Now that Joe Biden has been elected president, there’s going to be a lot of unhappy people who want to leave this country. Therefore, may I present the best life hack for Americans: taking advantage of Canada.
I’m always looking for arbitrage opportunities to help readers make more money and live better lives.
My favorite money-making arbitrage opportunity for the next couple of decades is investing in non-coastal city real estate due to lower valuations and higher net rental yields. Technology is accelerating the flow of capital and people towards attractive real estate opportunities.
However, taking advantage of Canada could be an even greater multi-decade arbitrage opportunity, especially if you have children. Despite the frigid weather for four months a year, Canadians have a lot going for them.
Their GDP per capita is a respectable $45,000. Few people go through medical bankruptcies because healthcare is heavily subsidized. Meanwhile, the average annual tuition for Canadian universities is only about $6,571 for the 2019/2021 academic year. Even compared to public university tuition in America, $6,571 a year is cheap.
Let me share how one Canadian friend is taking advantage of America and how we, in turn, can take advantage of Canada.
How Canadians Take Advantage Of America
A 25-year-old friend in my SF softball league is from Vancouver, Canada. He went to the University of British Columbia, a top five university where annual tuition is only $5,399 in the computer science department.
When he graduated, he decided not to find a job in Canada, but come down to San Francisco where the computer engineering jobs pay much more. He works for an online real estate company.
“Sam, I make twice as much in San Francisco as I would if I got a similar job in Vancouver,” my softball friend told me.
“But don’t you want to give back to your country? I thought brain drain is a big thing in Canada?” I responded.
“Yes, but let me make my money first. After five years in San Francisco making double the money, I’ll then move to Seattle with my girlfriend where my firm is headquartered. Seattle pay is similar to San Francisco pay, despite the cost of living being 30% cheaper. Further, Vancouver is only a 3.1- hour drive away.“
“Sounds like a good plan!” I responded.
“Once I’m in my 30s and ready to start a family, then I’ll move back to Canada and live a less hectic lifestyle. With a stronger government safety net, I feel more comfortable raising a family back home,” he explained.
Although I feel a little bad for Canada for not getting the benefit of his productivity after providing him with 22 years of education, I can’t fault his logic.
If Canadians wish to participate legally in our labor market and also buy and sell U.S. stocks and property, why not take advantage of the opportunity? After all, America is the greatest country in the world.
How Americans Can Take Advantage Of Canada
Following my softball friend’s logic, Americans should take advantage of Canada’s government safety net and immigrate to Canada after we’ve amassed our fortunes as well.
One of the biggest problems we face in America is the runaway cost of healthcare. Medical-related expenses are our nation’s #1 cause for bankruptcy. It would, therefore, seem logical that those who decide to retire early and are ineligible for Medicare should migrate to Canada and get their healthcare paid for.
For example, my family of four will pay about $28,000 a year for healthcare premiums plus co-pays and co-insurance in 2021. Does this sound reasonable to you for a healthy family who never sees the physician?
To generate $28,000 in retirement income at a 4% rate of return requires me to first amass $700,000 in capital. But I will need to have closer to $850,000 in capital due to taxes. Unfortunately, interest rates have plummeted in the new decade, which means retirees should lower their safe withdrawal rates.
If my family moved to Canada, we’d be eliminating most of our present healthcare costs and could use the savings towards living a better lifestyle. We wouldn’t have to purposefully reduce our income to get healthcare subsidies either. What a shame to stop writing on Financial Samurai, something I love to do, just for the sake of affordable healthcare.
Further, given the average college tuition is only $6,571 a year, we would no longer have to contribute $30,000 a year in our son’s 529 college savings plan. We could easily afford to pay the $26,284 for four years in Canadian university tuition from the money sitting in our online savings account.
It is truly mind boggling that four years of Canadian university tuition costs $9,000 less than one year of private kindergarten in San Francisco.
Massive Savings If We Move To Canada
Saving $51,000 a year in healthcare and college expenses just by moving to Canada sounds like a home run. That’s $1,275,000 less in capital I need to amass at a 4% rate of return.
