| rev:text
| - Grad student perspective here. I picked up my Masters at YorkU a few years back and can't be prouder of my #Yorkie roots. Students love to rip on this place and while most of them are right... there are still glimmers of hope if you look hard enough. To start with the pro's:
Academic stimulation: 4.5/5
Maybe you could "hold a fork" in an undergrad at York, but once you hit grad school you can kiss that lie goodbye. YorkU's leftist roots means that, in the Humanities, you'll be dealing with lots of theory, philosophy, and other verbose things that make your head explode. (My classmates traded Marxist memes for fun.) But if you're overall hip and cool, you'll fit in right here. Are you sick of "old school" fields like English Literature? Check out the Social & Political Thought program, or the Science & Technology Studies, then. Don't like being told what to do? You've found the right place. Unlike other schools that make you do thought-work for their professors and win scholarships so they can stop funding your a** (*cough* UofT), YorkU will mostly let you do your own thing.
Work-life balance: 4/5
York's benefits are actually good. I've lost count of all the (actually useful) career talks they give on campus; I got glasses and stuff; and up until recently, York funded almost all their masters students with part-time work. Prof's do believe you have a soul and act accordingly.
BUT, in order to get those benefits, the university goes on strike every 3 years... so be prepared to sacrifice for them.
Real-world relevance: 4/5
I certainly felt my studies were a lot more interesting and relevant to the real world than at Stuffy Undergrad Institution. You could read Shakespeare alongside political theory, study an entire class on apartheid writing, and more. My courses even sounded cool to non-academic people, who normally fall asleep as soon as I lapse into academese.
But, here are the caveats:
Administration: 2/5
Like many other Yorkies I've had my share of administrative nightmares. God bless the admin lady at my department who helped me tackle them. And my prof's, too. You'll survive.
Architecture: 1/5
Okay, who designed the Student Centre/Scott Library area??? The complex is waayyy too small for the number of students that flow through it every day. Sharp corner turns, low ceilings, hard-to-see pathways means you're always bumping into people. Don't architects/engineers/etc. learn how to solve these kinds of problems? For shame, YorkU architects, you had one job and didn't do it.
Foods/Amenities: 2/5
Toilet paper is not even 0.5 ply. Bathrooms look as though people die in them. Cafeterias are routinely closed after 3pm/during exam season, aka. when you're hungriest. However, my tuition cost half as much as University of Toronto, so I should complain less. Plus, York Lanes lets you do all your errands in one building.
"Safety":
Should there even be a rating for this, lol? Just use your smarts; don't pick up your car alone in an empty, creepy lot at night.
The verdict: Good intentions and imperfect execution, YorkU has its charms. If you don't mind going on strike every 3 years, come here for graduate or professional schooling. Even in the Humanities alone, you'll become a more creative thinker (it's no coincidence that YorkU has some of the finest Fine Arts degrees out there). Not sure about the undergrad, though, which sounds like a mixed bag. Graduate at your own risk.
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