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thesparky · 2009 October 21st, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nanashi

The honors requires you to be 80% or better.

It's effectively 85+% these days.

gbea · 2009 October 30th, 07:38 PM

Do not count out McGill for undergrad.
I attended it so there is a huge bias here.
The honours econ program is quite selective (less than 1/3 of the people who start it finish it.) This program (about 35 by the end) is quite elite and has some very nice features. It is only half North-American, which is a unique undergraduate experience. Almost everyone is serious about economics. I would say 20-25 percent of grads got a top 30 phd admit in US or UK. Pretty much any of us could get into Master's programs of our choice.
Professors are not unknown, McGill does lack the huge name, but all professors come from top universities and have decent reputations.
The grad program is certainly not strong, but the undergrad is. For example, econometrics is tought at a higher level in honours undergrad than MA. I took a couple crossover Honours/MA classes, and the undergrads consistently outperformed the MA students. (I know this probably speaks as poorly about the MA program as it does well about the BA program).
I TAd at U of T and can assure you that the average callibre of student is not nearly as good as McGill honours program, and placements are better on average (though not in the extreme) at McGill than U of T.

The structure of the Honours program is such that most of your econ courses are honours only courses, which certainly raises the callibre.

One downside of McGill is the one strike and you are out policy. All honours courses have a bottom threshold (B or B-). If you do not make this in one course, you are out of the program, and any chance of any grad school goes with you.

One other thing, it is my very strong opinion that if you should not pick your undergrad with such a narrow goal in mind. You do not have any idea what you want to do 5 years from now. Everyone has a life plan at that stage, and 90% of us change it. Anyone who says otherwise is in the (randomly assigned) 10%. McGill, U of T, and UBC, will all open many doors, and will not preclude anything. I can assure you, if you are good enough to do a top 5 phd program, (which is impossible to tell at this point), you will get there through any of those schools. For undergrad Queens and Western are quite good as well, but not quite as much so.

Grad school is obviously a different story. In my opinion the ranking of the top 6 in Canada is
1. UBC
2. U of T
3. Queens
4. Western
5. SFU
6. McGill

Sorry for the rambling post.

HighSchoolKid · 2009 October 31st, 08:17 AM

Thank you for the rambling (insightful) post.

^__^ · 2009 October 31st, 04:22 PM

I would choose among UofT, UBC, or Queen's for econ.

However, If you are also good at maths and care about your maths education, UofT would be better. In the maths honours stream, a typical UofT student has the chance to learn from Spivak's Calculus in 1st year, Analysis on Manifolds by Munkres follows in 2nd year. Up to 3rd, they are already covering Lebesgue Integration and Measure Theory. These would provide firm foundation for econ grad schools; this standard parallels many of the top maths programmes in US. (If I'm not mistaken, in Canada, only Waterloo offers similar level of maths training, but you dont want to go there for econ)

Despite UofT's size, for a combination of econ and maths education, it probably would be my best choice in Canada.

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2009 October 30th, 07:38 PM	#32 (permalink)
gbea I JUST got here. Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 71	Do not count out McGill for undergrad. I attended it so there is a huge bias here. The honours econ program is quite selective (less than 1/3 of the people who start it finish it.) This program (about 35 by the end) is quite elite and has some very nice features. It is only half North-American, which is a unique undergraduate experience. Almost everyone is serious about economics. I would say 20-25 percent of grads got a top 30 phd admit in US or UK. Pretty much any of us could get into Master's programs of our choice. Professors are not unknown, McGill does lack the huge name, but all professors come from top universities and have decent reputations. The grad program is certainly not strong, but the undergrad is. For example, econometrics is tought at a higher level in honours undergrad than MA. I took a couple crossover Honours/MA classes, and the undergrads consistently outperformed the MA students. (I know this probably speaks as poorly about the MA program as it does well about the BA program). I TAd at U of T and can assure you that the average callibre of student is not nearly as good as McGill honours program, and placements are better on average (though not in the extreme) at McGill than U of T. The structure of the Honours program is such that most of your econ courses are honours only courses, which certainly raises the callibre. One downside of McGill is the one strike and you are out policy. All honours courses have a bottom threshold (B or B-). If you do not make this in one course, you are out of the program, and any chance of any grad school goes with you. One other thing, it is my very strong opinion that if you should not pick your undergrad with such a narrow goal in mind. You do not have any idea what you want to do 5 years from now. Everyone has a life plan at that stage, and 90% of us change it. Anyone who says otherwise is in the (randomly assigned) 10%. McGill, U of T, and UBC, will all open many doors, and will not preclude anything. I can assure you, if you are good enough to do a top 5 phd program, (which is impossible to tell at this point), you will get there through any of those schools. For undergrad Queens and Western are quite good as well, but not quite as much so. Grad school is obviously a different story. In my opinion the ranking of the top 6 in Canada is 1. UBC 2. U of T 3. Queens 4. Western 5. SFU 6. McGill Sorry for the rambling post.

2009 October 31st, 08:17 AM	#33 (permalink)
HighSchoolKid I JUST got here. Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 22	Thank you for the rambling (insightful) post.

2009 October 31st, 04:22 PM	#34 (permalink)
^__^ I JUST got here. Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 12	I would choose among UofT, UBC, or Queen's for econ. However, If you are also good at maths and care about your maths education, UofT would be better. In the maths honours stream, a typical UofT student has the chance to learn from Spivak's Calculus in 1st year, Analysis on Manifolds by Munkres follows in 2nd year. Up to 3rd, they are already covering Lebesgue Integration and Measure Theory. These would provide firm foundation for econ grad schools; this standard parallels many of the top maths programmes in US. (If I'm not mistaken, in Canada, only Waterloo offers similar level of maths training, but you dont want to go there for econ) Despite UofT's size, for a combination of econ and maths education, it probably would be my best choice in Canada.

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