<p>Maybe with the windchill here in NYC we get before 0 with windchill quite often</p>
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The original question was why isn't everyone applying to McGill, and one of the answers is that, as you say, "Quebec's only official language is French."
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<p>Agreed. It's perfectly understandable not to apply to McGill for whatever reasons. I just think sometimes some things should be pointed out. For those who would consider applying but think they must know French, it's important to realize that you can do fine without it, but at the same time, you can't expect everyone in Montreal to speak or understand English. For those who can't stand below freezing temperatures, then of course, McGill, like any place in the North East, is not an option, but those who are merely scared of it should understand that you can dress up for it and you actually get used to it. Similarly, unless you walk around in an Uncle Sam costume proclaiming through a loudspeaker the inherent superiority of Americans and your love for George Bush, there isn't much anti-American attitude to worry about.</p>
<p>"Au contraire! I've been there too many times. I had trouble driving there because the traffic signs and especially warning signs about detours or hazards ahead were all in French."</p>
<p>A red hexagon means "STOP" regardless of what's written on it, and "DETOUR" means the same in English as it does in French. Almost all of the road signs have pictograms and arrows, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that "Est" is "East," "Ouest" is "West," "Nord" is "North" and "Sud" is "South." Stop exaggerating. At worst, you might actually pick up some French without actually struggling to have to know it.</p>
<p>"Quebec keeps passing laws all sorts of French-favoritism laws that Montreal must live with. They get caught up in debates over which language has letters on signs slightly larger than the other - controversies that would be laughable non-issues in the US. French sign/English sign - in the US nobody would even care. On that point, every American shop owner is free to do as he pleases "</p>
<p>I live in Quebec. I get the daily local paper and watch the daily news. I don't know what you're talking about. Unless the fact that French writing on store signs must be twice as large as English writing really bothers you...besides, when French outnumber the English 3:1, I hardly see how this is unfair. There is both English and French on signs; again, the only places that are all French are places where McGill students (or any English person in Montreal) are unlikely to ever visit. Stop exaggerating this law; people do not "debate" the size of the letters on signs. Stop painting Quebec as an anti-English Orwellian society.</p>
<p>" they are being driven out by the French favoritism laws."</p>
<p>No, the English leaving could be traced back to the late 70s when the Parti-Quebecois gained power in Quebec. A lot of the English got spooked, ran away to Toronto, and the local economy tanked for a bit. But its on the recovery--more people have been moving back or staying in Montreal, and Montreal is experiencing a real revitalization. </p>
<p>"As for anti-Americanism prior to Bush, let's just say that since WAY before Bush, the one sure way to get a Canadian all huffy and indignant is to say that Canadians are just like Americans or that Canada is just like the US. They can't give any solid reasons or examples (other than the silly French laws and debates) of how they are very different, but the idea of being like Americans sure offends them."</p>
<p>Of course Canadians don't like to be compared to Americans. The Dutch don't want to be compared to the Germans, Poland doesn't want to be compared to Russia, Chile doesn't want to be compared to Argentina, etc...every country likes its culture to be respected as unique and as its own. Canada has its own culture; hell, both of us agree that Quebec in itself is very different (yet not in a bad way). So don't pretend that Canada is not really different from the U.S.</p>
<p>No wonder you hate Canada, and especially hate anything French. All of your politicized postings on this site have been rabidly right-wing. There's no reason to bring your political views into shaping someone's view of McGill and of Montreal, one of the world's most unique and vibrant cities.</p>
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<p>-30? LOL. -13.8 C is only 8 degrees F, cold but hardly OMGI'MGOINGTODIE!!!</p>
<p>I bet you confused Celcius with Fahrenheit.....because -30 F is unheard of there I believe.... Then again...so is 50 C. Please clarify..it sounds like you compared the F temp in NYC to a Celcius temp in Montreal (even that assumption creates a range too wide)</p>
<p>Seriously...if you're going to rule out the cold, don't bother applying to UChicago, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury...all those place are just as cold, if not colder than, Montreal.</p>
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Seriously...if you're going to rule out the cold, don't bother applying to UChicago, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury...all those place are just as cold, if not colder than, Montreal.
