Wednesday Wisdom

Over the next couple of months, I'll be sharing tips for planning your program, university and career! This is particularly geared at grade 12s, who are receiving their university offers over the next couple of months and will have to make decisions. But it will also be helpful for current students who want to make sure they're in the right place and younger high school students, so make sure you share it with anyone who might be interested!

Today, I want to talk about university rankings. I think a lot of us know about which universities are ranked the highest (University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, McGill University...). But do we know why?

If you're using rankings like the Times Higher Education (THE) or QS, or even the Maclean's rankings, you should know what criteria they use to rank so that you can determine if those are relevant for you.

For example, the THE rankings are based 29.5% on teaching, 29% on research environment, 30% on research quality, 7.5% on international outlook, and 4% on industry. That means that 59% of the ranking is based on research - which could be much less relevant for someone in an undergraduate program. Only 29.5% is based on teaching, which I would argue is much more important for new university students' experiences.

This means that even if I know UofT, UBC, and McGill all rank in the "best" 100 universities in the world on the THE rankings, they won't necessarily be the best place for you to do your bachelors degree. On the other hand, some smaller, teaching-based universities will not rank highly because they don't produce as much research, but they may rank very highly for teaching quality.

All rankings list their criteria and how they determine the rankings, so make sure you check that out and use your own judgment to determine what is the most important for you.

Personally, for students who want to study in Canada, I think the Maclean's rankings are very comprehensive because they break down the rankings by category. You can look at who gives the most in scholarships and bursaries, or how much they invest in student services, which are then broken down by university category. You can look at the primarily undergrad universities. You can look at who has a better student-faculty ratio.

But no matter what rankings you research, make sure you know how it is calculated and figure out how important those things are to you.

Do you have questions about university rankings? Hit reply and let me know!

Resources

University rankings: Maclean's, QS, THE​

Maclean's also has a database of school profiles, which includes a summary of entrance requirements, approximate tuition, student body demographics, and also highlights specific programs.

I published an IG Reel yesterday breaking down the THE rankings, and I'll be adding more on QS and Maclean's over the next few weeks so make sure to follow me over on Insta!

ChooseYourUni News

I have an article coming up in the March issue of the Start With Entrepreneurship Magazine! I wrote about how entrepreneurs are risk-takers and shared how I quit my job of 13 years to become a full-time student and start my own gig. You can check it out by ordering the March issue here.