O Canada!

[spozik]

My question about studying in Canada is along a much different vein, but I thought that this would be an appropriate place to post them. I have applied to Toronto.

Does anyone know how things work out for one's spouse if one is on a student visa? I'd especially love to hear a first-hand account of a married someone who went to grad school in Canada from outside of the country and brought their spouse with them. This is the one circumstance I've encountered where Canada definitely feels like a foreign country, and I can't seem to find a definitive answer.

[Ziz]

My question about studying in Canada is along a much different vein, but I thought that this would be an appropriate place to post them. I have applied to Toronto.

Does anyone know how things work out for one's spouse if one is on a student visa? I'd especially love to hear a first-hand account of a married someone who went to grad school in Canada from outside of the country and brought their spouse with them. This is the one circumstance I've encountered where Canada definitely feels like a foreign country, and I can't seem to find a definitive answer.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-spouse.asp

[gravitysrainbow]

I am considering applying to some Canadian universities and was wondering if anyone is/was a student enrolled in or has some interesting insight about the following universities:

Dalhousie University

McGill University

McMaster University

University of British Columbia

University of Western Ontario

Each of these universities has a professor that I would be interested in working with in either biology, neuroscience, psychology or zoology. If you know anything about these programs or just have general information about the university or city it is located in, I would value your input. Thank you for your help!

Hi there,

I'm not in your subfield, but some rough ranking will go like this for bio / life sciences:

McGill (highly internationally ranked, new facilities, human genome project centre, highly competitive, R1)

UBC (highly ranked in Canada, strong in marine bio. R1 or R2 depending on program.)

Dal (stronger on botany, marine bio., etc. Not primarily a research school.)

I know less about McMaster and Western, except to say that their marquee programs are medicine and business, respectively. I'd class them similarly to Dal. It's a deeply flawed list, but for a US News-style ranking of Canadian universities, see Maclean's magazine.

Vancouver is currently the most expensive city to live in in Canada (Toronto follows pretty closely.) I'd recommend roommates. In Montreal, you can pay as little as $350 per month in a shared space in nice neighbourhoods that are a little trek from McGill. I paid between $400 and $500 in different shared places over the years. Also, student metropasses are reasonable (less than $40/ month), and the transit system is pretty good. French is helpful, but not mandatory, especially if you live closer to McGill. While there is an enormous underground shopping mall that connects a lot of downtown, you most definitely cannot spend most of the winter underground. In fact, the key to surviving the winter is to find something you like to do outdoors in the snow. Skiing is highly recommended. (I did my ugrad at McGill, and am now at Toronto). There are quite a few Americans.

As per careers, I'd say that applying to work with specific people, and letting that decide your institutions, is a good plan (or at least what I'm doing). Generally, if Americans have heard of a Canadian school, that school is McGill (though Toronto is in general a stronger school). So, if you're concerned with name recognition later on, that may be a factor (if you're planning to stay in academia, actual reputation is probably more important than name recognition).

Cheers,

gr

[Caligula]

Just my two cents:

Where I'm from, McGill is by and large considered to be one the finest schools in the entire world. And Montreal, so I hear, is a lovely city. Also, Montreal has the largest gay quarter of any city in the world (area wise).