Future international student with questions about Universities who is dumb and needs help, pls guys

Student Lounge International Students
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1

Hello, thank you for taking the time to help me, i have got a few questions that hopefully some of you can help me out with, and thank you in advance for taking the time to help me.

1.What universities do you recommend for an international student?

2.How much money will i realistically have to spend on tuition and other expenses at a decent university and what programs (financial aid, scholarships, loans etc) can help me as a foreign student?

3.With a score of around 84/100%, do i have a shot at getting in to the better universities like York, UofT, Mcgill etc. And what are the best universities i can get in with those grades? (B+/A-)

4.What good universities are the cheapest for foreign students?

5.Can working while studying help me pay my tuition and how much?

THANK YOU for reading this

2

It seems i forgot to mention that i am only interested in Canadian universities, hence my name :slight_smile:

3

We live in the USA, and I have a daughter from the US about to go to university in Canada. We have therefore been checking out (and visiting) universities in Canada. However she has dual citizenship and therefore is not strictly “foreign” in either country. I will do my best to answer your questions based partly on our experience looking at universities:

“1.What universities do you recommend for an international student?”

This is a difficult question to answer because there are so many very good universities in Canada. Do you have a preference regarding the size of the university? Do you have a particular subject area where you want to study (such as “engineering” or “languages” or “medicine”)?

You can see a good list of strong universities in Canada looking at the Maclean’s listings:

http://www.macleans.ca/education/unirankings/university-rankings-2017/

Here you will see three listings. The largest and best known are listed as “Medical/Doctoral”. The ones listed as “Comprehensive” don’t have a medical school. Finally the ones listed as “primarily undergraduate” are perhaps the closest thing that Canada has to a liberal arts college. There are very good universities in each ranking.

Strong engineering programs are listed here:
http://www.macleans.ca/education/unirankings/best-engineering-universities-in-canada-2017-ranking/

Note that most of these universities teach in English. However, there is at least one bilingual university (Ottawa), and a few universities that teach in French (Montreal, Laval, Sherbrooke, UQAM, Moncton).

“2. How much money will i realistically have to spend on tuition and other expenses at a decent university and what programs (financial aid, scholarships, loans etc) can help me as a foreign student?”

You are going to need to check with the universities. I would think at least something very roughly around about $100,000 in US funds or a bit more (at least $135,000 Canadian) total over 4 years, but this will vary from university to university. My daughter has been offered some merit based financial aid at some universities in Canada. I have no idea whether or not her Canadian citizenship was needed for this, and it is not enough to make a big difference in total cost. I have heard that the costs for international students have been rising, possibly due to the weak Canadian dollar versus the US dollar, and possibly due to a very recent uptick in students going to Canada in preference to the USA.

“3.With a score of around 84/100%, do i have a shot at getting in to the better universities like York, UofT, Mcgill etc. And what are the best universities i can get in with those grades? (B+/A-)”

With those grades I would be surprised if you can get into McGill, Queen’s, Toronto, or UBC. Also, these universities are academically very challenging with good grades very tough to get. Thus you might be better off elsewhere in any case. Alberta and McMaster are in some rankings the next two academically strongest and most challenging. As far as I know these grades should be fine for most of the rest of the universities in Canada (and with these six removed there are still many very good universities left).

“4.What good universities are the cheapest for foreign students?”

From what I have seen, for a Canadian citizen there does not appear to be much difference in prices between universities in Canada. However, for international students there does seem to be a significant difference. For international students the small universities in eastern Canada seem to be a bit less expensive than the larger universities. Ontario might be a bit more expensive than other provinces. I am not sure why this is, and we have not checked out international student costs at all of the universities, or at anything in western Canada.

In terms of timing, are you looking to start in Sept 2017 or later? The application deadline has passed for most of these universities, and I think that some (such as Dalhousie) have April 1 as the application deadline for international students. Also, the deadline if you want financial aid has probably passed everywhere. Of course if you are thinking of starting a year later then you have lots of time.

“5.Can working while studying help me pay my tuition and how much?”

This I don’t know. I would not expect it to help much.

4

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to me, that was the most detailed and comprehensive reply i could have ever hoped for!

I am interested in law, mostly criminal law but yeah, law in general, but i am quite flexible in that aspect because i am not 100% certain in what i want to do and study, but for now lets keep it at law, economics, business and similar. In terms of the size of the university i am looking for the bigger ones, the bigger the better because i will be spending a lot of time there, and to be completely honest i just think the bigger ones are safer and more comforting.

In terms of my English and French capabilities i plan on getting tested for a C2 degree in English very soon, sadly i don’t know French that well, but i’m still studying it, probably somewhere around an A1 currently.

Thankfully i am not looking to start 2017, or 2018 for that fact so i do have time!

