<p>Please post simply the name of the school (of the 4 listed) that you personally would be most likely to attend.</p>
<p>Explanations or comments are welcome, but not necessary- I'm really just curious as to what the consensus will yield.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>It would really be McGill versus Providence/Villanova/BC. Do you want a medium sized Catholic college or a large secular research university?</p>
<p>Definitely McGill.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but CC people’s willingness to underestimate Canadian universities bothers me. Mcgill is a world class (repeat: world class) institution… why are people being asked to compare it to these universities. Sorry if that offends anyone but its just my opinion.</p>
<p>McGill or BC</p>
<p>^ BC is a far second out of these four universities.</p>
<p>McGill for the awesome academics and overall package. BC isn’t as strong in my areas of interest, but I nonetheless feel that it is arguably the most underrated elite school on CC and it should not be overlooked. Villanova would be a distant third.</p>
<p>McGill. Major research university, excellent academics, good location, international reputation.</p>
<p>McGill is comparable to UVa, etc., nothing more. People say McGill isn’t top notch because most top Canadian students are lured by the prestige and wealth of the Ivy League + other top American schools. A good examples is that you are from Canada, yet you opted for Emory.
Don’t get misinterpret what I’m saying. McGill is a world-class academic institution, but it doesn’t mean that it’s undergrad is top. The University of Minnesota (usually ranked among the top 15 or 20 universities in the world) is arguably a stronger academic institution than McGill, yet top students in Minnesota would only consider attending its undergrad program if they are denied at undergraduate programs in the few tiers above U of M’s.</p>
<p>“The University of Minnesota (usually ranked among the top 15 or 20 universities in the world)…”</p>
<p>I have never seen a ranking that states this. Can you enlighten me please?</p>
<p>McGill. Definitely McGill. Hands down.</p>
<p>rjkofnovi:</p>
<p>In answer to your question about where one might find this UMinn ranking, here is a casual attempt of mine to quantify the top 50 or so Research Universities’ ranking from the NRC data</p>
<p>I have to explain this first, as my twisted reasoning is not always apparent,</p>
<p>1) Take the NRC ranking by “Five Major Areas” here: [NRC</a> Rankings](<a href=“NRC Rankings”>NRC Rankings)
2) For each University, sum the top FOUR out of the five ranking positions, and then divide by four. For Minnesota, we find #33, #28, #11, #27, and #13.
3) Take the Top 4 sum / 4 from Step 2, and subtract 2 points bonus for being ranked in the 5th category as well (a reward for breadth of offerings).
4) Now rank order all the top Universities in the NRC rankings from low to high.</p>
<p>Minnesota ends up in 20th position overall by this method. I did this very quickly about two years ago, so there are likely to be a few numbers that are off by a little.</p>
<p>The ranking resulting from this method is here:</p>
<p>1 UC Berkeley 1.25 -2 -0.75
2 Stanford 3.8 -2 1.8
3 Harvard 4 0 4
4 Princeton 4.8 0 4.8
5 Cornell 7.8 -2 5.8
6 UC San Diego 8.8 -2 6.8
7 Columbia 9 -2 7
8 Yale 7.5 0 7.5
9 Chicago 7.8 0 7.8
10 Michigan 10.5 -2 8.5
11 Penn 12.8 -2 10.8
12 Wisconsin 13 -2 11
13 UCLA 13.2 -2 11.2
14 Washington 13.8 -2 11.8
15 Texas 15 -2 13
16 Illinois 16 -2 14
17 Johns Hopkins 18.3 -2 16.3
18 Duke 20.3 -2 18.3
19 Northwestern 18.8 0 18.8
20 Minnesota 21 -2 19
21 Virginia 26.8 -2 24.8
22 NYU 25 0 25
23 N. Carolina 25.5 0 25.5
24 Brown 26.8 0 26.8
25 UCSB 27 0 27
26 Arizona 29.3 -2 27.3
27 Penn St. 29.5 -2 27.5
28 UC Davis 29.8 -2 27.8
29 Rutgers 30.5 -2 28.5
30 Wash U 31 -2 29
31 UC Irvine 29.3 0 29.3
32 Ohio St. 34.3 -2 32.3
33 Rice 34.5 0 34.5
35 USC 40 -2 38</p>
<p>^^^So it’s your ranking that places it 20th. :-)</p>
<p>boston college, better undergrad than mcgill definately</p>
<p>Boston college probably has a better student body too. Mcgill is easy to get into as a canadian</p>
<p>rjkofnovi –</p>
<p>Well, not MY ranking, simply an average of sorts of the published NRC rankings.</p>
<p>fortify, please read this. … Mcgill has an entering average of 90%(in Canada, that is an A+… probably around a 3.85 or 3.9… remember that grading scale is different… getting 90 in Canada is harder than gettng 90 in US)… it is ONLY easy for Quebec students to get into… and like I said, do not look at its overall acceptance rate… its arts acceptance rate may be like 50% but its acceptance rate of business, science etc programs are probably around 30% … All Canadian universities have relatively high acceptance rates but it does not mean that they are mediocre institutions…with that being said, I would be inclined to agree that Canadian universities, especially the large ones like U of T, Mcgill, UBC, fo not offer the best undergrad experience… that is precisely the reason I chose Emory… but I would choose Mcgill over those three schools anyday… yes, undergrad experience might not be as pleasant at Mcgill because of large class sizes… but the academics at Mcgill and BC are far apart (with Mcgill leading handily) and so that different would not be that significant for me. Anyways, the basic point I’m trying to make is that people need to stop saying that canadian unis suck because they accept a lot of students.</p>
<p>The 90% average is for the top 5 courses. Most high schools in Canada don’t have AP or honors classes and no standardized testing is required for admission.</p>
<p>@alam1: I agree that the best Canadian schools (UofT, McGill, UBC, UofA) are excellent, but you may be underestimating Boston College.</p>
<p>Regarding DunninLA’s ranking of UMinn, that is neither here nor there as his data did not apply to McGill as well. I don’t quite understand IvyPBear’s point about grad vs undergrad prestige; I assume that he is basically referring to prestige-centric undergrad majors such as business.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the responses! I did not expect as much input, but it is certainly appreciated!</p>
<p>I actually posted this thread out of curiosity, as a close friend of mine is currently weighing these four acceptances while waiting on several other April 1st decisions. (I myself am not yet applying.) </p>
<p>It seems like McGill and BC have taken a fairly substantial lead. For future posters, would your decision change if Villanova and/or Providence offered you merit money?</p>
<p>Thanks again, and best of luck to anyone making a tough decision this year!</p>