“American brains, Canada’s gain,” trumpeted the headline of a recent Globe and Mail story.

This article reported that “at a time when many U.S families are finding they have fewer dollars than they expected to spend on higher education, the price of a Canadian undergraduate degree is looking attractive.”

This spring, many Canadian universities reported an increase in applications from U.S. students, and a growing number of those students are saying “yes” to offers from Canadian schools:

At Montreal’s McGill University, where there is a long tradition of U.S. recruiting, Americans accounted for 12 per cent of this year’s freshman class…..

McGill has seen a steady increase in American students, with numbers rising by 22 per cent in the past five years.

More than 9,000 Americans are currently attending colleges and universities in Canada. In the mid-1900s, that number was barely over 2,000.

Canadian university education is government subsidized, so most Canadian university students pay less than $5,000 for their annual tuition. Even for students coming from outside of Canada, international tuition is still a relatively reasonable average of $13,200 per year.

The Globe and Mail article compared overall annual costs for a student from the U.S. attending Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia versus Boston University:

…Dalhousie estimates that tuition, books, housing and health insurance run $23,636 a year. At Boston University, a school that often competes for the same U.S. students, the equivalent annual cost comes to $61,794.

If you or a family member is considering education in Canada, here are resources to help start your school search:

The Canadian Council of Ministers of Education has created a useful website for students looking at Canadian post-secondary eduation. It includes an overview of Canada’s university system, information about costs and financial aid, and a search function that lets you identify schools and programs across the country.

Another helpful tool is the Globe Campus Navigator, which lets you compare features of various Canadian universities.

And if you’d like to share your experiences about studying in Canada, please leave a comment below.

Photo ©Carolyn B. Heller