Convince me on why I should choose Toronto over McGill or UBC
———————————————
hey there,
i’m so torn about whether to answer this seriously or not. um. ummm. ok i’m just gonna do both.
SERIOUS VERSION
uoft, mcgill and ubc are all world-class institutions of roughly the same size. in fall 2013, uoft had 42 693 undergrad students on the downtown campus (plus 24 443 at UTM and UTSC) , ubc had 49 896 on its vancouver campus (plus 8 388 at okanagan), and mcgill had 39 349. all pretty big schools.
however, i would say in uoft’s favour that we divide our Arts & Science students by college, which is a great way to encourage small communities within a big school and bigger city. i’m sure both mcgill and ubc have some kind of similar organizing principle, but i’ve been to my fair share of universities, and in my opinion, uoft is especially good at encouraging small community.
whatever you’re interested in is probably offered as a program at all three schools. that said, feel free to browse uoft’s course calendar for a list of all the programs we offer. maybe one of them will strike your interest in a way that mcgill or ubc’s programs won’t.
when it comes to programs, uoft is pretty unique as canadian universities go in that you’re only required to pick a program after first year. also, you’re able to switch programs pretty much until graduation. it’s an atypical flexibility.
finally, you’re gonna have to move provinces for at least two of these schools. interprovincial fees are really expensive. seems like a no-brainer to me to take the cheapest option. like obviously if you live in B.C. don’t come to toronto, unless you want to live here after school.
that said, if you do come to uoft, there are lots of opportunities to work here, either on campus or in the city. something like 20% of canada’s GDP comes from toronto, so if you want to work in this city (which most people do, though i understand if you’d rather be in Vancouver), going to school here is probably a smart idea.
UNSERIOUS VERSION
1. everyone at uoft is a dinosaur.
2. every wendesday, uoft students scale the towers of UC like the cornish pixies on that skeleton in harry potter.
3. if a uoft prof makes a grammatical error, every classroom has a bucket of tomatoes with which students can pelt them.
4. you may have heard uoft students talking about ‘ROSI.’ that’s uoft’s local demigod! he usually lurks at the bottom of ponds and will grant you wishes if you throw pennies into them.
5. upon graduating from uoft, alumni are granted the power of invisibility.
6. all three uoft campuses are connected underground by a series of chutes and slides.
7. uoft has askastudent, and that’s all you need, to be honest.
hope that helped you get closer to a decision!
best,
aska