<p>As I said, of course comparing McGill to Cornell is laughable...
And the reason why McGill admits students with relatively low marks in Arts is because they could really use their tuition.</p>
<p>Toronto is a better University then McGill,but most Americans don't see that.
Montreal is nasty college town though.</p>
<p>flyzeggs, Does Canada have a different medical degree system?
And people say "Canada wants Americans for the money"....This may be true, but $15k is still cheap, especially when you are eligible to for federal aid.
I known think Canda is less Prestige happy because as far as I know, the best universities are public and the same price with similar funding.</p>
<p>Toronto is not better than McGill. I'd say McGill has traditionally been considered Canada's best school. It really depends what you're looking @, Toronto is better in terms of research output (bigger university + more money) in the natural sciences. Whereas over the past decade or so McGill has suffered from mismanagement and a lack of funding, but that seems to be changing for the better. Both are very good in selected grad programs and both attract extremely good faculty. That's the thing though, all these universities are public and there's very little seperating the top tier ones/"The Canadian Ivy League". For an undergrad education McGill (for Canadians) is the most selective, so it may be true that on a given year they accept American Arts students pretty easily, and it may be true that Canadians aren't as prestige hungry, but there are enough good prestige loving students to go around for McGill to end up with a pretty bright student body. </p>
<p>I'm going to say something and I hope it won't offend Canadian members. It's true that Canadian universities are very underrated when it comes to research output. And there are some institutes like MNI in McGill, the Perimeter Institute (closely linked to the University of Waterloo) that really do fundemental science research. But more often than not, and especially in the case of UofT, Canadian research isn't really groundbreaking. McGill has a great rep in the health and life sciences because Montreal is the bioresearch/pharmaceutical hub of Canada. UofT has a great rep in certain eng. and CS programs because Toronto (and to a certain degree Kitchener and Waterloo) is the hitech capital of Canada. Even if there are some highly cited individuals in these universities, the type of research they do in American universities is much more advanced (in general). The type of grants Canadian research inst. get are for projects that try to develop different applications for findings in fundemental science, very rarely do they come up with something completely new and exciting. Moreover the Canadian government tends to distribute its funds among many different institutions in many different universities. The advantage is, there are no horrible schools in Canada, the disadvantage is schools don't really stand out... There is very little reason to attend any Canadian university if you have good marks and have gotten into a good univ. here, especially for grad! (unless you really like a certain supervisor...)</p>
<p>Canada does not have a different medical degree system. I'd say on average getting into a med school in Canada is more difficult than in the States, and of course UofT and (especially) McGill med are very well respected programs, internationally.</p>
<p>From wikipedia " Research at the University of Toronto has been responsible for the world's first electronic heart pacemaker, artificial larynx, single-lung transplant, nerve transplant, artificial pancreas, chemical laser, G-suit, the first practical electron microscope, the first cloning of T-cells, and the extraction of insulin."</p>
<p>I can come up with a similar list for McGill: The electroencephelogram, neuroendocrinology, the best methods in neurosurgery, the isotope, first artificial cell, alpha particles, radioactive decay, first mapping of the cortex, most successful treatment for epilespsy, many firsts in neuroimaging, very important discoveries in DNA sequencing etc... (this list doesn't even do McGill justice, as you have probably guessed my interest is neuroscience)</p>
<p>I can even do an impressive list for UBC, heck I can even do one for Universite de Montreal...</p>
<p>The biggest scientific accomplishment in Canadian history is probably the extraction of insulin many years ago (@ UofT). Obviously (to this day) they make some important discoveries but they're not anywhere near those of top American universities, I'm sorry. For a nearly 200 year old university with 74,000 students +, all that can be expected... Your list doesn't impress me and it shouldn't impress you.</p>
<p>As evidenced by my earlier post - I don't think Toronto or even McGill ranks with any of the Ivies, or even most of the top Public schools (UCB, UVA, UMich, UCLA). I'd probably say it's in the mid 30s- mid 40s in comparison to U.S Universities. Somewhere around Case Western/Georgia Tech/UTAustin. I don't know enough about BC to argue whether McGill >BC, but from what I hear, BC is a pretty prestigious college that should rank higher than McGill (at least by U.S. News Standards).</p>
<p>Like I said, the notion that Canadian colleges are somehow extremely impressive in comparison with the top U.S. universities is flawed and very provincial, I think. As an international who has lived in 4 countries on 3 continents, I can tell you that most people I know will consider Berkley and Cornell far above McGill and Toronto.</p>
<p>This might seem a bit odd because I bashed Canadian universities only a moment ago, but...</p>
<p>If I'm correct BC's reputation rests more on Arts and Law.
