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[gaeta]

Hi everyone,

I wonder if any of you could tell me a bit about York University in Toronto.

I am an American in the humanities and am lucky enough to have a campus interview at York. I have read many of the other threads about differences between American and Canadian universities and have found much good information--but not much pertaining to York in particular. I would also appreciate any thoughts on living in and relocating to Toronto.

Thank you in advance for your help!

gaeta

[helpful]

York is on the far northern reaches of Toronto. From most parts of the city, you take a subway and then a bus. But they are extending the subway to York.

Best is to live north of the campus. Which, unfortunately, is very suburban.

It's a pretty new university (built in the 60s). Has some great departments and competitive with U of Toronto.

[mended_drum]

I believe York is on the "universities to fear" list on the wiki.  That said, I love Toronto, and I have friend who is very happy at York.

[helpful]

Fear what?

[mittens]

I don't know about the humanities there, but York University is a reputable school overall.  I'd gladly accept a position there.

[prof_tournesol]

I'm laughing at the idea of a "universities to fear" list, although it does have a lot of political issues.

York is, as helpful notes, quite remote from downtown Toronto. When the Congress was there two or three years ago there was a lot of complaining about the distances and the traffic. The location is miserable because you're proximate to a costly city but the school isn't in it. It's a commuter school mostly.

The university itself is renowned for its labour troubles - it seems that they are always on strike or threatening to go on strike or the teaching assistants are on strike or someone is on strike.

They also once had a higher than typical teaching load (by Canadian standards) at 3-3, but I've heard that it's been reduced and that there is a push to reduce it again. Obviously, ask.

The students will be generally good, although the school does suffer by proximity to UofT, which is one of the top schools in the country. In my (humanities) field their graduate program is excellent and attracts a lot of good students, and that seems to be the case in the other humanities fields that I know well.

[qrypt]

I have a good friend who works there.  He says it is a very political place - lots of conflict between people who support Palestinians and many of the Jews (students and faculty), in particular. 

The campus feels windswept and bare to me.  I'd still take a job there in a heartbeat, to be in Toronto.  But I do have a sense of it as a somewhat prickly place.

[smapdi_age_six]

I would also appreciate any thoughts on living in and relocating to Toronto.

I love the Toronto area; it's a fabulous area, and if I had the money I'd move to the Yonge and Davisville area and never go anywhere ever again.

That said, there are some downsides:

*It's a very big city that's grown faster than its infrastructure.  Even since I started going regularly in 2000, I've seen traffic get seriously worse.  Worse, there's no real way for it to ease up.  There's not really anywhere to put a new freeway.  And even if they extend the subway and the Sheppard line, that's not going to help a lot since so much of the recent growth has been in Markham and Vaughan and other outer suburbs that are going to be car suburbs for a very long time.  And while Toronto proper is a nice urban city, there is an awful lot of faceless suburbia of the worst kind that's springing up around it.  The last time I was there, parts of the GTA reminded me of Plano.

*Housing is quite expensive and hasn't eased up.

*You won't have any credit history when you show up, so it's like being 20 again in that respect.

[gaeta]

Thank you all for your help. The more research I do, the better Toronto starts to look. Let's just hope the campus visit goes well.

gaeta