Friday morning I leave for my Great Exchange. About two weeks with family in the US, then a semester of studying and travelling in Canada, followed by a month in Europe, finishing with a day in Singapore. A grand adventure, indeed!

I will be spending a semester on exchange at McGill University in Montreal. Just for interest’s sake, I’m going to share a comparison of McGill and UQ (my home uni). These are statistics from the website Facebook, which is extremely popular in Canada and only just really taking off in Australia. It’s a social networking site, and allows people to share all sorts of things about themselves. Tertiary institutions have networks, which all students thereof can be a part of. Now you’ve had the introduction, here are random facts about the two unis, as taken (on 16/07/07) from the statistics of the interests listed for people in the UQ and McGill networks on Facebook:

  UQ McGill
Network membership 8,891 32,736
Top Books 1 Harry Potter
2 1984
3 To Kill A Mockingbird
4 Pride And Prejudice
5 Animal Farm
6 Memoirs Of A Geisha
7 Lord Of The Rings
8 Dan Brown
9 Catch 22
10 Jessica		 1 Harry Potter
2 The Alchemist
3 1984
4 To Kill A Mockingbird
5 Pride And Prejudice
6 Memoirs Of A Geisha
7 Lord Of The Rings
8 Catcher In The Rye
9 Le Petit Prince
Top Movies 1 Love Actually
2 Pulp Fiction
3 Donnie Darko
4 Zoolander
5 Garden State
6 The Notebook
7 Snatch
8 Fight Club
9 The Departed
10 Anchorman		 1 Fight Club
2 Pulp Fiction
3 Shawshank Redemption
4 Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
5 Lost In Translation
6 Lord Of The Rings
7 Braveheart
8 The Notebook
9 Requiem For A Dream
10 The Departed
Top Interests 1 Music
2 Travelling
3 Reading
4 Travel
5 Shopping
6 Movies
7 Photography
8 Sleeping
9 Friends
10 Fashion		 1 Music
2 Reading
3 Travel
4 Travelling
5 Politics
6 Cooking
7 Traveling
8 Photography
9 Movies
10 Shopping
Top TV 1 Scrubs
2 House
3 Grey’s Anatomy
4 Family Guy
5 Prison Break
6 Heroes
7 Lost
8 Desperate Housewives
9 Arrested Development
10 Simpsons		 1 Grey’s Anatomy
2 Family Guy
3 Lost
4 House
5 24
6 Seinfeld
7 Heroes
8 Prison Break
9 Sex And The City
10 Friends

So similar, but still so different…