There is no specific best college in Canada for international students. There is, however, a college that best fits your personal needs both for learning and immigration purposes.
After arriving in Canada as an international student I noticed that, just like me, all my classmates had completely unrealistic expectations related to the way colleges work here.
In this article I will talk about which characteristics you need to take into consideration when choosing a college and how your decision will directly impact your immigration process.
How to choose the right college in Canada as an international student
Price
Price is undeniably the number one factor that foreign students consider when choosing a college. The fact that most students (like myself) must use their local currency to pay for their tuition fees in Canadian dollars only makes matters worse.
Although studying in Canada is substantially cheaper than attending college in the United States, it’s by no means affordable for most newcomers.
I’m fully aware that saving for higher education in Canada is a sacrifice for nearly all of us.
While some international students are supported by the money generated by the collective hard work of their families, others have to work for many years in order to have enough to cover their expenses during the first few months here in Canada.
One thing I know for sure: It’s hard for everyone.
This is precisely why I need you to understand that tuition fees are only one part of all the new expenses you will have in Canada.
If you don’t analyze this price issue from multiple perspectives, you may end up choosing an institution that seems affordable at first, but that will cost you much more down the road.
The first thing you need to keep in mind is:
If your main goal is immigrating to Canada, the price of the institution where you will study should not be your main concern because even if you manage to save a few hundred dollars each semester, if that course doesn’t lead you to where you want to go, it’s entirely pointless.
I’ve seen foreign students failing at immigrating because they didn’t create an immigration plan. They would simply say things like:
“I will figure it out as I go, there are many different immigration streams”.
Let me tell you something, once you arrive in Canada, time will fly. You will be busy with assignments, exams, work, documentation, and all other problems that come with moving to a foreign country. You won’t have the time or the energy to create an immigration strategy on the go.
Now, back to the original question. There are a few variables that you need to consider when it comes to price.
- It is better to pay more to study in a college that will increase your immigration chances.
For example, private colleges are way cheaper, but they do not allow you to get a Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) at the end of the course, meaning an authorization to live in Canada for a few years more, gain work experience and, most importantly, more points for a series of different immigration streams.
- Stay away from 1-year courses.
If you attend college for a single year, you can only get a Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) for one year. The problem is: most immigration streams require that you have at least one year of work experience to qualify. So, if you get a PGWP for 1 year and you don’t work for a single week of that year, you will no longer be able to apply for several immigration programs.
Let’s be realistic, the chances of getting a job before your PGWP is issued, keeping that job for all 12 months, and still immigrating within this time frame are very slim. Is it possible? Yes, it is! But you don’t want to count on luck when your future is on the line.
- 2-Year courses are better because they give you a longer PGWP.
2-Year courses are obviously twice more expensive than 1-Year courses, but they have a particularly interesting characteristic. Once you graduate and request a Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP), you may receive a 2-Year PGWP, meaning an authorization to work for 2 years, or a 3-Year PGWP, even if your course was only 2 years long.
This is exactly what happened to me, I studied Software Engineering for 2 years and received a 3-Year open Post Graduation Work Permit which allows me to work in any field I want for 3 years.
City
This topic is directly related to the price. Depending on the city you pick, housing, transportation and daily expenses can easily trump tuition costs.
For example, even if you do find an affordable college in Toronto or Vancouver, you absolutely must take into consideration all of your future living expenses.
It doesn’t matter how affordable your college is, if you need to find a place to live in any major Canadian city, you will have to spend a substantial amount of money on rent.
This is one of the biggest mistakes I made before moving to Toronto. Of course, I knew that rent prices were sky high, but since I had seen one or two properties online that were within my budget, I thought I would be able to find a place once I arrived here.
So, what happened?
Don’t even get me started…I had to move 5 times within my first 3 months in Toronto and my living conditions were terrible! I will write another article about it soon.
My point is, when you pick a college, you need to factor in all of the other costs involved. And I don’t mean only checking a few properties online like I did.
Take your time to learn as much as possible about the rental market in the city you’re planning to move to. You will be able to find valuable information at.
- Rentals.ca
- Zillow.com
- Viewit.ca (This is where I found my apartment)
- Facebook (Join those pages made for people from the same country where you come from. Often this is the best place to find great deals and people to share an apartment with).
Do your research as if your life depended on it because it really will.
I was homeless for almost an entire day here in Canada and the perspective of not having a place to sleep at night in a foreign country is incredibly scary.
Location
Picking the right city is already a challenging task but knowing exactly where your campus is located is something you must know before enrolling.
Many colleges in Canada have more than one campus, this is especially true here in Toronto. My initial research was so shallow that I didn’t even check where my classes would be held.
I knew that I wanted to live downtown, but I didn’t bother to see how far my campus would be from the place where I wanted to live and, more importantly, how would I go class everyday.
Long story short, my classes were held right on the other side of the city, and it took me between 1 to 2 hours a day just get to class.
