McGill scene

Colleges and Universities A-Z McGill University
1

<p>I just returned last night from an exciting weekend in Montreal, including a campus tour of McGill. I love what I saw and hope I'm accepted. My only complaint is that no one could answer my questions about the Faculty of Education. The better look at the campus and city raised a few questions in my mind:</p>

<p>a) Could anyone tell me what the relationship between McGill students and the city of Montreal is like? I've heard that many "Montrealers" resent the presence of McGill, but that was anecdotal, and I can't imagine why.
b) Are most local francophones accepting of Americans and other primarily anglophone students? I intend to major in or at least continue French, and one reason I love McGill so much is because of the surrounding bilingual city. Do francophones and anglophones mix in general?
c) About the "infamous Frosh Week": How prevalent is drinking on campus? I won't be of age until January '08. Are there non-drinking-related activities during Frosh Week?
d) I've heard that the dating scenes of some schools like BU are centered around hooking up, not long-term relationships (again.. just anecdotal). Any generalizations about the McGill dating scene?</p>

2

<p>I too am interested in the drinking and club scene at McGill. I know there is great ampleness of both, but are there other things to do? Both are great in moderation, but I wouldn't want to do either every night of every weekend. Are there more... intellectual or arty... things to do. I know Montreal has just as many great art galleries as clubs; would I have problems finding friends to go to these with me.</p>

<p>EDIT: I just read how l'Opera Montreal has that subscription for under 30's of $135. Wow. I pay $200 US to go to three operas here in Louisville. Even as a student I could afford $135 Canadian!</p>

3

<p>All I can speak for so far is the Mus</p>

4

<ol>
<li>That's a bit of a tough one to answer in a nutshell. Yes, there is some resentment in the community against McGill. In order to explain why, I have to give a little backgrounder on Quebec history. </li>
</ol>

<p>Before about the mid- to late-1960s, Quebec was a very different society than it was today. Despite having a Francophone majority, society was dominated by an Anglophone elite, who held nearly all of the positions in business and commerce. Most Francophones were limited to working in the factories and other such labour.</p>

<p>This was compounded by the problem of the deux solitudes. The Anglophone community in Quebec was very much isolated from the Francophone majority. They had their own churches, social groups, entertainment, and schools. </p>

<p>McGill fits in here because, there were only 3 French-speaking schools: Universite Laval in Quebec City, Universite de Sherbrooke, and the Universite de Montreal. This meant that many Francophones were not able to access Higher education (obviously 3 schools are not enough to serve a population of 6 million), thus perpetuating the societal divide mentioned above. McGill was a particular target of this anger amongst Francophones because it was (and is) one of Canada's best Universities, yet for the most part, was not very open to Francophones.</p>

<p>It's a bit deeper than that (and I may have made the explanation a tad confusing), but in summary, the main reason for the resentment of McGill in that many French Quebecers and Montrealers view it as a symbol of an Anglophone community that was out of touch with the community surrounding them - which isolated itself in its money and influence and cared diddle about what happened to others. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>The deux solitudes I mentioned above doesn't really exist anymore, I should note. Anglophones and Francophones do mix a lot these days, particularly at work and in the community. However, there are still some linguistic divisions lingering around. For example at night, Anglophones will hang out on Crescent Street, while Francophones will hang out on St-Denis.</p></li>
<li><p>Outside of Frosh Week, in my experience, there doesn't really seem to be a drinking culture at McGill. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>As to non-drinking stuff during Frosh Week, they have a bunch of stuff! You can see their schedule for this past year's Frosh Week here:</p>

<p><a href="http://ssmu.mcgill.ca/frosh/en/page.ch2?uid=EVENTSCHEDULE%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ssmu.mcgill.ca/frosh/en/page.ch2?uid=EVENTSCHEDULE&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<ol>
<li>Er......I'm not so sure about McGill itself, but Montrealers in general are pretty open about relationships......I have no idea, frankly. This is probably better left for someone who is actually there right now. </li>
</ol>

<p>redknight: There's a bunch of intellectual stuff to do in Montreal. For example, McGill has the Musee Redpath right on campus. There's of course, the OSM which is really good and really cheap at the same time. Quebec has a very good film industry. And of course, if you are ever in one of those culture shock states, NYC is just a night away by bus.</p>

5

<p>a) It varies. If the relationship ever seems strained, it's more due to the fact that a lot of McGill students are often (rich and spoiled) out of towners who have no idea how to act with any sort of class in public than the language issue. The English-French thing is not as bad as it's made out to be unless you run into a militant separatist. </p>

<p>b) Yes. Yes.</p>

<p>c) Drinking on campus is generally not done except during Frosh, SnowAP, Carnivale and 4/20. McGill's Frosh week is legendary, you get stories every year. It's hard to describe, just do it yourself and enjoy the debauchery of living in one of North America's true Sin Cities (the other being Miami).</p>

<p>d) People in Montreal are too busy having sex to date.</p>

6

<p>Just a note about drinking. Even though the legal age is 18, the drinking culture here is definitely different from the US and even the rest of Canada. Quebec is a VERY liberal society when it comes to things such as drugs and alcohol. At some of the seedier bars and clubs, you'll find girls as young as 14 in them (and the creepy boyfriends to match), avoid those bars. Despite this, the locals here see drinking as more of a social activity than something you do to pass out, most of them get over that type of culture when they turn 18 because they've had five years of drinking experience. </p>

<p>Attitudes on drugs are pretty lax too. I've seen people smoking up outside of restaurants at 8AM in the morning, and during 4/20, the entire McGill lower field turns into a huge cloud of marijuana smoke. Hell, I was once caught with a blunt in my hand by a cop, offered him some and he laughed it off and told me to take it easy.</p>

7

<p>
[quote]
a) Could anyone tell me what the relationship between McGill students and the city of Montreal is like? I've heard that many "Montrealers" resent the presence of McGill, but that was anecdotal, and I can't imagine why.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This resentment is mostly during Frosh and pretty much for the reasons ICrisis pointed out. 18 y.o. drinking like 14 y.o. kids discovering alcohol, still with high school mentality and just being obnoxious. The fact that Quebecers had cegep between high school and university actually makes a big difference in terms of mentality and behaviour.</p>

8

<p>thanks everyone for the insight! and as for my last post, i meant to say musee d'art contemporain de montreal.. which is a great way to spend an afternoon. not sure why it got cut off like that though..</p>