<p>I’m an Alumni of UBC. I am originally from Alabama. </p>
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<li><p>Figure out where in Canada you want to be. Regionalism in Canada is much stronger than in the U.S. and the major Canadian Cities have different cultures. Canada has 30 million people and majority of that population is within 45 minutes of the border, and a metro area. So there is vast difference regionally. Vancouver, it generally does not snow is about 40-50% immigrants mostly from Asia, the bulk of these asians are from Hong Kong. However, Taiwanese, Koreans, Japanese, Indians (Punjabi in particular), Filipinos, Iranians are present and well represented. I also met multiple sutdents from Jordan, Bangladesh, Germany, Mexico, Brasil, Spain, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia. I have met less than two french Canadians here, and if you know nothing about Canada you would assume Cantonese was its second official language. </p></li>
<li><p>The top Canadian universities offer excellent academics, are rigorous and well respected in ACADEMIA around the world. UBC, Mcgill, U of T, are known by most academics at major research universities. I thought about once transferring back to the states to major research Universities (Maryland, Alabama) and was strongly discouraged because the departments of the major I had selected felt UBC was academically superior. Getting into graduate school after graduation is not the issue.</p></li>
<li><p>Prestige. Foreign schools are not prestigious in the very top American school are. Harvard and MIT are known by anyone and their dog. However, many foreigners over estimate the prestige of American schools. Many of the students at UBC I met never heard of places such as Duke, Brown or Emory. Conversely, most of them thought Canadian schools weren’t that good because they weren’t Harvard or MIT. I knew one person who thought UC Davis was a poor university, because someone who dropped out of UBC transferred to that school. The reality is that school identities are regional so essentially unless you can get into an elite university with excellent job recruitment, your schools reputation is going to be strongest in the region that you are in. Outside that region they are just going to be treated like any flagship state university. What would the average texan think of a University of Delaware degree? I don’t think most would dismiss it as being worthless. All this being said, many of classmates and friends went anywhere and everywhere. Top companies do recruit from top universities around the globe not just in the U.S. as most of them do have offices in many countries. </p></li>
<li><p>Job prospects. After graduation generally you’ll have an offer for a no strings attached work permit, that works for a few years. In the states your degree will be treated like any public school. So essentially any brand recognition your school may have will be strongest in Canada. One thing to keep in mind though unless you are at a very elite school in the states this is generally true in any region, generally when you take your degree outside of that region most employers will assume its a degree equivalent to an other. </p></li>
<li><p>Canadian Universities are fundamentally different from U.S. they are comparable most closely to large public research universities in the states. The concept of a liberal arts class room with small class sizes do not exist here. At Mcgill, UBC, Queens, Western Ontario, you will be in lecture halls, where professors will not know your name, unless you are in small major that many students don’t do. Your papers are often graded by T.A.s.
If you want to get to know professors you must be proactive, come to office hours and participate as much as possible in classes. </p></li>
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<p>Generally Canadians also take more classes in a Major or a Minor. In fact many minors require as much course work in the area as a major does in an American school. This means that its very hard to double major, or even graduate with both a major and a minor without planning this as soon as one enters the school. In addition to major and minor, Canadian schools often offer a special type of Major called Honours. Honours is not the same thing as graduating from an “honors program” in the states. A honours is generally a special type of major offered through the department your majoring in that generally requires even more courses than a major, and often much more advanced courses. These degrees are generally highly valued for students wishing to enter grad schools in Canada. What all this implies is that it is much harder to switch programs in Canada and graduate on time. Generally you will have two years to decide a major in Canada, just like in the states. However, I never have met someone who finished in 4 years that didn’t decide what their major would be by the end of there first year. </p>
<p>At the same time because Canadian degrees are more concentrated in the subject which they major in, they offer a greater variety of classes. For example, I could have studied nothing, but economics for 6 years and still not finished taking all the courses offered to undergraduates majoring in economics.</p>
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<li><p>The academic environment is competitive. Generally there are less graded assignments and your grades are weighted on one or two exams/papers/projects. That doesn’t mean academics aren’t rigorous. Most students I knew spent 25 to 30 hours a week studying despite not having homework, and class averages in many of my classes were 60-73. (C to B). However, some courses had even lower class averages (52 a D). Furthermore, classes were curved in either direction to meet a target average. </p></li>
<li><p>Academic scholarships are more difficult to obtain in Canada, and more difficult to keep. At UBC it was very very rare for international students to have a full scholarship, and most people that had any sort of scholarship were in the top 5% of the class. Furthermore, that students had to generally maintain above an 80 Average (a 3.60) which means that the student generally needed to be in the top 20% of the class. Again this is one of the most competitive schools in Canada in terms of admissions, I know many many students who lost scholarships.</p></li>
<li><p>Living. Most Canadian schools are commuter campuses. Campus life is not comparable to the states, but there are fewer college neighborhoods that build right around campus.Many of the big Canadian universities don’t guarantee housing. Most of the students commute from off campus. A lot of local students do live at home with there parents. This you’ll find is a quite common practice in foreign countries. One of the big attractions of UBC for me, was that they did guarantee housing for non Vancouver-Metro residents. That being said this doesn’t mean being University student at Canadian schools are a bore. It simply means that a lot of University social scene centers around what the city offers. Vancouver had access to great skiing, and amazing variety in terms of stuf to do. A hitting a bar or night club was far more common than going to a house party. Not that the latter never happened. </p></li>
<li><p>Cost. Canada is more expensive than the U.S. They have a national sales tax in addition to state taxes, and then on average you’ll find that stuff is about 20 to 30% more expensive. This is even true if your from an expensive part of the U.S. a lot of stuff in the U.S. has the same price everywhere due to large chain stores etc. You’ll find those same chains charge more in Canada. It also doesn’t help that the Canadian dollar has been even with the U.S. dollar for most of the last 5 years.</p></li>
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