<p>As a prospective student, I'd really like to know! I still don't know much about McGill so it'd be really helpful to hear from current students.</p>
<p>I’m currently finishing my second year of three at McGill (BSc, Biology as my major).</p>
<p>Things I like
- It’s in MONTREAL. It’s a really really great city, I can’t emphasize this enough. There are so many different things to do, and it is very multicultural. McGill is pretty much in the heart of downtown, too. Campus is a very short walk from major shopping areas, the beautiful Mt Royal, and plenty of clubs and bars.
- Classes are often recorded (most of mine have been…). This is great if you accidently sleep in, are too hungover from the night before (haha) or go away for the weekend and decide to spend extra time at home. It is also something I don’t like though, because it’s very easy to fall into the “I’ll just do it later” trap and not go to class at all, and then you end up cramming in the library, listening to multiple lectures a day the week before your final to try to catch up…
- There’s a pretty big range of sport teams, clubs, groups to get involved with. You will probably find something that matches your interests, no matter how extreme they may be.
- Frosh, O.A.P/SnoAP (OAP = Open Air Pub - basically drinking for cheap outside/in a tent in winter), Carnival (like frosh, but in January and with students in all years) - plenty of opportunities to party hard but also work hard (libraries can be full at all hours during midterms and finals). Work hard, party harder!
- Various opportunities: many field courses (like a semester in Africa!), lots of research to potentially get involved in (I’m talking about science in particular here) </p>
<p>Things I don’t like
- It’s a really big place. Classes in first/second year (200 levels), especially in science, can be really really big. You can go to class and actually not see a single familiar face; I’ve had to call friends - friends in the same lecture room as me! - to be able to find them in the mass of people. I didn’t think I’d care so much about this ahead of time, but it’s turned out to really affect my desire to attend classes.
- No school spirit or ‘community’ feel at all. It’s very easy to get lost in the crowd if you don’t get involved in something - and you have to actively search out things to get involved in. It can often come off as cold and ‘elitist’. Some people are extremely competitive, some professors show little concern for their students’ success.
- The administration: there’s a lot of red tape. There’s a specific procedure for everything. You go to one place and it will refer you to another, and that place, another, etc (this is based on personal experience in trying to find the answer to a simple question…).
- If you aren’t bilingual, you will likely not be able to work here. The only jobs you can get are on campus, and they’re very limited in number. </p>
<p>Every school has their pros and cons. The main thing, though, is what you make of it. Your choice of school doesn’t matter as much as you may think it does, so chose based on how it fulfills what YOU want out of university. Different people want different things, and my cons may be not seem as bad to you. I hope this has been at least somewhat helpful, don’t hesitate to ask any additional/specific questions!</p>
<p>how hard is the workload</p>
<p>This is such a difficult question to answer. There are ‘easy A’ classes and then there’s some that will make you want to scream and pull your hair out. It isn’t necessarily the amount of work, but the material itself. You won’t be getting little assignments or busywork anymore. Many classes are: midterm & final or midterm&paper&final. That’s it. There usually isn’t anything requiring you to keep up with what’s taught in class so you have to do it on your own, or cram before finals. Overall, I’d say that you often need to work quite hard just to get a B. It isn’t impossible to get As either though (and without living in the library), you just have to learn how to balance your time.</p>
<p>Do you know anything about McGill’s Management program? Is it really looked down upon by other faculties as some say?</p>
<p>That depends who you talk to. I don’t think anyone looks down on the people. I think it’s actually the most selective faculty just based on the number of applications vs spaces, so the students are smart. I’m in the faculty of science and there is definitely a tendency of science students to be pretty snobby about the level of difficulty of their work as compared to other faculties. It’s true management classes are somewhat remedial when compared to their science/engineering equivalents, but I think that comes with the territory. It’s probably exasperated by the strong reputation of the science programs (more graduate than undergraduate for that matter) and the lack of reputation of the management program. People tend to joke that the management students tend to act a bit like contestants on “The Apprentice,” but that’s typical of business students. If I recall correctly, Desautels is based on the Wharton School of Upenn, if that means anything to you. Overall, I’d say it doesn’t have much of a reputation as a business school, but it still has the merit of being a McGill degree.</p>