<p>Vancouver and Toronto has very nice temperatures. A farcry from places like the yukon. although i've only been to them for vacations.</p>
<p>I'm canadian, but the reason why i would "prefer" an american school, is cause canadian schools are ultra uncompetitive.</p>
<p>I'm a Canadian also looking into American schools, mainly because I'm interested in the BS/MD programs offered in some schools there. Now if only Canadians qualified for need-based aid at more schools...</p>
<p>Joethemole, on the bright side, at least if you are a top student in Canada, you don't have to worry nearly as much about whether you'll get into one of the top schools in Canada :)</p>
<p>i want to be where the lemmings run into the seaaaa...ohhhhh canada lets leave todayyyy</p>
<p>haha sorry this thread just reminds me of that song. :)</p>
<p>alwaysamom: thanks for the great info. also, as i type this, i am watching degrassi. i am a fridiculously big fan of degrassi. which one is your niece? (although I was hoping it was your NEPHEW, who plays the character of craig...)</p>
<p>Joethemole wrote: you do realize that the canadian dollar is trading at close to an alltime high, at like 83cents per american?</p>
<p>Actually that's normal for the canadian dollar. Not a all time high. only during the mid ninties did it slip to lows. in the 60's at one point it was above the US dollar.</p>
<p>Aca and Alwaysamom: I went to U of T and it was the best, 4 years, er...5 years of my life. I took extra courses the fifth year because I didn't want to graduate. I loved the school spirit, had many friends, was involved in campus groups and it really felt like a tight knit community. I am still friends with many Profs, and when I am in Toronto, I drop in often. I got an email from a professor there just this morning. Only my first year psychology class was large. Otherwise my classes ranged from 20 to 40 people and I was a political science and sociology undergrad. It doesnt get more mainstream than that. As Alwaysamom mentioned tutorials in the larger classes help make learning feel more intimate.
I got to know my Profs quite well and they wrote excellent letters of recs which helped me secure a position at Columbia Graduate School. I lived on campus for three years and moved off the last two, only in walking distance of the college, and it felt like the same tight community it always was. Where were the commuters you mentioned Aca? Perhaps coming from the Annex, a mere 2 minute walk away? I didnt experience this.
Your college experience is what you make of it. You could have 200 people at your college and it feels large and impersonal. I wouldn't have changed my U of T education for Harvard and I couldn't have gotten a better education at the latter. Personally, I think having a solid education is better than whether some recruiter from California has heard of you school.</p>
<p>ivyleaguer - i think the general disagreement we have about UofT is due to the fact that Im comparing it top US state schools, which UofT is on par with academically. I can tell you right now that in terms of school spirit, community-oriented goals, there is no other school top school in Canada that Ive been to with less spirit. I go to Queens now because I wanted the most traditionally american type experience: college town, school spirit, athletics are big...even then I feel Queens is a HUGE let down compared to schools like Michigan, Florida, UNC, Berkeley in terms of spirit. Hell our football field holds like 2000 kids. I dont even think Varsity Stadium is still around for UofT? Michigan holds 120,000 ppl...there really is no comparison. </p>
<p>2) Commuters - I wish i could find some statistics on this but UofT just has a reputation of a being a commuter school. Less than 1/3 of the people I know going to UofT live on rez. What do you think the percentage is for 1st years? Id say its somewhere around 50%. This article can substantiate my claim to some degree. UofT has huge programs that cater to its large commuter population. "A majority of UCs 4,300 students live off campus, which has affected their ability to be more involved in extracurricular activities and develop leadership skills, says Mackintosh, a fact he and Alice Schabas, the colleges off-campus student commissioner and co-organizer, would like to change." A number like 70% (not to mention 45%) is enough to label UofT a commuter school by US state school standards. And I understand that you believe ALL of those UC kids who commute are upper years who choose not to stay in rez aka live in the surrounding area. I just dont buy that...dont you think people do that at other schools? Students living close but not on campus isnt a concept unique to UofT...go visit any other university.</p>
<p>3) Class size - I have a very difficult time believing you had 20-40 ppl in your intro poli sci/sociology classes. Im a poli sci major and i thoroughly scoped UofT (cuz its a hell of a program there) and the classes were enormous. I found my Macleans and UofT is 2nd to last in its category in terms of class size (Mac is last). 41% of the classes at UofT are between the 101-250 range for the first 2 years of undergrad. 17% are less than 50. And I suspect these courses are the vocational-type courses that UofT offers. In terms of class size, it really doesnt get much worse than UofT. Although Queens is pretty bad too (but queens doesnt offer many programs...theyre all mainstream subjects).</p>
<p>As for your claim that you dont think Harvard would have provided the same education...Do you really think the level of education you receive at UofT is higher than Cal or Michigan? Come on...its all the same. Schools like HYP cant even argue that their education is light years ahead of everyone else...i hate to break it you but once youre in the top 100-caliber schools, the quality is pretty consistent. And yes college is defintely what you make of it but every school has specific characteristics. I mean, you wouldnt go to NYU/BU expect the same social qualities you would of a top state school. Alot of american LACs require 4 year residence, boast very small class sizes (especially if you think UofT has small classes), and offer excellent fan-based athletics. They are polar opposites of UofT: the urban colossos.</p>
<p>Go check out the Princetonreview critique of UofT. I find it to be pretty on the ball.</p>
<p>A lot of graduates of my tiny intl school here in Japan have applied to / attended Canadian univs in the past. UBC is on my list too.</p>
<p>ACA I make no real qualms with your last point. I visited Queen's and loved the school spirit. But remember you share that college town with St. Lawrence College and that military school. As for U of T and Harvard, I was in Poli Sci and Sociology not nuclear physics. What more could Harvard have offered me in those majors? Especially when I am studying Canadian politics.</p>
<p>And actually in a lot of majors you can get an Ivy quality education at the top U.S public schools like those you mentioned as well, so I wasn't far off with my claim. Remember US News made the same claim about U of T, McGill and Queen's comparing those three to Yale and Harvard. I would give Queens its kudos for being academically as challenging as any Ivy too. Though I probably would have gotten more A's at Harvard with all that grade inflation. I went to Columbia too so I am familiar of what an Ivy can offer, so I can make that comparison to some extent. And yes I did say first year courses were large after that they really dropped though. Again, this was my experience.</p>
<p>And you will find a more commuters at Scarborough, where I took a creative writing course. I think the figures on commuters at U of T are inflated by the suburban campuses perhaps. And many Erindale students commute to St. George but I wouldnt call those real commuters.</p>