Experiences with grade deflation? Seeking confirmation from current students/graduates!

ChaiChai8
Sun, 27 Sep 2015 09:36:18 +0000

Hi missandei- I am an American and I graduated from my Bachelor’s at McGill last year and I can definitely help you out with some of your questions. Overall I loved it and I would do it all again- living in a bilingual city was great and the student population is very international so I got to become friends with people from all over the world. Furthermore, the overall cost of going to McGill was at least a 3rd of the top tier schools in the US that I was accepted to and it just made sense to go because then I was able to use the extra money to enjoy the delicious French food and travel

To answer your questions- yes, there are large classes but these are mostly reserved to first year and even first semester. It also totally depends on your program- if you study French you will always have small classes (25 max) and the only possibility for a large class is for the general requirements if you haven’t already passed them with APs (McGill allows you to actually skip the pre-req classes thus saving you money and up to a year on your education as I did)
For me, I studied in the faculty of arts and my largest class was 200. The only super large classes I know of are basic bio and math- however, these are split up into tutorials if you need the extra personal help.
As a general rule at McGill, there are no hand outs or hand-holding…if you want something you have to ask for it but the help and support is always there. Certainly good for prepping for the ‘real world’ where it is the same

Also yes, McGill is not going to give out As easily. There is certainly no grade inflation here. However, if you are diligent you can receive good grades, it will not be easy but the grading system here is certainly fair. I was challenged as a student for the first time in my life and I am now all the better for it.

I encourage you to send the application and visit the school (its beautiful now with the fall colors and the mountain in the city center.

Hope this has helped!