Pros and Cons: Queen's versus Dalhousie
Apr. 5th, 2003 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldWhat the title says.
Queen's Pros
Queen's Cons
Dalhousie Pros
Dalhousie Cons
Hmm.
Put like this, it seems like it makes perfect sense to decide for Queen's. Queen's is more intellectually stimulating (it looks, anyway) than Dalhousie, it's in a ompletely different area of Canada, it and its city might serve as a nice base for further social activities, and have I mentioned that it's entirely outside of Atlantic Canada? I'll have to take on debt and function independently, true, but then so far I'm debt free and desperately needing more real life experience. I think I can handle it.
(Plus, when I sent my E-mails out to the different English departments in late February, I didn't get a single E-mail from Dalhousie. Not even a simple "we've not made a decision yet." That weighs against them.)
Thoughts?
Queen's Pros
- They'll be giving me 10 thousand dollars--enough to cover tuition and housing costs, not enough for other expenditures (spending money, travel, moving, food, utilities)
- Queen's is a very respected university, one of the Old Four (Canada's Ivy League).
- Queen's English Department is perfectly suited to my interests, complete with one doctor who specializes in the application of Wallerstein's world-systems theory to literature. The classes, too, look fantastically interesting.
- Kingston is, by all accounts, a wonderful little city of 120 thousand people. It isn't cosmopolitan; it is in central Canada, and it is large enough for me not to feel completely disoriented.
Queen's Cons
- I'll have to take out a student loan to finance my studies.
- I'll have to operate more or less completely independently.
Dalhousie Pros
- They'll be giving me 15 thousand dollars--probably enough to cover the entire cost of grad school.
- Dalhousie is a respected university.
- Halifax is a thriving and cosmopolitan city of 300 thousand people, not too far away (geographically) from Prince Edward Island.
Dalhousie Cons
- Dalhousie's English department isn't quite as strong in Queen's, at least not in my particular interests. Dalhousie's courses
- I want to get the fuck out of Atlantic Canada.
Hmm.
Put like this, it seems like it makes perfect sense to decide for Queen's. Queen's is more intellectually stimulating (it looks, anyway) than Dalhousie, it's in a ompletely different area of Canada, it and its city might serve as a nice base for further social activities, and have I mentioned that it's entirely outside of Atlantic Canada? I'll have to take on debt and function independently, true, but then so far I'm debt free and desperately needing more real life experience. I think I can handle it.
(Plus, when I sent my E-mails out to the different English departments in late February, I didn't get a single E-mail from Dalhousie. Not even a simple "we've not made a decision yet." That weighs against them.)
Thoughts?