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<p>Exactly....don't believe the stories about -30 F in Montreal (LOL)</p>
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<blockquote> <p>No wonder you hate Canada, and especially hate anything French. All of your politicized postings on this site have been rabidly right-wing. <<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>You've got the wrong guy. I mostly avoid political discussions on this site. The few times I do chime in on one I almost always come down left of center (e.g. like the Canadians, I detest Geroge Bush).</p>
<p>This discussion was not about politics. I was explaining to the OP some of the reasons why not every American is eager to enroll in McGill University. If some of those reasons touch a raw political nerve in Canada or offend an overweening sense of national or provincial pride, well I'm very sorry for it, but it doesn't alter the reality of the reasons.</p>
<p>And for the record, I quite like both the Canadians and the French. If I hated them why would I choose a French screen name? I was in Marseille just a month ago and it was great. I had a lovely time. But I'm not so sure I'd want to go to college there.</p>
<p>marijuana is legal?</p>
<p>a lot of gays?</p>
<p>true, in canada?</p>
<p>If it wasn't for some of the factors like big classes I would definitely apply to McGill because Montreal is an amazing city. For that same reason I didn't apply to schools like NYU, BU, BC, etc. The price is awesome, but I like small classes with student-teacher interaction.</p>
<p>Montreal</a> Weather Data</p>
<p>Sorry, if it's in Celsius for you silly Americans, but it's such a natural scale for outside temperature. But if you want Farenheit degrees you can browse [here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_e.html?Province=ALL&StationName=bagotville&SearchType=BeginsWith&LocateBy=Province&Proximity=25&ProximityFrom=City&StationNumber=&IDType=MSC&CityName=&ParkName=&LatitudeDegrees=&LatitudeMinutes=&LongitudeDegrees=&LongitudeMinutes=&NormalsClass=A&SelNormals=&StnId=5889&&autofwd=1%5DHere's">http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_e.html?Province=ALL&StationName=bagotville&SearchType=BeginsWith&LocateBy=Province&Proximity=25&ProximityFrom=City&StationNumber=&IDType=MSC&CityName=&ParkName=&LatitudeDegrees=&LatitudeMinutes=&LongitudeDegrees=&LongitudeMinutes=&NormalsClass=A&SelNormals=&StnId=5889&&autofwd=1]Here's</a> the reason why I don't think it's cold in Montreal...](<a href="http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/grid.pl?gr=N45W073%5Dhere%5B/url">http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/grid.pl?gr=N45W073)</p>
<p>So, yeah, don't believe anyone who tells you it goes often below -30. It certainly doesn't on the Farenheit scale, and in Celsius it happens on average less than once a year.</p>
<p>You guys are crazy! The AVERAGE daily temperature in Montreal from December to March is below zero, whether farenheit or celcius. If you don't think that's cold, I don't know what is. And it does OCCASIONALLY get to 30 below on the farenheit scale.</p>
<p>The lowest average minimum is +8F in January...</p>
<p>It's going to reach 40F tomorrow, with an inch of rain (with icing rain too). If we were cleanly below freezing point, we wouldn't be having this kind of crappy precipitation. That's why I like the 0F to 20F range.</p>
<p>The coldest you'll see in Montreal is around -20F maybe once a year. You can't count on 60 year old -30F records to occur so easily.</p>
<p>well the same argument about why not apply to Mcgill could be said about U of T, UBC, Western and Queen's all are in the same league as Mcgill and a couple even better. Queen's for instance has a more ivy feel with it's small college town location and small student body and strong academics. U ofT, larger than Mcgill, but stronger in many programs overall and is much more funded than Mcgill. And Toronto is an amazing city. expensive but amazing. So the real question is why aren't more US students applying to top Canadian universities? Maybe they are waiting for the Canadian dollar to drop again.</p>
<p>It's a great school, but not for me. There's no community feeling to the school, I may be wrong but I think very few people live in dorms, and I want more of that, and I don't know or want to learn French. It's a beautiful language, but it frustrates the hell out of me. I know you don't HAVE to be able to speak it, but it helps. No McGill for me.</p>
