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[Jotaro]

In a relatively near future (when I am cured that is), I am considering going to an ontarian university to get a language degree, or something in that effect. I would like to be in an english-only city and society, and I think Ontario would fit my bill. What I am considering is becoming a teacher, I think I would like to teach french to the english-speaking people. And I am sick of the province I live in (Quebec), I just want to change my life and the place I live in, totally. And I am serious, I've been pondering it for a long while, and I am discussing plans with my dad.

I do not know jack shit however about canadian universities. I have heard plenty of humoristical depictions, but nothing to really help me. Based on what I gathered, I'd probably choose University of Ottawa. It would appear it would be much easier to get my quebecian highschool degree recognized there (because quebecian highschool system is different than the rest of NA), plus it's english, bilinguism in Ottawa is a joke, isn't it?

I have some priorities, and there are things I am much less picky with. One thing I like is a quiet place, if it's boring I can accept that. Of course, the cost of the place where I would live (I have no family in Ontario) would be an issues. I don't think I'd settle with a dorm, with this crazy lifestyle, plus I would never get the quietness I am looking for. And to hell with a lesser social life, I never really had one to begin with, and I'd prefer to build up on my own. I will not have to go and find a job, so that's not an issue. What is however is transportation, because I will not have a car. That could mabye changed, but these cost a fortune and I never enjoyed driving in the first place. So if I have to make my way inside a gigantic metropolistic city, that would really stink, so means of public transportation, or ease of such means are very important to me. What I am also less familiar with is crime rate. I want a safe place, I don't care if it's boring, I don't want to really have to deal with my stuff being stolen or messed up with. I can entertain myself pretty much all the time if required (by the lifestyle I am currently forced to live). I will be mostly alone when I will begin this, and I always was more of a urban tourist, so I'd like a place with museums, theaters, shopping malls, stuff like that.

I think I would really like this because I'm a really good communicator. If you see typos here and there, my english is actually very good, it's solely because I have a very hard time editing what I write because of my illness, but that is all going to end soon. Who knows, one day you might have me as a colleague, as a fellow student? What if one day, I'd teach french to your kids?

 

[BigJonsson]

There are some good ones and some not so good ones

 

[Jotaro]

There are some good ones and some not so good ones

Huh, thanks for stating the obvious?

 

[Oxymoron]

About 15% of Ottawa is french, and it's just across the river from Gatineau. If you want to live in an anglo-only environment, you're better off somewhere in the south of the province. uOttawa is actually perfectly bilingual, every single one of their courses is offered in both french and english, IIRC. You could easily get by speaking only french in Ottawa.

You should probably try Queen's, in Kingston. It's pretty much a college town what with the Royal Military College and St-Laurent College also being there, and something like 20% of the population being a student or staff member at either school, and it's very much anglophone. Of course, getting into Queen's might be a bit tough, since the entrance average last year was 89%, and you'd also have to take an english test since you're from Québec. Very beautiful city, though.

Oh, and don't go to Carleton.

 

[6.8]

I've done my Computer Engineering degree at uOttawa (finished in December) mostly in French. I took about 5 courses of the degree in English, and only 2 of them because I had to. Most people complained that the bilingualism of the program was a joke, but I didn't have a problem with it.

That being said, stay clear away from its faculty of Engineering. I've had so many experiences of pure ridicule with the faculty administration and/or teachers that I would recommend you not to touch it with a 50 meter pole. So if you're thinking Engineering, I'd go for Queen's (which is what I should've done - I had the necessary average), or go in Quebec (McGill, Sherbrooke). If you're thinking of doing Management, Law, or Science/medecine, I would recommend uOttawa, though.

 

[p_xavier]

I've done my Computer Engineering degree at uOttawa (finished in December) mostly in French. I took about 5 courses of the degree in English, and only 2 of them because I had to. Most people complained that the bilingualism of the program was a joke, but I didn't have a problem with it.

That being said, stay clear away from its faculty of Engineering. I've had so many experiences of pure ridicule with the faculty administration and/or teachers that I would recommend you not to touch it with a 50 meter pole. So if you're thinking Engineering, I'd go for Queen's (which is what I should've done - I had the necessary average), or go in Quebec (McGill, Sherbrooke). If you're thinking of doing Management, Law, or Science/medecine, I would recommend uOttawa, though.

IAWTP. Actually, I wasn't even a student at the faculty of Engineering and I've had bad experiences from them. They lost my credit card number from my application (I had to change my card). Later they lost my application completely. I had to translate all my documents (although it's supposed to be a bilingual university) to English. They they lost the translation. I applied in January and received my acceptance forms in July. In the end, I just stayed at Sherbrooke...

 

[Azih]

I'm a UofT alumni so I have a soft spot for the place myself. Have no idea how strong its language department is though. Or York's for that matter. Toronto is on the expensive side though, but one of the few places you can get around to a lot of places without the need of a car (best public transportation in Ontario). Plus one of the nice things about big cities is that you can be as social or not as you want to be and the place will accomdate you. Toronto is also pretty strong on the museum/libraries side of things as well.

