hello
i have recently been accepted to Queen's, Guelph, Carleton, Waterloo and York for International Development, and was just wondering if anybody had the slightest idea of where i should go?
the InDev program is relatively uncommon to other programs like psych or economics, so it's really hard to find information on them to compare them with each other.
i have visited all of the campuses, and i think i narrowed my choices down between guelph and queen's... my problem now is that i dont know whether i've made the right two choices AND that i dont know where to go from this point.
i loved guelph's campus - it was small, it was lively, it was intimate - it was me. yet it has no city to speak of - the university is all it is, and they have everything there.
i dont mind that, really, but i am worried if i could spend four years like that in a square that i might love now, but come to detest later.
queen's, on the other hand, was larger, looked more sophisticated, and i was slightly intimidated. i dont know why or by what - maybe it just looked big and empty in may since all the students had gone home. but i really liked downtown kingston, it felt really comfortable. i live in mississauga, so i know i would prefer kingston to toronto any day.
queen's meal plans and residences were not favourable compared to guelph's, and yet queen's has beautiful, hogwarts-y buildings and a quidditch team and rumours of a great frosh week. i know how this looks - that i am choosing my uni based on all the wrong reasons but i just don't know what to do. at this point, every little thing has started to matter. the best place for me to go would indeed be carleton, seeing as how the PAPM program is 100% what i want to be doing, and yet i have crossed carleton off my list because the buildings were ugly and all the residences had bathrooms which you had to share by yourself, as well as for the not so convenient meal plan.
coming finally t programs, i have heard guelph has the largest international development program in canada along with the fact that it is more inclined towards environment sustainability and all that, while at queen's, the global development studies program is more theoretical. neither of the programs are co-op, and i have no idea if one of them is better at international exchanges/opportunities than the other WITHIN THE PROGRAM (of course i have heard about the Bader castle - who hasn't?)
i know for a fact that queen's has a higher reputation overall than guelph does, but i dont know if the program is better at queen's than in guelph. if somebody could give me any information, just anything at all, i would be incredibly grateful. it could be about whether guelph is more fun than queen's, or info about the program at either university - it could be ANYTHING.
wow.
that was a lot of writing - er - rambling.
thank you so much for reading through all my crap. i really appreciate it.
:)

thank you! and i forgot to add one thing - i've heard queen's is "borderline racist"?
yes, i have watched the video, and i know it was all a joke - but is it really?
i'm not white - should that be a problem?

Queen's can help you arrange exchanges, volunteer trips, etc. to pretty much any part of the world you wish through various programs, partnerships with other universities etc., although they may not be specifically sponsored by the devs program, but the exchange office would help to make sure you found courses/work that was relevant to your major. This is not always cheap - if you have financial need or really good grades you can usually get some amount of travel bursaries or scholarships to help with the travel, but even with some funding it can still be very expensive (and those with average grades are less likely to get any). Devs at Queen's has specific programs in Cuba and China that I know of. There is a course offered in Cuba every year and we are partnered with a university in Fudan which is where a lot of devs students go on exchange. The bader castle is always an option, but the courses it offers are typically geared more towards history, english, politics and law students, rather than those in devs - I don't know that you can get devs credit for going there.

I don't know enough about the program at Guelph to say for sure and I don't want to talk negatively about it without knowing, but then the fact that I have friends in devs and international relations at several schools including Queen's, York and U of T yet I've never heard Guelph mentioned for their devs program suggests to me at least anecdotally that Guelph's program isn't that well known. I'm biased, but overall I do think that Queen's is better for most arts programs, including devs, because Guelph is more focused on sciences. As for your options at Queen's, I would take a look at these links for more information:

From the devs department website:
http://www.queensu.ca/de...e/indepenent-work-study
http://www.queensu.ca/de...rogramme/study-in-china
http://www.queensu.ca/de...programme/study-in-cuba

You can also browse around Queen's exchange website:
http://www.queensu.ca/in...onal/students/outgoing/
http://www.queensu.ca/in...ional/exchangepartners/

I said this to someone else earlier this week, but I really wouldn't factor what the residences are like into your decision. 90% or more of us at Queen's move out of residence after our first year and into cheap houses/apartments with our friends. You will only be in residence for 8 months out of your four years at Queen's (even less when you subtract the time you'll be away for christmas, reading week, etc.) and that 8 months will pass so quickly that you won't even notice the buildings and meal plans are kind of crappy because you'll be so busy with friends and all the usual first year excitement. Good luck!