<p>"Seriously...if you're going to rule out the cold, don't bother applying to UChicago, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury...all those place are just as cold, if not colder than, Montreal."</p>
<p>Montreal is much much colder than all of these. Toronto is also much much warmer than Montreal.</p>
<p>Does McGill have rolling admissions?</p>
<p>yes</p>
<p>posts are minimum ten letters... weird</p>
<p>dude, thanks for mentioning IIT -- the school is so crazy competitive! I actually met two IIT students (neither of them Indian) in India over the summer. even though the majority of Americans haven't heard of IIT, clearly good students in other countries have :)</p>
<p>To be clear, I have nothing against McGill.</p>
<p>However, I think one of the most rational reasons for Americans not to apply to McGill (or to any other Canadian school) is simple - work opportunities. Let's face it. Most people go to college in order to get a job. Most companies recruiting at McGill are (obviously) going to be hiring for positions in Canada, and especially around the Montreal area. As an American, you may have a serious disadvantage in obtaining these jobs simply from an immigration standpoint because as a non-resident of Canada, you have no legal right to work in Canada. Sure, the company can sponsor you to get a visa and all that, but that's a lot of work, and a lot of companies may simply decide that it's easier just to hire a Canadian.</p>
<p>This is not significantly different from the problems of several Canadians I know who went to elite American universities and then ran into major visa issues when they tried to get jobs through the school's career office. American universities are obviously going to have companies recruiting at them for mostly American positions. The interview might have been going swimmingly until the point at which they mention that they aren't American citizens, at which point everything comes to a screeching halt. </p>
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2) McGill costs about the equivalent of $12,000 a year for American students (and only about $2,000 for Quebecians). It costs about 3 to 4 times that amount to get the same quality of education at an American college.
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<p>Yeah, but that's sticker price. That's not the true cost for most people. Most Americans are either on some sort of financial aid, or they're so rich that they don't care. I don't pretend to know how the Canadian financial aid system works, but I seem to recall that McGill provides no aid to internationals. </p>
<p>In fact, a funny quirk about the American financial aid system is that it is actually the elite private schools that tend to be the most aggressive, because they tend to be the ones with the largest endowments and therefore the most money to fling around. For example, I believe that Harvard guarantees a full ride to EVERY student whose family makes less than 40k a year, and that includes internationals. Yale's full-ride cutoff is even higher at 45k. This reminds me of the 2 people that I know who were residents of the state of California who were quite poor and who got admitted to both Berkeley and Harvard, and found that it was actually CHEAPER for them to go to Harvard once financial aid was factored in. Basically, Berkeley wanted them to take out loans, whereas Harvard offered them full rides with stipends. If that was you, what would you do? I remember one of them dryly joking to me that he dreamed of going to Berkeley his whole life but he couldn't afford it, so now he had "no choice" but to go to Harvard. He had a pretty mordant sense of humor.</p>
<p>But the point is, if McGill doesn't give financial aid to internationals, that is a major factor that will deter Americans (or any other foreigners) from attending.</p>
<p>HUH? "McGill costs about the equivalent of $12,000 a year for American students...uhh, no. </p>
<p>Unless our friends up north want to give asylum to their southern friends, McGill;s cost of attendance is up to CN$32k for internationals. At today's exchange rate, that is USD$28k.</p>
<p>At that price, every state public college is a better financial deal -- classes are large everywhere. Berkeley and UCLA are less than $25k in-state.</p>