<p>Which is a better school to McGill or St. Francis Xavier? (For general undergraduate sciences at St. FX or General Arts and Sciences at McGill?)</p>
<p>Check out Arts One at University of British Columbia or the Foundation year at King’s in Halifax (on camus of Dalhousie). There are a number of strong programs in Canada. If you like a graduate university setting, I would look at Queen’s, Trinity College in the University of Toronto, University of Western Ontario. If you like smaller colleges I would look at Trent, Brock, St. Thomas in Fredericton, Mount Allison and Acadia. </p>
<p>None of these schools are better or worse than any other school. If you pick their honours program you cannot possibly go wrong</p>
<p>i think that advice is kinda weak
no offense (it’d be amazing if i could actually spell that word right)
i go to mcgill and general arts and sciences are insane. there are a lot of large classes, and if you’re not bother about the amazing social scene in montreal, but more concerned about learning, then go to st. FX
you’re less likely to get overwhelmed there
jus my 2 cents
and sorry paleozoic but your post just made me go- ummm what?</p>
<p>Maybe the advice was a bit cryptic. To put the Canadian university scene in context. The gold standard of quality a generation ago was the four year honours degree which at the larger universities operated as an honours college within the faculty of Arts and Science. The ordinary students took a three year “pass” degree, the best students took a four year “honours” degree which was at a much higher level taken with much better students. Toronto and Queen’s, McMaster, Western, Saskatchewan and UBC had the strongest degree programmes. McGill always had a stronger reputation in the US than in Canada but is by any standard quite a good university. </p>
<p>Right now there are some remnants of the old four year honours programmes at Queen’s, Toronto, Saskatchewan and UBC. The great swamp in Canadian University education is the first year which almost everywhere is dispiriting. There are however several really good first year programmes. "Arts One’ at UBC is one of these. Queen’s first year is not too bad since it is the most selective of the Canadian Universities. The star in my view is “Foundations” at King’s in Halifax. Carleton and Brock have integrated humanities programmes which are self selecting and said to be quite good. Trent may also be worth a look.</p>
<p>Once you get past first year and shop your courses a bit, the average quality in ‘honours’ is quite good and doesn’t really vary all that much between Canadian universities. St.Fx Honours would be no different from Acadia or Mount Alison. Engineering Science at Toronto however is still very much an elite programme as is the remnant of Math Physics and Chemistry at Toronto, McMaster and UBC.</p>
<p>Thanks guys for the advice. Is honours something you apply to or is it something you get into after first year? Also, paleozoic, you said McGill is more renowned in the US. Is it more reknowned than St. FX, Dalhousie or U of T? My dream is to go to school an ivy league school in the US. And since I haven’t been accepted yet, I am hoping to transfer from one of these Canadian schools. Which one would give me the best chance? (By the way… I am planning to take Sciences at U of T, Dalhousie or St. FX or Arts and Sciences (joint) at McGill.)</p>
<p>If you want to transfer to an IVY league UofT is probably best. Yet at the same time you can probably get a better grade at other schools. And IVY league schools tend to prefer students with higher grades then the name of the school (well in Canada). There have been more transfer students from McMaster and other schools. </p>
<p>Quick question why the move to Canada if your goal is to go back in second year? Wouldn’t it be wiser to stay in the states?</p>
<p>Oh I forgot to add that McGill is very well know and the area is amazing.</p>
<p>McGill and U of T are in the same league in Canada and in the US. However, with St. FX you’d be really lucky if someone (an employer, another US university) gave it due recognition.
But with ivys, what really matters is your grades, go where you will excel.
At McGill in Arts and Science (combined) there are a very restricted number of honours you can take. You apply to them at the end of your U0 year or as an incoming student if you have up to 24 advanced standing credits.
I’m in the BASc at McGill and unless you have advanced standing, you will be doing basic Chem, Physics and/or Bio your first year. It is brutal. I don’t recommend it.
Since you’re planning on transferring, you wouldn’t get to experience the best McGill has to offer (in terms of its social scene, since you’ll be in the library trying to get As in all the science requirements).
I love it here, but as far as basic science goes, it’s the devil.</p>
<p>tmaacgirl: the reason i’m going to a Canadian school is because i’m Canadian (I live in B.C.) and because i only applied to 5 of the ivy’s and got rejected from all five. So I only had the option of Canadian Univerisites. </p>
<p>pimpcess05: So are you saying that St. FX is not recognized as in the same league as U of T and Mcgill? Also, if I were to get A’s at McGill or A’s at St. FX, which would be more impressive to ivy admissions officers?</p>
<p>Also, is DISP at Dalhousie a good program? I just got a letter about it ad I have no information.</p>
<p>I still don’t understand what you are trying to achieve by transferring to a US ivy which is next to impossible anyway and which arguably would do nothing for you that St. Fx, or King’s,or Arts One at UBC couldn’t do equally well or better. As far as I know you want ultimately to do medicine. McGill has a world class medicine faculty as does McMaster as does U of T–as a matter of fact any Canadian school would be as good as any american school. Your best bet of getting into meds school is to apply in your home province. If i wanted to spread the net a bit, I would look hard at McMaster whose programme has become a bit of a model for medical education world wide. You are not necessarily slumming by staying in Canada.</p>
<p>thts not true. . i know someone who transferred from McGill to Penn…</p>
<p>Although it is correct that you can transfer your odds of getting in are no higher than in first year because you would still be competing for the same 2-3 Canadian spaces at these Ivy schools. Also as a transfer student you would not be eligible for financial aid. So let’s see , you would have a less than 5 % chance because you didn’t make it the first time around and you would have to have parents for whom $30,000 extra tuition is stump change.</p>