McGill and University of Toronto: if they were in the U.S., where would they rank?

[Anonymous]

Both would rank among the Top 30 National Universities in my opinion. First & second year classes can be very large (several hundred students in a given class).

Canadian university GPAs exclude high school freshman grades to the best of my knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is seriously considering colleges in Canada and the UK. We prefer if they are a bit closer and we have always loved Canada. Wondering what these two top Canadian colleges are comparable to among schools we know here. TIA

No one here really knows. They’re just guessing based on what impression they have, and then on acceptance rates which are apples to oranges in terms of how the process works in Canada versus the US.

I have a dc at McGill and I’ll say my ‘impression’ is that it’s on par with a university of Chicago in terms of rigor. I know people will go irate bc I’m sure UC has a much lower acceptance rate but once you are there, it is challenging. The kids are smart, grading is tough and there is little to no hand holding, and the kids work very hard right from the get go. Montreal is a beautiful city and great to live in, but the kids grind. My dc has US friends who had strong GPA from US high schools fail midterms they had studied for in intro classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is seriously considering colleges in Canada and the UK. We prefer if they are a bit closer and we have always loved Canada. Wondering what these two top Canadian colleges are comparable to among schools we know here. TIA

No one here really knows. They’re just guessing based on what impression they have, and then on acceptance rates which are apples to oranges in terms of how the process works in Canada versus the US.

I have a dc at McGill and I’ll say my ‘impression’ is that it’s on par with a university of Chicago in terms of rigor. I know people will go irate bc I’m sure UC has a much lower acceptance rate but once you are there, it is challenging. The kids are smart, grading is tough and there is little to no hand holding, and the kids work very hard right from the get go. Montreal is a beautiful city and great to live in, but the kids grind. My dc has US friends who had strong GPA from US high schools fail midterms they had studied for in intro classes.

Come on ! The students failed first year mid-terms at McGill University due to excessive partying (for which McGill is famous), not due to academic demands are rigor beyond that found in any top 100 US college or university. The alcohol consumption by McGill freshmen is probably more severe than at any US college or university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:they are mediocre maybe mid-level state schools like Jmu or UMBC, they are very easy to get into and massive not that impressive outside of canada. UVA, UMD, and even Virginia Tech have lower acceptance rates.

You just showed you haven’t done your homework.

Canadian universities have high acceptance rates compared to American colleges b/c they don’t play the game where they tell everyone you have a chance to get in, collect your $95 app fee to raise millions then reject you to flaunt their low acceptance rate. In Canada, they post what grade and score you need to get in, and your high school wouldn’t even let you apply if you don’t meet the criteria. It’s like that in most of the world. Oxbridge does this too. Then you have Northeastern in the U.S. who pretends they are harder to get into than Cambridge. And parents play along so they can brag their kids get into a top school. For U of T that cutoff is typically 93-95/100. And they don’t grade inflate so none of this half the class has 4.0 BS like we do in America. The rest of the world gives out Cs and D’s daily to their kids.

How did they end up with 80,000 students?

U of T has around 45,000 undergraduates at its main downtown Toronto campus. The 80K number comes mostly from grad students (they have the top law school in Canada and also highly rated (often #1 rated) grad and professional schools. They also have two satellite campuses but St. George (downtown) is the main one.

So it's similar to UC Berkeley in terms of size (Berkeley has 35K undergrads) and U of T has the highest national prestige in Canada and is also very well regarded globally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is seriously considering colleges in Canada and the UK. We prefer if they are a bit closer and we have always loved Canada. Wondering what these two top Canadian colleges are comparable to among schools we know here. TIA

No one here really knows. They’re just guessing based on what impression they have, and then on acceptance rates which are apples to oranges in terms of how the process works in Canada versus the US.