Edit: Er, also people kill themselves in interesting ways here.

 

[LakeEarth]

I go to the U of Windsor... it's small and MacClaines hates us for some reason, but it's cheap :lol I pay about $4500 in tuition a year, though housing will make that number go up.

But really, just go to the U that has the best program that you want.

 

[psycho_snake]

If you really want to move to Canada, then I can't help you, but if you are looking for a change of life and a good uni, then should take a good look at what they have in Britain. There are some really good uni's there, but only if you are prepared to live in a shithole that never stops raining.

 

[Boogie]

If you really want to move to Canada, then I can't help you, but if you are looking for a change of life and a good uni, then should take a good look at what they have in Britain. There are some really good uni's there, but only if you are prepared to live in a shithole that never stops raining.

He already lives in Canada, you moron.

Edit: Er, also people kill themselves in interesting ways here.

:lol

So wrong, yet I laughed.

 

[Kuro Madoushi]

I'm UofT alumni myself and I say avoid it.

If you're looking for good universities to prepare you for teaching (a field I'm going into myself...er...someday...) try York (which has a Concurrent Education Programme) or go to UBC. BC has the best teacher colleges in the country IMO.

However, if you're still unsure of where to go for your graduate studies (teaching or otherwise) THEN I can recommend UofT because it has OISE, (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) which is a fine place from what I heard, but their selection process is stupid.

But I say don't go to UofT for your undergrad...

- Picking courses is a nightmare
- Fullfilling courses for your degrees can be a nightmare depending on what it is
- Expensive...and they sure as hell didn't help me with funding, finding jobs, etc.
- If you stay in residence (which you're guaranteed for during the first year) you may get stuck at a Best Western instead of one of the college residences.
- Very tight exam schedules...man did I hate them...
- Too political...man...some of the students just can't shut up sometimes...I won't mention names or groups here, but some just seem to TRY to stir up shit
- Expect to walk a bit...UofT is freakin big...
- Another reason and probably the biggest...UofT marks on a fucking scale! I mean goddamn it! If a paper deserves a fucking A then it should get a fucking A! Fucking profs are forced to mark so that there's a good distribution of marks...so you have a percentage of As, Bs, Cs, etc...now mind you they don't ALL do this and I don't blame the profs, I blame the administration.

That said UofT does have some good points (but I still wouldn't recommend it)

+ 90% of my teachers there have been really wonderful, supportive, and generally know what they're talking about. If you want to talk them them about your mark, they're always willing...only one time a prof wasn't willing...jackass...
+ There's a lot of hot babes there (just watch out for those Victoria College girls...more than a few people have told me they're crazy...I didn't heed those warnings til I dated one myself :lol )
+ There's lots of clubs and extracurricular stuff at UofT
+ It's easy to get to

Yeah that's all I got...

 

[Pochacco]

Ontario has the best schools in Canada.
Quebec and BC have some good ones too.

There's UofT, Queens, York, Water-fucking-loo, Mac, etc. It's really quite amazing.
I was looking at Forbe's top ranked business schools in the world last week...and I believe Queens and York where in the top 10 (along with McGill). Pretty impressive.

 

[Jotaro]

Thanks everyone.

I'd figure out that BC to be too far from my Quebecian town, and I tought the cost of living there was ludacris. Anyway, I think I would like the climate. I am definitely going to study languages and/or teaching, but I am clueless as to how the english canadian programs work as for that.

About 15% of Ottawa is french, and it's just across the river from Gatineau. If you want to live in an anglo-only environment, you're better off somewhere in the south of the province. uOttawa is actually perfectly bilingual, every single one of their courses is offered in both french and english, if I recall correctly. You could easily get by speaking only french in Ottawa.

Yes, I'd want to be only able to speak english, I could do with a french community, but I guess I could find my way to speak english only anyway. I will not speak french unless it is absolutely necessary.

You should probably try Queen's, in Kingston. It's pretty much a college town what with the Royal Military College and St-Laurent College also being there, and something like 20% of the population being a student or staff member at either school, and it's very much anglophone. (...) Very beautiful city, though.

Yes it's beautiful, I've been here on vacation, I really liked it, you are indeed right. However, considering how it's hard to get there, and what happened with the military College of Quebec that was closed and moved there, I'd not be inclined to go there. My cousin joined the military, and he HAD to go there. Christ, he had to do his speech and bail towards the queen, dammit.

I'd rather not live in a place like that, neither in a big College town. If there is a place where the students are particularly evil-minded, I'd rather avoid.

and you'd also have to take an english test since you're from Québec.

I just hope for you, Quebec does not automatically equals french, altough for me that is the case, I am an authentic peasoup. I remember, I had to fill a test for some College application that was like that, but nothing ever went through. I was in the class, made the test, but it was heavy on listening to conversations (at that moment, my understanting of the english language in audio was terrible). I tried as much as I could, I was sweating, I was sad.

