HELP PLEASE: IS McGill a good school?

TourGuide446
Mon, 01 May 2006 15:57:08 +0000

I went to St. Andrews one year for grad school. The town is VERY isolated, and boredom is a problem. But it is right on the water and is old and charming. The university is scattered around town, and isn’t very impressive from an architectural standpoint (in stark contrast to Oxford and Cambridge, which are architectural nirvana). Some of the academic departments are in old beat-up houses. The town has a lot of great pubs…so if you like drinking beer on cold and rainy days, it can’t be beat. Winter in St. Andrews was cold but not bad at all for being so far north. Montreal would be much colder. McGill would probably be a better bet for undergrad, if you prefer the American-style system of courses. The unstructured British system of classes and exams in just one subject (you don’t take courses in a variety of subjects in the UK, even as an undergrad) didn’t look so good for someone who went to an American high school. British universities’ grad degree programs are amazingly streamlined compared to American grad degrees. So it looked to me like going to St. Andrews for a grad degree would make a lot more sense than going there for an undergrad degree. I’m sure you would get your fill of the place doing a one-year grad degree.