In terms of my 84%, i just did some searching around the various university websites. And according to the websites I would meet the requirements for most programs at York, same for UofT, a good number of programs at Queens, and a vast majority if not all the programs at UBC. The only one of these schools i would pretty much have no chance of getting in to would be McGill, but even there i could get in to some programs, but they don’t interest me sadly.
I am aware that this is all according to their websites and thus might not be that reliable, so that is why i asked it here, but your answer surprised me, where did you get your information about the grades needed for these universities?

In terms of my budget i would be provided around 22000 CAD from my family per year, but i noticed that some schools (UofT for instance) offer a work study program in which a student can earn around 6000-8000 CAD a year for working on campus.

And again friend, thank you so much for helping me out!

5

“I am aware that this is all according to their websites and thus might not be that reliable, so that is why i asked it here, but your answer surprised me, where did you get your information about the grades needed for these universities?”

I will admit that I am not sure what the cutoff would be for these universities. The people that I know that got into McGill had higher averages, but they got in (and in the two cases that I am most aware of got accepted rather quickly, which suggests that they were not near the cutoff). I would however, consider other universities also, and you already mentioned York which as far as I know you are likely to be accepted to. Law and business are areas that I don’t know much about. I am pretty sure that a former Canadian prime minister studied law at Dalhousie, and I quite liked the university when we visited (it was larger than my daughter was looking for, and I also liked the smaller universities that she preferred).

Regarding finances, given the numbers that you provided you are close with your families contribution, and the work study does provide most of the remaining gap. Thus I can see why you are interested in work study.

It sounds to me that you have a very good chance of getting this to work. You should probably check a few more universities from the Maclean’s rankings, skipping the “primarily undergraduate” category if you would prefer a larger university. If you skip the French universities you still have a very large number to choose from.

Good luck!

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Thank you, I wish you and your daughter the best of luck as well! Have a nice day sir!

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You will need an undergrad degree prior to attending law school in Canada or the U.S. There are 17 law schools in Canada at which you can study for a JD. There are also schools in Quebec where you can get a civil law degree. Law school admissions in Canada are far more competitive than they are in the U.S.

As for Maclean’s rankings, I would suggest that you spend some time looking at the various schools’ websites and not depend on the rankings to any great degree.

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This seems to be sort of old now. But, I am thinking of going to school in canada and I am in america. I honestly can’t see a huge difference between cost of schooling in america vs price of international student in Canada. Only reason why I am doing it because if I move states I will be paying the same price… out of state for some schools is between 16,000 to 35,000 a year…then add on living expenses and whatever else there is no true difference. Why not look at the schools in Canada you want to go to (convert the CAD to USD) and the schools in America you would be okay going to and compare how difference cost would be. I bet you would find out there isn’t a huge cost difference unless you are going to a school in state of residence…even colleges in state of residence may be same price. America higher education treats it’s residences not so different from international students in America…except maybe certain need-base finances may not be available to a foreigner…which I am trying to figure that out right now.

In addition I would choose a school you are comfortable in over ranks. It was a hard lesson I learned.

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What grade are you in? You will want to bring up your grade 12 grades (as these are the most important grades, UBC uses only that) up to around an 88-90% to get into top universities like UBC, UofT, and McGill. Some universities, such as UBC, do favour you if you have good extracurriculars or a good life story.

American curriculum students will need to take an SAT or ACT. Some universities require subject tests (but UBC seems to ignore them). 12xx-ish SAT’s are probably required.

10

Sorry for the late reply @DartMonkey93 i was kind of overwhelmed with school for a while. I am currently finishing grade 9, but i didn’t want to mention that because i wanted to be taken at least semi-seriously, but seeing how nice the people on this site are i see that i had nothing to fear. The first thing to cum to mind for you will probably be to tell me that i have time before collage and that i should i enjoy high school. But here, in Serbia, the whole education system is extremely competitive. If you don’t get an early start you may end up ruining your own future, it may sound like i am exaggerating but here, you need need good grades to get in to a good high-school for example. If you don’t get in to one of the better schools you cant get in to a good collage, and if you cant get in a good collage no one will higher you. This is something 12 year old kids need to think about, it is a very bad and stressful system. The reason that i am now starting early so to say is because i almost slipped up and lost my chance at basically any decent high-school, thankfully i got in the 3rd best one in the country and the best in my city, but to get in that i had to learn French in 4 months which was hell and i never want to have to do stuff like that again. But yeah, since i am year 9 i do have time to get my grades up, but is it really true that some schools don’t even look at some years of high school? Oh and i am gonna do a C2 test in English proficiency next year, so i want to ask if anyone knows how much that helps with collage enrollment. Again, thank you for your answers everyone, cheers!

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@Butterflycobblestone “I honestly can’t see a huge difference between cost of schooling in america vs price of international student in Canada.”

