Hello Painglass,

>>I am an American Student currently looking around for grad schools. Two schools which are recommended to me over and over are the University of Toronto and York University. I am looking to enter a program on the history of gender and sexuality in the last 200 years.

I went to York University where I studied Philosophy and Fine arts. I'm not sure about what the Teaching Assistant situation is like there right now. You might be interested to discuss this with the head of the Philosophy department at York University. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and came to Canada to go to graduate school and later finished a PhD here. He is also involved in the feminist studies program as well as gender theory. (s)He self-identifies as a transgendered / transsexual person. This is his (her) website. Feel free to send him (or her) an e-mail, as (s)he is quite a friendly person. He might also be able to fill you in on U of T.

www.yorku.ca/gilbert/

The University of Toronto is better than York University academically, not to mention the architecture. U of T has the classic 'ivy league' gothic architecture as opposed to York's 1960's futurism look. The main campus of U of T is located right in downtown Toronto, whereas York University is practically in another city (North York) at the end of the subway line. There is a problem however in that U of T has moved all it's humanities programs to campuses outside the downtown. The city of Toronto itself has a lot to offer a student, being comparable to Manhattan in New York City, but with less crime and litter. The transit in the city is really top-notch, you can travel anywhere by subway or streetcar, or bus or taxi. Also, you could definitely find a part-time job off campus. Toronto is the economic center of Canada. Housing tends to be on the more expensive side, especially if you are looking for housing downtown.

The winters in Toronto are probably comparable to Wisconsin. If you look at a map, you will notice that Toronto is located along the same latitude line as Minneapolis, Minnesota, and this line would divide the State of Wisconsin in half. Also, there is something called 'The lake effect' which makes any cities close to the great lakes warmer than other cities of the same latitude. It also affects precipitation. Toronto is farther north than Buffalo, New York yet despite this, Buffalo gets more snow in the winter and is colder than Toronto in the winter. However, Toronto also has an underground shopping concourse in the downtown, which connects to the subway system as well as the GO (Government of Ontario) Trains. Because of this, some people will spend their time in the underground 'malls' when winter hits.

There are other Universities in Toronto too, such as Ryerson. However Ryerson University tends to be more of a 'techie' University, oriented towards Engineering, Architecture, etc. There are also tons and tons of Universities within the Toronto area, so you might even want to decide on applying to all of these as a teaching assistant and seeing which one accepts you and/ or suits you. There is a yearly ranking of all Canadian Universities in 'Maclean's' magazine that you can consult.

<<Also, does anyone know how good UofT's programs in philosophy, comparative religions and/or history are? My boyfriend is also being told to look at UofT and those are his areas of concentration.>>

I don't know how good U of T's programs in these areas are, but York's programs in these areas are pretty good. I have had friends from U of T's philosophy program, and it seems better than York's. The difference between York and U of T is this. The University of Toronto started out in the early 1800's, so it is like Canada's 'ivy league' school. York University was founded in the late 60's by some radicals who wanted to make York University different from U of T, so it looks more like a 'Californian' University. Today, York University tends to be the 'artsy' general arts, fine arts, faculty of law University, whereas U of T is an Engineering, science, medicine University.

According to Macleans magazine, U of T is often ranked as the number one University in Canada, along with McGill University in Montreal. York University was ranked at 18 place when I was there, but has made it's way up the ladder to eight place.