Hi my friend is thinking of humanities and social science programs at UofT and McMaster. She is wondering which school she should go to. I am not in any of those programs at Mac so I can't advise her.

She has heard rumours that it is extremely hard to get A/A+ mark in UofT which she needs to go to graduate school as they intentionally mark harder than other universities to keep up their "reputation". At the same time, UofT has more course variety in her subjects of interest, and has more language courses.

On the other hand, she hears McMaster is easier, but there is a less variety of courses, less language courses, and the university's reputation is not very good compared to UofT.

So while she is afraid of getting a low GPA from UofT and won't be able to go for M.A. AND PhD, she is also worried about the quality of the program and reputation of McMaster. Reputation may be important for getting accepted into job or grad school.

If these assumptions are wrong please correct her. What are more pros and cons of UofT and McMaster? She would appreciate an honest answer. Thanks.

Reputation is not important. Where you get your degree is not important. As long as you have good grades and take the pre-requisite courses (if there are any), nothing else matters.

Some graduate programs do look at the school you come from. I don't think it's particularly common, but it does happen.

The bottom line is that people who go to UofT do get in to grad school. Going there doesn't mean you can't go to grad school. Also, what grad school requires an A+? Most of them are B+/A- range, and connections definitely play a role in finding a prof to work with/for during grad school.

Go where there are more courses that interest you. There's no point shelling out a whole bunch of money for something that you don't like, and if you're studying what you're interested in, you're much more likely to do well.

People who go to U of T and have good marks get in to grad school. People who go to Mac and get good marks get into grad school. But only if, as starfish states, they find someone to work with/for - funding is a big issue.