<p>I am an international student so cannot visit, and am pretty confused. Which of the two would be better in terms of overall prestige ( i am an international so it matters to me), repute of the Economics/Mathematics department ( I want to go to grad school for economics) ? I am not a party animal, but would want to live in a happening place with good fun on weekends. Also housing and social life ? My concern with Mcgill is with the moving off campus after the first year. Doesn't that dent the college experience somewhat ? My concern with Brandeis is the jewishness of the place and the supposedly ugly campus. Would appreciate any advice.</p>
<p>Okay, you can probably imagine what response you’re going to get in the McGill forum :)</p>
<p>Whatever semi-objective metrics we do have (AWRU, THE-QS rankings) show that McGill currently has better rankings. I can’t add any more to that question since I do not know Brandeis.</p>
<p>As far as housing goes, all the international students I met moved out into private or shared apartments close to the campus after first year, and I can tell you they were for the most part much nicer than residence (even New Rez). That being said rent is fairly expensive, at least by local standards. I do not see how it will hurt you socially at all, you can still be 5 minutes walk from campus if that is what you desire, and your neighbours will all likely be students anyway. You can use your time in rez to find awesome roommates to move out with. And a shared room does get old quick, believe me.</p>
<p>Now I will give you the standard warning I always give about McGill economics. The program has a regular (major) and an honours stream. The regular stream is (as explained to us by the faculty) inadequate for graduate school. The honors stream is great, but very demanding and with an insanely high attrition rate. Just be warned that there is no fallback if graduate school is what you want and you don’t finish the honors stream. (I didn’t like economics enough to stick with honors for more than 1 semester, so I moved on to a completely different field and it worked okay for me. I do know others who stuck with it and did well however.)</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>McGill probably has the edge for overall prestige.
However, Brandeis is also an excellent school that will deliver a great education.
While Brandeis is moderately close to Boston (one of the best college towns in the world), McGill is smack in the middle of Montreal, and probably offers a much better party/nightlife environment.
However, where Brandeis has the edge is the intimate education it can offer you. Because it is private, and is one of the smallest research universities in the US (more like an LAC), you will get a lot more attention from your profs, and a much smaller student body. The competition is less likely to be cut-throat.</p>
<p>Research how each school’s department ranks. I’m not sure about that.</p>
<p>@perpetualstudent - what are you studying now?</p>
<p>I’d say McGill trumps Brandeis definitely in terms of international recognition and even in the US if you are looking to stay here for a career. As a large research university, I’m sure McGill would provide you with countless opportunities for math/econ research</p>
<p>@tkdkid</p>
<p>I’m at the end of my B.Sc. Computer Science now. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing inherently terrible about Honors Econ, nor is its difficulty mind shattering, but you have to be dedicated to it.</p>
<p>During first year they’ll make you take two core courses: Honors Microeconomics and Honors Economic Statistics. For microecon, you need some knowledge of differential calculus to make it work (the textbook used is Intermediate Microeconomics by Varian). It’s perfectly possible to do very well in it, what annoyed me to no end is that the entire grade for each of the two semesters that make up the course comes from 1 midterm and 1 final which are basically filled with corner cases and trick problems. The profs take great pride in obtaining low overall averages on these exams. After the fact, the grades are usually adjusted to fit whatever distribution the profs see fit. Also, a pass is a B if you want to continue with the program. Suffice is to say, it wasn’t all that fun.</p>
<p>CS has a lot of theory too but also a lot of practical assignments/projects with immediate “wow” factor. I think a lot of CS people like building things and getting quick rewards for it, without getting their hands dirty (unlike say, engineers). But I digress :)</p>
<p>Edit: One more thing, people that want to do grad school in econ usually end up taking a lot more math than strictly required (i.e. in addition to econ stats and econometrics the requirements for Honors are Multivariable Calculus + Linear Algebra). You’ll probably want to add Differential Equations, Advanced Calculus, and maybe Real Analysis if you’re into that kinda thing. Perhaps some more mathematical statistics stuff too. So plan ahead carefully.</p>
<p>Sorry about the thread hijack, if you want to talk more PM-me.</p>