<p>In terms of citations per paper, this is referring to how respected the pieces of work/literature the professors and assistant professors at each school are releasing. The fact that McGill is high in this regard attests to the fact that the work of the people that will be teaching you is considered significant and influential, a good thing. To give an example, in my science classes, while liberal arts schools and other schools were learning about biochemical processes from textbooks complied of research from years ago, I was taught about new developments within these processes by the people who were discovering them. Thus essentially I was learning things 5-10 years before they reached a textbook. It is not as cut and dry in English and the humanities, but the same thing applies. More citations = more relevant and significant = more advanced in the teaching as well.</p>
<p>Ok, back to the original question. The humanities at McGill are considered top notch. Traditionally these are more difficult to rank because they are so broad and diverse, however, as tomofboston said, McGill has produced several award-winning authors as recently as this past year (all of these awards can be found on the main website). As a result, McGill continues to attract top professors and educators of all kinds, you will be challenged as well as enlightened.</p>
<p>The administration is what you make of it. You have to actively seek out help and assistance and plan ahead if you need it, nobody will hold your hand. For me the advisors often seemed a bit out of touch on some topics I needed to ask, but they sought to help in every way they could nonetheless. Do not worry about the administration, you would be hard-pressed to find a school that is organized to the satisfaction of the majority of the students.</p>
<p>Classes are large depending on your faculty. Management is traditionally small, science and arts are traditionally large. Moreover, at every major university, first-year courses are large, its a matter of requirements and weeding out the less serious. Many humanities classes get significantly smaller as you continue. English classes are generally smaller, yet philosophy classes are large. It depends on the program, the class, the room schedule. I would also not worry about this. If you are someone that can definitely not learn on their own, just make sure you go to the professor or TA’s office hours. A good relationship with a prof can go a long way toward improving your understanding and ultimately your grade.</p>