Parents of U.S. McGill Students Thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z McGill University
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Hi, parent of a very excited incoming McGill freshman here…

I am grappling with how best to handle the financial logistical aspects of having a U.S. student up north. My daughter’s also wondering whether to register as a U0 or U1. I thought I’d start a thread in case it is helpful to other U.S. parents.

First, the financial questions:

As I understand it from talking to both TD Bank and RBC this week, one needs to be physically in Canada to set up a new Canadian bank account. We are thinking of setting up one parent Canadian account and one kid Canadian bank account, and then transferring money across into the kid account as needed. The exchange rates TD Bank and RBC offer seem pretty close.

For tuition, I guess we could just pay McGill direct in US dollars out of our US bank account over the years? But given that the US-Canadian exchange rate is very good these days, we are thinking of depositing the cash we will need to pay McGill into the Canadian bank account now, to lock in the good exchange rate, and then over the years writing tuition checks out of that Canadian account.

Lastly, credit cards… I’m sort’ve lost here. Should we have her use our US credit card, which doesn’t charge that 3% int’l fee? or set up a new Canadian credit card through TD Bank or RBC?

And our AP question - she’s on the cusp of having 24 credits, but needs two more “4s” – since AP scores won’t be released until late June, should she (conservatively) register as a U0 or (optimistically) register as a U1?

Would really appreciate any tips from those who have BTDT or are researching the same things…

Thanks!!!

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I’m American and my son graduated from McGill 20 years ago so my advice would not be up to date. @SwimmingDad is a current American parent.

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@purpleyellowgold Welcome to the McGill family! A few thoughts.

First, on Facebook you should join the McGill Parents International Community. It’s sort of a gather place for a bunch of us. There is a second group called McGill Parents as well. Join both.

Banking: We did the TD Bank thing. We will outside of Boston so we set up an account here in our town center and then a Canadian one as well. It seems to work pretty well.

Tuition: We are paying from a 529 so there are rules about how much you can pull out and use it. PM me and I am happy to share more of what I know.

Credit Cards: Our son just has a card on our account. Just the easiest way to go. He uses his debit card for most purchases and the credit card for books, etc. Oh and he used it by accident one night at a club. (Now THAT made for a fun discussion!)

AP: I would call up to an academic advisor and ask. I’m not sure if they will let you register as a U1 until all the credits are in. Is she planning on finishing in 3 years?

Also, you didn’t ask about the CAQ…but get that going ASAP. There are lots of threads on the Facebook group about it. Honestly, my wife handled that piece of it.

Housing: Lottery is in early June. Make sure you get the application in. My son was in Upper Rez (Molson). Upper Rez has a reputation of being the social dorms. My son actually wasn’t very social in HS so this ended up as a good thing for him. Plus he loved having a single. (Upper Rez is all singles.)

Logistics: As I mentioned, we live in the Boston area. My wife and son drove up to the border in July to get his study permit (when it was ready) and then continued to Montreal to take care of the bank account and get his student ID. If you do this, I highly recommend it. Also, I recommend moving into the dorm a day or two early. I am very bad at waiting in lines so this was a good way to go.

And that is my brain dump. What I can tell you is that my absolutely LOVED his first year at McGill. He has made a lot of friends, he has matured quickly, and the school has really pushed his critical thinking skills. It’s a very unique place and we consider ourselves fortunate that our son is part of it.

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Thank you!! I will join those Facebook groups.

Yes, we’re already in progress for the CAQ and she’s signed up for the lottery.

Great to hear that your son is having such a great experience!!

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Another US parent of an incoming McGill student here, although D is a dual citizen.

From what I understand, your D will register as a U0. Since registration opens in June, before this year’s AP scores come out, she will not have enough credits yet to be considered a U1. Her U0 status should be displayed on Minerva. U0 and U1 students register on different days.

Definitely join both FB groups. They are immensely helpful! There is a search function you can use to find relevant recent discussions.

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I wish I could offer more help, but I am in the same position as the OP, albeit with a few differences;

1- S1 is going to be playing Baseball at McGill, which is a fall sport, so he will be showing up in mid August. This should give him some time to sort out housing, banking etc.

2- He is a dual citizen, so student visas are not an issue.

3- He is going to the business school, sort of a school within a school(similar to many US universities), so I suspect enrolling for classes might be easier than, say, a general U0 Arts admit, where you are on of thousands. He also has to wait on a couple of “4’s”.

4- though I’ve been away for decades, I was brought up in Montreal, and have a brother living within 20 min. of campus.

  • I'm pretty sure that S1 will qualify for U1status, but he is not sure that he wants to shorten his time to three years.
  • We will probably get a BMO account here in the midwest, and one in MTL. A TD bank account just seems...wrong.