Living in Montreal

[JohnnyLaw]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

Your kids would probably be forced to go to french school, fwiw (not immersion). I think the public schools here suck. I went almost exclusively to private. McGill is obviously a good option for university though. Even if they go out of province, it's far far cheaper than in the states.

Private schools are bullshit. I had better teachers at the polyvalente than at the private high school I attended for 4 years.

Tuition is cheap for locals. McGill has a good reputation, but there are some good French universities as well.

 

[GQgeek]

Private schools are not all equal. I did about half public and half at english-style prep schools. My teachers in private were always far better overall, and there were many other benefits.

 

[MetroStyles]

I would probably send my kids to private unless I lived in a district with an excellent history of sending kids to good schools from public backgrounds.

 

[JohnnyLaw]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

Private schools are not all equal. I did about half public and half private. My teachers in private were always far better overall, and there were many other benefits.
Kind of off-topic, but IMO it doesn't matter where you go to high school. Your CEGEP grades will determine university admission, and I've never listed my high school on a CV. As a teenager, I didn't give a **** anyways. I just wanted to get out as fast as I could with as little permanent damage possible.

 

[MetroStyles]

I guess a lot of European cities also fit this bill. I feel like it would be easier to make the transition from NY to Montreal than to Europe, though.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by JohnnyLaw

Kind of off-topic, but IMO it doesn't matter where you go to high school. Your CEGEP grades will determine university admission, and I've never listed my high school on a CV.
Not everyone goes to CEGEP. At my school I did an extra year beyond when quebec HS finishes (instead of 2 at CEGEP). This replaced CEGEP and enables university admission. FWIW, I think CEGEP is horrible (waste of resources/time). Some of my friends that left to go to cegep said it was a joke. I also think that elementary school and high school are about more than just grades and what schools they get people in to. You spend a lot of time at school during your formative years, and imo, it can make a big difference on the person you eventually become. The right school can be a very positive experience. You obviously didn't go to the right one. I got to do tons of cool **** at private schools that i never would have been able to do at public schools. It's a totally different experience (I say this having attended 8 different schools in Ontario and Quebec).

 

[JohnnyLaw]

I really enjoyed CEGEP. Some programs are jokes, but pure & applied science is most definitely not. I was actually challenged for once and finally got to live on my own in a new city.

Lots of parties (and some bad experiences). I got that out of my system before starting university.

I would have **** my wrists had I stayed in high school another year.

 

[crazyquik]

I heard the strippers are awesome.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by JohnnyLaw

I really enjoyed CEGEP. Some programs are jokes, but pure & applied science is most definitely not. I was actually challenged for once and finally got to live on my own in a new city.

Lots of parties (and some bad experiences). I got that out of my system before starting university.

I would have **** my wrists had I stayed in high school another year.

Oh, my friends had fun at cegep, but that wasn't my point. My friends got almost straight 95-100s in cegep (in science). That never happened at our prep school, even for the very smartest of them. Hell, a kid that won a national writing competition and regularly did well in other competitions of the type rarely got over 90 in english. I used to get 100s on all my physics tests. In my last year we had an unusually bright class and our physics teacher gave us a University of Waterloo SIN test for our final because we were becoming arrogant. That's challenging (the yearly national average for the test is like ~12% or something). We covered the entire cegep science curriculum in 1 year instead of 2. We also had non-credit advanced science classes that went in to special and general relativity, nuclear chemistry, some quantum mechanics, astronomy, etc. These were courses the teachers came up with on their own. Prep schools give teachers way more flexibility in this regard and I certainly thought it was great. Most kids hated it (they were designed to eliminate spares), but I thought they were great.

Anyway, i disagree with CEGEP on a pure efficiency level. It's typical of quebec imo. I also don't think 16-17 year old kids are really ready to be living on their own. The drop-out rate is HUGE from what i've read. Having said that, CEGEP can be very good for some people. Very good students can fast-track med school by going to CEGEP and getting straight in. Actually, if you're going to go to university in quebec I'd recommend cegep over any other options, but going outside the province i'd rather have my kids do what I did.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by crazyquik

I heard the escorts are awesome.

ftfy. and true.

 

[EL72]

I was born in MTL and lived there until I was 25. It is indeed more laidback and European but why not just go to Europe for the real thing?

