I honestly don't know how to respond to this rubbish. Students all over commute from home and go home after class. Can you be more explicit about what you are suggesting here?

The rest of this post is utter racist crap. And yes, you are a racist. Or just stupid.

Thank you. I find it harder to be as calm as you in the face of such sad ignorance, but i really shouldn't expend my energies.

My students are Canadian. That's it. Nothing more to be said.

"many at U of T commute from home and go straight back home once class is over"

Bad thing, innit? Better for all if students live near the school and not with their parents?

I find it a little odd that the same person who will not admit to noticing the largely visable Indian population of Brampton, now champions his daughter as someone who disgards a school based on the number of non-white faces she saw on an open day.

This comes from the UofT website:

* 55% of our first year students identify as being a visible minority.
* Approximately half of our students speak a language other than English at home.
* 40% are first generation students (eg: those who are the first generation in their family to attend university).

http://www.teaching.utoronto.ca/teac...tudentbody.htm

That's approximately the demographic of Brampton, is it not? Perhaps the commuter reputation of the UofT is because the student body and the population of Brampton are one and the same.

I think what's happened here is that Ned (who normally doesn't come across as a frothing loon) is angry with his precious ditzy daughter for destroying the plans he had for her, and is unleashing his hidden demons in self defense.

Of course I may have my head up my arse as usual.

Quite possible.

What I believe may have happened is that all the white students were sleeping off the night before during her visit. It was only the unintegrated masses who were available to man the Faculty of Social Sciences display that day.

I wasn't talking specifically about students. I was referring only to those immigrants (not all immigrants) who make no attempt to integrate into a multicultural society. By that I mean those who live in enclaves of their own culture and who don't make any attempt to interact with other cultures - particularly those who try to create micrososms of their own country (complete with its problems and disputes) inside Canada.

I don't disgaree that Brampton has a significant South Asian population. I disagree when people say they are in the majority. The stats prove that they are not. As I said before, people of European descent easily outnumber those of South Asian descent in Brampton.

But that is the kernel of multiculturalism (apart from the slurs about problems and disputes). I think you've been in the US too long.

And leaving that aside, what did your daughter (who is no doubt partially sentient) discover in her researches into Toronto society?

Not at all (except for the head up your arse part - you got that right!). I was also at the U of T open day and it truly was one big game of "spot the white kid." My daughter has a wide variety of friends from all cultures (one of her best friends is Indian) - as do I. However, you do have to feel comfortable with a university and part of that is the demographics of the student body. She recognizes the benefits of MULTIcuturalism - with the emphasis on "multi". She didn't want to be completely swamped by 1 or 2 cultures.

Oh I'm sure people can nit-pit until they are blue in the face. Primarily, noticibly, in large part Indian. All are, IMO, fair descriptions of Brampton and really, there's not much else to say about the place.

The stats prove that just over half of first year students are in a visable minority at UofT. That still leaves 45%, yet your daughter felt claustrophobic? She should move to Brampton then.

If I may, I'd like to make an argument in favour of the position of MarylandNed's daughter. It seems to me that an objective in attending a university, especially in Canada, is to meet people who will be useful in one's career. This is the crux of the "networking" we see mentioned so much on this board. If the university student population is largely Asian this isn't going to work as well as it would if one attended a school with a significant cradle population. For that reason, I suggest that York and the UofT will not serve future bankers and lawyers as well as, say, McGill and Dalhousie.

Actually, she loved Toronto and recognized it as a very multicultural city. The demographics at the U of T open day concerned her but that was only one factor in her turning down an offer from U of T. I must admit I was also very surprised by the demographics at the U of T open day - although it did occur to me that perhaps this was not representative of the student body as a whole. Nevertheless kids make decisions based on criteria that parents don't fully understand at times.

Oh, FFS. Which one or two were that? you mentioned Chinese, Korean, Sri Lanken, Indian, Pakistani and perhaps others upthread (but not american).

Has it occurred to you or your daughter that proper Canadians don't go to Open Day with their extended families?

It's a cultural thing.