huge question.

[Guest babytiger]

hi, i left message a while ago. things have changed since then - haha acceptances! - and i need some advices.

 

okay. i'm OAC student from toronto. and basically i am trying to decide which university i want to go to. LOL. this might seem so unimportant to many of you. but right now at this point of my life. this is big. hehe

 

i ahve been accepted to all the universities that i applied to - mac, ut, mcgil, waterloo adn western - and now i'm trying to decide.

 

so far... i really like waterloo adn mcgill. so. here's where the question comes.

 

first of all, i konw that mcgill is amazing school with great rep. but i'm also hearing that it is really hard to get high marks in this school compared to other schools.

 

and also, i heard that it is easier to get into american graduate school (med/dent) from mcgill. is this true? and would you konw how american treats waterloo??

 

i've applied to pre-optometry/ pre-health in waterloo. however i'm not sure if i want to go tehre since im not really into optometry. although i hard that its really good program that they have there..

 

also. distance wise.. montreal is i thihk.. 10 hours from here? ahh. this is what makes me hesistate ... are tehre many students from toronto?? / other provinces.

 

lastly.. did you truly enjoy your time at mcgill..?/?

 

hehehe. omg. my questiosn would go on and on.

btw, congrats to all teh people who made to meds! its awesome!!

 

well. i'll be waiting for your replies... thankyou so much!

[Guest medicator007]

Lots of questions. I'll see what I can help you with.

 

Vis a Vis.. difficulty in achieving high marks. This issue has been debated over and over again on this board for nearly every different school. The general consensus is that there really is no school where it is "easy" to get high marks. That being said, it is not easy to get high marks at McGill but it can certainly be done if you put the work in... plenty of people have done their undergrads at McGill and gotten good enough grades to get into many competitive programs.

 

As for the USA... McGill does have an international reputation and is rather well known at many american institutions, particularly those on the east coast... So that certainly wouldnt hurt... I cannot in any way comment on the american reputation of Waterloo or any other school for that matter, since i am really not that familiar with them.

 

Distance wise.... well 10 hrs... i guess it all depends on how you drive... McGill does have a large OOP population with a bunch of people from Toronto, other parts of Ontario, every other province, the USA and plenty other countries so I wouldn't worry about that.

 

And lastly... I enjoyed every last minute of my time at McGill, so much so that I signed on for at least 4 more years in med. Seriously though, McGill is a great school, Montreal is a fantastic city to live in.

 

Hope that helps,

Medicator

[Guest peachy]

There is NO WAY that Montreal is 10 hours from Toronto. Well, I take that back. If you take VIA, and your train breaks down halfway, it could take 10 hours.

 

Driving, it is usually about 5 hours. Depends how fast you go I've done there and back (toronto -> montreal -> toronto) in one day before.

[Guest Biochem10]

I wouldn't worry about going to a school where you'll get good marks, my philosophy was that I was going to get good marks at the school where I'd feel the happiest/most comfortable and I did. I wanted to go to McGill for the longest time before I actually got here. I was interested in Neuroscience and since the Montreal Neurological Hospital is here, I made a plan back in grade 11 to come here and work at that hospital. Anyway, things change, i didn't actually do the neuroscience minor, but I did work at the hospital and got plenty of exposure to research in neuroscience, that being said, I don't know if I had stayed at home that I would have gotten those opportunities.

 

So, the bottom line is that you have to have a number one school, so go with your gut instinct. Don't think about marks because if you go in with the right attitude, I believe you can succeed in any school, just be sure to pick a program that is suitable for you. The people I've known who have hated university or have gotten bad marks have usually (1) picked the wrong program and (2) were not in an environment they enjoyed. (but obviously this is not everyone) For instance, my friend really wanted to go to McMaster, but her parents absolutely refused to let her leave home, as a consequence she didn't enjoy her undergrad years and ended up not doing that well.

 

Good Luck.

[Guest dfenst]

Just a note on reputation. I have had two different experiences in the US since completing my undergrad at McGill (in the Management faculty). My first one was near DC doing consulting. When I asked my colleagues there what they thought of McGill, they would ask things like "Are there any other schools in Canada"? I realize that they weren't exactly up to speed with the canadian education system, but the point to be made is that McGill is VERY WELL KNOWN down south.

 

My second experience is where I am now - doing a masters in biomedical sciences in Long Island. After getting my McGill meds acceptance, I told my professors about it, and they were very impressed because of the reputation the McGill name carrries. They understand McGill to be the top school in Canada...some think there's no cpmpetition. Just for kicks, I asked them what other schools they knew. One prof had heard of UofT, and another had heard of Mac. That's it.

 

I am sure when if you apply later on to dentistry/medicine/... the committees of the schools you apply to will know the main universities in Canada, but with McGill you can't go wrong.

 

All that being said, McGill is in a great city with a great nightlife, tolerable winters, gorgeous summers and a very diverse student body. What else do you need?

[Guest peachy]

Dfenst,

 

That's an interesting post. I totally agree with you about the reputation if McGill in the US being extremely strong. My theory is that it's because it sounds like a private school name, whereas U of T, UBC, etc sound like state schools.

 

I do find it weird that your PROFS think the same thing though! My experience working in the US has been that although students and non-academics think McGill is the only Canadian university, professors who do research tend to have a balanced view. They read papers, and know that McGill isn't the only Canadian school with good research going on

 

peachy

[Guest dfenst]

My profs don't do much research as far as I know but, to be honest, I thought it was weird too. It's always a strange thing to hear that your alma mater is so much more recognized than you ever thought.

 

Also, one of my profs did more of her research in the 60s at Columbia and said that at that time, the only other school in north america (it might have even been on a global scale) that was doing similar work was McGill. Granted that's only one story from one professor.

 

Peachy, I'm sure researchers would know the main universities in Canada too!

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I think it totally depends what area of research the prof is in and what Canadian schools are currently hotspots for that kind of research. For example, if hypothetically a prof at Brigham University was big into lateral gene transfer and microbial evolution, he might only know of Dalhousie University. . . as Dal has a pretty big name in that area. Likewise, if someone was big into transplantation, they might know of UWO (there's a big transplant unit here), U of T, possibly Dalhousie (they have quite a few people into transplantation immunology but I'm not sure they still have their transplant unit though) and I'll admit I'm not sure what schools out west are into this. For some high tech stuff, Waterloo might be the best known. On the whole, U of T would probably be known by the most researchers in the US based on the shear volume of research at U of T. . . but if you were applying to a grad or meds program in the US it probably would be hit or miss as to whether that specific prof knew of what schools, unless you specifically targeted a program because it had links to a department you did your undergrad in.

 

Interesting argument on the 'U of T' and 'U of O' sounding like state schools. I wouldn't surprise me if that were true. . . as a kid, I always thought that 'McGill' and 'Queen's' sounded more prestigious myself.