<p>I'm a little surprised no one has yet mentioned the current (university and college) student protests happening in Quebec, and Montreal in particular.</p>
<p>Those of you coming into McGill this September may find it interesting that to know that the city (and province) have been seeing massive student "strikes" over the past weeks/months due to the increase of tuition fees for domestic (Quebec) students.</p>
<p>Neither the government nor the student organizers have backed down: Tensions</a> mount as Quebec, student groups hit impasse over tuition hike - The Globe and Mail</p>
<p>Meanwhile we are seeing daily/nightly demonstrations in Montreal complete with arrests, burning cars and all sorts of vandalism: Video:</a> Montreal student protest sees 85 arrested</p>
<p>Depending on how things work out over the summer the climate by September may be much calmer, or the tuition issue may be co-opted into the debate over the next general provincial election: Quebec</a> government seeks to restart talks with students - Montreal - CBC News</p>
<p>Interesting times indeed!</p>
<p>Honestly have not heard much about this. Do you reckon things will settle down by the time the new term begins?</p>
<p>I imagine by then something will have to give - so the protesters will likely give it up, maybe with some concessions from the government.</p>
<p>However as far as I can tell many schools (esp. college, e.g. CEGEP level) are on-track to losing the semester due to the large number of absent students.</p>
<p>What I failed to mention is that McGill students are overall not very involved in this movement, with only a couple of departments participating for a total of about 500 students: [The</a> McGill Daily Students continue striking into exam period](<a href=“http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/04/students-continue-striking-into-exam-period/]The”>Students continue striking into exam period - The McGill Daily)</p>
<p>For a variety of reasons the most vocal protesters at the university level are from the French-language state university system ([url=<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Université_du_Québec]Universit”>Université du Québec - Wikipedia]Universit</a></p>
<p>So if a lot of students like in CEGEP programs do not finish school this year, does that mean that a lot of them will not be attending McGill next fall? Does that mean that there might be a lot more space open up from the waiting list?</p>
<p>I can only marvel at the thought of being disgruntled with an increase in college cost from $2200 to $3800 in 5 years. My thought is that they do not know how fortunate they are but what do I know.</p>
<p>I think the impact on McGill’s admission process will be virtually nil for a few reasons:</p>
<p>1) The in-state and out-of-state application probably go in different ‘bins’.
2) The English CEGEPs (e.g Dawson, John Abbott, Vanier, Marianopolis, etc.) are not protesting.
3) The large majority of students from French CEGEPs will apply to French-language universities, not McGill.</p>
<p>Indeed, tuition overall is quite low, however other types of fees are added making the overall cost to attend university higher than just the base tuition fee. While it is true that Quebec has the lowest tuition cost in Canada for local students, it also has very high taxes. A recent op-ed discussed the protests as being part of a bigger battle for using those tax dollars: [Quebec</a> student protests and Canada?s coming entitlement wars | Full Comment | National Post](<a href=“http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/03/27/bill-morrison-quebec-student-protests-and-canadas-coming-entitlement-wars/]Quebec”>http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/03/27/bill-morrison-quebec-student-protests-and-canadas-coming-entitlement-wars/)</p>
<p>The student protest movement is also partially being used as a political tool by opposition parties and trade unions which have their own vested interests.</p>
<p>One thing about living in Montreal is that you can be assured that you are living in interesting times. I entered McGill in 1995, 2 months before the referendum. As an American it was an amazing process to witness. When I graduated 4 years later, the acrimony was long past and the city was was well into its next crisis, whatever that was, I forget! This too will pass. </p>
<p>I was also there during the Ice Storm of 1998 when the city lost power for 3 or more days. There was a rumor that the metro area would be evacuated as the power grid was virtually destroyed. We thought that was an impossible notion. (This was years before Katrina of course) A few months later we learned that the power grid was held together by one surviving node and that evacuation had seriously been considered.</p>
<p>But we all survived.</p>
<p>We were at McGill two weeks ago and inquired about the student protests. The student association voted not to strike and except for a few students, as poster above noted, McGill is not on strike. We live in the US so find the tuition increase almost a joke – $325 per year for five years. That does not even keep pace with inflation.</p>
<p>Because of the unusual rules regarding residency our daughter will actually get the Quebec rate for tuition which is $3,937 (engineering faculty, arts tuition is less); the Canadian rate for engineering is $7,687. Both rates are quite the bargain compared to US schools.</p>