INTERVIEW | Ben - McGill: Bachelor of Arts, major in Political Science

My name is Ben Bailey, I’m 18 years old. My dad is British and my mom is half American half French. I was born in Paris and now I live in Montreal for my studies. I went to Ecole Jeannine Manuel, an international school in Paris, France. I was a fairly serious student I guess. Three words that would describe me would be: independent, international and attentive. I never had a dream university in high school but I guess my preferred university during high school was LSE.

I currently study at McGill University in Montreal. I chose this university because it represented me the best in terms of what I wanted to study and in terms of the student life I wanted to have. I’m in my second year at McGill. McGill was initially my second choice until I realised that I actually preferred going to Canada. My favourite thing about it is the way of life — everything is laid back, friendly and really welcoming.

I’m majoring in Political Science and my Minors are Communication Studies and Social Entrepreneurship. It is not competitive but it is a bit demanding so as long as you work a minimum you’re fine. People are super friendly and very helpful. I study about 1-2 hours day during the week and maybe a little more during the weekend. My advice to nail academic and social life would be to go to class and listen in class and the rest will be much easier. For social life, don’t hold back, just be nice and people will be nice back.

It was relatively easy to meet people simply because everyone is in the same boat. It is not close to my hometown but I really never had much of a problem with being away from my parents. It is an international community and you can easily meet people from everywhere in the world. Depending on where you are either French is most spoken or English. I go to the library often although I stopped at one point. The library is always open and there are different parts of the library that are either social or silent. I would rate the campus 9 out of 10.

I lived in a dorm and that was loads of fun. People are super friendly and forthcoming, and the dorm itself was great. People party a lot, so you can always go to a party regardless of the day.

The school is pretty athletic, there are a lot of different sports teams that anyone can join through tryouts. You also have a bunch of clubs you can join but I’m not in any. McGill is in Montreal and it can get quite cold but to be fair the atmosphere in Montreal is worth the cold temperatures. My first winter, it was C°-24 degrees.

Life in uni was a bit what I expected but I also had loads of unexpected things about it. There were mainly good surprises but maybe the winter weather was a bit rough… I think that if you do not have a perfect idea of what you want to study this university is a perfect match. If you’re someone who likes to party or study or both, this university is great. People are so welcoming and the general environment of Montreal is funky, enjoyable, relaxed, active, and just amazing to be in!