I made the largest mistake of my life so far just now by opening the email I got from UBC admissions. They gave me an entrance scholarship of 15k but I’ve already committed to U of T and they’re only giving me 7.5k for their entrance scholarship… Did I mess up? As an international student, the tuition fees are definitely an issue especially with my family financial circumstances but my parents are saying it’s alright. I think deep down they’re really sad that I just essentially wasted 7.5k.
What are the total costs for each school? Scholarships are meaningless without context. My D got a $20k scholarship to a school where the COA (cost of attendance) was $30k so out of pocket costs would have been $10k. She also got a $50k scholarship from school B but their COA was $70k so the costs would have been double.
the $15k scholarship does not even cover the $23k OOS surcharge that you would have to pay
I was assuming he was OOS at both schools.
Do Canadian Universities have In and out of state costs?
Never look at just the amount of the scholarship. You need to look at tuition + fees (and room & board), then subtract the scholarship from the total. If one school is in a particularly high cost area, factor that in as well.
If you’d rather go to UbC, you can accept there and withdraw from U of T.
Make sure the total cost will be less at UBC before you do that. Canadian $$ is less than US $$ so the actual difference may not be much. Look at total COA and compare in same monetary dollars.
When I read U of T my thought was U of Toronto based on the other college being UBC.
“Do Canadian Universities have In and out of state costs?”
A few do. McGill has three sets of costs: Resident of Quebec; Canadian but not from Quebec; and international. The last time that I checked a “Canadian born abroad” gets to pay “resident of Quebec” costs. A few other schools have very small additional costs for “out of province” students (such as some are perhaps C$1,000 per year more for out of province Canadian students).
To return to OP’s problem: If you care a lot about the difference in cost, then you can call Toronto and see what they say. It is likely that you can forfeit your relatively small deposit and still attend UBC. However, first make sure that you actually want to do this.
Toronto is an academically very challenging university. However, if you are up for an academic challenge, it is an excellent school and for many subjects the top ranked university in Canada. It might be worth the extra $7,500. If that is the total difference over four years at least by US standards that is not much to worry about.
Are the entrance scholarships for one year only? At a minimum check this for both scholarships. Also compute what the total cost will be over four years. You might want to include travel costs since depending upon where you are coming from Toronto might or might not be easier to get to compared to Vancouver.
What is your intended major? When you say “U of T” do you mean Toronto?
Looking at the total cost over four years, we were certainly not too concerned about spending an extra C$7,500 compared to the least expensive possible school.
Also, as @twoinanddone said, don’t forget that this is in Canadian dollars. If you are coming from the US, the exchange rate is very favorable for us. If you are coming from elsewhere, paying in Canadian dollars is still a lot less than numbers that sound the same but in US dollars.