Categories: Canada

University rankings

The top universities in our Medical Doctoral, Comprehensive, and Undergraduate categories

by macleans.ca on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 12:53pm - 97 Comments

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO | PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW TOLSON

Which schools are doing better than ever? Which have slipped? What are the hot topics in and around Canadian universities in 2010? How can students find the perfect fit for them?

For 20 years, Maclean’s has been bringing together parents, presidents, professors and prospective students in a conversation about education. This, its 20th anniversary rankings issue, is its biggest and most ambitious edition ever, covering 120 pages-with 21 stories and complete rankings for 49 schools. It’s not only a valuable resource about Canadian universities, but also a personalized guide that answers the many important questions students have on the road to deciding where they belong, where they will thrive, and ultimately, which school they can confidently choose to spend the next four years of their lives.

Maclean’s places universities into one of three categories to recognize the differences in levels of research funding, the diversity of offerings, and the range of graduate and professional programs:

Medical Doctoral universities offer a broad range of Ph.D. programs and research; all institutions in this category have medical schools.
For Medical Doctoral results, click to enlarge.

Comprehensive universities have a signiﬁcant degree of research activity and a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including professional degrees.
For Comprehensive results, click to enlarge.

Primarily Undergraduate universities are largely focused on undergraduate education, with relatively few graduate programs.
For Primarily Undergraduate results, click to enlarge.

Tags: education, Universities rankings, university rankings, university rankings issue

Marie-Claude Bonin

I am surprised to see Quebec universities rank so high as us for Maclean's, Quebecers, are supposed to be the most corrupt and terrible people in this country.
Marie-Claude
Montréal
Chesterfield

Next year Maclean's should add another chart called the "degree of Asianness" so that our precious lily white, well-adjusted all rounder students can avoid those universities.

Jenn

I'm one of your "precious lily white" well-rounded students and I would have absolutely no problem attending a very Asian school like Waterloo for example. In the Asian culture, education is so very highly valued and this is idea is given to kids from a very young age. For this reason, we often find the many universities have a wide variety of Asian students. My Chinese and Korean friends have told me about this. Why should "lily white" students avoid Asian schools when we'll have to compete with them outside of university for jobs in the future? Don't blame Asian culture for stressing the importance of a high education. From a very young age my parents stressed the importance of education and for that reason, I am in university. But the most important thing is, not that I'm in University, its that I'll be able to study and do the things I love.

Elaine

Go Mcgill! :)
Will

Since everyone has said their peace, let us ponder on these: Let us read history to see the educational backgrounds of enlightenment thinkers; the West prides itself in being innovative and enlightened-what is enlightening about making university admission base on GPA when the field of play is not equal for all (and before you start shooting your mouths–think) because after all you are smart and I can't give you the answer. I believe that those who revel in the ranking are U student or grad and if that is the case, you all have missed the goal. Many intelligent pupils are those who seek out knowledge outside of the U reach (read autobiographies of inventors). Your prof is just one of the many profs in the real world. U is a place to broadened narrow perspectives and if you are caught up in this, your U have failed or is failing you and investment is vainglory. I am a Sociology grad from the University of Windsor and I am proud to say that I failed to get my honors degree because I stood up to my professor in my fourth year Postmodernism class because I was not going to be confined in box. U of T is as good as U of @ if the student will apply himself. And even that, profs have their favorite pupils. I am not here to change your beliefs but rather to open you mind. The debate is stacked and if you believe you are smarter than another because of your GPA and the school you got in, I will ask, in what subject, what language is the delivery and is that language your native tongue, what form is the examination delivered (oral, written..)…Understand the basis of ranking and enjoy your U years so that you will become a good citizen in society is the device I will with you all. Stephen Hawking is not who he is because of Oxford or Cambridge or his mentor (Dikran Tahta)–he studied. Pres. went to Harvard and Yale and for that matter had pioneering mentors and what happened
Adam

I agree that it’s what you make it, but Greg is right, that different schools have different means of marking, different classes profs and even student aid. Yes the whole point of university is to prepare you with a good work ethic and make you teach yourself but each university has specialties and what you want to do should be the biggest guiding factor for picking a university. Like journalism at Carleton, business at Laurier or Medicine at McMaster.
UnivProf

Exactly- I am a Canadian university instructor in Europe – and it really is how YOU make it. One can not blame outside factors for one's lack of learning. Often youth have this "wishful thinking" or this idea that the education is better due to reputation and so forth but often that is just that: wishful thinking, and has no base. One has to take responsibility for their learning no matter where they are and what they do. Life is lessons!
David

i got an offer from lakehead for undergrad studies. how good or bad is it?
Clever Boy

Quite agree with you. In fact, it is the nature of Canadian universities: They have strong commitment to teach u nothing. You should study hard in any Canadian University. They are all low grade. But I know some universities abroad,mostly in the Third World, considerably better than Canadian's.
To be a professor in Canadian university, you just need to read on slides of Powerpoint.
avi

us university of victoria good for electrical engineering or ubc?

avi

is*
Lila

UBC ftw.

Taylor Woods

Macleans seems to have a boner for McGill.
Cynthia

OMG..University of New Brunswick is no where to be found on the ratings…how is that?
acad

look under comprehensive, #6
haley

Its in the comprhensive category ranked 6 of 12
http://nottawa.blogspot.com Mark

Clearly "students' ability to read a chart" wasn't one of the criteria for the rankings.
Jordan

The UNB students anyways.
Justadude

compare them to ivy league schools macleans… I have a feeling only one or two would be left standing….. and compare the $ for 4 or 5 years too… that would help the kids I know

I get the feeling for everyone who keeps saying they are all the same… you probably would never see the difference, so I would not make the argument… for those who care, look at world university rankings, and see if one is appropriate for you

20 years of successful high tech experience has shown me they are not all the same (unfortunately)… and no canadian measurement does any justice to any of them… employers hiring (or fighting for) new grads is probably the best measurement I've seen…