I graduated from UofT, so I know what about the hard work you are talking about, but guess what. Every other undergrad is just as hard. UofT students are usually the top students from high school, so when they come to UofT and dont get the same marks, they bitch, whine and cry and create all the scapegoats they can....such as they blame UofT for being so hard.
Oh, well. I think most people have a love/hate relationship with the school. It's tough, but it's a good school that's known world-wide. I don't think most people blame the school for being hard and I agree that you're right a lot of the difficulty hast to do with the amount of competition here. But that said, there are definetely easier schools here in Canada, regardless of what you believe. It's a pretty analogous situation to comparing UCLA with some school like University of Colorado-Boulder or University of Western Washington (both of which I might add are fun places to be regardless of reputation!).
Best schools in Canada IMO: UofT, McGill, Waterloo, Queens, UBC and MAYBE UofA.
Other schools which are good, but IMHO easier and/or not as reputable IMO: pretty much the rest.
You said it yourself once - U of T is the #1 school in Canada and has been for god knows how long and I will go so far as to say the others I listed have been in the top top for equally as long. The best students simply gravitate to those "best schools". I was joking about the entire deification thing. I don't know anyone who considers themselves better because of going to this school. It's is definetely acknowledged especially her in academic circles that this is the place to be; however, I'd say most people I know at this school despite being fairly competitive are paradoxically on a personal level, quite humble and personable. I don't know what social circles you swung with while here, but I think its overplayed that people here are so stuck on their academics that they won't take some time off to have a little fun. I don't know, maybe I just like to make the best of what others might consider a bad situation (it really isn't though). I love Toronto, but I would hardly try to define myself by the school I go to and I doubt Audio does either. That said, if you had to go to school elsewhere in Canada, where would you go? From what I can tell, you wouldn't like any of the other schools I mentioned if you hated it here. So what would it be Western, Guelph, Trent? I don't know man, sounds like you wasted four years of what are usually the best years of one's life if you hate the school so much.
Also that said, no hard feelings BadVibes, I interviewed at Temple and I thought it seemed like a pretty decent school - people were nice, facilities seemed alright, etc. etc. This all despite the often hilarious interview feedbacks. I love the new one about Brian Hahn being "a womanizer and drug addict". Where the heck did they get that. He seemed like a pretty cool guy to me.
But this post is off topic and I digress, so Audio, good luck I hope you get into Harvard. Or if you choose Penn that should be good too. They both sounds pretty good from the other threads I've read.
Guess I should take my state school DDS and sign myself up for the nearest strip mall. Without that Ivy/UC school stamp on my transcript, being a leader is definitely out of the question.
