McGill vs. Queen's

<p>I'm a current freshman at McGill studying Economics through the Arts program. I like the school and think it's alright, but I'm not absolutely infatuated with it and the main reason I chose McGill back in high school was for its international reputation and prestige. I'm starting to realize that I was dumb for allowing prestige and family pressure to be my only reasons for choosing McGill and I think that I can get a better college experience elsewhere, particularly at Queen's. I'm just finishing up my first semester and my McGill experience has been mostly just "meh, not bad but not that great" so far. Is it too soon to tell whether I should transfer or not? </p>

<p>Also, although I plan on majoring in either Economics or maybe Finance (if I switch to Queen's Commerce), my goal at the end of the road is definitely an Ivy League law school and the one thing stopping me from transferring immediately from McGill is knowing that Queen's is near obscure outside of Canada and few law school admissions offices would choose a Queen's applicant over one from McGill. Or so I'm told. I also feel that given the huge international population at McGill, the connections I make here would be more valuable than any that I make from Queen's. </p>

<p>I would be fine staying at McGill but at the risk of sounding naive, this is supposed to be "the best time of my life" and I really want to maximize these next four years. At the same time, I also don't want to do anything that would jeopardize my chances of getting into an Ivy League law school, which has been my dream for as long as I can remember. </p>

<p>Thanks all! </p>

<p>On another thread you were sure that UWO was better. Now Queen’s. You have classic “Buyer’s Remorse”. Give it a chance, you just started. You’re in one of the most fun cities in NA. Hopefully, you’ll eventually take advantage of that. </p>

<p>If your objective is an Ivy League law school (or any other T14, like, say, Duke, Georgetown, UChicago, NYU) it doesn’t matter where you go to; GPA and LSAT will matter a lot more. As for what you need to achieve for you to attend a T14 (Ivy or not):</p>

<p>Georgetown, Cornell, NWU, UVA, Michigan, Duke: 3.6+/168+
Berkeley, UPenn: 3.8+/169+
Columbia, UChicago, NYU: 3.7+/171+
Harvard: 3.8+/173+
Yale, Stanford: Same as Harvard, only with better softs</p>

<p>But do you want to practice law in the US, despite the horrendous legal job market there? If you want an Ivy League JD so that you can return home to practice, NCA exams are a pain to take; you’d be better off attending a Canadian law school if you want to practice law in Canada.</p>

<p>One last thing about Canadian law schools: while common law schools (all law schools outside of Quebec and McGill Law in Quebec) do not care about the difficulty of the major, civil law schools (all other law schools in Quebec) do.</p>

Ok, there is a lot wrong here.

  1. You will not be able to transfer to Queen's Commerce. The program is full. There are literally no transfer spaces to Comm18.
  2. Why do you want to go to an Ivy league law school if your Canadian? Research the legal profession, going to a law school outside your country is a bad idea.
  3. You don't "major" in Queen's Commerce.
  4. I don't understand how McGill connections are more valuable than Queen's connections.
  5. Law schools don't give a shit whether you went to Queen's or McGill. Both are highly reputable public universities.

Dunboyne make a good point. Your best just hanging out there and enjoying yourself. Also, you are not the first to buy into McGill’s inflated reputation, only to realize it is a very regular public university that has financial problems and over-enrollment.

My brother realized this, and in the face to the student strikes/ budget problems decided to graduate after three years to go to UofT law. If you have the ability to do this, it may be a viable option, but you will certainly need to work hard.

Meantime, take the time to research how the law profession and law schools actually work, if indeed law is your goal. That said, you should really just focus on succeeding where you are now.