<p>^ depends who is doing the rankings, and what they are ranking </p>
<p>Also, McGill is public university, not private, which means it doesn’t have complete control over many aspects that private universities do. That happens for many public universities in the states as well I think.</p>
<p>& thanks thewarmheart :)</p>
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<p>Is that to say that McGill is weak in the humanities/social sciences? I am torn between McGill and UVa and was considering McGill until I read this… I am looking to go into international law…does Montreal provide lots of access to interships?</p>
<p>a) a lot of americans have not heard of it so many great students don’t necessarily apply there b) mcgill has far more students than any of the ivies thus naturally the statistics will diminish c) being a public university, mcgill has to balance accepting a large number of quebec students who pay <$2,000/yr, while trying to accept a significant number of american/international students who pay $15-20,000/yr, while still taking the best canadian students from outside quebec</p>
<p>the ivies make their money off of endowmnents and massive tuitions, and because these numbers are several-fold larger than that of canadian institutions, they can afford to take fewer students. think of mcgill as a state-run university that an entire country wants to go to cause the academics are superior to the privates.</p>
<p>fyi: these are not selectivity rankings, they are academic quality rankings, ie. course offerings, research, publications, professor quality. although for selectivity mcgill is very high up as well, because it is where the top, top canadian students go… and these top students are just as intelligent as the top american students</p>
<p>thanks for response.</p>
<p>My cousins go to Mcgill and I can say they have fantastic internships, especially in commerce/international law. One of my cousins is doing commerce major with concentration in Investment Management and he was able to do a semester at Wharton and work at Bay Street firms. The Law school is also renowned internationally. You are able to apply to their law department during your sophomore year and you could basically finish law school in 3-4 with 2 degrees, a Bachelor of Civil Laws and Bachelor of Laws which makes you extremely attractive for firms. Mcgill also helps you with the Bar exams in Mass, New York and California if you want to practice there.</p>
<p>Like tdkid, I too am passing up great opportunities from other schools like Georgetown SFS, WashU and a nice scholarship in the Umich poli sci program. I think McGill offers such a uniquely diverse environment that cant be replicated in the US. Furthermore, as a research giant, on campus internships are vast and opportunities to network are subsequently extensive both in North America and globally. As I explore the Facebook group, I am humbled by the diverse array of students from Singapore and Qatar to Greece and Uruguay. I am really looking forward to engaging in conversation with them and learning their perspectives especially as a prospective international studies major.</p>
<p>Okay so i go to Mcgill, but i just went over to visit my friend at Tufts just last month.</p>
<p>I honestly have to say that i wish i went to tufts. The campus is just soo much nicer. At tufts you have so much grassy area, with great brick or wood buildings. (It’s quiet here…@ mcgill there’s always a firetruck or police car siren going off).
There is less people so that’s always nice. The biggest class i sat in on (a chem class) was the size of my smallest class here (-_-lll).
The FOOD is amazing. At tufts you have an unlimited meal plan (take as much as you want whenever you want) and their choices are beyond what you can get at Mcgill…(seriously the food here sucks, and is expensive. i don’t know anyone who would disagree).
At tufts you can live on residence for all 4 years if you want. But there are houses which surround the campus which is also nice.</p>
<p>***ELECTIVES:…Tufts is the better choice really. They have an Experimental college which has very cool electives. eg. Espionage: Theory and Practice ; The World Cup: Soccer, Politics, History; Drawing for the Rest of Us; An Introduction to Magic: Performance and Technique
(at mcgill you get electives like… Chemistry: the environment. Psych 101. Bio 111. Just regular classes)</p>
<p>Plus Tufts = Boston. So concerts (if you’re a music person). Enough said. </p>
<p>McGill:
CAMPUS: Here at Mcgill the campus is…scattered would be the word that comes to mind. Residences and buildings are all over the place. There’s no clear boundary between the campus and the city. </p>
<p>CLASSES: If you’re a science student, for the first 2 years your classes will be in this auditorium that sits 1000 students. You’ll most likely never sit next to the same person twice (not including friends you make)</p>
<p>RESIDENCE: Residences here are for freshmen. There is NO 4 year housing. Though you can live on rez if you wanted to (limited space) …but you’ll be living with freshmen</p>
<p>SOCIAL: events here are mostly drinking based. No joke all the charity events or just normal events i’ve been invited to all included the word “alcohol” or “clubbing” in the title…like Charity event for Haiti @ Club 737…(it’s just stupid). </p>
<p>LANGUAGE: Also another problem here is trying to get a job or even volunteer. You have to speak french. that’s the problem. i’m an international student and wanted to intern for a mcgill professor based research and i apparently didn’t qualify because i didn’t speak french. If you don’t speak french, it really limits you here. </p>
<p>If you want a community feel it’s tufts. If you want to be very independent, it’s Mcgill. </p>
<p>All in all, i would say that [even though i go to Mcgill…] Tufts is the (obvious) better choice.</p>
