<p>I'm between Political Science, Anthropology, and Neuroscience.</p>
<p>Also, what is International Development Studies?</p>
<p>I know that McGill is pretty famous for neuroscience. The other two are probably good as well.</p>
<p>International Development Studies is what it sounds like - the study of the past, present, future development of our world. </p>
<p>Yes, this is very general - which is why there are four streams you can specialize in - Economic Development & Living Standards;
States & Governance;
Culture & Society; and
Environment & Agricultural Resources.</p>
<p>Intro classes to all of them are the same (ish) so you don’t have to decide right away, but then you specialize. It’s interdisciplinary. So for example States & Governance will take more polisci courses, while environment and agricultural resources more geography courses. </p>
<p><a href=“https://home.mcgill.ca/isid/undergraduate/intd/[/url]”>https://home.mcgill.ca/isid/undergraduate/intd/</a></p>
<p>Is IDS a good program?</p>
<p>I think it is, at least it’s a great program for me. It depends on your future/career goals I would say. I love it because I knew I didn’t want to do polisci or international relations (which is just international politics in most schools really) and this lets me study exactly what I want to study, and hopefully go work for some fair trade efforts later. </p>
<p>There are many “good” programs in many “good” universities, the question is - is it good for you?</p>
<p>What I mean, is it reputable. For example, Business in McGill is considered a bad program. I know some people will say its not bad, just not as good as others. And the die-hard McGill patriots or actual Business majors will defend it vehemently, but the reality is many Mcgill and non-McGill students seem to have a consensus that it is a bad program at McGill, and in the real world, these opinions are what get you jobs and recognition.</p>
<p>The opinions of students, especially students not in a program, are of no interest to future employers. “…and in the real world, these opinions are what get you jobs and recognition.” No they are not. It is you that gets you a job, not the opinions of other 18 year olds who have no idea what the real world is.</p>
<p>shadowzoid - it’s pointless to go to college just to go to college, reputation is only an added boost (if that) to your future career</p>
<p>do you know what you actually want to do? In your first post you have neuroscience written as a possible major - that’s VERY VERY different from polisci/anthro as I’m sure you are aware of</p>
<p>you don’t have to know exactly what you’re going to be obviously, but figure out your passions before you look at names of universities. </p>
<p>I can tell you from experience that any actual paying (and volunteer) jobs I’ve held - looked more at my experience and skills than the name of where I was/am being educated.</p>
<p>IDS is terrible. You get a degree in what everybody already knows (basic common sense). You will face intense competition on getting any sort of job that is related. Even jobs that are related are really low paying ones.</p>
<p>Neuroscience is great and hard to get in, but I think personally it is too narrow.</p>
<p>Poli Sci is stupid. You will probably be jobless.</p>
<p>Anthro, really good ratio if you are guy. But other than that, jobless.</p>
<hr>
<p>The Management faculty at mcgill is terrible generally speaking. All the core classes are pointless. A lot of people there with french backgrounds are really unintelligent. Finding a good job will be very hard for the majority of mcgill grads. Some program are a little better than others, honours econ and finance for example. If you graduate the top in that plus a bunch of other things, then you can get a good job. But that is by far the exception rather than the norm at mcgill business.</p>
<p>Some employment stats:</p>
<p>[Employment</a> data](<a href=“http://www.mcgill.ca/desautels/career/bcom/data/]Employment”>http://www.mcgill.ca/desautels/career/bcom/data/)</p>
<p>When posters make strong and sweeping statements their advice needs to be taken with a very large pinch of salt.</p>
<p>@Econgrad: you’ve shot down everything. Tell me, what should I take? I hate economics. I hate business. I hate chemistry. I hate math. I don’t like physics. I don’t care about psychology, sociology, engineering. I don’t want to do history. </p>
<p>I’m interested in foreign cultures and comparing different cultures (so a single area study wouldn’t be good for me). I like to know why people make choices and how it is influenced by their environment.</p>
<p>So maybe you can shed some light on what I should do.</p>
<p>singers,</p>
<p>I am very glad someone actually got the data.</p>
