As places rich kids who couldn't get into American schools with similar pedigrees can buy their way into (especially St. Andrews, not so much McGill)

Anonymous wrote:They are a fine alternative for applicants that can't gain admissions to a top 50ish US college.

Anonymous wrote:Hm. Did she get the consulting position through connections? Interesting & good luck to her. Only grad I’ve met from there is a wine steward.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
American colleges, with their strange insistence on "holistic" admissions, are not very appealing to my teen, who wants to focus on academics and go somewhere that admits based on that.
Universities abroad place much greater importance on grades and test scores than those in the US.

However, if my teen looks for a job or applies to grad school in the US (it would likely be grad school for him), how will hiring managers or admissions officers view those universities?

personally I view UTornonto and UWaterloo and Warwick, ICL, UCL, other Russel group unis more than those two. St. Andrews in particular seems to market itself to mediocre full pay Americans.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it would cause your kid too much trouble. The procedure is certainly going to be less in most companies but it will be a big hurdle. Unless he insists on going around telling everyone that McGill is the Harvard of Canada, if they know about it.

This is what it is. McGill would maybe be a top 30 school if it was in the U.S. (and that's being generous) but American parents who send their kids there love to pretend it's some crowning achievement. I hear "Harvard of Canada" all the time and can't help but feel sad for these parents.

Same, to a lesser extent, for schools like St Andrews and Edinburgh. Sure, they're good UK schools, but why try to put them on a pedestal above our own universities?

People with even an inkling of familiarity with academia know that America is the undisputed top dog for higher education. There's a reason why scholars from around the world are clamoring to get into the top-tier U.S. universities. The research output, infrastructure, support, resources, and $$$ are significantly better at U.S. universities. This trickles down to affect the overall quality of the school and the students these schools are ultimately able to attract. America deserves to get dumped on for a lot of things, but its universities are not it.

I grew up in upstate NY where mcgill is highly regarded and common for people to go to other Canadian schools like university of western Ontario. I don't recall anyone I know applying to uva or umd. My sister in law is Canadian and said McGill isn't as highly regarded in Canada as in my town- she went to University of Toronto which is considered the best where she's from. Reputations are all regional

Anonymous wrote:
American colleges, with their strange insistence on "holistic" admissions, are not very appealing to my teen, who wants to focus on academics and go somewhere that admits based on that.
Universities abroad place much greater importance on grades and test scores than those in the US.

However, if my teen looks for a job or applies to grad school in the US (it would likely be grad school for him), how will hiring managers or admissions officers view those universities?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it would cause your kid too much trouble. The procedure is certainly going to be less in most companies but it will be a big hurdle. Unless he insists on going around telling everyone that McGill is the Harvard of Canada, if they know about it.

This is what it is. McGill would maybe be a top 30 school if it was in the U.S. (and that's being generous) but American parents who send their kids there love to pretend it's some crowning achievement. I hear "Harvard of Canada" all the time and can't help but feel sad for these parents.

Same, to a lesser extent, for schools like St Andrews and Edinburgh. Sure, they're good UK schools, but why try to put them on a pedestal above our own universities?

People with even an inkling of familiarity with academia know that America is the undisputed top dog for higher education. There's a reason why scholars from around the world are clamoring to get into the top-tier U.S. universities. The research output, infrastructure, support, resources, and $$$ are significantly better at U.S. universities. This trickles down to affect the overall quality of the school and the students these schools are ultimately able to attract. America deserves to get dumped on for a lot of things, but its universities are not it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vast majority of Americans will have never heard of St Andrews. McGill is familiar and would be viewed as perhaps similar prestige as a Michigan or UCLA or UVA.

McGill is in the top 3 Canadian colleges. That is way beyond UVA/UCLA & UMich

Tell me you’re joking.

Anonymous wrote:It's naive to think that any foreign university, apart from Oxbridge, will likely resonate strongly with the average U.S. employer, no matter how good those schools may be. They just generally lack name recognition here, and that is very likely to result in a competitive disadvantage when applying for jobs alongside candidates from schools which are better known in the U.S. Yes, some employers may be familiar with some foreign schools, and may even think highly of them, but I strongly suspect that will be a minority position.

Caveat emptor.

Anonymous wrote:
American colleges, with their strange insistence on "holistic" admissions, are not very appealing to my teen, who wants to focus on academics and go somewhere that admits based on that.
Universities abroad place much greater importance on grades and test scores than those in the US.

However, if my teen looks for a job or applies to grad school in the US (it would likely be grad school for him), how will hiring managers or admissions officers view those universities?