American looking to relocate to Montreal (job market, best schools, universities)

[Dspence7891]

What steps would I have to exactly take to move there?I was told that I would be able to come if I enroll fulltime in college.Is this true? How is the job market? I know French is the official lang. in the province of Quebec,but how proficient would you say I'd have to be,in order to work/live in Montreal?Lastly, what colleges will accept a GED and have high acceptance rates?

[LEFTIMAGE]

Originally Posted by Dspence7891

What steps would I have to exactly take to move there?I was told that I would be able to come if I enroll fulltime in college.Is this true? How is the job market? I know French is the official lang. in the province of Quebec,but how proficient would you say I'd have to be,in order to work/live in Montreal?Lastly, what colleges will accept a GED and have high acceptance rates?

Quebec has great online resources providing you with information as far as ''steps to take'' (I was born and raised here so wouldn't know too much in this regard) So I would start with a google search. All the government websites are reliable and available in English.

If you enroll full-time you definitely can stay here. I believe this will also open the possibility of permanent resident status, and eventually I would assume citizenship. A colleague at work, from Moldova, once told me that citizenship in Canada was most easily accessed through Quebec. Don't know if this is true but it wouldn't surprise me.

The academic profile of Montreal is excellent, on par with Boston, and the city's two largest English universities are in the downtown core. McGill is generally regarded as one of North America's best schools, and Concordia has a solid reputation as well (one of Canada's 20 best) Since you only have a GED it's all but certain you would have to take night classes as an independent student in order to ''prove your worth''. If you had excellent standing in high school this may not apply. Independent studies are a popular means of accessing Concordia as a full-time student, though one has to perform reasonably well to get in. I'm not sure if this medium is offered at McGill, but the standards of admission are probably a tad higher in any case.

As for language, Montreal is 55% bilingual, 36% french only and 8% English ONLY. In the downtown area, this feels more like 20% English only (mostly students) 10% French only and 70% bilingual. Virtually every service you can imagine is readily available in English in these areas. As for the prospects of getting a job, the tricky thing is you must be able to speak French reasonably well to work almost anywhere (waitering, retail, etc). That being said, jobs where you're not required to speak French at all (dishwashing, retail backstore, telemarketing,some McGill and Concordia student jobs, etc) DO exist and can be gained. You'll still be limited to these types of jobs til you get a good handle on French though.

Career-wise, one will be massively disadvantaged if not proficient in French. Proficient doesn't mean mother-tongue. Many Montrealers working excellent jobs have huge accents. Still, they are capable of getting their points across. A willing individual could easily attain this level of French over the course of, say, their bachelor studies (4 years) The job market in Montreal is in good health these days.

In sum...

1. Quebec government for emigration info
2. Concordia is your best bet for university
3. Begin to learn French. In the meantime don't overly fret about the (student) job situation, but don't except many (any?) options above 10$ an hour until you know basic french.
4. If work were not an issue, you could live your whole life in Montreal without learning a word of french (like 7% of people do). Granted, you'd be missing out on quite a bit, culturally. The Quebec government vigorously promotes learning French, and will try very hard to make this a convenient experience for it's residents. (cheap, high quality service)
5. QUEBEC IS AWESOME AND MONTREAL IS IT'S CENTERPIECE! Hope your situation works out nicely.

Cheers

[jambo101]

Google

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Dspence7891

What steps would I have to exactly take to move there?I was told that I would be able to come if I enroll fulltime in college.Is this true? How is the job market? I know French is the official lang. in the province of Quebec,but how proficient would you say I'd have to be,in order to work/live in Montreal?Lastly, what colleges will accept a GED and have high acceptance rates?

The Internet is your friend for specific requirements. I think it'd help if you actually told us how proficient in French you are right now. GED's can be accepted, but realize that Quebec has a different system where it (as close to analogous as possible) is fine if you go to the equivalent of a junior college/community college and then from there to a major league university. Try going that route first (and doing very well), then going to a great university. The job market is supposedly not too bad at the moment, but it is almost essential that you are bilingual in order to make that work (and this is true for any place--speak the local language). This isn't a bad idea, but make sure you are dedicated to learning the language of your environs and not just falling into the ease of speaking amongst your native language peers.

[barneyg]

Originally Posted by LEFTIMAGE

The academic profile of Montreal is excellent, on par with Boston, and the city's two largest English universities are in the downtown core. McGill is generally regarded as one of North America's best schools, and Concordia has a solid reputation as well (one of Canada's 20 best) Since you only have a GED it's all but certain you would have to take night classes as an independent student in order to ''prove your worth''. If you had excellent standing in high school this may not apply. Independent studies are a popular means of accessing Concordia as a full-time student, though one has to perform reasonably well to get in. I'm not sure if this medium is offered at McGill, but the standards of admission are probably a tad higher in any case.

I love Montreal and everything else in that paragraph is likely true, but the bolded part is an exaggeration.. McGill, Concordia, HEC/UdeM, UQAM as a whole cannot compete with Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Brandeis, Northeastern, Babson, Tufts..

[LEFTIMAGE]

Originally Posted by barneyg

McGill, Concordia, HEC/UdeM, UQAM as a whole cannot compete with Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Brandeis, Northeastern, Babson, Tufts..

Hi. You're absolutely right, largely thanks to MIT and Harvard being locks in the global top 10 year in and out.

But I think you'll agree, in the context of the post (OP looking at general undergrad programs) that the atmospheres in both cities are complimentary to obtaining a higher education. Equally so.

Actually when I said on par I was referring to this:
Boston and Montreal are #1 and #2 (I forget the order) for ''major cities with the highest % of active university students''... I cant find the exact numbers but I'm sure of this.

So to clarify, I meant the college ''culture'' was as rich in Montreal as say, Boston. Something like 1\6 residents are College students in both cases; cheap food options, lots of study space across the city etc.

[barneyg]

Originally Posted by LEFTIMAGE

Hi. You're absolutely right, largely thanks to MIT and Harvard being locks in the global top 10 year in and out.

But I think you'll agree, in the context of the post (OP looking at general undergrad programs) that the atmospheres in both cities are complimentary to obtaining a higher education. Equally so.

Actually when I said on par I was referring to this:
Boston and Montreal are #1 and #2 (I forget the order) for ''major cities with the highest % of active university students''... I cant find the exact numbers but I'm sure of this.

So to clarify, I meant the college ''culture'' was as rich in Montreal as say, Boston. Something like 1\6 residents are College students in both cases; cheap food options, lots of study space across the city etc.

That sounds reasonable. It may also depend on how you define "major city" and whether you include CEGEP students.. there are indeed few cities with such an important number of postsecondary schools downtown -- McGill, Concordia, UQAM, Dawson, Vieux-Mtl...