College Review: McGill University Montreal, Quebec, Canada

After twelve years of schooling and two years of study at a leading community college honors program, the time has finally come to figure out whether all your efforts will pay off and if you will be transferring to your dream universities. Names such as Cornell, Columbia, NYU, Georgetown and their application requirements are being tossed around in conversations all over campus.

However, everyone seems to be overlooking what could be the gem, the gold ore, of all transfer college opportunities. Introducing: McGill University.

McGill's reputation has earned it the title ‘Harvard of Canada' for a reason. It ranked 18th in the world according to U.S. News, and has produced what seems to be an endless list of Nobel Prize winners, the most recent being this year.

If you are a science student, wouldn't it be nice to know that Ernst Rutherford did his Nobel Prize-winning work on radioactivity within the walls of your school, or that the first artificial cell, first internet search engine, and the technology behind digital cameras and photocopiers were all discovered at the supreme educational institution you attend?

To top it off, you can participate in the cutting-edge research conducted at the university.
The school is located in the heart of Montreal, Canada's second largest city. The campus somewhat resembles Columbia University's in New York City. Unlike NYU, which is integrated into the city's grid, the McGill campus has its own cocoon of buildings and streets visible from downtown Montreal through the large Roddick gateway. 

Montreal is a cosmopolitan city similar to New York. It has everything to offer, from great museums to premier nightlife, and is located just under six hours from Rockland County. That's close enough to come home on Friday when you want your mom's dinner, but far enough that she cannot blame you for being late to the table.

McGill's 11 individual schools, called faculties, offer 300 programs in all areas of study to its 24,000 undergraduate students. It welcomes many international students, which compose 20% of the student body. Don't get disheartened by the presence of French in Montreal, because some students at McGill claim that they use French so rarely that they lost some of it upon enrolling.

There are no dorms for upperclassmen, as nearly all students rent apartments with roommates  in the "student ghetto," minutes away from campus.

Multiple interviews with McGill students revealed that they generally love McGill. The engineering students made clear that the program is very rigorous, and you must be the best in order to perform well. The science students claimed that if you are willing to put lots of time into your studies, then there is no reason you should not succeed despite the difficulty of the coursework.

But here is the selling point of the school: while most top private universities in the United States clean out your parents' bank account and leave them with night terrors for the two years you are at school, McGill's international students pay approximately $20,000 for their education.

But this school doesn't admit students by picking names out of a hat. Only top students with the best grades attend McGill, so if you have the transcript and scores it takes to get into Canada's "Harvard," then there is no better option.

Transfer applications are due January 15th, and all supporting materials must be in by late April. The application does not require an essay, as the admissions office only considers students' grades.