Have you looked at the less well known universities in Canada? The best known in the US are also the most academically challenging: McGill, Toronto, and UBC. They are nearly as expensive as a private university in the US.

However, there are a LOT of other very good universities in Canada. Some of the others are quite a bit less expensive, and even for an international student are in some cases comparable to the cost of in-state state universities in the US. One downside is that some of the very good smaller universities in Canada are not well known outside of Canada. A few examples: It might be worth checking out the price of Dalhousie in Nova Scotia, or the U. of Victoria or Simon Fraser in British Columbia. The two top-ranked “small primarily undergraduate” universities in Canada according to a recent Maclean’s survey (if I am remembering correctly) are the University of Northern British Columbia, and Mount Allison.

One issue with the price of university in Canada: It depends upon the exchange rate. Right now the Canadian dollar is as low as I can remember ever seeing it versus the US dollar. I have no way to predict whether it will come back closer to parity with the US dollar over the next few years.

" In addition I would choose a school you are comfortable in over ranks. It was a hard lesson I learned. "

Absolutely true, and a very important lesson.

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@SerbiaToCanada “Oh and i am gonna do a C2 test in English proficiency next year, so i want to ask if anyone knows how much that helps with collage enrollment.”

At some point I am pretty sure that any US or Canadian university will require that you show that you are proficient in English before they will let you attend. The exception is of course the French universities in Canada, which would require that you show proficiency in French.

I am not familiar with the C2 test, is this similar to TOEFL? I think that it is a good plan to take an English proficiency test early enough to put it on your application. If you take it in grade 10 (which if I am not mistaken is where you will be next year) then in the unlikely event that you don’t do well, this would give you time to study / practice your English and retake it later.

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Greetings from Albania :slight_smile: I live in the US though.

As an international student, an English-proficiency test is required at most anywhere. Also, most schools DO look at grades from all four years, but a bad grade freshmen year is not a serious as a bad grade junior year.

Also consider applying to both US and Canadian schools. I live in the US so I’m not sure how the Canadian system works, but for US schools its a very good idea to take the ACT/SAT and SAT subject tests. If Serbia’s education system is anything like Albania’s education system, then you probably won’t have the opportunity to take AP classes but you can always self-study for the exams if you can find a testing center in Serbia or nearby.

Its good that you’re in 9th grade - there’s still a lot of time to make yourself a desirable applicant.

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Many Canadian universities require the SAT for American curriculum students. However, requirements vary by curriculum.

UBC doesn’t consider SAT Subject test scores from what I can tell.

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Canadian universities look at grades from your last two years. American universities use all grades from 9th grade on.
C2 in English is not necessary and I’m nor sure it’s possible for you to reach not in terms of level but in terms of content (it’s professional and you’re not supposed to attempt it rill several years pas’high school).
C1 would already be superb, and B2 excellent -B2 is what you need for an appropriate TOEFL score.

Since you learned French and keep taking it, or opens up Quebec universities on top of English speaking ones. UOttawa has a guaranteed half tuition scholarship if you take a bilingual program (in French and English).

16

@Butterflycobblestone & @DadTwoGirls: the BA and Art&Science degrees at McGill are far less than what an American private at full-pay would cost. Less than $30K USD annually all in.

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Thank you for all the answers guys, especially @shkodra14, I am very glad to see that you dont resent me for being Serbian, i hate the stereotypes that stupid people from our countries created. Now that all of you people are here can someone help me out with this, I was looking at grade admission requirements for Ryerson, York and UofT as well as many other schools with a few friends who are also interested in international studies, the thing is we couldnt really see the precise grades needed to get accepted. Here in Serbia there is a website called edukacija.rs which lists the minimum points required for every collage, university and even high school in the country, so we were wondering, is there a similar website for Canadian and American universities? For those interested im having some slightly above average grades at around 4.2/5 or something like 84/100 which is a B plus as far as I know. Again, thank you all for your answers, if any of you need any help with anything that you think i can help you with feel free to message me, even if its just to talk.
Cheers.

18

Thank you for all the answers guys, especially @shkodra14, I am very glad to see that you dont resent me for being Serbian, i hate the stereotypes that stupid people from our countries created. Now that all of you people are here can someone help me out with this, I was looking at grade admission requirements for Ryerson, York and UofT as well as many other schools with a few friends who are also interested in international studies, the thing is we couldnt really see the precise grades needed to get accepted. Here in Serbia there is a website called edukacija.rs which lists the minimum points required for every collage, university and even high school in the country, so we were wondering, is there a similar website for Canadian and American universities? For those interested im having some slightly above average grades at around 4.2/5 or something like 84/100 which is a B plus as far as I know. Again, thank you all for your answers, if any of you need any help with anything that you think i can help you with feel free to message me, even if its just to talk.
Cheers.