American students look north for cheaper alternative

Canadian Expats and travelers in the USA can communicate with each other here!

Moderators: Reba, visaplace.com

StevenCanuckAbroad VIP
Topic author
Posts: 3635
Topics: 2
Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Location: Calgary

American students look north for cheaper alternative

Post Sat Apr 18, 2009 5:32 pm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#30270792

Wow, really, if you don't have a football team or a basketball team education becomes affordable? :shock:
Steve.
Top
axolotlCanuckAbroad VIP
Posts: 304
Joined: 28 Feb 2009
Location: New York City

Re: American students look north for cheaper alternative

Post Sat Apr 18, 2009 7:34 pm

This is funny. When I was at McGill, I probably knew more Americans there than I do now, living in the States! It's always been a relative bargain for them. I never thought of McGill as being that much better (or worse) than any other Canadian university when I was there, and I think that prestige factor as far as universities go seems to be more of an "American thing." When I lived in Toronto, no one cared that I went to McGill. Then I moved down here and I started hearing things like "McGill is the Harvard of Canada, right?" or "McGill is a fantastic school!" Not that I mind. I may not agree with those sentiments, but the fact that a lot of Americans do can only help me down here.
Top
RebaModerator
Posts: 2561
Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Location: North Carolina

Re: American students look north for cheaper alternative

Post Sun Apr 19, 2009 6:19 am

This is just MHO of course, but America is more of a classist society than Canada, so they would have to label even a Canadian University as elite by saying "McGill is the Harvard of Canada" so that any American who has to go to McGill for $$ reasons isn't labled themselves as cheap, or not good enough to get into Harvard. :p

To a Canuck, it's just another university. And we're not afraid to call a university a university, rather than college. Apparently, despite the classisms here, it is considered pompous to say "university" no matter what type of post-secondary institution you're talking about. They're all just college. :roll:
Top
axolotlCanuckAbroad VIP
Posts: 304
Joined: 28 Feb 2009
Location: New York City

Re: American students look north for cheaper alternative

Post Sun Apr 19, 2009 7:53 pm

Reba wrote:And we're not afraid to call a university a university, rather than college. Apparently, despite the classisms here, it is considered pompous to say "university" no matter what type of post-secondary institution you're talking about. They're all just college. :roll:


Yes, I've been mocked a few times for saying "university" when you're supposed to say "college." To me, "college" means community college.
Top
StevenCanuckAbroad VIP
Topic author
Posts: 3635
Topics: 2
Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Location: Calgary

Re: American students look north for cheaper alternative

Post Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:13 am

Oh I really hate that, I remember when I lived in the UK and they decided to rename all the polytechnics as "universities" because it made them sound better. Who cares?

I've met plenty of people who've been to Oxford or Cambridge who are complete chumps and plenty of people who've been to say, Broward Community College or the UofC and they seem brighter to me.

Basically indicates to me that having connections and money is more important than brains with a lot of these places.

Think about it, most of the really, really good places to get an education don't have any of these names, do they: CalTech, MIT, Wharton School of Business.
Steve.
Top

Did you enjoy this post? Share it!

 
  • Related topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: foxtoronto and 0 guests