A Weekend of HIgher Education

The last few days have been action-packed!  On the weekend just past, we indulged ourselves in an orgy of higher education!  You may know that my daughter is a senior in high school, and is therefore planning her university applications.  So this weekend, her two top choices both held their open houses.  On Saturday, we attended the open house for the University of Toronto.

Founded in 1827, U of T is Canada's largest university, with 55,000 undergraduates.  It is a beautiful campus, located right downtown.  The student body is wonderfully diverse.

The Arts and Science Faculty follows the British model, and is composed of seven colleges within the FAculty, each with its own set of residences and particular character.  

We liked how this building was dressed up for Halloween.

I did my PhD here, but as a married graduate student I was never really involved in student life activities.  It's certainly a different prospect when you are a parent with a university-age child!  We both liked what we heard and saw here.  Toronto is 250 km west of us, an easy 2.5 hour train ride.  I would be okay if she chose this university.  She loves life in a big city, drinking lattes and riding on the subway!

We scooted home on the train in time to make it to a friend's surprise fiftieth birthday party Saturday night, and before dawn on Sunday, all three of us were on the road to Montreal, to visit McGill University, our daughter's top choice.

The Arts Building, the central focus of the campus, is currently having some restoration done, but you can still see how it dominates the campus.  You can also see Mount Royal in the background, dressed in  glorious autumn colours.

My husband and I are both alumni of McGill, and, in addition to our own individual fond feelings for the university, we share a soft spot for it because this is where we met.  I came here from Tennessee in 1983 to do my MA in linguistics.  My husband was working on campus at the time.  

Founded in 1821, McGill has 28,000 undergraduates.  Like U of T, McGill is also a downtown campus.  Some of the university residences are converted hotels. If you have ever been to Montreal, you know that there are few North American cities to equal its beauty, charm and joie de vivre.

Montreal is 300 km east of where we live.  The train takes a little more than two and half hours and drops you right downtown.  We would be happy if she chose to go to McGill, as well.  My mother-in-law is there, so she would have somewhere to go for Friday night dinner.

It was after 8pm when we got home, and we were utterly exhausted from all the presentations and tours of campus buildings and residences.  It's a stressful but exciting time for our family!  University choice is a big decision, with so many factors to consider.  As parents of an only child, we are thrilled that her preferences are relatively close to home.  An empty nest is a bit more bearable if the chick isn't too far away!

P.S.  I also attended the Creativ Festival in Toronto on Friday, and I have another blog post coming about all my goodies, not to mention my giveaway - I promise you won't be disappointed!