Hi! I am a senior in high school and I’m applying to a wide range of colleges and universities (public in-state, public out of-state, medium sized private universities, and small liberal arts colleges). The only international school that I’m applying to is McGill, and I’ve had a hard time with getting a sense of how it places amongst American schools. I’ve seen a big range in the types of U.S. universities that people compare McGill to when talking about prestige, ranging from Harvard to UCLA to NYU to Wake Forest. However I haven’t seen any comparisons of prestige between McGill and smaller schools. I know this is a difficult comparison to make because McGill is a large, public university and the top liberal arts schools have under 3,000 undergraduate students each, but where would you all place McGill in terms of academic prestige and reputation amongst liberal arts schools in the U.S., such as Williams, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Bowdoin, Colgate, ect. Obviously I care about plenty of other factors, but I’m just curious about how McGill would compare with some of these schools.
If you would like to consider standardized aspects, such as middle-range ACT profiles, McGill places somewhat lower than all of the liberal arts colleges you mentioned:
Williams: 32–35
Grinnell: 31–34
Colgate: 31–34
Wesleyan: 31–34
Bowdoin: 30–34
McGill: 29–32
https://www.princetonreview.com/college/mcgill-university-1023286
I wouldn’t be averse to attending any of the colleges you mention on the basis of prestige. What I have found over the years is that prestige doesn’t mean what it used to. It used to be the eight colleges of the Ivy League and nothing else. But, like everything else in this country, it has become subject to what echo chamber you happen to occupy. For example, I know a lot of people who would opt for a state university with a world-class STEM reputation over three quarters of the Ivies. Because that’s just how they see themselves. For people who are less decided about their future careers, liberal arts colleges bubble up to the surface. No one can assess how you see yourself better than you can; chances are you have already applied a subconscious prestige filter of your own in coming up with this list.
McGill is large, academically very challenging, and right smack dab in the middle of a largely bilingual but majority French city (the area around McGill seems to be fully bilingual in terms of shops, restaurants, and so on). I have heard that it is somewhat bureaucratic. You will be treated like an adult there, which means that if you need support you are going to need to go looking for it – support will not go looking for you. To me it is a great university, but it is not at all similar to what we in the US would call a Liberal Arts College.
To me two of the big advantages of a LAC are small classes, and the ability to get to know your professors. Neither of these apply at McGill.
There are a small number of “small primarily undergraduate” universities in Canada. These are much more similar to a “liberal arts college”. The best of these are very good, but are almost completely unknown in the US or anywhere outside of Canada.
Outside of the US, “Williams, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Bowdoin,” are not well known.
Outside of the US, at least in my experience McGill is very well known.
In the northeast of the US (where we live), Williams, Bowdoin, and McGill are all well known and well respected.
IMHO, “prestige” is a good thing to ignore when you are trying to decide what university to attend.
In terms of prestige, the closest proxy is the US News rankings which take into account responses to reputational surveys. Also, as mentioned in other posts, the US liberal arts colleges are uniquely designed to foster a broad based education coupled with more intense writing and tutorial based learning, i.e. debate and discussion in smaller seminars and one on one sessions with professors. That said, from a US perspective there is a high regard for the Canadian schools and education system generally. If you plan to live and work in the US, it would make sense to attend a Williams or Princeton instead of McGill. Williams and Princeton also have a good track record placing their grads in the top grad and professional schools in the US. Applying to these schools from McGill may be more difficult. Also, if you plan to return to Canada, going to Harvard for undergrad and then grad school in Canada would also work well. The network you access at these US “prestige” schools is also an important factor. So, in all scenarios, attending college in the US at a well known LAC or Ivy would be preferred to McGill; however, McGill is definitely similar in prestige.