UMichigan vs McGill vs UofT vs UBC for Economics

ubcucsd
Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:03:12 +0000

I think that the rankings that most undergraduates look at are based on the Econ graduate school here, as most rankings are. Do not forget that most rankings are based on research as well, not the quality/experience you will have there.
Don’t count UBC out–it definitely is a challenging program. However, I think better quality for the amount of work the program is can be found elsewhere. Another factor in my unhappiness in the program is also because I don’t like the impersonal vibe of the school in general.
Overall, now that I have been through 2 years in university, you begin to realize that a lot of the rankings business is not very significant. It matters how well you perform at any given college to get into graduate school, and how well you can sell yourself to an employer. I used to think the rankings were everything, which is why I did not transfer to McGill, but now I am transferring to UCSD because I want to enjoy my college experience. I’ve also found that staying at UBC for its rankings has been a bad choice because I found when applying an internship on the east coast, the rankings I had so relied on were useless because most employers (Bank of America, Delloite) had not heard much about UBC, nor did they treat it with any prestige.
Rankings are a nice benchmark, but they don’t tell you the big picture. It is nice to base educational goals from them, but they should never be the deciding factor in a college decision because in the end they are not very significant. Those with choices should choose to go where they feel like they will have the best time.