One of my frens has gotten into McGill and a couple of american colleges. The amount she has to pay is similar and right now, she is in a dilemma over which college to go to.
She emailed me and has asked for a suggestion and since I am in a US liberal arts college, I have not advised her. since I don't know much about McGill.

I would appreciate anything you have to say about McGill and Canada compared with US colleges.

All things being equal, a rule of thumb to apply to yourself (away from the chorus of peer pressure):

15 years from now, if you want to impress ONLY your parents, relatives and a few friends with your choice of university, start obsessing over going to name-brand university now.

BUT

15 years from now, if you want impartial STRANGERS to be impressed with the quality (and also the breadth) of your WORK and with your ability to learn/master new things (as the world changes all the more in various directions in unexpected ways), then,
start obessing over what and how you will actually learn in ANY university where
you are assured of a decent education that challenges your mind.

Hope this helps.

oohi
ashu

Ashu is right. Name brand universities may be helpful in short-run, like say, to find a job after graduation, but what really matters in long-run is you, your ability and desire to learn about almost everything.

Thanks all for the info and the advice. I'm sure she's looking for a match for herself and not some brand-name to tag along with her resume. She seems to have been discouraged by the size of McGill and is probably heading for the US.
Peace.

आसुले कुरा ठिक गरेको हो॥

Is someone implying that if someone had a choice between Harvard and lets say MAHARISHI university, you'd go to MAHARISHi so that your quality of work would be better there in the long run????????? PLEASE, gimme a hypocritical break! Ashu, with due respect, are u saying tht your quality of work now is not above par?

If you asked principal investigators in their field, to make your quality of work stand out, u'd have to go into top notch school. ok not so muh in undergrad. If you are say in not top thirty, for instance in science, you'd be left out of the cutting edge research loop anyways. so even if u worked your azz all yor life, you might just fall short!

Just like sex sells in media, name sells in academia. You can say this and that to feel good about yourself, but bottomline is brand name sells. Ivies will be preferred, not only for jobs and positions, but also for brides/grooms.

Passinthru, in all seriousness, if she didn't get into a good US school, i'd go for mcgill. not only for its reputation, because she wouldn't have to live through superficial and hypocritical bullshit everyday just like you see in this forum!

If someone had a choice to study in Maharishi University and Harvard? What if you wanted to wake up at 5 in the morning and do yoga before your classes? What if you did not drink alchohol and wanted to be around vegetarians and seeing meat would make you puke while at the same time you wanted to go to school in a quiet location and not in bustling cambridge? I agree the professors at Harvard might be a whole lot better but what if you there was a professor doing research at Maharishi that you were interested in working with? Now I'm trying to say that someone would choose Maharishi over Harvard just because of these reasons but these are factors that might come into considerion when making a decison on which school to attend.
Yes, brand name sells and the Harvard brand is the top 5 (?) 10 (?) brand names in the world (?) I agree but why do you need to care about what other people think? I mean if you think just going to a good school will make you successfull then you are wrong. To be successfull in the long run like Ashu had mentioned you need to go a school which challenges you to learn new things and makes you a better person in the long run. I will also say that if most people thought this way the world would be a better place...and people that do take risks in life rather than choose a safe path (I'll go Harvard because a good job and a good future awaits me) rather than I'll go someother university which is more suited to my interests. So it depends what you want to get out of your education.

......are u kidding me.....what do u want to get out of your education????

BIG FAT LADY!! of course what else......big bucks i meant :). Or are u gonna be a saint and say u seek satisfaction. I wouldn't go to maharishi university in any case. Cause i think they are related to the pedophiles and con artists of the highest quality :)..wht are their names......hmmm.....satya sai baba n rajnish?

Seems like we are poles apart. So ultimately $$$ is what drives you to study? Are you kiddin me? Are you serious? See I just dont think like you and when does trying to be a obtain a good education and learn constantly throughout your life=trying to be a saint? I thought you had to go a different school to be saint :) And btw Maharishi was just an example. Well I certainly hope you went to good brand name school and are making lots of $$$$$.

