Looking at the school as a whole, most students would say that they are pretty content to call McGill their university. It can be pretty hard to pin down the overall atmosphere here; it’s a large school in a large city, and where there is one trend on campus, it is not hard to find the exact opposite happening somewhere else. This can be a great asset. It’s so easy for students to do their own thing and find someone who does something similar, too. However, it can also be troublesome if you don’t know what your thing is yet. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed with decisions about majors, where to live, when to study, and when to party, that succeeding here can seem unlikely at best. To top it off, McGill’s bureaucracy is obscene, there are a million policies and guidelines buried in the Web site, and administration likes to be as unhelpful as possible enforcing these guidelines.
However, despite the red tape and faceless crowds, McGill is an amazing opportunity for those who want to make it one. It really is a school that you can mold to fit your needs. If you are content to spend four years by just passing classes, never joining anything, and staying with the same five people since frosh, you can do that. However, if you want to get to know your TAs and throw yourself into your subject, start an organization, and literally meet hundreds of new people a day, there is no better school or city to do that in. No other school is as liberal with as much personal freedom, and as ready to give people the responsibility of their actions, as McGill. There are few schools where you can live in your own apartment, cook for yourself, and in general, act like the adult the law says you are. McGill makes kids grow up fast; for some it’s terrifying, but for others, it’s the ideal.