Even though the average home price in Vancouver is an absurdly high $1.4 million, it’s still about $200,000 less than the median home price in San Francisco.
Moving to Vancouver, Canada might just be the best geoarbitrage move for us. For Americans living in lower cost of living areas, there are plenty of lower cost of living areas in Canada as well.
Our Children Can Take Advantage Of Canada Too
In addition to recommending all adult Americans seeking financial independence to migrate to Canada, there’s also a way for our children to take advantage of Canada too.
One of the reasons why I’m a high school tennis coach is because I want to learn how to interact with teenage boys before my own boy becomes a teenager in 2031. It may sound crazy to prepare so far in advance to be a better father, but I figure why not try? Planning is free to do.
During practice one day, I had a nice conversation with one of my favorite players, a senior who will be attending Occidental College in Southern California.
Occidental College is a good school, but I thought he was going to attend a top-10 ranked school instead. He was super smart, very wealthy, and frequently late to practice due to after school tutoring.
McGill University, The Harvard Of Canada
He mentioned a classmate was attending McGill University in Canada and I was immediately impressed. I remember having a financial analyst classmate at Goldman Sachs who had also attended McGill University.
She was extremely kind and smart. Further, she was the only one in my 1999 financial analyst class who survived the post dotbomb layoffs and made Managing Director 10 years later. MD at 33!
“McGill is the Harvard of Canada!” I exalted in a somewhat joking way. “I wonder what their acceptance rate is?“
My student responded, “Really? The Harvard of Canada? How can that be if their acceptance rate is 50%?“
“There’s no way Mcgill has a 50% acceptance rate! I’ll happily bet you 20 pushups that it’s 45% or less! You’ve got to accept the bet since I’m giving you a 5% buffer.” I retorted.
Secretly, I was thinking McGill’s acceptance rate was closer to 20%. By comparison, the best universities in America have single digit acceptance rates.
“You’re on!” My student immediately looked up McGill’s acceptance rate on Google and started to dance.
McGill University Acceptance Rate
He showed me his phone and Google had the acceptance rate at 46.3%. “Time to do some push-ups coach!“
Never one to surrender so easily, I looked at the data closely and the 46.3% acceptance rate was from 2016. As someone who is proficient with the search engines, I knew Google often had old data in its featured snippets.
Once I clicked on McGill’s website, it showed they made 15,385 offers to 37,505 applications for a 41.7% acceptance rate for the 2018 school year.
“Bahaha, never challenge the coach! 20 pushups right now!” I boomed.
A 41.7% acceptance rate for arguably the best university in Canada is comical by US standards for the top school. Does everybody get a participation trophy in Canada too? The high acceptance rate shows that Canadians really are much more accepting of everybody than we in America.
Thankfully, we didn’t make the bet in late 2020. If we did, I would have lost! The latest stats for Fall 2020 admission show an even higher acceptance rate at McGill. The university made 17,385 offers out of 35,505 applicants for an astounding 49% acceptance rate!
Conversely, the Harvard of Harvard has an acceptance rate of about 5%. If your kids are academically mediocre, then it is much wiser to at least apply to a university like McGill. The career paths of many university graduates tend to end up at the same place.
Acceptance Rates From Other Top Canadian Universities
Let’s say you disagree that McGill is the best university in Canada. Here are the acceptance rates for the other top universities in Canada.
- University of British Columbia: 52.4% acceptance rate
- Queen’s University: 42% acceptance rate
- University of Toronto: 40% acceptance rate
- McMaster University: 58.7% acceptance rate
- University of Waterloo: 52% acceptance rate
- University of Montreal: 57% acceptance rate
In other words, the best universities in Canada have an acceptance rate of 40% – 58.7%!
And one reader even mentioned that Concordia University is supposedly one of the best universities. If so, that’s great because Concordia University has about a 73% acceptance rate!