<p>I’m going to refute this argument with a few key points to keep in mind. First, everyone is entitled to their opinion and each has value. Second, it appears jersey101 regrets his decision to go to mcgill, not exactly an unbiased opinion.</p>
<p>That said, here is my biased rebuttal:
1-McGill’s campus is in the heart of downtown Montreal, and for an urban campus in one of the largest and liveliest cities in North America has a remarkably green campus, comparable to an oasis in the Sahara. Moreover, the Macdonald campus (about 40min away) is a green-haven and one of the most beautiful campus settings short of Monticello and UVa. Tufts Campus is about 15-20min outside of Boston and thus is largely residential, and thus the large green space. If you like a large, vast campus with little to do in the immediate surrounding, Tufts is the place. If you like a small, green oasis in a city of infinite resources, McGill is the place.</p>
<p>2-McGill is in a large city and with it come all the cool and interesting characteristicis of a large city, ie. fires, police-action, urban shopping centers filled with people, and anything else you can think of. If you’ve lived in the suburbs your whole life and wish to remain there, go to Tufts. If new adventures, people, and environments excite you, go to McGill where everyone’s experience isn’t molded from a single cookie-cutter. If lots of people scare you, go to your community college. If big classes scare you and lots of people, have fun in the real world without someones hand to hold. McGill allows you to prepare yourself for the world, with the necessary guidance not being too far away. While Tufts is an excellent education, the atmosphere seems like a glorified high school.</p>
<p>3-As for the dorms, you can get anything you want out of the dorms at McGill. The food varies from dorm to dorm but the best food (New Rez, etc.) is expensive but has a great variety, and people not at New Rez can buy a plan to eat there too. On any given day I ate Shark, filet mignon, stir fry, chicken curry…As far as living on campus for 4 years, you can do this at McGill too, in the form of an RA, in which your dorm is much nicer and is also paid for. If you want to live in a dorm with ridiculous rules (like the new no sex rule at Tufts) then maybe you should stay at home and go to college at your parents house. One of the coolest things about McGill is the vast eclecticism of the style and aura of apartments and apartment complexes. I lived in several locations over 4 years, each unique and amazing unto themselves. Also, the centralized congregation of students within the McGill Ghetto makes meeting up with friends and parties amazing.
FYI: McGill upper rez has unlimited meals plans as well.</p>
<p>4-As far as the electives, I almost laughed when I heard of these and my opinion of Tufts as a higher education institution is slightly declining as a result. Seriously, “the world cup”, “espionage”, “drawing”, and Magic"!!! Is this a Hogwarts fantasy camp or a preparation for the rest of your lives. Good luck defending why you took a class on the world cup at a future job interview. This is not to say there are no light classes offered at McGill, but the classes here have some general use. For instance, Science of Storms and Natural Disasters are popular easy classes, that are also quite interesting. Moreover, they are part of the larger Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences program at McGill which has a ridiculous amount of future job/career prospects. Much more realistic and relevant than “spy school” and “soccer class”. If you want to learn about that **** read wikipedia, watch a movie, or enroll in the University of Phoenix.</p>
<p>5-The reference to Boston being a larger music city is laughable as well. The individual obviously has no knowledge of one of the most famous and influential musical cities in the world… which mind you, is still relevant today. Contrary to popular belief, Boston is not a music city, but a grunge city, and furthermore Tufts is in Medford, not Boston. If the dissenter above has not been to a concert in Montreal then he must live in his dorm room because even the campus has concerts each semester. Literally in Montreal there are concerts everyday within walking distance, here is just a sample: [Browse</a> Event Listings ? Last.fm](<a href=“http://www.last.fm/events?place_id=70&place_type=40]Browse”>http://www.last.fm/events?place_id=70&place_type=40) .</p>
<p>5-The McGill campus is very centralized. Granted, the dorms are scattered, but there are enough students at each facility that none of them feel “left out”… each have their own unique environments and are more than content. The campus itself sits on an 80-acre plot wedged between the financial district and Mount Royal, and is roughly 5 city blocks wide. The most I have ever had to walk between classes, ie. the furthest distance was 15 minutes (keep in mind this is up a steep hill as well). There is a clear beginning and end to all four edges of the main campus, as designated by fences and the gates: <a href=“http://farm1.static.■■■■■■■■■■/1/2865567_83781472f1_o.jpg[/url]”>http://farm1.static.■■■■■■■■■■/1/2865567_83781472f1_o.jpg</a> , <a href=“http://image08.webshots.com/8/4/28/94/149842894XMdAlK_ph.jpg[/url]”>http://image08.webshots.com/8/4/28/94/149842894XMdAlK_ph.jpg</a> . </p>
<p>6-The first year classes at McGill are large, why, because they don’t want morons to go there that have to have the teacher check over their shoulder to make sure they understand. If you go to McGill and cannot do your work ontime and use your legs to get any necessary extra help, then you picked the wrong school. McGill isn’t for the student who has their mom make them lunch everyday and won’t let them go play with friends until their hw is done. They expect you to be able to handle yourself as an adult, and thus be able to learn as an individual adult. As for sitting next to the same people you don’t know twice… think about that for a second. If you are sitting next to the same person everyday in a small class and are not friends with them yet, do you really want to sit next to them everyday. The large class sizes allows a lot of freedoms, where to sit in a large auditorium, who to sit next to, it allows you to meet new people, and it allows you to choose when and which to attend.</p>
