After McGill --> Grad School

wutangfinancial
Sun, 06 Jun 2010 17:00:29 +0000

McGill sends kids to the best grad schools in the world. I know McGill undergrad alumni with Harvard MBAs, Stanford PhD’s, Oxford PPEs, etc. Thing is, McGill is not the causal variable here. Rather, a lot of brilliant kids in Canada and abroad go to McGill for undergrad to save money despite being Ivy caliber students. They then go on to top 10 grad programs in their field after getting high GPAs, research experience and great test scores. If you’re not that bright or motivated you will not get into a top grad program. Everyone ends up where they should.

I should add that McGill offers the rigorous course selection one needs in order to demonstrate the ability to succeed in a top grad program. By contrast, a 4th tier school would not. So undergrad institution has some effect, but not much when you’re looking at top 100 schools in international rankings.