Acceptance Rates AT The Top U.S. Universities
Now let’s take a look at the acceptance rates of some of the top U.S. universities.
Good luck getting into a top 10 school in America. It is nearly impossible. And if your kids are Asian, like mine are, then they’ve really got a Mt. Everest to climb. Is there no wonder why so many Asian families run small businesses? They know their odds are stacked against them, so they do what they can to take care of their own.
Unless you’re a really rich legacy student or cured malaria while fighting against gun violence, you have little chance of getting into a top American university.
Remember, even some rich celebrity kids couldn’t get in on their own merit. Therefore, what makes you think your kids can get in? If you don’t have $500,000 in bribe money lying around, then forget about it.
What is the point of trying to grind so hard in middle school and high school to try and get into a top American university with a 10% or lower acceptance rate? Instead, you can be an average student and still get into a top-five Canadian university!
The reputations of the top Canadian universities are higher than their respective acceptance rates indicate. And many consider the top Canadian universities to have a similar amount of prestige to the top American universities.
The Pressure For U.S. High Schoolers Is Immense
Over the past three years, I’ve seen and overheard my students talk incessantly about their studies. They discuss how they need to go to expensive SAT tutoring after practice. They complain about having to take more practice AP exams and so forth.
Several even showed up late to important matches because they required extra time on their exams. They then wanted to talk to their teachers after. I could feel the pressure they were under to try and do it all.
Maybe the pressure cooker environment has always been there in high school. But is it really a necessary rite of passage given college is becoming less necessary thanks to the free internet?
Instead of spending $48,000 in annual tuition going to Harvard only to end up with the same type of job as everyone else, why not spend 1/9th the annual tuition at University of British Columbia and work at a US-based firm for more money instead? You might have to live in Canada for a year or two to be able to pay Canadian tuition, but it’ll be worth it!
Even if you cannot get any tuition exemption, international tuition is still about $10,000 cheaper than a comparable top rated private university in America.
Not only might you land a $120,000 computer engineering job at Zillow, but you might also even make more than $1,000,000 a year as an MD at Goldman Sachs by your early 30s!
Time To Move To Canada
The best life hack is to take advantage of Canada. I encourage all American high school students to apply to Canadian universities to get a great education and save on cost. Then once you’ve accumulated enough capital in America to retire, you can then return to Canada to live off the government’s good graces.
Having a Canadian university education should make it easier to be accepted by the Canadians. You don’t even need a job thanks to Canada’s Express Entry program. All that’s required is at least one year of work experience, proficiency in English or French, and $1,500 – $2,000.
If you intend to be self-employed when you move to Canada, you’ll need to show you have at least two years’ relevant experience in the field in which you intend to self-employ.
But once you get to Canada, there’s no law that states you need to start a successful business. You can just be a hobbyist to keep yourself engaged.
At the end of the day, Canada is great for early retirees, people seeking financial independence, entrepreneurs, and children. Canadians are more laid back as its citizens are more focused on work-life balance.
When it’s time for my family to choose between relocating to Hawaii or Canada, it may be a harder choice than I had initially imagined. But then again, with Joe Biden as President, perhaps he’ll turn the United States more into Canada and we won’t have to leave. Therefore, my preference is still for Hawaii.
Taking advantage of Canada truly is the best life hack for Americans. Who’s with me? Go Canada!
As a family who has lived in Switzerland since 2013, we have accidentally done just what you describe here. The financial benefits and quality of life are in many ways superior – IF you can straddle and make the best of both worlds (US vs abroad). This is NOT easy – I think you have grossly oversimplified the logistics and financials of just such a plan. Not to mention the incalculable value of family relationships which will suffer. You have also assumed the feasibility of just such a plan. Most countries see immigrants (which is what you are proposing becoming) not necessarily in a positive light, and getting (and keeping) a residency permit is not always so easy. The US is not the only country whose people are hostile towards immigrants and claiming that foreign residents are taking their jobs, and causing all kinds of economic and social problems.