<p>So if you on that website, the average graduate from mcgill management gets $46,500. This is the mean, which is affected by outliers that skews the data to the right. (The few smart people from honours econ and finance that gets 90k). So in reality, the median should less than $46,500.</p>
<p>Now ask yourself, is $46,500 a good job? No, that is very low paying job. That is even less than the GDP per capita of the United States, which means it is not even enough to be on par with the average citizen of USA. And this is after you get a degree from mcgill management.</p>
<p>Especially when compared to the industry’s average of roughly 90k or so. This is almost half of that. This should say something about the student body coming out of mcgill management, on average.</p>
<p>shadowzoid, i think you should do poli sci. Although you better be an overachiever because the job prospects for poli scis are very weak.</p>
<p>Econgrad</p>
<p>You wrote:</p>
<p>I am very glad someone actually got the data.</p>
<p>Well it wasnt hard, its right there on the Management website.</p>
<p>So if you on that website, the average graduate from mcgill management gets $46,500. This is the mean, which is affected by outliers that skews the data to the right. (The few smart people from honours econ and finance that gets 90k). So in reality, the median should less than $46,500.</p>
<p>So you want to ignore the overs and talk up the unders?</p>
<p>Now ask yourself, is $46,500 a good job? No, that is very low paying job. That is even less than the GDP per capita of the United States, which means it is not even enough to be on par with the average citizen of USA. And this is after you get a degree from mcgill management.</p>
<p>Actually thats not a bad starting salary for a Grad programme or the Big Four. All fresh grads start at the bottom you see.</p>
<p>Especially when compared to the industry’s average of roughly 90k or so. This is almost half of that. This should say something about the student body coming out of mcgill management, on average.</p>
<p>What industry average? Starting base salaries on Wall Street in USD are around $60/65. Your comment makes no sense.</p>
<p>econgrad - I’m not really sure what kind of salary you’re expecting to get (or criticizing rather) after a bachelor’s degree…? even as an engineer or something like that, (or neuroscience…)</p>
<p>shadow - you sound like you want to do IDS</p>
<p>as far as IDS being “common sense”, I mean I don’t know if you’ve taken any IDS courses (consisting of intd/geog/anthro/history/isla/econ/etc… depending on stream) but I can tell you studying for my current finals about everything from subprime mortgage lending into structural adjustment vehicles to HIV/AIDS proliferation patterns to indigenous rights and petitions…</p>
<p>what are you currently studying that you think has such wonderful prospects? if it’s econ, I can tell you, you’re starting salary after a BA isn’t going to be as high as you think</p>
<p>Also, econgrad, is all you care about money. What happened to just learning for the pure love of it? Are you going to be happier filthy rich but hating your job, or living austerely but loving what you do. Who would you say is happier: a rich business man or a poor man working in Africa helping the hungry or taking pictures of animals?</p>
<p>tkdkid, i am in honours econ and finance.</p>
<p>The majority of IDS majors and also poli sci majors end up doing something other than IDS or poli sci. I think that IDS is too broad, it is so broad in fact that it deals with a lot of things at a superficial level. You will hear a lot of the same thing over and over again across your classes.</p>
<hr>
<p>shadowzoid, I hate breaking it to you but we don’t live in an ideal world where we can all be happy without having to worry about our finances. Most of us probably still live by spending our parent’s money, so we don’t have a sense of what kinds of standards of living corresponds with a given level of income. I absolutely think you should do whatever you want to do but be prepared to face the risks.</p>
<p>IDS and poli sci majors are very risky because most people end up doing something else. Job prospects are very low and they are very bad paying.</p>
<p>I hate breaking it to you but we do live in that world. Teachers start out making 40,000. thats very little, and they have to do alot of work. Yet they still choose teaching cause they like educating kids. sounds pretty idealistic to me</p>
<p>It’s not that much work. They have the same hours and vacations as students except they get paid for it.</p>
<p>Ok. This is turning into a flame war, so I’m gonna shift back to McGill majors.</p>
<p>In Mcgill, can you double major if the majors are from different faculties? Major-minor different faculties?</p>