Graduate schools in Canada

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发信人: pennsylvania (wharton), 信区: EconBiz
标  题: Graduate schools in Canada
发信站: BBS 大话西游站 (Sat Jul 24 00:27:46 2004), 站内

When deciding to which graduate schools you should apply, you should keep in mind at least the following three considerations; (1) the quality and reputation of the graduate program, (2) the areas of research specialization of the faculty members teaching in the graduate program, and (3) geographical location.  

The first consideration is important because your post-MA goal is either employment or further graduate work. In either case the quality and reputation of the MA program you choose is an important determinant of your success in gaining employment or gaining access to a Ph.D. program.  

The second consideration is somewhat less important for MA students but is still worth considering for two reasons. First, most programs require you to write an MA thesis or paper. This requires you find a supervisor with whom you have some common research interests. The likelihood of realizing this joining of minds is enhanced by you choosing a graduate program whose faculty members have similar research interests to your own. The second consideration is also important if you desire to find employment in a particular area of economics. If, for example, you have a keen interest in working in the area of resource economics, the University of Calgary's MA program might appear very attractive to you because we have been successful at placing our graduates with oil and gas companies. If, on the other hand, you dream of working for the government, then you might want to weigh more heavily the possibility of applying to programs with a specialty in public finance. Queen's University, for example, is reputed to be a 'pipeline' for jobs with the federal civil service.  

Geographical location is potentially important especially if your intention is to find employment following your MA degree. The reason for this is simply that most employers are not keen to pay the airfare and hotel cost involved in flying in a job candidate. Thus if you dream of living in Toronto, you should think more seriously of attending a school relatively close to Toronto than you might otherwise.  

A fourth consideration that often crops up is a financial one. You may prefer to stay in Calgary to minimize living expenses or you may limit your applications to graduate programs known to be generous when it comes to financial aid. While this may be an important consideration in the short run, you should remember that your goal is to ensure a lifetime of satisfying employment so try not to let a few thousand dollars now influence a decision that might have much larger financial implication later on.  

The Canadian MA programs that are highest in quality and have the most solid reputation among employers and Ph.D. programs are:  

Queen's University  
UBC  
University of Toronto  
McMaster University  
Of these, Queen's is generally recognized as having the best combination of quality faculty and reputation. As far as other considerations go, Queen's is again an attractive choice. That is, its faculty is of high quality in most areas of specialization and Kingston is not only a relatively cheap city in which to live but also it offers few distractions to interfere with your studying. The graduate programs at UBC, McMaster and the U of T are all excellent as well. The program at UBC is best known for microeconomics, while the programs at the U of T and McMaster are best known for economic history and labour economics respectively. The fact these programs have relative strengths in one area or another is not terribly important for an MA student however. You will receive first-rate training in all areas of economics at all four of these schools.  
You should know that the U of C has been very successful at placing people in the Queen's MA program (5 or 6 students last year). In recent years, we have been reasonably successful at placing people at the U of T but have placed only one student at UBC and none at McMaster.  

A downside to attending UBC, Queen's and the U of T is the fact that their graduate programs are big. You should expect to have upwards of 30 to 40 MA classmates at these schools. You will also be competing (typically not very well) for the attention of professors with upwards of 20 Ph.D. students. Clearly, the one-on-one attention you might receive at a smaller school will be absent and is an important drawback to these programs. In this regard McMaster offers an important advantage. McMaster offers a competitive program that typically contains half the number of students as those at Queen's, the U of T and UBC.  

The next tier of schools also offers very good MA programs. They are ranked below the four schools listed above either because they do not have quite the sterling reputation among employers as the other programs and/or because their faculties are less well-known or don't offer the same breadth of specialization as the top four schools. These schools include (in no particular order):  

University of Western Ontario. Western suffers from a reputation of being a training ground for Ph.D. students only. This is bad if you plan to be a terminal MA but good if you intend to go on. On the other hand, this is one of the few Canadian programs where, in principle, one can complete an MA degree in economics in eight month.  

Simon Fraser University. SFU is a better school than Western Ontario for a terminal MA but not nearly as good if you plan to go on to Ph.D. studies.  

University of Waterloo. This is a very good and much improved graduate program that suffers only from the fact reputations are slow to change. A feature that may be attractive to many of you is the fact that U of W offers an MA co-op program in economics.  

The University of Calgary. Our department is young and, as a result, less well-known than some other departments. However, independent reviewers have rated us as an up-and-coming department.  

The University of Alberta. A very good program similar to Calgary's. If your interest is in energy economics, you should know the U of A offers very few courses in this area and has few faculty doing research in this area.  

University of Victoria. A very good program. Like Calgary, the economics faculty at the University of Victoria is relatively young and the program is up-and-coming.  

University of Montreal and University of Quebec at Montreal. Both of these schools have excellent economics faculty.  

Finally, there are economics graduate programs that provide a very good MA training but are much less well known among employers. These programs do not typically send people on to Ph.D. studies. These schools include (again, in no particular order):  

Dalhousie University  
McGill University  
Carleton University  
University of Guelph  
For further information about all of these schools, you should (1) consult their calendars, (2) write to them (now!) indicating your interest in their program and ask for a list of faculty members and their recent publications, and (3) talk to those of us who are recent graduates or have recently taught at these schools.

lywcnUID: 158290

cool la

tu8UID: 164757

非常不错的分类，不过western肯定要跟mcmaster把位置换一下。

TitanicUID: 186869

有人知道最原始的出处是哪里吗？

gdhdannyUID: 125843

谢谢虫子

很棒的分析

tsningUID: 195903

谢谢了。

*StrivingOX*UID: 203253

Thanks for the author. Very thorough analysis.

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[ Last edited by *StrivingOX* on 2005-5-6 at 00:51 ]