I am looking at going to either McGill or Edinburgh (I was accepted to both) but the joint honors program seems to be a huge plus for McGill. I’m definitely going to study linguistics, but I would also love to do economics. Would doing the joint honors program be more or less the same as what we called double majoring in the US? Thanks!
Double major and joint honours are different. You can double major in the normal way (complete all the required courses listed for 2 different majors without exceeding the double-counting limit). The joint honours program allows you to take the honours thesis or honours seminar classes whihch are closed to major students. You also need to maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA in the program and overall.
https://www.mcgill.ca/study/2017-2018/faculties/arts/undergraduate/ug_arts_program_reqs