Mcgill vs. University of Toronto

Colleges and Universities A-Z McGill University
1

<p>I was wondering why University of Toronto has almost no activity on College Confidential, as opposed to McGill. Aren't they approximately equally ranked?.</p>

<p>Perhaps you could compare the two schools for me---some pro's and con's of each. </p>

<p>And perhaps you could chance my son at both schools.</p>

<p>He is from Florida.</p>

<p>His SATs are 800 CR, 800 writing, 700 math.</p>

<p>His ACT is a 34</p>

<p>He would likely major in English or Political Science.</p>

<p>His unweighted gpa is a 3.7, and his weighted is about a 4.3</p>

<p>(that does put him in the top 5% of his class, barely)</p>

<p>He takes mainly AP classes, and to date, has earned four 5's, two 4's, and two 3's.</p>

<p>His ECs are not particularly strong---he is very active in Debate, but that's about it.</p>

2

<p>Some answers for you:

  1. You are right, the two schools are ranked about the same; I don’t know why fewer people post at UofT’s page. My guess is that a lot of Americans post at CC and more Americans have heard more about McGill than UofT – but that’s just a guess.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Your son will without a doubt be accepted at both schools. My son, from Maine, was accepted to both with good SAT/ACT and AP scores and a fairly rigorous high school course load. Your son’s scores are not good, they are GREAT. While my son had a higher GPA, your son’s is very good. He’ll get in no problem.</p></li>
<li><p>These two Canadian schools don’t really care much about the extra-curriculars of American students. This worked in my son’s favor actually because he was only involved in a couple of things.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Good luck to your son!</p>

3

<p>Both have excellent reputations. The winter is harsher in Montreal.</p>

4

<p>I would say most likely to be admitted to both schools. McGill is about 12% American while U of T has very few American students, hence their limited activity here on CC. In my opinion, Montreal would be a more interesting city for a student. Coming from Florida, both cities would require a major climate adjustment. Winter can be fun though. I would prefer Montreal in January to Orlando on July.</p>

5

<p>Last time I heard (a few years back, when the exchange rate was much different), McGill had 7 or 8 times as many American students as UofT (1400-1600 to 200 or so). What else can be said? From an academic standpoint, you can’t go wrong with either. Toronto (the city and the university) is much bigger, spread across more campuses (McGill’s not a small university by any scale, but it’s about 1/3 of UofT in population, and the city of Monteal is more dense than Toronto). Not entirely sure what else to say without specific questions.</p>

6

<p>All of the above info is good; your son will almost certainly be admitted to both schools. </p>

<p>To add a bit: The U of T undergrad experience is very different from that at McGill for a number of reasons: U of T is much larger, U of T is much more of a commuter campus with tons of Toronto students, U of T has a smaller percentage of international students (McGill’s percentage beats Harvard, Yale, Princeton). </p>

<p>Generally, most US students do not like U of T for undergrad: U of T is the classic Canadian university experience–the emphasis is on education and high academic standards and not on football, not on warm fuzzies, not on getting to know your prof on a personal level, not on being coddled, pampered, and diapered. While many US students at McGill feel that the foregoing description applies to McGill, U of T is much more this way.</p>

<p>U of T does little marketing (it assumes that its strong international reputation should be enough) and high percentages of very bright young people regularly fail out at U of T, something that just does not happen in either good or bad schools in the US where schools are very customer-conscious, market-driven, and afraid of getting a bad reputation.</p>

<p>Toronto is the most diverse city in the world–it has the highest percentage of foreign-born citizens and no single race/colour dominates. Montreal is also much more diverse than most or perhaps all US cities. U of T has approximately 8000 international students altogether; McGill has about 4000 in undergrad.</p>

<p>Toronto has some wonderful British-style residential colleges, but only a small percentage of its students live in residence. At McGill generally only first-years can live in residence, but the area around McGill is packed with student apartments. Classes at both are often very large in first year, but generally much smaller in upper-year courses. </p>

<p>Montreal is unique among North American cities with its European feel which comes not just from the French language, but from the entire culture. There is a large student population around McGill from Concordia and French-language universities, so Montreal tends to be an exciting and interesting place for students. One of the big attractions for US students is that Quebec’s drinking age is 18.</p>

<p>Toronto just feels very much like many American cities, except cleaner, safer, and “nicer.” In Canada, it is often referred to as “Toronto the boring” (which I think is inaccurate) or as “the city that works.”</p>