<p>a) a lot of americans have not heard of it so many great students don’t necessarily apply there b) mcgill has far more students than any of the ivies thus naturally the statistics will diminish c) being a public university, mcgill has to balance accepting a large number of quebec students who pay <$2,000/yr, while trying to accept a significant number of american/international students who pay $15-20,000/yr, while still taking the best canadian students from outside quebec</p>
<p>the ivies make their money off of endowmnents and massive tuitions, and because these numbers are several-fold larger than that of canadian institutions, they can afford to take fewer students. think of mcgill as a state-run university that an entire country wants to go to cause the academics are superior to the privates.</p>
<p>fyi: these are not selectivity rankings, they are academic quality rankings, ie. course offerings, research, publications, professor quality. although for selectivity mcgill is very high up as well, because it is where the top, top canadian students go… and these top students are just as intelligent as the top american students</p>