Moreover, if it’s good, affordable health care, education, and livable wages and housing you seek, shouldn’t you be advocating for that at home? Or becoming a tax-paying, contributing member of your adopted society? It seems hardly fair to game the system to your advantage. In fact, I find that morally wrong and corrosive to both the country you left, and the country whose systems you seek to exploit.
Canada is incredibly immigrant friendly. Check out their policies.
“In fact, I find that morally wrong and corrosive to both the country you left, and the country whose systems you seek to exploit.”
How did you get over being morally wrong when you arrived in 2013? I think at the end of the day, people rationally do what’s best for themselves.
Perhaps I misunderstood but you seem to suggest not paying into the system, or becoming a real member of the community. We pay dearly into the system here-the swiss take full advantage of transient high-wage earners who pay in, leave, and never get to collect. And, as I stated we “accidently” (and recently) found a way to make a foot in both lands work to our advantage. Again, not easy but to your point possibly very worth while to do for the many valid reasons you outlined. I am not labeling you as morally wrong, but not contributing to your community as wrong. Advocating and taking advantage of policies yet not voting for or being willing to pay for them is my point. I have no idea if you are personally taking or not taking these actions, just that the overall tone of your argument left that taste in my mouth.
Interesting points to ponder nonetheless.
I guess I’m confused where you were coming from. Where were you living before you arrived in Switzerland to take advantage of its benefits since it sounds like you are in a similar position in this post highlighting how Americans can take advantage of Canadian benefits just like how tens of thousands are taking advantage of American jobs that pay much higher.
I can’t be morally wrong because I still live in America and pay plenty of taxes. I might even be considered a good citizen for paying way more in taxes than I consume in benefits.
I’m just wondering if you are not from Switzerland, how YOU were able to overcome being morally wrong in the way you say when you first arrived in Switzerland.
Thx
A great article Sam of a very timely topic during a unique time in American history. I’ll relate my experiences as a person in their mid-eighties from a different time period of the American Dream. I was able to work my way through college (Duke) and grad school in the 60’s when everything was possible for two thousand dollars a year including room and board. Fortunately, my career as a college teacher and another as the owner of an Adventure Travel Company allowed me to retire in my mid-fifties and enjoy nearly 30 years of retirement by traveling, volunteering, and working abroad and in the USA. I assumed that my wife and I would always end up in the USA, but that was before Trump. If Biden had not won the election, I figured I would be heading towards British Columbia and spend the rest of our years there. My grandparents are from Quebec and my daughter had strongly considered McGill University for Medical School. But she decided on George Washington University and has enjoyed a wonderful medical career in California.
A few months ago, I did research the possibilities of a retired person of moderate means moving from the USA to Canada. Having traveled there a number of times over the years and also treated in their hospitals, I have always enjoyed the country, people, and social programs. But the more I researched and compared what I had as a retiree in America, the more I realized that it would cost me significantly more to live in Canada even if I was accepted as a permanent resident. My health costs under Medicare are less than $100 a month including prescriptions, gym fees, and doctor visits. Hospital fees could increase that figure. Having had large homes in the past, we now enjoy a small but cozy apartment on a golf course for $1200 a month in Oregon, and we rarely pay taxes. When I travel in B.C., it has been my experience that with added taxes, gas prices, groceries and rent, we would have to spend an additional 30% for daily living costs. It’s easy enough to have our Social Security transferred from my bank here to an account there. Of course, I would not be eligible for their retirement programs. I will say that I think the medical system in B.C. is outstanding, very user friendly and about 60 percent less than hospital costs in the USA.
In the end, I realized that I couldn’t afford to retire to Canada, but I could travel there up to six months a year, which is what many Canadians do in America as they spend five to six months of winter in Palm Springs, Arizona or Florida. Thank God Biden won the election and many of the social programs many of us desire, may take place over the next four years. Canada is a country for the younger set and I definitely would consider moving there for college and work if I was in my late teens and twenties.
Thanks for sharing your journey David!