I have a dc at McGill and I’ll say my ‘impression’ is that it’s on par with a university of Chicago in terms of rigor. I know people will go irate bc I’m sure UC has a much lower acceptance rate but once you are there, it is challenging. The kids are smart, grading is tough and there is little to no hand holding, and the kids work very hard right from the get go. Montreal is a beautiful city and great to live in, but the kids grind. My dc has US friends who had strong GPA from US high schools fail midterms they had studied for in intro classes.

Come on ! The students failed first year mid-terms at McGill University due to excessive partying (for which McGill is famous), not due to academic demands are rigor beyond that found in any top 100 US college or university. The alcohol consumption by McGill freshmen is probably more severe than at any US college or university.

Huh? I don't think you know what you are talking about. I went to McGill and the only difference is that alcohol consumption is done legally (due to lower legal drinking age) and bars/pubs "cut you off" when you've had too much. It's not done illegally with underground binge drinking at frats where people are afraid to call ambulance since it's all drinking done illegally in secret.

Also the Canadian system is known by design to have tough weed out classes in first-year with harsh grading. Many can't handle that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is seriously considering colleges in Canada and the UK. We prefer if they are a bit closer and we have always loved Canada. Wondering what these two top Canadian colleges are comparable to among schools we know here. TIA

No one here really knows. They’re just guessing based on what impression they have, and then on acceptance rates which are apples to oranges in terms of how the process works in Canada versus the US.

I have a dc at McGill and I’ll say my ‘impression’ is that it’s on par with a university of Chicago in terms of rigor. I know people will go irate bc I’m sure UC has a much lower acceptance rate but once you are there, it is challenging. The kids are smart, grading is tough and there is little to no hand holding, and the kids work very hard right from the get go. Montreal is a beautiful city and great to live in, but the kids grind. My dc has US friends who had strong GPA from US high schools fail midterms they had studied for in intro classes.

Come on ! The students failed first year mid-terms at McGill University due to excessive partying (for which McGill is famous), not due to academic demands are rigor beyond that found in any top 100 US college or university. The alcohol consumption by McGill freshmen is probably more severe than at any US college or university.

Not even close. I have other dc fwiw. Most mcgill profs curve. These kids who failed studied.

As far as drinking, the drinking age is 18 so kids can drink, but they tend not to binge drink like they do at US schools. They have frats but they’re not quite like US schools and most kids don’t do Greek life. Also Montreal is a vibrant city so there is tons to do without binge drinking like so many kids at US schools do.

You clearly don’t know the school culture

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:U of T: top 20. most similar to Cal, Cornell

McGill: top 30. most similar to NYU

It’s not off too much. McGill probably more similar to BU, it doesn’t have stern. UofT engineering is top notch, but outside engineering UofT is not at Cornell level or even Cal level.

UofT: Georgia Tech
McGill: BU

McGill has Desautels. It’s their business school and there is an undergrad program that has a lower acceptance rate than the rest of the school.

My dc is at McGill. For all these people comparing it to US schools, I get the sense they don’t quite appreciate that US schools tend to be softer on students. It is not an easy school.

This. I don't think US students appreciate or understand the "weed out" courses in Canadian 1st/2nd years. They are testing out if the students are serious enough and challenging them far beyond many "top schools" in US. However not only are those classes incredibly hard, they are incredibly large (500+ students). It's very much sink or swim. Not a cake walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both would rank among the Top 30 National Universities in my opinion. First & second year classes can be very large (several hundred students in a given class).

Canadian university GPAs exclude high school freshman grades to the best of my knowledge.

That is true, but it is more complicated. The grades that are counted are the highest level grades a student has obtained that are required to apply for the major. For example, if you are applying to engineering, it might be the highest level grades (grade 12) in Calculus, Functions, Physics, English and certain electives.

[Anonymous]

Toronto would be (and should be) considered a peer of Cal and Michigan. McGill is a little tougher to slot, but probably peers with Vandy/WashU/Emory.

[Anonymous]

Is it easier for Americans to get into Canadian colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:they are mediocre maybe mid-level state schools like Jmu or UMBC, they are very easy to get into and massive not that impressive outside of canada. UVA, UMD, and even Virginia Tech have lower acceptance rates.

