I don't know about McGill being the best known. For graduate programs, it depends entirely. UofToronto is usually considered the top school in general. Waterloo is considered the best school for math.</p>
<p>Wow marite- you are at almost 10,000 posts!! Congrats!!</p>
<p>Perhaps we should differentiate whether we are talking about "well known" in the academic arena, or in the general populus. I was referring to the general populus, probably due to the marketing that alwaysamom described.</p>
<p>And sorry for my typo a few posts above (I am a terrible typist) I meant to say it is well regarded (not regardes).</p>
<p>I am not a person who values rankings all that much, but since I am a McGill fan I will mention that this year McGill ranked number one in the Macleans Magazine rankings for large universities (medical/doctoral) universities in Canada.</p>
<p>A lot of people look at those 'rankings' by Macleans but everyone should be aware that many Canadian universities, including U of T, do not participate in the providing of information to Macleans. This is due to them not agreeing with the way that Macleans has interpreted the information provided, in the past, so methodology is questionable, at least in the minds of many schools.</p>
<p>This is not, in any way, meant to denigrate McGill. As I said before, it is a great school, as are many in Canada.</p>
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In the suburban Washington, DC area, everyone knows McGill and it is well respected. Lots of US citizen kids from this region apply to McGill every year because of its reputation. Just about every year one or two US citizens from my daughter's high school end up there. </p>
<p>Not to mention the Canadian kids who live here! They would just about kill to get into McGill for an Ivy-league equivalent education at only $5000.
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<p>I agree completely. In our area, among the people who know about colleges and selectivity and education quality, McGill is highly regarded and everyone is jealous of kids who can go there for the Canadian price. A great advantage for those families we've heard saying "aboot" instead of "about" over the years.</p>
<p>I agree with post #28 & have knowledge similiar to that shared in post #14. McGill University is well known in the northeastern portion of the U.S. McGill enjoys a much better than deserved reputation in the U.S., in my opinion. Americans started applying to McGill in large numbers over the last decade due to its comparative low cost versus rapidly escalating tuitions & costs here. Its graduate programs have made McGill famous worldwide.</p>
<p>Alwaysmom, I was going to add Terry Fox, you beat me...how about Jean Chretien, Stephen Harper, Gordon Campbell, Randy Bachman</p>
<p>Yes, I would choose McGill for $5000 if the other places are markedly more, that is like choosing Berkeley for in state vs an expensive private- there may be differences and even better options in some areas, but not worth the extra expense. Head to grad school in the states if she wants the US connections.</p>
<p>If the cost is about the same, then perhaps a different choice to make connections</p>
<p>Anybody else spot the trend among the trend here? Seems that no matter what the genre: rock, country, folk, jazz, or pop, if you want to be a hit female singer in the US, you gotta be Canadian:</p>
<p>Alanis Morrisette, Shania Twain, Nelly Furtado, Sarah McLachlan, Avril Lavigne, Joni Mitchell, Celine Dion, Diana Krall, K.D. Lang, Anne Murray, etc.</p>
<p>I learned about McGill from my Canadian classmates in college 30 years ago. They considered it a top school. One of my classmates now lives in the US, but his D will be attending McGill next year. He tells me it's still a great school. It seems like it has a longstanding reputation as a solid choice.</p>