<p>7-Drinking events… ahha, welcome to college. There are enumerate events on campus that don’t involved drinking… you need to apply yourself. It just so happens that drinking is a large part of social events on ALL college campuses… and as well, these drinking events are the best way to make money for charities, because they bring the most kids in. Besides, nobody forces people to drink at McGill, or at any school for that matter. I knew kids who never touched the stuff and did just fine and were very content.</p>
<p>8- You don’t have to speak French to volunteer nearly anywhere. This is flat out wrong. For jobs, you may have to, but there are many many opportunities on campus to work… in which you only have to speak English. In fact I worked in an all-French research laboratory off campus, I was the only one who spoke primarily English and the entire staff spoke their broken English around me out of respect. While its true to have a career in Montreal you need French, to get a job, a small working knowledge of French is necessarily only. Currently I have a friend working as a head cook at a restaurant, barely speaks 30 words of French and is loving his job. Look harder. Moreover, if you are so damn lazy to live in a foreign country and not learn a bit of the native language, then A) nobody will want to hire you anyway, and B) you shouldn’t be living there. Most potential students will see the Language difference as an opportunity rather than an obstacle, but I guess that speaks to their future success as opposed to the inevitability of yours.</p>
<p>9-McGill has a community feel, its just a larger community… not a high school.</p>
<p>I know this came out personal but in reading this I have become infuriated over your blatant incorrectness. Save the stupid, useless classes you mentioned at Tufts, I have no disrespect for the students or the institution. However, to misinform students about a wonderful school and atmosphere like McGill and Montreal is reprehensible. These are tow very good schools and I hope that in using the TRUE facts, potential students may see the actual and glaring differences between these universities and pick which one better suits their wants and needs. Like some, McGill obviously wasn’t the best choice for you, but to tear it down because it isn’t what you had hoped is immature. McGill isn’t for everyone, but the vast majority of those who attend it have no regrets, and those that do have regrets are mature enough to know that the reason was not because it is a bad environment for learning, but because it just wasn’t for them.</p>
<p>To anyone reading, choose based on the facts. Nearly everything this poster said as a negative at McGill has been covered in other threads by several people as inaccuracies. Choose wisely. both good schools. Good Luck.</p>
<p>If you are curious about class size at Tufts, browse through their on line class schedule:
<a href=“Tufts User Authentication - Stale Request”>Tufts User Authentication - Stale Request;
<p>In the sciences at least, there are classes listed with maximum enrolments of 100, 150 and 336! While McGill has larger classes in first year science, some Tufts classes are quite large too. One Economincs class has an enrolment limit of 400! And you are paying $40,000/year tuition at Tufts too.</p>
<p>kimnop is absolutely correct. I wish to add only a small caveat to one of his points.</p>
<p>jersey101’s statement about music in boston is ridiculous in every way outlined by kimnop, but a further note is warranted. Apart from the fact that Montreal itself is one of the most important popular music cities in North America, McGill boasts one of the greatest music schools in the world, the Schulich School of Music. If you really are a “music person”, the idea of choosing Tufts over McGill is absolutely insane. I choose to attend McGill’s music school despite opportunities with the major conservatories in the states; the combined reputation of its music program and the school as a whole is peerless, globally. That, coupled with the vibrant music scene of the city as a whole, makes McGill among the best possilbe choices for the music lover.</p>
<p>Hey, sorry to bump an old thread, but I’m also deciding between McGill and Tufts. Can anyone give any input as to both school’s engineering programs and how they compare?</p>
<p>Also, how are both schools in terms of internships / job opportunities?</p>
<p>Tufts engineering is ranked 56th according to USNews if that is relevant. There are a few threads on CC comparing Tufts engineering with other engineering programs in Massachusetts. Tufts is referred to as “engineering light”: it is primarily an arts and science undegrad school.</p>
<p>Hi fungineer, I just chose McGill over Tufts, although I was planning on majoring in polisci. Tufts has a great IR department too, but McGill is just a better deal in terms of money. even though I can afford to pay 57k for tufts, it just isn’t worth it. the only plus about tufts is that the advising system is better. But in reality, advisers are a waste if you know how to plan your program. And you can seek advice if needed at McGill, it is a just harder as they don’t hold your hand like Tufts does. I also like McGill’s international feel. Simply put, if you do well at either university, you will be set. You just have to be more proactive at McGill.</p>
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