To be fair both McGill and UofT have a much more impressive list of accomplishments and alumni than BC and therefore have a much better international reputation. What are we looking at? The quality of education or their strength and reputation as research universities? There's no denying that in some programs these universities have an international reputation, and this is a very easy point for me to prove if you care to refute it. In terms of research output and some of the world's most highly cited researchers both universities look very good. And there are about 6-7 top 100 research output universities (internationally) in Canada, more than any other country but the US. I'd say UT Austin is a pretty fair comparison, except, the two mentioned Canadian universities are more selective in regards to Canadian science applicants. It's both very difficult and a bit unfair to rank Canadian universities against US universities by American university standards. Internationally some of them have a very good rep.</p>
<p>No one in their right mind would rank McGill or UofT above Berkeley or Cornell (overall), anywhere... That much is obvious!</p>
<p>Berkeley and Cornel are definitely more prestigious than McGill and U of T. However, there's no way that schools like UVA and UNC could ever beat the top Canadian schools out in terms of international prestige, just because the former two aren't necessarily the research powerhouses that Berkeley, Umich, and similarly McGill are.</p>
<p>flyzeggs - you're almost right. But the OP asked where McGill would rank according to US NEWS - so I gave an opinion in accordance with US NEWS standards.</p>
<p>I'm not sure that Canada has more top 100 universities than the UK though - Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Kings, LSE, U Manchester, UBristol etc. I'm not sure though - correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>That aside, I agree - I would say that UT Austin is a good match - however, if I remember correctly, McGill's acceptance rate is ~30-40%, while UTAustin is ~ 44%. That's fairly close - but yeh - otherwise, I agree totally. Canada has some good Universities, but none as good as UCB or Cornell.</p>
<p>Just to add on, BC is known for it's great med school placement and its overall strength in the sciences as well. And of course Mcgill would have a more impressive list of accomplishments and alumni... Mcgill's sheer size plays a LARGE role in that...</p>
<p>King's and LSE are not ranked in the top 100. That makes 5 for the UK, Canada has McGill, UofT, UBC, McMaster, Alberta. So they're tied at 5. (sorry for the misinfo, I somehow felt Queen's, Waterloo and/or UdeM should be up there, I guess they, UdeM especially would be in research output, but not research impact) (HEACT, mostly a ranking of IF) From my knowledge though, both Imperial and Manchester are extremely overrated, especially in their "prestigious" engineering programs, Canada and Australia produce much better graduates. </p>
<p>30-40% for Canadian or American applicants? McGill is the most selective school in Canada for Canadians, especially OOPs, the HS/CEGEP average is 90% (according to Maclean's). </p>
<p>It's not just size, McGill attracts great faculty. Academics all over the world will recognize McGill in the medical profession, throughout their history they have made some of the most significant contributions and they very often rank top 10 internationally in peer reviews. On average medical training and research in medicine is a strength of Canadian universities and universities in other countries with a strong healthcare system (Sweden -> Karolinska, Uppsala, Lund)</p>
<p>There are certain realities many Americans are oblivious to. For example UWash - Seattle, Penn State and Boston U >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Boston College, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Brown, Georgetown in research and are therefore not as internationally recognized as some people here think, even though they undoubtedly provide for an awesome (and arguably much better) undergrad education.</p>
<p>It's not just sheer size, it's amazing faculty and a resourceful administration more than anything. I came to the US to study at Cornell, I can say as a person from my part of the world (I say this as a person from a developing country (who has lived in Canada and the US, for much of his life)) would go crazy if he knew some people would consider choosing BC ahead of Cornell. Don't get me wrong BC is no doubt a great school, in terms of having a great international reputation, if we adopt the world/international = the USA mentality, then I would absolutely agree...</p>
<p>^ I agree for the most part but honestly, how important do you think international reputation really is (especially when comparing two schools in the U.S) for someone planning on going to grad school (for instance) in the United States?</p>
<p>---->Top Canadian does not mean top American<----</p>
<p>There is really no comparison when it comes to top American and top Canadian universities.