“But the more I researched and compared what I had as a retiree in America, the more I realized that it would cost me significantly more to live in Canada even if I was accepted as a permanent resident. My health costs under Medicare are less than $100 a month including prescriptions, gym fees, and doctor visits.”
Great insights, as a lot of people believe it is the opposite. I believe this is the income limit to receive Medicare:
To qualify, your monthly income cannot be higher than $1,010 for an individual or $1,355 for a married couple. Your resource limits are $7,280 for one person and $10,930 for a married couple. A Qualifying Individual (QI) policy helps pay your Medicare Part B premium.
FS, the limits you mention are for Medicaid, not Medicare. Any legal resident/citizens over-65 who has worked for at least 10 years are automatically eligible for Medicare (or will have access via spouse).
Low income people who are Medicare eligible and also eligible for ‘extra help’ or even full Medicaid get additional assistance covering Medicare part B premiums, copays, and most drug costs
Right on. Good to know. So is Medicare affordable?
How would a $2,300/month family of 4 gold plan translate to Medicare monthly cost you think?
Sam, Since you’re looking for arbitrage opportunities to help readers make more money and live better lives, have you heard of the Dutch American Friendship Treaty? It makes obtaining a residence permit in the Netherlands as an American very easy. You will need €4,500 to “invest” and maintain in a business bank account and to jump through some bureaucratic hoops. After having your Dutch-American Friendship Treaty Visa for 5 years, you may apply for a permanent residence permit or you may apply for Dutch citizenship.
A friend of mine moved from Canada to the Netherlands in 2000 without any knowledge of the Dutch language and is still enjoying life there with no desire to move back to North America.
Some thoughts for your readers, as a Canadian.
I’m not sure that you’d get the lower tuition costs as an American.
For example, foreign exchange students pay much higher costs than local students and I would presume the same for Americans.
While “acceptance rates” are high, they’re not indicative of program specific rates.
To get into the business school of many of these universities is challenging and requires a high GPA and a lot of work. We aren’t talking a bottom 10% of students, rather, a top 10% – 20%.
Similarly for other competitive, in demand, programs. It is not easy for Canadian students to get into any University of their choosing nor, more specifically, program of their choosing.
It’s already too cold for me in Portland. I want to go south, not north.
But Canadian universities sound like a good plan. I’ll have to keep that in mind when our son is ready for college.
It only works if you are able to get the local rate, so you’d have to move here early and get landed immigrant status likely.
timeshighereducation.com/student/advice/cost-studying-university-canada
Thanks. The link was good information. FS can sometimes make outlandish propositions witbout digging deeper into the nuances of those propositions. And as a blog, I think that is fine because being a bit sensationalist has help Sam build his brand (not unlike those in the the political sphere). But for international students seeking a Canadian college education it would range $20-30K (based on decent income-earning majors), this certainly becomes much less desireable than an in-state school.
$20-$30K is still much cheaper than $50K tuition for private schools in America.
I don’t understand why a Republican would move to Canada where the government subsidizes or totally pays for so many programs.
Because it’s human nature to want some thing for free, regardless of which party you are a part of. And if you care about your children, you want them to get ahead. And one way to get ahead is by competing with less competitive people.
Sure but, that has nothing to do with moving to Canada because Biden beat Trump.
I’m not sure I understand. Can you please elaborate?
I do write in the post that Biden might make the U.S. more like Canada, which would reduce the urge of Americans moving to Canada.
I was under the impression that your article was written on the premise that since Biden won and Trump lost, those unhappy with that fact are wanting to leave the US and move to Canada. My point is, why would a Republican want to do that when so many programs in Canada are heavily underwritten or totally paid for through taxes. Isn’t that why these people are Republicans and not Democrats? Isn’t that their problem with a Democrat being elected?
I’m not taking a side one way or the other but, doesn’t Canada have a more socialist and less “free market” relationship to healthcare and education than the US? Again, I don’t understand why Trump losing would make Republicans want to move to Canada?
