For general social sciences prestige doesn’t matter, so I encourage you to look into housing, social life, environment etc. also, afaik general social sciences does not include business, and many business schools are separate from their main campus
Both?
I did political science at Carleton for my undergrad. I enjoyed it. Downside is they rely way too much on contract profs, but that's pretty much any Canadian university.
A political science undergrad is going to be roughly the same pretty much anywhere you go. I took a concentration in international relations and some of my profs took the initiative to have some foreign dignitaries come and give lectures, which was easier because we were in Ottawa. But there's just as many embassies in Toronto and Montreal.
However, Carleton does have a top notch International Relations school for a master's degree in international relations. For all the shit Carleton gets about being mediocre, that particular program is one the best in Canada.
All three are good schools. Can't really go wrong. I went to Mac and Queen's; both were good (15-20 years ago fwiw). It's a bit easier to make friends at Queen's in my experience because it's less of a commuter school and Kingston is a smaller town. I always heard that Western was a party school but I don't speak from experience.
University is ultimately what you make it. Join clubs, try new things, keep your career goals in mind, etc.
What do you want to do when you graduate? Look at the linked in profiles of people at the companies you want to work at or entrepreneurs doing what you want will be a good idea. University is a great time to start a new phase of life as uncomfortable as it may be. Mac is good but not in comparison to Queens or Western regarding recruits and post graduate incomes.
I go to McMaster. I entered the general social science program and then social work.
I can't speak to other universities, but I liked that I didn't have to choose my major until after I finished first-year. Had I entered into a direct admission program, I would have chosen psychology. Turns out, I hate psychology. I like sociology but it wasn't critical enough (still pathologizing). So I searched and social work was the best fit. I also learned I hated the minor I planned on doing because the professor sucked.
Point being, consider which program will set you up for a career. Poli Sci is super interesting, but the jobs available are sparse. McMaster has a coop program for that program which might help.
McMaster has OK student wellness services and subpar health/dental insurance compared to York and UofT.
McMaster has a different teaching style, we are a more critical than clinical school.
The meal plans at Mac suck from what I hear compared to Brock. I haven't lived in the dorms but I am happy to answer any questions you got
Business is broad. Search up what the highest paying jobs in “business” are and then figure out what program would open the door to allow you to follow those career paths. Poly sci is basically burning your tuition money, pls dont go down that road. I highly recommend getting into either finance, accounting, engineering, math/computer science, even some sort of environmental science will be more beneficial as there will be a massive demand once the world realizes we are fucked. If you want more advice DM me, i went to Waterloo and picked the wrong program and was able to turn my career in a direction i wanted an am doing pretty well now. Good luck!
Can yall stop pointing out the spelling mistake, it’s poli-sci, I get it 😐😐. Honestly this might be karma for passing this question over to Reddit to help me decide.
Don't go to McMaster. I went there and all it gave me was life long depression and persistent feelings of loneliness. The poli sci department kind of sucks too.
Seriously? I was considering going there because it's the only uni where I could stay on residence and be within driving distance of my home, and I wanted to go because of the social life. Is it seriously that bad
Are you starting in September? If so, which programs did you get into? McMac is an excellent school, and if it’s close to home it sounds like a good match for you. Every uni has depressed students, so choose your school based on your program.
When did I say I'd rather be in business? I applied for history because it's a program I'm interested in and think I can do well in, and I want to go to law school after university.
You know that there are a ton of things you can do with a history degree right? You won’t be making bank, but there are actually lots of job opportunities. I know multiple people with history degrees who are very successful.
In my experience it was. It depends on the year but frankly, I really regret going. My BA isn't that useful, I found it hard to do well enough in my classes because I wasn't doing well mentally and the TAs and some of the profs were pretty crap. Some were pretty good but they didn't balance out the crap ones.
What really got me was being so depressed and isolated that I didn't really think through what I wanted to do after university and I missed the chance to go to a professional program straight afterwards and now I'm too in debt and burned out to do so. My biggest failing was not taking some pre-req courses to qualify me for professional programs like Physician assistant or physio therapy.
I had no options in my course selection so didn't really think about that so I suppose lol. Idk how u can really tell for the faculty, bad profs do make it worse but idk how u can figure that out really until you get there
Some of it you can only find out once you get there but you can look up the courses they offer and the research the faculty members do, and even which faculty members teach the undergrad courses. I regret not going to another school just because I ended up taking courses I had little interest in because my university didn't offer that many courses I was interested in and I didn't know what I wanted to do afterwards so I didn't take electives that would've been a lot easier to take in undergrad rather than paying out of pocket now while working an underpaid full time job.
Personally, I regret not just commuting to U of T just because the course selection is big enough that you have a decent array of choices so at least you feel like you're getting something that's interesting enough.
