<p>the only one that calls mcgil the harvard of canada are americans who don't know better and of course Mcgill's pr dept. U of T call itself the Harvard of Canada, and more Canadian's buy into that, hype or not, more than Mcgill's claims. Queen's is more comparable, overall undergrad experience wise to an Ivy.</p>
<p>I don't know how you can qualify your statements. McGill is the most prestigious research university in Canada...why? Because it's the one with the most worldwide recognition. Academically, it may be equal to or slightly behind UofT and Queens, but it is by far the most renowned.</p>
<p>i lived in canada for many years, and my sis is considering applyin to mcgill (we now live in the us). Mcgill is really good, but overall u of t is better in more areas. but lazard freres recruits at mcgill, so, dunno, maybe mcgills better in finance/economics. waterloo is only good for math, not really for any thing else, and it has the first and largest acturial science program. (my uncle, who was accepeted to mit and harvard really considered waterloo, but eventually didnt go). but the best canadian education is with u of t, and u of t's colleges arent really that hard to get into (cept for a few)</p>
<p>what about the electrical and computer engineering offered by concordia university</p>
<p>Concordia is really not that highly regarded outside of Montreal.</p>
<p>McGill, U of T and Queens and UBC and western can give you the academics of any top ten university in the US depending on the program of course. but the overall undergrad experience is more like a Umichigan, or Berekley than Harvard or Princeton. the one that comes the closet overall would be Queen's because of its small size and community feel. but that may make it more like Dartmouth than HYP too.</p>
<p>Jpps1 your statement doesn't make sense. If I listen to your argument then Mcgill is not the most prestgouis university in Canada but it is the most prestigious OUTSIDE of Canada. I am not sure about the latter, but I have lived in US, Middle east, Belgium and England and grew up in Canada( this is my country) and I can tell you it's not considered in the league of Queens or U of T within its own country. Close but not quite.</p>
<p>Ivyleaguer, it is not possible to compare any Canadian university to Michigan. </p>
<p>For one thing, the average Michigan professor earns over $130,000, almost twice the average salary of the highest paid faculty in Canada. </p>
<p>Secondly, Michigan's endowment ($5 billion+) is the 6th larget in the US (behind only H,M,P,S and Y), which means that it can build facilities, attract faculty and spend on research like only a handful of universities around the World. The University of Toronto is by far the wealthiest Canadian University and its endowment has yet to breach the $2 billion level...and Toronto has twice as many students as Michigan. McGill is Canada's second wealthiest university with a total market value of $850 milion.</p>
<p>Thirdly, the student body at the University is very wealthy, with more than 50% coming from families with incomes over $100,000. Only few private universities and a couple of public universities can match that. </p>
<p>Furthermore, Michigan alumni are, on average, among the most afluent and successful in North America, comparable in stature to the alumns of elite private universities.</p>
<p>Finally, school spirit and community feel at the University of Michigan can be matched, but it cannot be beaten or even duplicated. </p>
<p>Of course, that is not to say that Canadian universities aren't very good. In terms of pure academics, as you pointed out, top Canadian universities are world-class. But comparing Canadian universities, even the best ones, to Michigan is not altogether accurate.</p>
<p>I would rather go to Universit</p>
<p>Alexandre, my point was the overall experience was more like a US public university than to an Ivy league school. hence the community feel, of queen's in my post. Please read carefully before jumping to conclusions next time and defending your precious Michigan. and btw, many professors in Canada make upwards of 130,000. I read a report on salaries by the Canadian Council of Universities just recently and my own friend who is a professor at U of T earns 128,000. But profs salaries are partly contingent on cost of living, that's one of the reasons your other precious university, Cornell complains about its US ranking because the living expenses (which is reflected in faculty resources indicator) in Ithaca are not the same as where most of other Ivies are. But that aside I was referring to student experience. The size of their profs wallet has nothing to do with that. I was talking about class size, community feel, campus size, student population, student diversity, those kinds of things. in those areas U of T and Mcgill have more in common with Michigan than Harvard.</p>
<p>And just for the record I made no slaps against michigan or Cornell in my post.</p>
<p>I live in Toronto and half my family went to McGill. It does have really great professors and interesting classes etc. but what all Canadians say about it not being the best is absolutely true. I think that the misconceptions in the states about McGill come from its high admissions standards for americans. Well I think that it's important to understand that if you are a canadian applying to McGill the ONLY thing that they look at is the average of your top 6 grade 12 marks and if you have 86 or above you get into arts, 85-87 ar above you get into business etc. Granted I go to a very academic and highly regarded Canadian school but I would estimate that 85-90% of the senior class can/will get accepted into McGill. That wouldn't happen for ANY top american university at any school in the world. McGill is in a funding crisis and as a result of that they have cut down on number of classes and class sizes are HUGE! despite all of this, montreal is an INCREDIBLE city and McGill has such an amazing mix of kids--just realize that the Canadians didn't have to go through even half of what you did to get there</p>
