<p>I've been accepted to USC's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences for a biological sciences major, and am likely to enroll in their Freshman Science Honors program, which is basically an advanced version of the normal course with smaller class sizes and more opportunities/special events. I've also been accepted into McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management and both UBC's and UToronto's Faculty of Science.</p>
<p>I am a Canadian citizen and so Canadian schools will be significantly cheaper for me. For example, McGill will cost me just over CAD$7000/year, but USC will cost almost USD$58000/year. Based on the following, could any of you lead me in the right direction? Right now I am leaning towards McGill for its price and campus life, but at the same time, I really want to attend USC for its smaller class sizes and location.</p>
<p>My main decision factors:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I plan to continue study at a post-graduate level in the USA in the future, so a HIGH GPA at the undergraduate level is important to me. I've heard that Canadian public schools do not inflate, and sometimes "deflate" grades, whereas US private schools tend to inflate grades highly.</p></li>
<li><p>The name; When applying to a US graduate school, how will the name of USC compare to the Canadian schools?</p></li>
<li><p>Cost; USC is a LOT of money and I'm wondering if it is a worthwhile investment. Does it really offer better chances in the job market/going to a US graduate school?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Dude, USC is a great school at all, but it isn’t worth paying $58,000 a year, especially if you can already go to an awesome globally renowned school like McGill/UBC/UToronto for a fraction of SC’s price. Moreover, many people from Canada go to grad school in the US. Grad schools in the US in general have so many people coming from all over the world, and since that quite a few Canadian universities (like the ones I specifically mentioned) are highly ranked worldwide, I don’t think you need to worry about your uni not being reputable enough. I think you should go to a top-tier Canadian university instead. You’ll be saving so much more money that could be spent on grad school down the line.</p>
<p>Unless you can get outside scholarships, I would recommend going to school in Canada. You will accrue a lot of debt if you choose USC – and even more with grad school, on top of it – and you may not find a job that will let you earn enough money to pay off the loans in a reasonable amount of time.</p>
<p>I don’t understand how international students do it sometimes! Getting no financial aid must suck.</p>
<p>Yes, there are quite a few continuing student scholarships you can apply for, but they are small and you’d need to get a few to pay the full cost of attendance for a year.</p>