If one witnessed last week's extended queues of freshmen waiting for ID cards outside of the Redpath Library, it should come as little surprise that McGill ranked eighth for "Long Lines and Red Tape" in The Princeton Review's
The Best 351 Colleges: 2004 Edition.
The book, which hit stores August 19 and has been published annually since 1992, includes a two-page profile on each academic institution and 63 ranking lists, rating schools on everything from "Best Academic Bang For Your Buck" to "Reefer Madness."
Approximately 300 students per campus were given the 70-question surveys, covering a variety of university endeavours from academics and study hours to politics and financial aid. The 2004 rankings were determined by surveys taken during the 2002-2003 year and the previous two school years, with 106,245 students participating in total.
While McGill did not place first for the "Best Overall Academic Experience for Undergraduates" (Yale University), and did not win "The Toughest to Get Into" (United States Military Academy), the school did fare considerably well in comparison to some other universities.
In this latest edition from The Princeton Review, McGill is ranked first for having "Students From Different Backgrounds Interact" and 12th for having a diverse student population.
To determine the outcome of the former category, McGill students were asked: "Do different types of students (black/white, rich/poor) interact frequently and easily?"
Students' Society of McGill University Vice-President Community and Government Brianna Hersey agreed that McGill does have "a diverse community on campus in comparison to others." She did stress, however, that "[we] still do have systemic discrimination against people of lower income" and that "just because students are here and on campus, doesn't mean they can equally participate and benefit from McGill."
While the former SSMU Student Equity Commissioner and organizer of the campus's first Equity Week recognized the progress McGill has made, she emphasized that more awareness and education about social problems are necessary to make McGill accessible for everyone.
SSMU Vice-President University Affairs Vivian Choy acknowledged the honour of being the top-ranked school for diverse interaction, but maintained a realistic stance.
"Just because we're number one in that rating doesn't mean we don't have our own problems."
Choy described two projects currently in the works that would further address and potentially solve social problems on campus: a discrimination and harassment policy that would ideally apply university-wide, and an Equity Office to help end discrimination and harassment as a whole and provide a place to file grievances. Choy also noted that SSMU is currently working on its own equity policy to address inadequacies within the society.
Are we really that smart?
Why is it that McGill is often referred to as "the Harvard of Canada?" Can McGill really be compared to a school whose mascot is described as "a pilgrim-like figure in 17th-century dress" or is it because of the relatively non-existent publicity every other Canadian university receives in the U.S.? Taking our cue from the survey, the answer to this question is the latter, as the only other Canadian institution even reviewed is the University of Toronto.
U of T took the gold for "Class Discussions Rare" and ranked 13th for "Least Happy Students." It also secured 14th in "Professors Get Low Marks" and 13th in "Professors Make Themselves Scarce." Students at the school reported feeling "isolated" with "a lack of participation in anything nonacademic... [with] very little (if any) school spirit."
In comparison to the complaints on U of T's less-than-stellar report card, a more Harvard-esque set of McGill students observed "very friendly, open-minded people who are easy to talk to and easy to become close with." Even those at McGill who aren't as outgoing, "at the very least, [have] the redeeming quality of above-average intelligence."
McGill's "sister" school to the South, Harvard University, placed 18th for "Great College Towns" while McGill took the 9th spot and New York University secured No. 1 in the same category. NYU also received the top ranking for "Gay Community Accepted" and placed in the top 20 for eight other categories, including "Lots of Hard Liquor", "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians" and "Nobody Plays Intramural Sports."
Notably, McGill finished seventh for "Class Discussions Rare" and 20th for "Lots of Beer."
Although Harvard may have the upper hand in academics, it's unclear whether McGill actually is the best educational institution in Canada, due to The Princeton Review's insufficient surveying of Canadian schools. And while we may not have the 17th century pilgrim as our mascot, if he came for a visit, we definitely would interact with him "frequently and easily" in long lines, after discussion-less classes, and over a shared pitcher, somewhere in our superior, "Great College Town" of Montreal.
