<p>I am applying to Us of both countries. It puzzled me as how different are they in terms of teaching method, curriculum and colllege life? I have this impression that US Us seems to give students more freedom, is that true? I am applying to Waterloo and McMaster, they both require me to indicate the subject I wish to major in. I don't know whether I could change faculty or major or subject, or not.</p>
<p>In canadian universities generally you have to indicate a faculty you wish to enter your first year, and then actually declare your major end of your second year. I believe in the US system you can enter as undecided your first year, pick a field your second year, and then choose a major the end of your second year. </p>
<p>Oh yeah, it's quite frequent for those who really don't know what they want to do, in Canada, to either choose arts or science depending on what sort of person they are, and then narrowing it down from there (arts generally gives you more choices, FYI). And a lot of people change their faculty some point along the line, sometimes more than once.</p>
<p>By <em>freedom</em> do you mean academic or social freedom? because I'd say that in the US you have more academic freedom, less core requirements (here at McGill the frosh requirements for science were: full year: chemistry, physics, calculus. Semester: biology, some have to take linear algebra. Since they recommend you only take four courses...well, you only have one semester elective. You can take five courses if you want, giving you one year elective (or two semester electives) and then one semester. However Ap credits/placement tests can ease the requirement burden a bit.</p>
<p>Socially though Canadian schools are a LOT more lax, I think. The lower drinking age contributes (heh, the drinking age in the first place is more a suggestion than anything). really, there are a lot fewer rules, you are treated more like adults, expected to behave respectfully. I personally am a big fan of the idea that if you give college students your trust by not levelling a whole lot of rules on them, then they will probably return the favour by acting like the adults they are.</p>
<p>I think teaching method is basically the same...lectures, labs, tutorials, etc. Curriculum I also think is fairly standardized. </p>
<p>BTW, I like your username. catch22 is one of my favourite books!</p>
<p>Noelle</p>
<p>For Canadian schools it's very hard to transfer in to a more selective program after you get in, so in that way there's less freedom. Ie. if you get in to English at Waterloo, I wouldn't expect the university to allow you to transfer to Engineering because the average entry requirements differ by more than 15%. In this way, even though you could get in to Waterloo with low 70's (MacLeans showed around 25% of their students entering with 70's), it's VERY difficult to transfer in to the engineering programs which have average entering grades of mid 80's to mid 90's. However if you get in to engineering at Waterloo, you can transfer down to any less selective program. If you're transferring between programs of similar selectivity, then it wouldn't be too difficult.</p>
<p>You don't say where you are from. Canadian Us are much more like European schools. If money is an issue, they are very much cheaper than US Us. If you have good grades and money is not an issue, skip over Canada, US schools have so much more to offer.</p>
<p>how do US schools have more to offer, canuck?</p>
<p>bumping</p>
<p>how do US schools have more to offer, canuckeh?</p>
<p>Also, I'm wondering, which Canadian school did you transfer out of?</p>
<p>On the first question, I can see that no Canadian school would match up with MIT, CalTech, Stanford, etc. These are the best schools in the world, in their own category even in the US.</p>
<p>canuckeh, are you around?</p>