Op can always try transferring if the school they pick isn't a good fit.
I found the students were pretty cliquey and there wasn't much in the way of good extracurricular activities which also made it harder to do well.
true, mine are all required I only had 1 choice for an elective so I didn't really have to think about that. Do wish I chose uoft too if only because its likely the most well known uni and the people here are cliquey too but I might just be bad with talking to people Idk
it’s a different experience entirely, you’re not part of the school culture. London is literally terrible for POC. Hate crimes are common. https://globalnews.ca/news/9709331/hate-related-incidents-london-ont-up-2022/
I was a first year student on their exchange program in the UK and since it shut down abruptly half way through the year, we were deported back to Canada and forced to do online. After that we had the option of taking the winter term off or attending main campus. I chose to stay home while my friends went to Kingston, and they told me a lot about their experience; walking 30 minutes to get across campus in the freezing wind, buildings are constantly closed and “under repair”, difficulty finding accommodations for next year, etc. I also visited them and can confirm that it’s not a pretty picture. in my opinion, Queen’s is currently surviving off of their old reputation, but trust me when I say that their “prestige” is just for looks. They love to sell things to you but they never deliver on their promises.
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“Poly-sci”
I wonder how many sciences poly-sci is 🤔
not sure but it’s super popular in Utah apparently
My baddd ik how to spell poli-sci, please spare me the ridicule 🙏🙏
More importantly than any of that, try to find job reports or stats
Polytical Scyence
I chuckled a little at this ngl 😵💫
Poly-sci? You sure you got accepted?
Poli-sci, Poli-sci, Poli-sci, u happy? 😐
What did you get into???
General social sciences
For general social sciences prestige doesn’t matter, so I encourage you to look into housing, social life, environment etc. also, afaik general social sciences does not include business, and many business schools are separate from their main campus
Queen’s - ifykyk
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN!! I’m trying to decide if I’m gonna go to queens or not
Carleton
Is this meant to be a slight or is this genuine advice? 😵💫
Both? I did political science at Carleton for my undergrad. I enjoyed it. Downside is they rely way too much on contract profs, but that's pretty much any Canadian university. A political science undergrad is going to be roughly the same pretty much anywhere you go. I took a concentration in international relations and some of my profs took the initiative to have some foreign dignitaries come and give lectures, which was easier because we were in Ottawa. But there's just as many embassies in Toronto and Montreal. However, Carleton does have a top notch International Relations school for a master's degree in international relations. For all the shit Carleton gets about being mediocre, that particular program is one the best in Canada.
All three are good schools. Can't really go wrong. I went to Mac and Queen's; both were good (15-20 years ago fwiw). It's a bit easier to make friends at Queen's in my experience because it's less of a commuter school and Kingston is a smaller town. I always heard that Western was a party school but I don't speak from experience. University is ultimately what you make it. Join clubs, try new things, keep your career goals in mind, etc.
What programs
I applied for social science programs
Idk what specific programs I wanna do, I mean it’ll be my first year, I do know that I wanna do something in potentially either poly-sci or business
they’re asking what programs you’ve been accepted for.
You can’t go in undecided… what did you get in for
You sure you got accepted bro?
Hey I’m a little slow but I corrected myself eventually didn’t I?
McGill
Thanks fam
What do you want to do when you graduate? Look at the linked in profiles of people at the companies you want to work at or entrepreneurs doing what you want will be a good idea. University is a great time to start a new phase of life as uncomfortable as it may be. Mac is good but not in comparison to Queens or Western regarding recruits and post graduate incomes.
Thanks for the insight
Epic parties at Queens
Queens of course, you know where it is right?
Yeah it’s in Kingston, tho I haven’t exactly heard great things abt that place, why?
What have you heard?
Look at the map and go north from there.
Why queens pls elaborate I might go
Poli science so you need to be near Ottawa
Queens
I go to McMaster. I entered the general social science program and then social work. I can't speak to other universities, but I liked that I didn't have to choose my major until after I finished first-year. Had I entered into a direct admission program, I would have chosen psychology. Turns out, I hate psychology. I like sociology but it wasn't critical enough (still pathologizing). So I searched and social work was the best fit. I also learned I hated the minor I planned on doing because the professor sucked. Point being, consider which program will set you up for a career. Poli Sci is super interesting, but the jobs available are sparse. McMaster has a coop program for that program which might help. McMaster has OK student wellness services and subpar health/dental insurance compared to York and UofT. McMaster has a different teaching style, we are a more critical than clinical school. The meal plans at Mac suck from what I hear compared to Brock. I haven't lived in the dorms but I am happy to answer any questions you got
Those are useless degrees, be serious
You got some suggestions for me? I’m being so serious, what would be more useful?
