<p>I have always thought of McGill as a great school, though I can't remember where I first heard of it. Perhaps it was H. I asked H (neurobiologist, dean of grad school of biological sciences) about McGill's reputation, specifically regarding psychology, which is the stated interest of the OP's cousin. He described it as "one of the best in the world for psychology, one of the original schools where psychology developed as a discipline". He also said that in terms of the credentials he looks for, he would put it up there with the top ten psychology programs in the states.</p>
<p>S looked at Canadian schools in 2001 for 2002 but discovered that Canadian schools had a double cohort for 2002. He was looking at Canada as another reason to get-out-of-Dodge. He did end up at Toronto for grad MS school and may continue on at Toronto (hope not) if he doesn't find a position by fall 2008.</p>
<p>It is highly regarded. I have known several successful grads from the school both BA and PhD. They have not had problems.</p>
<p>McGill is highly regarded by academics. I'd suspect that Americans who apply to McGill are mostly in the Ivy-eligible group (but not Ivy-certain).</p>
<p>Admittedly, there are people in my area who have not heard of McGill. On the other hand, a friend of my mother's attended Wellesley, and when she mentioned this to someone else in our area, she got the reply, "Oh, you must mean Wesleyan!"</p>
<p>Yes, McGill and Toronto, which are both pretty stats-oriented, have been used as both financial and admissions safeties by students with good grades and test scores. My son would have applied to Toronto (which he liked more than McGill) if he had not already had an admission at a college he would have chosen over it.</p>
<p>Note, however, that the Canadian schools have had a huuuuge price increase over the past few years. The combination of their C$ tuition increases for international students and a major strengthening of the C$ against the US$ means that their effective cost increase has outstripped US cost increases by a considerable margin, and the Canadian universities are probably more expensive now than many U.S. public universities -- tuition and fees in the range of $40,000 per year, limited financial aid availability, and very high cost of living and housing. That's almost double what it would have looked like a few years ago.</p>
<p>McGill's unknown in the Deep South, but heck, a lot of things are unknown in the Deep South. Among those who know it, it's often been called "The Harvard of Canada" which many people think is an inaccurate analogy. A CC moderator who is quite familiar with both schools has suggested that it's more appropriately like the "University of Michigan of Canada," which should suit your cousin to a T. My advice to any young person would be that if they could spend the next four years of their life living in Montreal for only $5K a year, they ought to go for it. Being able to go to a good university at the same time is a nice bonus.</p>
<p>With the discussion of costs , I thought I'd put this up.</p>
<p>Money</a> matters</p>