As an African student attending McGill, I was initially shocked to see that McGill’s course list included classes with titles such as History of Colonial Africa or African Politics. While I am glad to have the opportunity to take any classes related to Africa, something I was not provided with[Read More…]
Tag: Academics
McGill needs a complete summer term
Registration for the summer term at McGill is set to open in a few weeks. As it stands, McGill students can only take two courses per summer session, or 12 total credits, over the four summer months, and are usually provided with relatively few class options. This system, however, is[Read More…]
How trustworthy is Rate My Professors?
When the time for course selection begins, students often turn to their most reliable platform: Rate My Professors. However, are these anonymous reviews really trustworthy, or just an expression of students’ frustrations? The McGill Tribune decided to find out. Rate My Professors allows the user to search for professors that[Read More…]
On finding references, letters, and research connections
You’re thinking of going to graduate school or professional school. You’ve lined up the universities where you wish to apply––research-intensive Canadian universities, British universities with specialized masters, our Southern neighbour’s Ivies, and high-performing public institutions all make the list. You stumble not on the personal and research statement, not on[Read More…]
McGill tumbles from 40th to 44th in Times Higher Education ranking
McGill ranks 44th among the top 1,662 universities in the world, and third in Canada, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings released Sept. 1. This signals a four-spot drop from McGill’s previous 2021 placement. The London-based ranking organization grounds its ratings in 13 separate performance indicators[Read More…]
McGill cannot leave incoming first years behind
The end of the last academic year was extraordinary: COVID-19 barrelled through our lives and took the world by storm, instruction moved online at many universities, and the entire education system was uprooted. Unfortunately, the pandemic’s effects were particularly harsh on graduating high school seniors—students who will now be burdened[Read More…]
Balancing art and academia
Gemma Else, U1 Arts, has painted since before she started kindergarten. In grades 11 and 12, she enrolled in an advanced placement Studio Art class, where she practiced four hours a day, six days a week. At McGill, Else has continued to make art and is a curator for the[Read More…]
The current S/U option is unsatisfactory
As the end of term nears, students start scrambling to calculate the minimum grades they need to achieve on their final exams to pass their courses. Amidst the stress, the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) grading option offers some respite. Vice President (VP) University Affairs (UA) Jacob Shapiro wants to incentivize students to[Read More…]
Women in STEM and men in the arts: Gender roles in academia
The regrettable lack of women studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in post-secondary education is well-documented. Efforts to minimize this gender imbalance are widespread, and include initiatives such as Girls Who Code and a UNESCO publication investigating its root causes. However, similarly concerning, yet often overlooked, are rising gender[Read More…]
Recognizing the successes that come from failure
I almost dropped out of high school in my sophomore year. I was failing three classes, and my already unstable mental health was suffering under the weight of academic pressure. However, I knew that these academic shortcomings, as awful as they felt, would not define my whole life. My boss[Read More…]
