Canadian universities may have a more international feel this fall.
Enrollment
of international students will be sharply higher, universities say, and
the incoming freshmen include large numbers of high school students
from the United States. With the increase coming during the first year
of a contentious presidency, there’s plenty of talk about the trend
being an obvious reaction to President Trump.
“The so-called Trump effect is real when it comes to enrollment in Canada,”
said Alan Shepard, president of Concordia University in Montreal.
“Applications from international students for this coming fall’s
semester have surged.”
But
it’s not that simple. While plenty of students who have chosen Canada
for higher education cite the political climate in the United States,
admissions officers and students say economics remains the main
motivation.
Maddie
Zeif, 18, a high school student from Sunderland, Vt., said costs in
Canada were cheaper than in the United States and were comparable even
to in-state tuition at the University of Vermont. She’s going to the
University of British Columbia in the fall.
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“At
U.B.C., I will be right in a city, at a very large university, right on
the ocean, an hour from Whistler,” she said in an email, referring to
the popular Canadian ski resort, “and I will be paying almost the same
amount as my in-state tuition without factoring in any financial aid
yet.”
Besides
the cost and the political climate, students also say they were
attracted by affordable health care, relative safety and a more relaxed
atmosphere in Canada. Students from outside North America also point to
the ease of immigration to Canada.
With
about a million international students within its borders, the United
States is still the leader in international education. Canada’s
international student population, though, surged 92 percent from 2008 to
2015, reaching more than 350,000, according to the Canadian Bureau for
International Education.
Final
figures for this year’s application season are not yet available. But
Canadian university officials say the early numbers suggest that Canada
will be educating many more international students than ever this fall,
particularly from the United States.
At
Ryerson University in Toronto, for example, the number of international
undergraduates, including from the United States, who have confirmed
that they will attend in the fall is up nearly 50 percent over this time
last year.
University
of Toronto officials said the enrollment of students from the United
States for this fall had doubled from last school year, with a “yield” —
the percentage of accepted students who commit to attend — of 25
percent compared with about 20 percent last year.
“We’re
going to see record numbers of students from the U.S.,” said Ted
Sargent, a vice president at the university, Canada’s largest.
Officials
at the University of Toronto said they saw a jump in enrollments from
other countries, too, with an increase of 75 percent from India and more
than 60 percent from the Middle East and Turkey.
Smaller
colleges like Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
said the number of applications from the United States had more than
doubled this year.
Tuition
at Canadian colleges is generally lower than at comparable universities
in the United States, even though students from outside Canada pay a
higher rate than locals do.
Also,
the Canadian currency’s weakness relative to the United States dollar
gives students headed to Canada an instant discount of about 26 percent.
Megan
Ludwig, 23, from Prather, Calif., graduated from the University of
Nevada with a bachelor’s degree in ecohydrology, which studies the
interaction between water and ecosystems. But for her master’s, she
decided on Canada. The economics were compelling.
“Canadian
tuition is half the price per semester or less than most U.S.
universities and scholarships for master’s positions are less
competitive and more widely available,” Ms. Ludwig wrote in an email.
She said she landed a stipend that was nearly double any of the offers
she received in the United States.
Nancy
Gorosh, 19, of Houston just finished her freshman year at Concordia.
Last year, she was choosing between Concordia and Hofstra University in
Hempstead, N.Y., on Long Island. Ms. Gorosh said her tuition and fees at
Concordia next year will be about $12,400 a year; Hofstra would have been about $44,000.
Politics
is on the minds of students choosing Canada for college, but their
concerns are more nuanced than a simple dislike of Mr. Trump.
“I
don’t want to spend my college years worrying about what’s going to
happen if I need an abortion,” Ms. Zeif said. “I don’t want to spend my
college years worrying about what happens if I get caught with a little
weed in my bag.”
Ankit
Saxena, a 23-year-old engineer from New Delhi, will apply to graduate
programs in the fall. He said Mr. Trump’s policies were one of many
factors leading him to focus on Canada over the United States. He plans
to apply to the University of Toronto, the University of Waterloo and
the University of British Columbia, among others.
“Racial
discrimination is becoming a big problem, and it’s really scary to hear
about an Indian getting shot in the U.S. every week,” Mr. Saxena said.
Some
students say the visa process for entering the United States is
onerous, especially considering the uncertainty about how regulations
might change. More than half of the international students in Canada
plan to seek permanent residency, according to the Canadian
international education bureau.
Marius
Poyard, from France, said he had the option to pursue a master’s degree
in mechanical engineering at Michigan State University, Manhattan
College or the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec. But he couldn’t face
the visa application process in the United States after having endured
it for a summer program several years ago.
He
complained about irrelevant questions asked online, the need to travel
to Paris for an interview, and then a wait of hours for the interview,
which consisted of a few questions he had already answered online. The
Canadian process was simple, he said. “Everything is on the internet and
is very fast.”
But
Mr. Poyard said cost was another compelling reason to choose Canada.
The University of Sherbrooke will cost less than a third of either
option in the United States.
Sofia
Solar Cafaggi, 29, of Mexico City, got her undergraduate degree at
McGill University in Montreal after turning down M.I.T. because of the
cost. She was able to get permanent residency in Canada two years after
graduating. Now she’s on her way to medical school. She said she was
offered a full scholarship at a school in the United States but will be
going to the University of Toronto.
“I
can get citizenship upon graduation, whereas in the U.S. I’d be an
alien for another decade and would need sponsorship for residency,” she
said.
Jane
White, of Carbondale, Ill., cited health care as a main reason for
enrolling in a master’s program at Nipissing University in Ontario this
fall. Under the Affordable Care Act, Ms. White was covered by her
family’s insurance until she was 26. At 27, she’s now covered by a state
plan, but she worries how she will be able to pay the $300 a month she
needs for her asthma medication if the rules change.
Other medications require a periodic visit to a doctor, further raising the cost.
“My husband and I are both eligible for health care through the Canadian university,” she said.
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