Is Uof T really better than say UC-Irvine, New York University, Wake Forest, Notre Dame? Those schools are ranked around 35-50th and I would rank them around there too. Actually, perhaps I am being too GENEROUS. The top Canadians schools would rank towards the end of those Universities.</p>
<p>McGill acceptance rate is about 50% - one in two applicants get it!!! And believe it or not, U of T is around 89%! Canadian Admissions look online at your grades from 6 classes of yours to see if you qualify. No essays, no activities, no references, no 4-year transcripts, no SAT - nothing of the sort. Please, how is this an assessment?</p>
<p>-------> Furthermore, we have not mentioned LAC LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES in the US. Schools like AMHERST MIDDLEBURY and WILLIAMS are highly selective and very prestigious. These schools are far superior to Canadian schools. Their billion dollar endowments are divided amongst 3,000 or so outstanding students. Huge Canadian research universities with tens of thousands of graduate students have way lower endowments despite their apparently ‘strong’ research and ‘abundant’ resources. In fact, those Canadian endowments include government support.</p>
<p>Now, if you want to even compare Canadian schools with places like Amherst and Middlebury, then everyone in the discussion has to recognize that UofT and McGill are equal to the lower tier-1 American universities mentioned above. I submit to you, LAC like Middlebury and Williams are superior to UofT and McGill.</p>
<p>i’d say in the 50’s. the just don’t compete with US schools very well.</p>
<p>^^ Good job, you can bump up ancient threads without really accomplishing anything.</p>
<p>straightG’s ignorance is appaling. Canadian and American universities cannot really be compared. By USNEWS measurements, canadian universities would not do well because they are not well endowed. Canadian universities have an overall high acceptance rate because certain programs are more competitive than others. For example, Macmaster probably has an overall acceptance rate of 50 % but its Health Science program has an acceptance rate of like 7%… admissions in Canadian universities are done on the basis of what major you apply for. Do your research straightG. btw, Mcgill has an overall schoola acceptance rate of about 43% and aceptance rates for its competitive programs are, i would guess, around 20%. PLUS, acceptance rate does not determine how good a school is.</p>
<p>“PLUS, acceptance rate does not determine how good a school is.”</p>
<p>That’s near blasphemy on CC!</p>
<p>The prestige of your university does not guarantee success nor does lack of prestige mean future failure:</p>
<p>Steven Spielberg: rejected by USC film school, graduated from Cal State Long Beach film school. Lack of prestige hasn’t hurt his career.</p>
<p>Dr. Amy Bishop Ph.D. Harvard University. She is currently in jail without bail accused of shooting to death three of her colleagues and wounding three others after she was denied tenure.</p>
<p>I saw this BEST UNIVERSITIES IN THE WORLD RANKINGS, and its so clear that is so POLITICAL! The list seems to take the best university from every country and put them IN the top - just to be fair… Look, Tokoyo U, Australian U. and McGill are in the top twenty five. Please, there are universities from Egypt and Germany that outrank top US Universities. Those rankings are baloney.</p>
<p>I also want to talk about Liberal Arts Colleges like Williams, Amherst, Middlebury and how you get a HUGELY better education there than at McGill or UofT. I am talking about undergraduate studies, because those liberal arts colleges have very very small graduate programs so you cant compare grad programs because there are basically none to compare.</p>
<p>(For those of you who may not know, a liberal arts college is basically focused on undergraduates and you have more freedom to explore your studies. The IVY LEAGUE are modeled by a liberal arts curriculum - and they boast about it.)</p>
<p>???DO YOU GET A WAY BETTER UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION AT A TOP LAC (LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE) LIKE WILLIAMS & MIDDLEBURY THAN AT CANADIAN U’s LIKE McGILL & UofT???</p>
<p>the answers is obvious - Williams and Midd.</p>