Americans: Your views on McGill

[canada]

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Hi
I was wondering what the general thoughts of Americans are about McGill. Is it reputable? Do you know of any other Canadian universities? How would you rank McGill within Canada and among other American universities?
Finally, do you think it matters to med school which school you did your undergrad? Thanks, I really appreciate the replies.

 

[Newquagmire]

Originally posted by canada
Hi
I was wondering what the general thoughts of Americans are about McGill. Is it reputable? Do you know of any other Canadian universities? How would you rank McGill within Canada and among other American universities?
Finally, do you think it matters to med school which school you did your undergrad? Thanks, I really appreciate the replies.

"The Harvard of Canada," whatever that means. People here say that UT has a better med school.

It does matter where you did undergrad. Many US schools require a year of coursework in the US.

 

[IrishOarsman]

All the MD-PhDs I worked with in a top neurosurgery lab got their MDs in canada at Toronto or McGill and their PhDs at University of Chicago. I think their training is as solid as any.

 

[IrishOarsman]

Sorry, you had two questions: my advice would be to go where you will be happy and challenged as an undergraduate student. Is it good if they have a strong med school acceptance rate? Yes. Do they need to be one and the same with your goal med school? No.

If you like where you are, you'll do better.

 

[tbo]

I'll reiterate the general views from above. I have a professor now in my Master's program (Columbia Biomedical Informatics) who got her MD at McGill. In short I'm quite impressed with her ability to see the big picture and put a broad set of competencies into one. I think that is reflection of good inherent skill but also good training. Also, my ex is going there now, and from what I hear it's a solid program for Health Sciences/Biochem.

I think in considering an undergrad, there are plenty of other considerations to make. Does it have a strong curriculum in the major you're looking into? Does it have a culture conducive to the way you you learn? I was just talking to someone last week about this - he was from Harvard (Org. Chem) and he said the culture there was entirely 'purist'. The entire chemistry department was built around organic chemistry, with all of 2 professors specializing in non-orgo. Along those lines, there were only 2 classes in inorganic. He said while Harvard's a great school, if you were really interested in Inorg, for example, you'd be up a creek. But I'll tell you, this man is a genius when it comes to Orgo, clearly reflecting the school's philosophy.

Check out the school, sit in on some classes, see how it "feels". Reputation is one thing. Being happy and being trained based on your own needs for 4 years (or 3 years over there) is entirely another.

 

[canada]

Thanks guys. I ask the questions because I'm considering medical school in the States and was wondering what the general consensus is. I am an undergrad here and I love it. The city is great, the school is nice, everything seems to fit. I wanted to know more about the view people have, its reputation. Thanks again.

 

[celticmists18]

it definitely matters where you do your undergrad . . . medical schools know a lot more than we think (or at least I thought) they do. they know the relative difficulty of each course (ie organic chemistry) at a given university as compared to other university and they look at your grades in light of this. example: say Yale's ochem is considered the most difficult in the country, while UNC's is one of the easier (this is just an example people, I have no clue if it is true). med schools would probably consider a B in Yale's ochem the same or better at an A in UNC's.

 

[canada]

if anymore americans with a view, could you please post them up? More opinions would be helpful. THanks.