McGill Reputation and Grad Placement

Colleges and Universities A-Z McGill University
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<p>I guess this would be a good new thread to start on McGill.<br>
how is the reputation of McGill around the world? Can it be classified as an "elite" school?
how does it fair with Graduate School placement in the U.S. or abroad (law, business, medical school.)
Share some information about McGill as an instution itself and not the quality of life as much because that has been already discussed and it can be concluded that it is extremely Great!</p>

<p>So post information on grad placement, reputation, "prestige" so to say...anything that you know about McGill as a school...</p>

<p>Thx</p>

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<p>to be totally frank, mcgill has a better reputation than it may deserve in many parts of the world, which regard it as equal to the ivy leagues. I'm sure you've heard that McGill is the "harvard of the North", well, while McGill is a fine fine institution, that's not completely accurate. World Rankings lists put it all over the map--one ranked it above most of the lower ivys, another had it at #21 in the world, and then others don't even mention it. Very inconclusive. </p>

<p>The most well respected guide in Canada is the Macleans rankings, which put McGill at #2 in the Medical/Doctoral category, behind the University of Toronto. McGill was the #1 institution in canada up until major cutbacks from the Canadian government really hurt them. They are recovering now, thankfully. As for how McGill compares, i'd put it on par with NYU, Georgetown, and others of that calibre, the level right below the Ivys and other very elite schools. So if you're asking if McGill is at the same level as an ivy, the answer is probably no. However you still will recieve a very intellectually stimulating education there. </p>

<p>I'm not sure about McGill's placement into graduate departments, but I know that McGill has an excellent med school--it's claim to fame really is that it's Canada's #1 med school. I will look into that...i think it was brought up somewhere else but I forget where.</p>

<p>Hope this helps!
noelle</p>

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<p>Yeah, I heard that McGill is the "Harvard of the North." Thx a lot for the info!</p>

<p>To get into good grad. schools, GPA is a strong factor, and it has to be a high one no matter which undergrad you attend...so...how is the grading system at McGill? Is it possible to have a high GPA after people saying that CAnada is very hard in terms of the grading scheme.</p>

<p>Is McGill coming out again? Since it has had some financial problems...is it emerging as strong as it used to be in the past? Or is it still having trouble.</p>

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<p>bumpity bump</p>

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<p>. . . . . . . . .</p>

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<p>i am also waiting for noelle 2 get hooked up 2 a computer in seattle!</p>

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<p>Noelle is back and hooked up to a computer in Montreal!! haha</p>

<p>McGill is getting back on track, there is some real promising research going on here, and they are battling for funding. They are on the upswing, which is great news. However there is a general undercurrent around here that Quebec gives a lot more attention to the french schools than to the english schools, and if McGill were in any other provence it would be treated better. However, if it were in another provence, we wouldn't have the amazing city of Montr</p>

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<p>Noelle have you ever felt shortchanged though in your day-to-day education because of that?</p>

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<p>Honestly, the only major way in which it impacts students is in the large class sizes for first year core requirements. There are 1000+ first year science and engineering students, all of which are required to take chemistry, yet only 2 sections of chemistry offered, resulting in 500+ classes, and labs that are so large that it would be dangerous, if it wasn't merely a freshman class where we never work with stuff more dangerous than concentrated HCl. haha. That and other small things, like the clock on the front gate that is often not working, etc. It's not really a huge deal.</p>

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<p>I guess we haven't seen any information posted here yet on "Graduate School placement in the U.S.", but this is something I am curious about also.</p>

<p>"Reputation" aside, here is some information compiled from students about the quality of the teaching and programs:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.studentsreview.com/Canada/Quebec_MGU_c.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.studentsreview.com/Canada/Quebec_MGU_c.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://ratemyprofessor.com/SelectTeacher.jsp?sid=1439&orderby=TDept%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ratemyprofessor.com/SelectTeacher.jsp?sid=1439&orderby=TDept&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>harpgirl27, your take on the accuracy of these reviews would be interesting (you may even consider entering your own).</p>

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<p>Reputation: The Princeton Review on line </p>

<p><a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>lists a number from 61-100 for "Academic Rating" for each school.</p>

<p>First, here is their criteria:</p>

<p>"Academic Rating</p>

<p>How hard students work and how much they get back for their efforts, on a scale of 60-99. This rating is calculated from student survey results and statistical information reported by administrators. Factors weighed include how many hours students study outside of the classroom and the quality of students the school attracts. We also considered students' assessments of their professors, class size, student-teacher ratio, use of teaching assistants, amount of class discussion, registration, and resources."</p>

<p>For McGill, Princeton Review gives a rating of 75.</p>

<p>For comparison, here is Princeton Review's rating of some US colleges:</p>

<p>Wooster 96</p>

<p>MIT 94</p>

<p>Holy Cross 94</p>

<p>Tufts 93</p>

<p>UC-Berkeley 92</p>

<p>Allegheny 91</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon 90</p>

<p>Boston College 90</p>

<p>Case Western 87</p>

<p>URochester 87</p>

<p>UNC-Chapel Hill 86</p>

<p>Syracuse 84</p>

<p>Susquehanna 81</p>

<p>McGill 75</p>

<p>UConn 72</p>

<p>Like all rankings, take it for what it's worth.</p>

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<p>Keep in mind the level of credibility most people give the Princeton Review Rankings. Generally they are way off in their assessment of the Canadian schools because they get virtually no feedback to them--their stats page is at least 4 years out of date.</p>

