Undergraduate Psychology program, U of Michigan or U of T, which school is better academically in the major of psychology?
I am a Canadian citizen. Money is not a matter. Under my research, U of Michigan is better in psychology. But I want to make sure whether or not valuable paying that extra money for the academic difference. I mean if there is no big difference, I probably choose U of T for my undergraduate. the tuition difference is CAD 10000 and USD 40000. Want to hear your advice. Thank you very much!
It’s quite a bit more than a CAD 30K difference/year of course. You have to figure in the exchange rate. Michigan will cost you over CAD 52K/year. An undergraduate degree from any school, particularly in pyschology, is not worth that much of a premium when you can attend a school as good as U-T for much less.
I’m not so sure this is such a slam-dunk in U-T’s favor. Toronto is obviously a great school, possibly the best in Canada but if not then certainly in the top 3 (with McGill and UBC), and certainly for a Canadian it’s much cheaper. But how much that cost difference matters depends on the individual’s financial situation, and the OP seems to be saying money is no object. I’m inclined to take her at her word unless I hear otherwise from her.
I don’t know much about Canadian higher education, but what’s always bothered me somewhat is the very high student/faculty ratios in Canadian universities, I’ve heard that most teaching in Canadian universities is done in mega-lectures, and information U-T puts out seems consistent with that: they report a student-faculty ratio of 39 / 1 based on a methodology used by the Association of American Universities (AAU), and 27 / 1 based on a standard Canadian methodology. Either way, they come out with a higher s/f ratio than either the schools they consider their Canadian peers or the schools they consider their U.S. peers. Michigan’s student/faculty ratio, calculated using the methodology prescribed by the Common Data Set, is 18 / 1. That’s a different methodology than either of those used by U-T, but the CDS methodology isn’t going to be more friendly to U-T which reports a total of 68,000 to 72,000 students (depending on the methodology), and a faculty of 1,800 to 2,500 (depending on the methodology). So whichever way you cut it, their s/f ratio is going to be much higher than that of Michigan, which has both fewer students (44,000 undergrad + grad) and more faculty than U-T (2,860 FTE, including 2,660 full-time).
So I’d guess on average students probably get bigger classes and less individual interaction with faculty at U-T. On the other hand, psychology has long been an extremely popular major at Michigan, and at least in my day in the dim and distant past, psych majors tended to take large or large-ish classes all the way through. Michigan’s latest CDS seems to confirm this: psych majors comprise fully 10.2% of all bachelor’s degrees awarded at Michigan. So that means, what, roughly 650 to 700 graduating psych majors per year, and 2 to 3 times that number of declared psych majors at any given moment? That’s not exactly a recipe for small classes and individual attention. So I just don’t know.
It would be interesting to hear from current or recent psych majors at Michigan and at U-T about what their experience at either school has been.
Thank you for the very detailed information 
Both are excellent academic institutions with global reputations, but they offer very difference experiences. If your parents can easily afford paying for Michigan (not an easy feat to be sure), then I would recommend you go for fit (you may prefer Toronto and its urban feel or Michigan and its college town vibe). If cost is a concern, then go to Toronto.
Well the thing about faculty ratio is it includes all majors. For psych here, unless it’s a seminar you’ll be in large lecture for 2-3 hours for each 1 hour you spend in a smaller class with a grad student. That’s most classes even at the 300-400 level. Few are taught by the professor in a small class.
It’s also a difficult major to find much research opportunity, since there are hundreds of other psych majors trying the same.
But then, also keep in mind that 50-60% of your credits will be outside your major, or in a 2nd major. Overall, UM will open more doors. Whether that’s worth 40k/year is up to you.