Exactly, Canada is socialist, Trumpsters will have to move to a totalitarian white country, maybe Hungary or Russia?
By the way, I’m not trying to be difficult, Sam. I love your site and have the highest respect for you. I agree with all of your selling points on Canada myself although I’m not inclined to leave the U.S.. I just don’t understand why someone pissed off enough over Biden’s election to want to move out of the U.S. would want to move to an even more socialistically oriented and run country which Canada is.
Sam, I may have gone overboard on my last comments, not out of anger just got a little wordy trying to explain why I found it odd that this article would start out as being pertinent to someone unhappy with Biden winning and Trump losing. Please feel free to skip posting the last one or two of them if you want.
But nothing is free. Either you pay for it yourself and have choices, or you give the government your money(taxes) and they make the decisions for you.
Sam,
What about the process to actually move to Canada? Will they accept retired (FIRE) people? From what’s been said, it’s difficult if you’re working and ‘may’ take a job from a working Canadian…
But what about people already retired? Will they accept us? Can I get my SS there? What about my pile of US funds, invested over the years… transfer it to Canadian Banks, and see the balance grow by .23% (giving a false sense of Greater Wealth?).
Over the years, I’ve traveled through many areas of Canada, (Kelowna, Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, etc.) and found it to be very welcoming and diverse… but could I actually move there?
Steps and processes?
Acceptance Rates?
Costs?
This is hilarious. Suddenly the Canadian system, which is accused of being socialist, should now be embraced by moving to Canada?
This is proof that socialized medicine, subsidized universities and daycare, and strong safety nets are better and would help the U.S greatly. This is contrary to the libertarian nonsense you have been blogging for the past four years.
We can make the Canadian system a reality in the U.S if people like you (who only think about their own money) would step out of the way. Those Canadians worked hard TOGETHER to build their superior pro working family safety nets. And they did it by not bending over for the wealthy elite.
I don’t understand when you say people like me and only thinking about my own money? I’ve been paying six figures in taxes for almost 20 years in a row now to try and help all Americans. And I’ve been publishing for free on Financial Samurai since 2009 to help anybody who wants to listen to in financial independence.
How much in taxes have you paid and what are you doing for free to help others?
If Canadians are coming to America by the tens of thousands and earning higher wages because they have smartly arbitraged the wage differential, why can’t tens of thousands of Americans arbitrage the safety net differential by relocating to Canada? Seems smart and fair.
Even though Canadians come to the US for high earnings, they still pay their taxes, they contribute to economy by spending money in the USA. Wherein if if FIRE folks start moving to Canada, they are not essentially contributing anything in economy, but making a complete use of all of social welfare, adding more stress on government balance sheet. It is not just immigrants coming to Canada from the USA or anywhere from world, but I have seen Canadians doing the same, which is wrong. Canadians have just started with fiscal deficits, but if there are more beneficiaries than actual taxpayers, Canadians will start adding more and more to their debts and making it more difficult for future generations. I don’t pay six figure taxes yet, but our household is in top 5-10% households when it comes to paying taxes. My marginal tax rate is about 45%. And I am proud of being a high tax and I deserve to have these social welfare, but I am okay for government to spend money to make it equal for most less fortunates, but I am not okay to support high net worth families, who don’t contribute to economy meaningfully.
Sam, what about the taxes? Does that offset the cost advantage?
Hello Sam,
Cool article but you forgot to mention Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business. They actually have a better reputation than McGill for their business programs.
When I went to University (Concordia), my semester tuition for 4 classes would cost me around $2,200 CDN. Its probably more expensive today however, I was able to get through it and I paid for the whole thing myself, no student debts after graduating. I had a job, worked part-time while studying, paid my rent, studies, and beer. If I was lucky, I would have enough leftover for food lol.
Anyhow, have a good one!
Jason
Concordia’s 73% acceptance rate is awesome! Especially if what you say is true that the university is highly regarded.
I am definitely going to get my children to apply to Canadian universities. This is such a no brainer.
