AnAspirant

Thanks for the responses MathCat and Qeta. This does help. Qeta, would you be kind enough to forward my query to FES students who may be able to talk more specifically about their department? PM works for me too, but I guess keeping this discussion in a public forum might help others too, at least for now until we need to share more specific info.

I am an international student in the process of applying for a PhD at the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), York University. Two-three senior professors at York have shown interest in supporting my application, but I'am not sure about York and FES's reputation. While FES's website makes its programs look good, York has abysmal international rankings (ranging between 200-500 in various charts, with a few exceptions). Sitting outside Canada, I am unable to gauge why York's rankings are so low, and more importantly, how good FES is. Everything I find on the web about FES is by FES, which is of course not too reliable. Can anyone help me here?