I remember then going back to see the guy responsible for the admissions. The first thing I said (because I was sure I failed miserably) was: I'm sorry I screwed everything up.

The english guy looked at me in amazement and said: "Huh, you're joking, right?" He then showed me the marks, I got 100%, in front of everyone else, even all the english! Needless to say, I was stunned. :lol

Too political, man some of the students just can't shut up sometimes...I won't mention names or groups here, but some just seem to TRY to stir up shit

That is something that, while that would not bother me (it's obvious it is going to happen in every place where english is the majority), if some student are a little too evil-minded, well I could get tired of the millionth separatist joke, or the millionth french joke. Even that would absolutely not make me jaded or even less angry to the point of hurting humans, but that might make me tired and being less able to concentrate on my studies. I guess there is not way to tell, no absolute benchmark.

And well, I do have a lot of experience in that field. I was the top canadian history student ever, so I guess I could reply with factual jokes to strike back in a lighthearted way, and when I started to use Usenet, I'd go on political forums, english forums, canadian forums, and from the jokes, the derogative expletives used on me, ignorance, I learnt on how to settle everone, how to own every single english-canadian stuck-up individual rhetoritically. :lol

It was fun going to canadian english historical places, and making (gentle) fun of people who worked there, lived there, and dared make some fallacious statement about french and always have a way to get the advantage. I will always remember the fun I had in Louisbourg (about the fact it was a french fortification, and I was a french visitor, and the student "guardians" would not be able to speak french, they would all have a setup as for introducing us in Louisbourg, and so on). :lol

From what I gathered, english people are generally really cool, really fun, there are some less funny individuals like there is in every society, I guess most of the time people act in mean ways out of ignorance. I remember when I was very young, I was walking in Toronto, and my father would play on it, to tease me gently, he was like "english people are EVIL!" and I was influenced easily, it was nearly like Angelina and the little kids in Rugrats. The thing is, we'd have to go to Toronto, watch a Blue Jays game, go to the Hockey Museum, and I was proud to walk in Toronto (I'm more of an urban tourist), and I was proud of having an Expos cap. My father when he realized I was proud he then said in the same vein something like: "Don't you know son that english people LOATHE the Expos to death?"

I was so innocent and gullible back then! :lol

So I'd walk into virtually every single famous place of Toronto with that cap, always expecting to get laughed at, but no everyone was nice, everyone who recognized the baseball team on my cap were all making nice comments. I then felt very safe.

 

[Azih]

That is something that, while that would not bother me (it's obvious it is going to happen in every place where english is the majority), if some student are a little too evil-minded, well I could get tired of the millionth separatist joke, or the millionth french joke.

Quebec only comes up near referendum time a bit. He's talking about the Arab/Muslim students vs the Israeli/Jewish students stuff. Though man, Concordia is way worse about that stuff and York is just as much up there as UofT.

But yeah the negatives about UofT hold true. They're very much focused on the graduate program and undergrads don't get much support at all and since the university is so large the exam period goes on way longer and all your friends at other places will be done with exams while you're still 2 weeks away from your last final. And the tuition is damn high too.

But I really like the campus, there's always something happening at St.George, just take a scope at the posters papered on the lightpoles and go to whatever lecture/talk you find interesting. Plus Robarts is HUUUUUUGE library.

 

[TheQueen'sOwn]

Oh, and don't go to Carleton.

Is there something wrong with Carleton (and more specifically Aerospace Engineering)?? =(

 

[Boogie]

Is there something wrong with Carleton (and more specifically Aerospace Engineering)?? =(

Aerospace Engineering? What year are you in?

I have a friend who's in first year in Aerospace Engineering at Carleton.

 

[TheQueen'sOwn]

I just applied :lol. I'm hoping to get in .

EDIT: I find it funny that Carleton seems to be one of the only universities without a supplementary application for their engineering course (mind you, I've only had experience with Queen's, Waterloo, and McMaster)... yet they seem to give away the most money in scholarships.

 

[Boogie]

I just applied :lol. I'm hoping to get in .

:lol Oh, okay then.

 

[Crandle]

I'm hoping to end up at U of T this fall (well, not really hoping, I have great marks and am applying to liberal arts, but a scholarship would be nice) and I have to say that I've heard some of the negatives here before. That doesn't mean they're necessarily true, but U of T is very big, and some people find it impersonal (plus math and science classes can be big in your first year, at least). However, I love Toronto, their resources (whether libraries, teachers, or extracurricular stuff) are basically unequaled, and the campus and residences all seemed to be good (the dorm I'm trying to get into is having a new dining hall built this year, too). I can second the perception of women there, too.

I've gone to Queen's for a week-long university-style course with my school for the past few years now, and although I quite like the school Kingston didn't make much of an impression on me.

Hmm...Quelph appears to be very good for undergrad, it's basically my second choice...just don't go to York. Its location is awful and you'll be forced to go through a microcosm of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus.