McGill and Laval: the Canadian Ivy League? (public schools, universities)
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Are McGill and Laval considered the Canadian equivalent of America's most elite universites?
McGill, yes, some people call it the Harvard of Canada (although being ranked 17th in the world the academic reputation is more on par with Stanford or Duke). Laval, not so much. Universite de Montreal is the more reputable Francophone university. Here's a ranking of Canadian universities done by QS world universities ranking. University of Toronto is also extremely reputable, and, while not on that list, University of Waterloo is world class in physics, computer science, mathematics, and engineering, but it really puts its energy into those subjects, so it's more of a Canadian MIT then a well rounded university. There's a Francophone version of that which is the Ecole Polytechnique, a school that shares a campus with Universite de Montreal. It's probably number 2 in Canada for that sort of thing, but Waterloo is still more reputable (Stephen Hawking works there now!)
The short answer is that there are no Canadian equivalents to the Ivy League in the US.
McGill, UFT, UBC, and Queens are the best Canadian schools and provide a very good education for the price. I've never anything about Laval.
The US educational system (just like healthcare) is based on getting what you pay for. If you can afford the best, it will be best of the best. And if not, it will be crappy. Canada is more focused on spreading the wealth so we don't have top tier institutions but we also don't have as many horrific ones as well. Canada is focused on the middle class first and foremost hence we only have public schools that are affordable, hence a higher proportion of our population has a degree compared to the US (50% vs. 40% i think). But given the differences in our systems, there is no point comparing top US schools to the top Canadian ones. It is not uncommon for the upper crust (i.e. 1%) of Canadians to send their kids to Ivy league schools in the US. The reality is that it is going to very hard for a public institution to compete with a private one that can charge crazy tuition to get the best facilities, research labs, professors, lecturers, etc. In fact, an article came out saying that Canadian schools are actually dropping on a world level, especially as Asia catches up. Canadian universities drop in Times World Rankings – - Macleans On Campus
Here is a sampling of Nobel Prize winners by university affiliation for US/Canadian schools. I know this is just one factor to consider but it is a good measure of quality and achievement.
Chicago 87
Columbia 81
MIT 77
Berkely 47
Harvard 46
Yale 49
Stanford 47
Cornell 42
John Hopkins 36
Princeton 35
NYU 35
Caltech 31
Illinois 26
Penn 28
Washington U 22
Minnesota 21
UCD 20
Carnegie Mellon 18
UCLA 14
Duke 12
University of Washington 12
McGill 12
Toronto 10
UBC 7
Are McGill and the other top Canadian universities selective of who they choose to admit (i.e., you have to have good grades to get in), or are they open-admissions universities?
Are McGill and the other top Canadian universities selective of who they choose to admit (i.e., you have to have good grades to get in), or are they open-admissions universities?
Same as the US -- schools with a better reputation can afford to be more selective. Most lower-ranked schools have some highly selective programs (esp. med, pharmacy, etc) and some programs where anyone can get in if they meet some basic requirements.
As far as which schools are the best, it depends on the program (that's true in the US too), but as of today UofT is definitely ahead of everybody else. Then you have a top tier with UBC, McGill and Queen's, and maybe Western and Waterloo for some programs. Then you have a bunch of places like Laval, York, Alberta... that have some very good research departments but sometimes have students of questionable motivation and abilities (let's just say I have first-hand experience of that).
Are McGill and the other top Canadian universities selective of who they choose to admit (i.e., you have to have good grades to get in), or are they open-admissions universities?
You need good grades but the bar is not absurdly high and the admission process is nothing even close to the selective process an Ivy league US school will hold you to, where some families literally start prepping their kids from childhood. I think the admission rates to even the best Canadian University schools are typically over 50% (someone can check exact nos. if they want). Once you are in, it will be more competitive to get in certain programs, however, and Canadian schools are known for having high drop out rates. You also need to realize that Canadian schools are more focused on graduate research first before undergrad education. And that given that the system is public, you will have really smart, average, and perhaps a few not so smart kids in the same classes - so you will also have a wider range of social classes represented. An elite US school will be mainly very wealthy or just very smart kids in the class on scholarship, so it is filtered more by social class.
Same as the US -- schools with a better reputation can afford to be more selective. Most lower-ranked schools have some highly selective programs (esp. med, pharmacy, etc) and some programs where anyone can get in if they meet some basic requirements.
As far as which schools are the best, it depends on the program (that's true in the US too), but as of today UofT is definitely ahead of everybody else. Then you have a top tier with UBC, McGill and Queen's, and maybe Western and Waterloo for some programs. Then you have a bunch of places like Laval, York, Alberta... that have some very good research departments but sometimes have students of questionable motivation and abilities (let's just say I have first-hand experience of that).
UT and McGill are on par with each other... some years McGill edges out, other years UT. UofT is not "definitely ahead of" McGill.
UT and McGill are on par with each other... some years McGill edges out, other years UT. UofT is not "definitely ahead of" McGill.
Overall, I would agree that they are on par with each other as the "Big Two" so to speak and their relative strengths net out. My impression is that McGill is better for undergrad but UofT edges McGill in professional programs like business, law and medicine.
and, while not on that list, University of Waterloo is world class in physics, computer science, mathematics, and engineering, but it really puts its energy into those subjects, so it's more of a Canadian MIT then a well rounded university
This is interesting because I've always been told Waterloo was a world class engineering school, especially being brought up in Toronto. It was definitely the place for top tier science/engineering crowd to be. I've been a bit surprised over the years when family/friends I know who went to good engineering schools in the US and abroad never heard of it. Here is a press release from the school itself (Waterloo) that asserts that it is 29th in the world from a respected US-based survey of the worlds top engineering schools. I know there's a local bias of pumping up a local school and Canada is not a tech hub but this is far from what I would of expected. I personally think we should be investing a lot more in our education system to improve our country's living standards in the future, especially in terms of engineering/science. https://uwaterloo.ca/news/news/surve...-school-canada
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