Hello. So I really really want to go to McGill and I was so happy when I realised that they gave me an entrance scholarship of 17000 CAD until I realised it wasn’t renewable 
So I have a few questions to see if might be more affordable once I get there.
I am an international student, majoring in computer engineering
My second choice is WPI and I got a $30000 scholarship there. So my total cost of attendance is around 30k
so here are my questions:
- so apparently McGill offers in course financial aid and scholarships. I need this information from current students, what are the average amounts given to international students? for scholarships, are there any minimum requirements or grades to get. And considering I got 17k for my entrance bursary, what are my chances of getting financial aid?
How competitive are these awards?
- How much do students make per year on average from the work study program?
- Is there any other way to make McGill more affordable for me?
Also, if/when I move out of the dorms after the first year? How much are the apartments? and how many people share the cost?
Have you used McGill’s tuition calculator to calculate your total fees? An international engineer is going to run C$ 37,054.55. Now this number as you can see includes several thousand dollars more than just the tuition fees, so you may be able to trim this down a bit by opting out of some of the other things. For example most Canadian applicants can opt out of health and dental coverage if they already have coverage under their parents plans. However since you are an international and thus may have much more limited coverage under our public health system this may not be an option. Still, it could be worth looking up as this could potentially save you some money.
http://www.mcgill.ca/student-accounts/tuition-charges/fallwinter-term-tuition-and-fees/undergraduate-fees
I have to say an entrance scholarships is spectacular (especially if I assume you are a non-Canadian citizen), but financial aid (as in needs based, not academic scholarships) is pretty much exclusive for Canadians. Now their are many private organizations that offer private scholarships for different students (I know some Chinese-Canadian and Indian-Canadian organizations offer private scholarships to young people from their group), so you might want to look and see if any of those types of scholarships would be available to you.
As to work-study program, here is a link to McGill’s webpage on it: http://www.mcgill.ca/studentaid/work-study/students
NOTE: The Canadian dollar is right now around 77 cents US so McGill only will cost you the equivalent of $29 000 USD per year ($15600 USD for your freshman year), assuming you cant cut costs lower.
For clarification when you said WPI would cost you around $30 000 (I assume prices are in US dollars?) did you mean 30k per year or 30k for your whole degree, because if it is per year then McGill is actually already cheaper. If it was for your whole degree McGill is roughly three times the price of WPI.
Thank you for your elaborate reply. Just for the record, WPI tution and fees AND room and board is around 60k US dollars. McGill’s 37k CAD is just tution and fees. The cheapest residence is around 8k CAD and the meal plan is 5.6k CAD. Which means in my first year ill be paying 34k CAD (26.5k USD) and 51k CAD (40k USD) in the other 3 years…which is alot of money. So I’m looking opportunities of making my subsequent years cheaper and so far…nothing is going my way.
Ok, fair enough, the whole WPI package is $30 000USD after the scholarship. I am actually suprised residence is so expensive at McGill $8000CAD over 8 months (1 school year at McGill is only September through April) could get you a very nice apartment in Montreal (If you live in the city year round I suppose 8k isn’t so bad). My bachelor apartment I had during grad school was right in the McGill Student neighbourhood (Durocher Street ) and over a period of 8 months it would only have cost me $5800CAD, including utilities and heat (as a grad student I worked in a lab year round so I lived 12 months a year there so it was more expensive than that for me -about $8700-, but I assume you wouldn’t be spending the school holidays in Montreal?). If you decide to get an apartment with a roommate it is much less than living on your own as you split the costs (My friends who roomed with other people generally had costs of $500-$600CAD per month). However of course, for this option you actually need to have a friend in Montreal all ready to room with, so this is really an option for later years after you leave residence. 5.6k CAD for a meal plan also seems a bit high. There is a supermarket right outside the McGill Student neighbourhood (a Privogo on Parc Avenue) and it only cost me $50-60 per week on groceries (or roughly $3000 per year for a full 12 months, $2000 for 8 months).
Ya, ultimately that residence and especially that meal plan are quite overpriced. Residence is still probably a good idea for your first year because it will place you into a ready-made community and should make the transition to a new city (and country) much easier. However, you can easily save at least a couple thousand dollars a year by buying your own groceries and preparing your own meals, so I would advise opting out of the meal plan if you can. After first year you can leave residence and save up to a couple thousand dollars more each year just by living outside of residence in an apartment, particularly if you room with a roommate.
So, yes there seems to be plenty of areas you can easily trim costs after your first year (simply by moving to your own apartment and buying your own food) to help absorb the increased tuition fees once that scholarship expires.
The meal plan at McGill is expensive because employees earn $27/hour to start. Students supported their contract negotiations but now complain about the cost.