<p>Hello there!
I just want your opinion on these Canadian schools I am transferring to -Queen's University, University of Western Ontario and McMaster University.
I am transferring from University of Miami. I know, why would somebody want to leave the sunshine and the heat in Miami and go to the freezing Canada?
Here is the answer- money.
I'm a Canadian citizen, so naturally it is A LOT cheaper for me to attend university in Canada. My parents are having difficulties to afford the UM tuition, so I HAVE TO transfer back to a Canadian university. (and I can apply for OSAP in Canada and 30% off tuition, sweet :))
However, I believe I will look for grad school/job opportunities in US in the future, so I need to know your opinion on these schools I am applying.
Thank you very much!! :)</p>
<p>To be honest, most Americans probably know very little, if anything, about Canadian universities. The only schools I’ve ever really heard of are Queens and McGill, and I can’t even really tell you where they are in Canada.</p>
<p>Really, all of those are great universities. Have you visited them?</p>
<p>The only canadian universities i’ve heard of are McGill, and Utorronto.</p>
<p>I think generally, they are well thought of. I don’t think jobs will be an issue - or at least no more of an issue than coming from a US school. But if it is an issue, work for a year or two in Canada and then seek employment in the US.</p>
<p>i went to both western and mcmaster… great schools!! way back when western was known as a party school.</p>
<p>The only schools that I’m familiar with are UToronto and McGill. From what I’ve observed, despite being those two schools being the most competitive schools in Canada, the out-of-country standards for admissions are not particularly high.</p>
<p>As for choosing among the three, I don’t think it makes much difference. None of the three is particularly well known in the U.S. As several posters here have said, most people in the U.S. have only heard of McGill, the University of Toronto, and perhaps UBC, though even that is less well known. But Queen’s, McMaster, and Western are perennially ranked among the top 10 in Canada, and if you do well at any of them you’ll have plenty of opportunities at top graduate/professional schools in the U.S.</p>
<p>Personally, among the three, I’d lean toward McMaster based on location. Hamilton isn’t the world’s (or even Canada’s) most dynamic city, but it has something more of a big-city feel than London or Kingston, including a fair bit of ethnic diversity (= good, cheap ethnic eats). More than that, it’s what it’s near; I find Ontario’s Niagara region with its orchards, vineyards, and beaches delightful, and from Hamilton it’s less than an hour to Toronto, about an hour to the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and only 90 minutes or so to Stratford. That’s a lot of the best of what Canada has to offer, right there within easy reach. </p>
<p>Besides, I’m highly partial to the samosas from a little hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant in Hamilton that my daughters and I stumbled across while driving through. We sat down for a meal and witnessed a steady stream of Indian families coming in to take out a bag of samosas, so we decided to try them. The proprietor apologized and said she’d just run out, but if we could wait 15 minutes she’d whip up a fresh batch. We did. Best I’ve ever had. We now go out of our way for them, and could eat them by the bagful, they’re that good. They’ve become the benchmark for samosas in our family; the standard refrain when we find a good one (and we eat a lot of samosas) is: “That’s a pretty good samosa; not as good as Hamilton, but still pretty good.” I’ve had a number of similarly delightful ethnic eating experiences in Toronto, a polyglot city of immigrants, and I think of Hamilton as pretty much just an extension of Toronto in that regard.</p>
<p>Queens is considered the most elite undergrad oriented school and the most traditional. Something akin to the Princeton of Canada.</p>
<p>Never heard of any of those. I know of McGill and that’s it. That’s probably going to be true of most people our age in America (and many of them won’t even know of McGill.)</p>
<p>
Although mostly true, I’ve seen quite a few references here over the years to business at Queen’s. Along with computer science/engineering at Waterloo, it seems to be one of the few programs attractive to Americans that’s not at McGill, Toronto, or UBC.</p>
<p>Waterloo is worldclass for CS and math.</p>