Snrup: There are things that money can't buy ( I am sure you've heard this a lot). And not everything in life has a value in monetary terms.

When money talks, there are few interruptions - Herbet V. Prochnow

Money money money MONEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYy
Must be Da Moenyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy~~~~~

The Apprentice's theme song. Need I say more?

IndisGuise:)

Silent reader! do you go to/are going to harvard by any chance? Just Curious. Honey, I'd rather stay poles apart from you :). If you love to wake up at the wee hours, and pose as stupid animals, suit yourself. But pleaseeeeeeeeeee! don't give a baloney about learning crap by obtaining education.. how about you try going to TU and KU and do some research, after all brand names don't count do they? I am sure professors there would be willing to take you with full arms. (they are jus examples btw)

Hurray, I am sooooooooo sorrrrrrrrrrrrrry, i hurt your FEELINGS!
Of course Money is not Everything, ITS THE ONLY THING. man just look @dem skanky gold diggers. ITS THE ONLY THING I tell ya. bling bling!

I've noticed that people who don't respect money don't have any - Paul Getty

Money = Laxmi = God(ess) =Love = Peace = Happiness = Health = Everything = Money.

IndisGuise:)

Mc what? The only Mc I know is that fast food joint I like going to once in a blue moon..whatchamacalliit McDonald's.

passinthru ji -
Finance is probably the most important factor when choosing a college. But looks like your friend will not have to dwell on this issue. Good for him/her [I'm assuming it?s her] because this can be heart wrenching.

Other factors to consider are,
1) reputation - McGill is a great Canadian university. But when someone mentions McGill in the U.S., the general reaction is, McGill who? One might get a different response in an interview setting - whether for a job, a business school or a graduate school. My guess is that if she wants to pursue graduate studies, going to McGill is probably a good idea - academics know stuff that we mortals usually don't. But if she wants to work in the U.S. it may not be so. That's because in the U.S. you get one year of practical training and that's a great cushion to have right out of college. I am assuming that her choices of U.S. colleges are equally good.

2) size of the college - McGill is a big university. Going to a big college, like everything else in life, has pluses and minuses. I think she has to evaluate what she is comfortable with. Big universities generally provide more options in terms of classes and activities. But she might have to sit through classes with 300+ students and listen to TAs with quirky accents. Or she might have to confront marathon runners from Ethiopia or violin players from China. Basically, she has to feel at ease being a straw in a haystack rather than a big fish in a small pond.

3) location - McGill is in downtown Montreal. There are lots of bars and touristy stuff around. The campus itself is quite beautiful and people are very friendly. The best thing about the city, if you are a college student, is that the legal drinking age is 18 [21 in most states in the U.S.]. That means your friend won?t have to get a fake id. The downside to Montreal, and Quebec in general, is that she?ll have to learn French if she wants to venture into the countryside. If she drives, she has to remember that all the road signs are in French. And the weather, let's not even get there. She won't feel at home unless of course she grew up in Mustang or Solukhumbu.

My feeling about going to a reputed college is that it'll give you a head start but whether you become successful or not, however you define it, depends ultimately on you. Choosing the right college is an important decision for your friend but there are many decisions she will have to make after that, and the college she ends up at may not be the determining factor in what she does later in her life. My advise to her is to think but not to sweat about it.

quale hiro- I couldnt have said it better myself!
I got stressed picking college..BUT I love where I am right now!!

passinthru
I think it all boils down to personal choice. A big college or a small college. A big town vs small town. Lifestyles etc etc.
I know why my child chose McGill. As an ex MOntrealer, she feels that is one city where she can attend college, have fun , safe and not be too stressed about expenses.