You just showed you haven’t done your homework.

Canadian universities have high acceptance rates compared to American colleges b/c they don’t play the game where they tell everyone you have a chance to get in, collect your $95 app fee to raise millions then reject you to flaunt their low acceptance rate. In Canada, they post what grade and score you need to get in, and your high school wouldn’t even let you apply if you don’t meet the criteria. It’s like that in most of the world. Oxbridge does this too. Then you have Northeastern in the U.S. who pretends they are harder to get into than Cambridge. And parents play along so they can brag their kids get into a top school. For U of T that cutoff is typically 93-95/100. And they don’t grade inflate so none of this half the class has 4.0 BS like we do in America. The rest of the world gives out Cs and D’s daily to their kids.

How did they end up with 80,000 students?

A lot of International students. Canada is a young, growing and immigrant friendly country. They take in a lot of smart immigrants each year. The 80k is also spread across 3 campuses. St. George is the one every means when they think about u of T. The other 2 are much easier to get into and are not even in the city of Toronto. The 80k also includes adult education like if you are 35 year old single mom and want to take courses online to become a nurse, they have a robust program for that. Also Toronto is a huge global city, larger than Chicago, Boston, Houston, Dallas and Seattle combined. It’s something so many Americans who live in the suburbs but think they are in the center of the universe can’t comprehend.

Its basically an open path to greencards from india
https://scroll.in/global/976755/easy-visas-and-job-opportunities-what-makes-canada-a-popular-choice-for-indian-immigrants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:U of T: top 20. most similar to Cal, Cornell

McGill: top 30. most similar to NYU

It’s not off too much. McGill probably more similar to BU, it doesn’t have stern. UofT engineering is top notch, but outside engineering UofT is not at Cornell level or even Cal level.

UofT: Georgia Tech
McGill: BU

100+, UoT not top 20 outside of eng.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:they are mediocre maybe mid-level state schools like Jmu or UMBC, they are very easy to get into and massive not that impressive outside of canada. UVA, UMD, and even Virginia Tech have lower acceptance rates.

this is harsh but it's pretty accurate. for undergrad, there are a lot of better options. for grad school they're phenomenal.

Perfect description of UCB and UCLA as well. Especially for UCB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is seriously considering colleges in Canada and the UK. We prefer if they are a bit closer and we have always loved Canada. Wondering what these two top Canadian colleges are comparable to among schools we know here. TIA

No one here really knows. They’re just guessing based on what impression they have, and then on acceptance rates which are apples to oranges in terms of how the process works in Canada versus the US.

I have a dc at McGill and I’ll say my ‘impression’ is that it’s on par with a university of Chicago in terms of rigor. I know people will go irate bc I’m sure UC has a much lower acceptance rate but once you are there, it is challenging. The kids are smart, grading is tough and there is little to no hand holding, and the kids work very hard right from the get go. Montreal is a beautiful city and great to live in, but the kids grind. My dc has US friends who had strong GPA from US high schools fail midterms they had studied for in intro classes.

Come on ! The students failed first year mid-terms at McGill University due to excessive partying (for which McGill is famous), not due to academic demands are rigor beyond that found in any top 100 US college or university. The alcohol consumption by McGill freshmen is probably more severe than at any US college or university.

Huh? I don't think you know what you are talking about. I went to McGill and the only difference is that alcohol consumption is done legally (due to lower legal drinking age) and bars/pubs "cut you off" when you've had too much. It's not done illegally with underground binge drinking at frats where people are afraid to call ambulance since it's all drinking done illegally in secret.

Also the Canadian system is known by design to have tough weed out classes in first-year with harsh grading. Many can't handle that.

+1

DC has always done well in school without much effort—1580 SAT on the first try, all 5s on APs—but at McGill they really have to work very hard to get good grades

[Anonymous]

It's easier to get into McGill than Harvard but harder to graduate from