My friend who works in banking just moved back to MTL after 10 yrs in Toronto working in VC and PE. He just told me he has a hard time getting people to a meeting before 9:30 am when people in Toronto would be in the office at 7am. No one works on weekends and everyone is out by 5pm and usually 3-4pm on Fridays.

My experience from knowing people in very different industries like law, finance, medicine, academia... is that salaries are on average 30% - 40% lower in Montreal. The only thing that costs less in MTL is real estate and it's not enough to offset the lower salary - especially considering the higher taxes in Quebec. All other expenses are the same or more. You have to want to live there and enjoy the lifestyle.

That said, I would never move to somewhere colder - and MTL is freakin' cold!! I would go to Vancouver if I were you. Same laid back socialist attitude with much more natural beauty, milder weather, (and lots of AZNs if that's what you're after), but no French.

 

[Alter]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

So when you say support your family, you mean rent/food/education/wife gifts? Wouldn't a comparably lower cost-of-living in Montreal offset this? I can see education being a problem if you want Ivy League and not McGill (which is supposedly $1000 a semester or something ridiculous).

As EL72 just said, salaries are lower and the number of jobs in the professional sector are limited and would probably require fluent French ability.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by Alter

As EL72 just said, salaries are lower and the number of jobs in the professional sector are limited and would probably require fluent French ability.

Was definitely a problem for my father when a company he worked for was bought by Quebecor.

 

[visionology]

I visited Montreal this summer with the fellas and it honestly was one of the nicest cities I've ever been to.

- We didn't find the traffic too bad at all, especially in a city of this size

- We were AMAZED at how active everyone was. People were running, excercising, biking, etc everywhere.

- The city was billed as being clean and it lived up to the hype. We went there during a large festival with thousands of people. There was a Jamaican parade and we were all dumbfounded that as the parade ended an army of workers and streetsweepers made the entire road and grounds spotless.

- The old part of town has great architecture and while it may be a bit touristy at times was still great just to walk around by the water and soak it all in.

- There is a great mix of cultures, restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. Pretty much everything anyone would want. We couldn't find good pizza though.

- Their transportation system was VERY clean and easily accessible. No smell of urine, clean floors and walls, etc. Was a bit strange that you buy paper tickets and then just walk onto the train. It was very laid back too and not crowded. I'm used to being hurded like cattle while swiping your card through metal turnstiles and standing in a foul smelling pit of Earth while holding a greasy handrail. Yes that's NYC...

- I hate dollar coins, they really anger me.


The thing that would hold me back is the weather, I hate the CT weather enough as it is and we are 6hrs South of Montreal. I just couldn't do it.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by visionology

I visited Montreal this summer with the fellas and it honestly was one of the nicest cities I've ever been to.

- We didn't find the traffic too bad at all, especially in a city of this size

- We were AMAZED at how active everyone was. People were running, excercising, biking, etc everywhere.

- The city was billed as being clean and it lived up to the hype. We went there during a large festival with thousands of people. There was a Jamaican parade and we were all dumbfounded that as the parade ended an army of workers and streetsweepers made the entire road and grounds spotless.

- The old part of town has great architecture and while it may be a bit touristy at times was still great just to walk around by the water and soak it all in.

- There is a great mix of cultures, restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. Pretty much everything anyone would want. We couldn't find good pizza though.

- Their transportation system was VERY clean and easily accessible. No smell of urine, clean floors and walls, etc. Was a bit strange that you buy paper tickets and then just walk onto the train. It was very laid back too and not crowded. I'm used to being hurded like cattle while swiping your card through metal turnstiles and standing in a foul smelling pit of Earth while holding a greasy handrail. Yes that's NYC...

- I hate dollar coins, they really anger me.


The thing that would hold me back is the weather, I hate the CT weather enough as it is and we are 6hrs South of Montreal. I just couldn't do it.

Try driving from the west island (where most english people live), laval, or brossard though. I know my bosses have a 45minute drive to get in to work. Some places are worse, but that's not exactly desireable. Having said that, you can live downtown or very close to it on the subway lines for cheap until you decide you want a house and a yard. I don't find it that clean either, but I'm comparing it to Toronto, which is spotless downtown.

The rest I would agree with. Quality of life here is very good overall. It just that it sucks for anyone that is serious about a career because the opportunities are limited and the economy of Montreal has been stagnant for a couple decades now (which is why real estate is still so cheap).