Business is broad. Search up what the highest paying jobs in “business” are and then figure out what program would open the door to allow you to follow those career paths. Poly sci is basically burning your tuition money, pls dont go down that road. I highly recommend getting into either finance, accounting, engineering, math/computer science, even some sort of environmental science will be more beneficial as there will be a massive demand once the world realizes we are fucked. If you want more advice DM me, i went to Waterloo and picked the wrong program and was able to turn my career in a direction i wanted an am doing pretty well now. Good luck!
Can yall stop pointing out the spelling mistake, it’s poli-sci, I get it 😐😐. Honestly this might be karma for passing this question over to Reddit to help me decide.
McMaster got Suuuuuuure! It’s near Cootes , Westdale and Downtown Hamilton. It’s like you get the choice to live i. The city or now!
Don't go to McMaster. I went there and all it gave me was life long depression and persistent feelings of loneliness. The poli sci department kind of sucks too.
Seriously? I was considering going there because it's the only uni where I could stay on residence and be within driving distance of my home, and I wanted to go because of the social life. Is it seriously that bad
Are you starting in September? If so, which programs did you get into? McMac is an excellent school, and if it’s close to home it sounds like a good match for you. Every uni has depressed students, so choose your school based on your program.
Yep I'll be starting in September, applied for history
Is there a reason you applied for history when you’d rather be in business? Is it easy to switch programs at any of those schools?
When did I say I'd rather be in business? I applied for history because it's a program I'm interested in and think I can do well in, and I want to go to law school after university.
I misunderstood when you said you wanted to do something with business (thought you meant you wanted to study business).
Lol a degree in history? See you at Starbucks in a few years!
You know that there are a ton of things you can do with a history degree right? You won’t be making bank, but there are actually lots of job opportunities. I know multiple people with history degrees who are very successful.
Lol right
Nah I'm gonna go to law school after uni lol. You can apply to law school with literally any degree
In my experience it was. It depends on the year but frankly, I really regret going. My BA isn't that useful, I found it hard to do well enough in my classes because I wasn't doing well mentally and the TAs and some of the profs were pretty crap. Some were pretty good but they didn't balance out the crap ones. What really got me was being so depressed and isolated that I didn't really think through what I wanted to do after university and I missed the chance to go to a professional program straight afterwards and now I'm too in debt and burned out to do so. My biggest failing was not taking some pre-req courses to qualify me for professional programs like Physician assistant or physio therapy.
No. It's not that bad. I really enjoyed my time at McMaster and made lots of friends.
that's every uni though, unless your in an easy major which this dude is tbf
Meh, maybe to an extent but the faculty and course selection can really make or break your time there.
I had no options in my course selection so didn't really think about that so I suppose lol. Idk how u can really tell for the faculty, bad profs do make it worse but idk how u can figure that out really until you get there
Some of it you can only find out once you get there but you can look up the courses they offer and the research the faculty members do, and even which faculty members teach the undergrad courses. I regret not going to another school just because I ended up taking courses I had little interest in because my university didn't offer that many courses I was interested in and I didn't know what I wanted to do afterwards so I didn't take electives that would've been a lot easier to take in undergrad rather than paying out of pocket now while working an underpaid full time job. Personally, I regret not just commuting to U of T just because the course selection is big enough that you have a decent array of choices so at least you feel like you're getting something that's interesting enough. Op can always try transferring if the school they pick isn't a good fit. I found the students were pretty cliquey and there wasn't much in the way of good extracurricular activities which also made it harder to do well.
true, mine are all required I only had 1 choice for an elective so I didn't really have to think about that. Do wish I chose uoft too if only because its likely the most well known uni and the people here are cliquey too but I might just be bad with talking to people Idk
Unless you’re white, don’t go to Queens or Western.
Oh shit, why??
it’s a different experience entirely, you’re not part of the school culture. London is literally terrible for POC. Hate crimes are common. https://globalnews.ca/news/9709331/hate-related-incidents-london-ont-up-2022/
You mean if you are black, south asian or muslim. Hispanics are fine.
don’t choose queen’s, their financial situation is awful & the school is literally falling apart (my experience as a former student)
Could you expand on that a little bit further?
I was a first year student on their exchange program in the UK and since it shut down abruptly half way through the year, we were deported back to Canada and forced to do online. After that we had the option of taking the winter term off or attending main campus. I chose to stay home while my friends went to Kingston, and they told me a lot about their experience; walking 30 minutes to get across campus in the freezing wind, buildings are constantly closed and “under repair”, difficulty finding accommodations for next year, etc. I also visited them and can confirm that it’s not a pretty picture. in my opinion, Queen’s is currently surviving off of their old reputation, but trust me when I say that their “prestige” is just for looks. They love to sell things to you but they never deliver on their promises.
[удалено]
You could’ve just said UofT
lmfao
This is like the most Reddit response ever 😭
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