<p>I am not jumping to conclusions Ivyleaguer. I too was talking about community feel and class size. </p>
<p>Toronto, McGill, and most Canadian universities do not have active campus lives or much school spirit. Michigan has one of the most cohesive university communities found anywhere, a very well pronounced campus life and unbeatable school spirit. </p>
<p>In terms of class size, Michigan has over 5,000 professors and fewer than 40,000 students. Toronto has 3,000 professors and over 60,000 students. McGill has 30,000 students and fewer than 2,000 professors. 50% of Michigan classes have fewer than 20 students, a statistic comparable to the likes of Cornell, Dartmouth and Johns Hopkins. And only 15% of Michigan classes have over 50 students. Again, a statistic comparable to private US universities like Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT and Stanford. </p>
<p>Like I said, there is nothing in common between Michigan and Toronto. I am not talking about academics mind you because Toronto is certainly amazing academically. It is precisely about community feel and resources availlable to students that I am talking about.</p>
<p>interesting facts: (everything is at the undergrad level) everyone knows about mcgill, but many top students don't apply, because 1.it is in montreal 2.very good in unpopular majors and 3. UT and Waterloo has a better name in Canada. UT commerce/engineering, Waterloo Sciences/math are really really good programs, but here's another fact: there were QUITE A FEW grads last year who were rejected by UBC and accepted at UT/Waterloo.</p>
<p>Ivyleaguer, I live in Canada as well. McGill is very highly-regarded and I think that many Canadians view both it and UofT to be equals, with Queen's just behind those two. But worldwide, McGill wins out because it is more "established." That seems to be confirmed by the lot of Americans on this site (I see far more prospective McGill applicants than UofT applicants) as well as worldwide rankings. </p>
<p>Do you live in Toronto?</p>
<p>UT comes out much higher on this respected world ranking</p>
<p>ive talked to family in canada, they said u of t's competitor is queens, kinda like harvard vs. yale, with mcgill really close behind them</p>
<p>McGill is probably not the school within Canada with the best reputation, it is however the only school most US students and many international students have heard of. Not quite sure how that makes it Harvard. It is a very good research university but most undergrads are not going to be involved in the programs that make the schools reputation. </p>
<p>I know several kids who have gone to Mcgill and Queens from the DC area. Socially /culturally they all love Montreal/McGill or Queens. All but one of them have been successful and went on to good grad schools/med schools. The student that stuggled was predictable in my opinion. A nice kid who worked her tail off in high school to get Bs in tough classes. Spent a lot of time with her teachers in HS. Got 3s on AP exams while studying very hard.</p>
<p>If you are a strong and independent student with a clear educational goal, you may well love McGill. If you go to McGill you are not getting a classic liberal arts education. McGill has now started a limited liberal arts program but basically, if you go to school in Canada you need to know what you want to do very early in the game. You are going to be required to chose a school and will most probably take virtually all your classes within that school. If you are in the sciences you will be picking a very narrow and directed major, and you will be doing it very early. </p>
<p>Your classes (in the sciences at least) will be huge (700 or so for most freshman/sophmore classes). The professors in these lecture halls are top notch researchers but not all great or even passable lecturers. Many TAs speak limited English. McGill is a public university and it pretty much accepts all students who meet the qualifications to get in. So it isn't that hard to predict if you will be accepted. But McGill also flunks out a lot of students (at least in the sciences). So if you are working hard in high school to get 3s on AP exams and getting gift Bs in AP classes because the teacher loves you, you might want to look at a different school. If you like interaction with your professor likewise you won't get it at McGill. </p>
<p>I think the story in other schools is somewhat different. You are not likely to get an English professor who can't lecture or a TA that doesn't speak English. You will still have large classes - at least initially. The kids I know in history, anthropology etc were all happy.</p>
<p>you're missing my point, alexandre, closer doesn't mean the same. in those indicators you mentioned U of t and Mcgill are still closer to Michigan than to Harvard. Get over it already.</p>
<p>Jpps1. Yes I am from toronto. not there any longer. Mcgill does have a great rep in the country, but again it depends on where you are in the country too. East coast versus west coast type of thing.</p>
<p>Ivyleager, Michigan is not like any of those schools, including Harvard. I never compared Michigan to Harvard. But there is no comparison between McGill and Michigan. I should know, my sister studied at McGill, I spent a couple of summers studying there and I actually considered going to McGill for my undergraduate studies. The only similarity between Michigan and McGill is the size of their student bodies.</p>
<p>McGill and Michigan are the Harvards of somewhere, according to T-shirts sold at the schools. That may explain why both have so many critics. McGill usually gets slammed by Canadians who resent the fact it's their nation's most-recognized university abroad. Michigan's adversaries are much more diverse, including self-hating wolverines who didn't get into the ivy league, Big10 rivals and UVA alums.</p>
<p>U. Michigan, U. Virginia. A big, well respected public school. It has been accused of slipping and resting on its laurels of late</p>