Gaule, you are wrong about Americans saying McGill who...not that one counts coz no matter where you study, it eventually depends on the student himself/herself to make the best or worst of things... every orientation we went to, the places were filled with Americans. The cost of going to college here in the US is so huge that AMericans are opting to go elsewhere. The kids themselves find the legal age 21, ridiculous and then MOntreal as a city itself attracts a lot of people not to mention that McGill has been ranked as one of the best universities in North America.

Passinthru, tell that person that he/she is pretty lucky to have been accepted into McGill as about 15 people applied from my daughter's school and only 2 got accepted into 2nd year. I know that they receive many applications. If you want to know more about McGill and Montreal, write to me and I can share more info as I lived there myself for many years.

Cheers

Thanks gaule hero and suna,

But she has decided to go a liberal arts college in the US, the prime reason being the size compatibility. Will write though if anything changes.

From a Current Nepalese McGill student:

SAfter noticing all the fuss, I'd thought I'd put in my two cents. I mean, I thought that since I AM CURRENTLY ATTENDING MCGILL and I AM A NEPALESE-AMERICAN FROM BOSTON that I could tell you about my own experience.

McGill University is located in downtown Montreal and has been in existence since 1821. The University has faculties of arts, science, engineering, education, nursing, law, medicine, management & commerce, music and schools in architecture, urban planning, computer science, nutrition, environment and agricutural and zoological studies.

SIZE: McGill currently has about 30,000 students, 18,000 of whom are undergraduates. The size may seem intimidating, but because each of the faculties and programs are quite close-knit, you get the advantages of a large, world-class university with a small-town school community feel. Additionally, about 20% of the students are from outside Canada with significant numbers of students from Asia. Most students speak at least two languages with a significant portion speaking three or more.

RESEARCH: McGill has countless research projects being conducted by world-class researchers currently. Significant studies include those in the areas of stem-cell, cancer, psychology, economics, political science, finance and organizational behaviour research. Like any university, you must stand out in a class to get noticed by a professor, and you may not be in a class small enough until your second year; however, it is up to you to make the firts move and take initiative.

Class sizes for the first year willbe large and students in the faculties of arts and sciences will find more often than not that they will have access to TAs more than professors. However, by the third year, classes (in most programs) are less than 20 students and more often than not, students have access to professors.

UNIVERSITY STRUCTURE: McGill is a school for over-achievers and I do not mean this lightly. One of the frustrating things about McGill is all the red tape that students, staff and faculty encounter in everything from paying bills to switiching faculties. Not a lot at McGill, administratively speaking, is not complicated. Additionally, professors will never come to you; you must show interest to them before they will notice you. This will happen at any research university; at McGill if you show the initiative, professors will show themselves to be surprisingly receptive. Currently, I am working with a professor from the faculty of management on labour law cases and have performed under her in case competitions Canada-wide.

STUDENT LIFE: Student life at McGill is exceptional, and with Montreal as a backdrop, there's something for every student. The Students' Society of McGill University has a varied number of clubs and services under its portfolio. In addition, the society runs a vegan-friendly kitchen, several publications, a cancer support and research group , several ethnic and cultural groups, and several Canadian branches of university unit NGOs.

First Year students are guaranteed student residence. Often that's where you ill meet your best friends and potential roomates. After first or second year, mst students move off campus; rents are quite affordable and food expenses are not prohibitive at all. Also, Montreal is an incredibly safe city with the lowest rate of violent crime in North America.

RATINGS: Not that these should matter at all, but if interested, McGill is rated quite well, tough I agree that this should not be a deciding factor. Recently, McGill has been cited as one of the top ten universities in the world according to the Times of London and number twenty one (ahead of four ivy leagues) in the Times of London Educational Supplement. McGill is one of two Canadian Universities in the American Association of Research Universities. McGill has the highest number of Rhodes scholars in Canada and like many top-notch universities, has students who have won awards too numerous to list.

In fact, McGill is considered as good as, if not better than many top-tier US schools. Look at the Gourman Report as well as he Times of London for reference.