<p>That being said I would call the level of work here quite challenging!! haha</p>

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<p>This system aparently puts a lot of value on class size, something that works against McGill.</p>

<p>One word of advice I've heard that makes sense is "go for a good fit, not for the name of the school". In other words, visit the school, meet some students and faculty, and see if it "fits".</p>

<p>The other part of the story is cost. I'm pretty sure McGill is a bargain for its quality compared to the list price of US schools, including state-supported US schools. The most selective US schools have no merit scholarships and cost about $US42,000/year.</p>

<p>What the relevant question is though, how are McGill graduates doing as far as acceptance into US graduate schools and professional schools? Are they being rejected because they "came from McGill"? Clearly, different departments and different academic areas (science, law, business, etc.) will have different levels of success.</p>

<p>I don't have information on this for McGill one way or the other, but I found some regarding Queen's which might be relevant. I read that Princeton University recruits undergraduates from Queen's for their graduate program in physics. Also, the current president of Princeton is a Queen's graduate. </p>

<p>If you do a google search on the usenet newsgroups, you will find these comments from Queens graduates who are in graduate school in the US (one at Princeton, one at UC-Berkeley):</p>

<p>" UBC, U of T, Queen's, and McGill are all top tier (though not comparable to, say, the ivies, berkeley, etc.). Entrance standards are usually ~85-90% HS average. Perhaps you should ask those who have experience with graduate school admissions decisions what they think of these Canadian schools. As an example, in last year's graduating group of physics students (~40 people) here (Queen's), graduate placements included: Stanford (2), Princeton (2), Caltech (1). No one was rejected by any school except MIT, which is known for ridiculously stringent quotas on international students. This year's graduating physics class has gotten admits at Harvard, Princeton, Cambridge, Yale, MIT, U of I, Cornell.... At a recent visit to Harvard for recent physics admits, there were prospectives from Queen's, UBC, and McGill (though no U of T). Nearly everyone else was from what one would consider a top US institution (e.g. ivies, MIT, Caltech, etc.). Unless the admissions officers are clueless, they seem to believe that an undergraduate education at these Canadian institutions is excellent preparation, in particular for graduate work. "</p>

<p>" Same goes for our [Queen's] EE programs - in a graduating class that is primarily focused on employment, I know of eleven people who have applied for graduate school in the US. Acceptance stats so far:</p>

<p>Stanford (4/5, 3 fellowships)
Berkeley (2/5, 2 fellowships)
Caltech (2/2, 1 fellowship)
UIUC (1/1)
Michigan (1/2, 1 fellowship)
MIT (2/3, 2 fellowships)
Cornell (2/3, 2 fellowships) "</p>

<p>I for one would be interested in what McGill's placement has been in US graduate schools.</p>

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<p>Here is another CC thread that mentions that top investment firms recruit at McGill:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=21678&page=3&highlight=mcgill%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=21678&page=3&highlight=mcgill&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>I'm applying to graduate school from McGill in English and HIgher Education.</p>

<p>I'll let you know in two months how mcgill's reputation is!</p>

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<p>Good luck littecannuck.
I'm going to be doing the same path as you, hopefully.</p>

<p>What graduate schools are you applying to? Are they only in the U.S.?</p>

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<p>Hi marc_posth,</p>

<p>I'm applying to a few schools in the US and in Canada. Off the top of my head, nyu, cuny, Tufts, UIUC, Dal, Mcmaster.</p>

<p>There may be a few otheres!</p>

<p>At this point, I think what worries me the most is my GPA. It's an outstanding gpa for mcgill (3.5) and will pretty much allow me to graduate with first class honours at mcgill, but (obviously) it's not as inflated as other schools!</p>

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<p>Here are some nicely-written reviews about attending McGill from around 2000 and 2001:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.epinions.com/educ-Colleges_and_Universities-All-McGill_University/display_%7Ereviews%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.epinions.com/educ-Colleges_and_Universities-All-McGill_University/display_~reviews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.epinions.com/content_49379970692%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.epinions.com/content_49379970692&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.epinions.com/educ-review-1D05-D8178BB-3935C63D-prod1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.epinions.com/educ-review-1D05-D8178BB-3935C63D-prod1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.epinions.com/content_16205188740%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.epinions.com/content_16205188740&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.epinions.com/content_12358422148%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.epinions.com/content_12358422148&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.epinions.com/educ-review-18F1-D1E015C-394C855B-prod5%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.epinions.com/educ-review-18F1-D1E015C-394C855B-prod5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>You're just jealous that mcgill doesnt accept an idiot like you. Don't worry there's still a place for you at some cheap community college. hahaha</p>

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<p>rankings are always over the map- just take them for what its worth. mcgill is a fabulous school and one of the best in the world in many areas so if you're a student here be proud.
in terms of grad placement i can't echo enough how well students place here. many of my friends who graduated this year and are off to grad school are heading to the best places in their fields: London School of Economics, Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, UC Berkley, UMich, Yale, Sorbonne, etc. McGill is recognized more than any other North American school worldwide (besides maybe Harvard)... IN America it may seem unknown, but with the right people (ie the ppl who will be viewing your applications in the future) its most certainly known and highly respected.
to add to the current principal of princeton being a queens grad- the previous principal before him harold shapiro was a mcgill graduate. woohoo.</p>