It’s truly mind boggling that people would pay for private kindergarten… I do have a few friends who worked in Canada after college but they all moved back to the states, mainly due to the cold and housing prices in Toronto and Vancouver. You can always count on Canada articles coming out during an election.
It’s only mind-boggling to people who fail to spend the time to get to know other people. Providing different perspectives is what Financial Samurai is all about.
You don’t want to only associate with people who look like you, come from the same socioeconomic background as you, and only speak only one language.
Believe it or not, some parents emphasize education more and are wealthy enough to pay for private tuition.
All good. If you can stand the cold, let alone the cold in old age. Lolol!
If millions of people are willing to freeze in Chicago, Illinois, I assume that millions more are willing to freeze in Canada with so many more benefits. Let’s do this!
American, McGill grad here. First, I think I know who you are speaking about since I graduated the same time – the McGill IB analyst at Goldman Sachs. That girl was smart as a whip. When I was at McGill in the late 90s, the tuition was $10k/year CAD, and the exchange rate was anywhere between $1.38-1.51 at the time I was there. When I was an U1 student (Sophmore equivalient) they more than doubled the price for international students. Also McGill has three prices – one for international students, one for Canadian citizens, and one for Quebec residents or citizens of French and a few other francophone countries that they have an agreement with. It is not so easy to become a citizen of Canada (I married a Canadian and I can’t get citizenship unless I live there for 5 years -my kids however are Canadian, contrast that with French citizenship, which I easily got from being married to my husband, who has dual French and Canadian citizenship). Additionally, when I was applying for jobs in Montreal about a dozen years ago, it was hard even with a Canadian citizenship holding family to go thru immigration – they had to prove that no one in Quebec could do the job they would be hiring me to do before allowing me to accept the job. Second, you mention the acceptance rate. Canadian universities like McGill have a higher acceptance rate vs. comparable American universities because there are so few of them and they are much larger. There are 96 universities in Canada, compared with over 4,200 in the US. McGill has 40k total students including 27k undergrad. Harvard by comparison has about 6,800 undergrad students. It is definitely harder to get into a specific top US school versus McGill, but it’s definitely possible if you apply to many US schools that are of that caliber, you could at least get into one. Vancouver RE is extremely high – even with the 15% tax they imposed on foreigners buying real estate, it barely saw a blip. Condos in Vancouver have a much lower maintenance/tax cost vs. Montreal for example.
“Second, you mention the acceptance rate. Canadian universities like McGill have a higher acceptance rate vs. comparable American universities because there are so few of them and they are much larger”
If there is much fewer universities in Canada (less supply), wouldn’t that mean it would be HARDER to get into them so demand way outstrips supply?
No because many are that size – about 30-40k students or even more. Vs. 1/10th of that in the US for the elite schools.
I like how you point out that college tuition is cheaper in Canada than in America. I want to go to college soon and am thinking of trying to get a visa to go to school there. I’d like to hire a professional to help me with the process of getting into school in Canada.
After 10 years in LA, I’m now at 10 years in Canada. I can confirm, this is (basically) true.
There are plenty of very good state universities you can attend in the US that have very low tuition for state residents. No reason to go to another country.
UNC (ranked #5): $9,018
UCLA (ranked #1): $13,225
UC-Berkeley (ranked #2): 14,184
I think you missed the main point about Canadian universities: they have a 30% to 50% acceptance rate versus under 10% for the top schools in America. Good luck getting in in America.
Hah this is timely because we visited Montreal last year and loved it, my wife is fluent in French and we lived abroad for 6 months in France in 2015. We certainly don’t have any issues moving abroad eventually, besides relationship ties. Even though we just purchased a house, I could see us renting it out (it was a rental before) and staying in Quebec. I’m a programmer, wife’s a social worker, I’m positive finding work wouldn’t be hard. We could save a ton on daycare (Quebec has universal child care), health insurance, etc. and I could still make equivalent income since I can work remotely for anyone or do my own thing. It’s an attractive option for sure!