As you can see from the image above, I’m not even kidding.
Now imagine what it feels like to spend 4 hours a day (to go and come back) on the commute. What a waste of time, energy, and money.
Regardless of that, I made the decision to live in Toronto proper instead of Scarborough, which is where my campus was located. Although it took me all of that time to get around, I’m entirely sure that this was the right decision for me, and I will explain why in a future post.
Transportation
Large Canadian cities are known for their great transportation.
Even though locals will always complain about delays, particularly during winter time, those of us who moved to Canada from countries where things are slightly…hmmm…let me see how to say this….less efficient, will really appreciate how easy it is to get from point A to point B.
That being said, you need to carefully look into this matter when picking a college to study at and a city to live in.
Even in cities like Toronto, where there’s a robust transportation structure, neglecting this aspect can have a hugely negative impact in your life.
One of my friends from college had to ride his bike, get on a bus, take the subway, get on another bus, then walk for 10 minutes to go to class each an every day.
It was literally impossible for him to do all of this in less that 2 hours and a half.
Knowing exactly how much time (and money) it will take you to go to class on a daily basis is something that needs to be calculated because it will affect your budget and your ability to work between classes too.
Think about it, if you’re spending from 4 to 5 hours a day on the commute, how are you supposed to keep a job?
Before immigrating, people often neglect how important transportation is, but once they get here they realize that this is one of the factors that affect their lives the most.
Graduation Time
Although I’ve already mentioned this, it must be emphasized. Stay way from 1-Year courses.
Colleges will try to lure students that still don’t have enough money to afford a longer course by saying short courses are good enough for a Post Graduation Work Permit.
Even though this is entirely true, this affirmation can be misleading because what most students really want is not just a PGWP, but a PGWP that will pave the way to their permanent residency.
Unfortunately, I have personally met a couple of people who were not able to immigrate after their graduation. Both of them had taken a 1-year course and could not gather all the requirements to immigrate within such a short period of time.
Look, if you have decided to immigrate to Canada, if you have accepted all the challenges and sacrifices that are part of the package, you must do everything you can to increase your chances of success.
Picking a longer course, it doesn’t matter if it’s 2, 3, 4 or 5 years long is the best way to maximize your chances of immigrating.
Schedule
Let’s say you chose a great college, you picked the perfect city, you have a decent place to live, and you know exactly how you’re going to get to class in the morning.
What could go wrong?
Have you checked your college’s schedule? Do you know how many days a week will you study? Will your classes be scattered through the whole day?
These are questions that people simply don’t ask before choosing where to study, but they should!
While it’s true that colleges may not be able to tell you exactly at what time classes will start before you’re even enrolled, some questions can be easily answered by them.
Here are a few questions you should ask your college before you decide to study there:
- Will classes take place during a specific period, either mornings, afternoons, or evenings?
- Is there a chance my schedule will suddenly change?
- Will I have to study during the weekends?
- Will I be able to change my schedule in case I need to?
The reason why I’m saying this is because during my first semester in Canada I had to study every single day of the week, Saturdays and Sundays included.
To make things worse, my classes on Saturdays and Sundays started at 08:30 AM.
Now just imagine what it feels like to wake up on Sunday, after an exhausting week, only to open the door and feel the -10 icy winds cutting your face while you walk to class.
You don’t want to live like that, trust me.
Assignments
I’ve studied in Latin America, Asia and Europe and I can guarantee you one thing, no other place offers assignment-intensive courses like Canada.
I know that some specific countries in Asia are pretty hardcore when it comes to assignments, but I’m sure Canada rivals them all.
The college I attended is notorious for its heavy assignment culture. If I had done my research properly, I would have known that in advance, but since I didn’t think it would matter, I had to learn all about it the hard way.
I still remember spending days without sleeping to finish my programming assignments, it was brutal.
Sometimes I would spend an entire week sleeping only 2 to 3 hours a day in order to finish everything.
At the end of the day, those times of great effort taught me that I’m able to push myself really hard if necessary and they also taught me that I’m capable of working under intense stress. For this reason, I’m thankful for it.
The thing is: immigrating is already a highly stressful endeavor. If you’re able to remove some aggravating layers, just do it.
The only way to truly know how your future college handles assignments is by directly asking those who have studied or are currently studying in the same institution.
That’s why I highly recommend that you go to Facebook and connect to people who are already studying in the college you are planning on attending.
Those people will give you honest answers that will help you decide if that specific college is the best option for you.
College Culture
This is a controversial topic here in Canada and I hardly ever see people openly talk about it.
Many colleges are dominated by students from specific countries, there are multiple reasons for this, and I will discuss them on another post.
For now, all I can tell you is that you need to be aware that the place where you will study may not be a super diverse environment like you would expect.
Make sure that students from your own country are not the majority in the college where you plan to study.
Can you imagine investing a small fortune to study abroad only to be in a classroom where 80% of your classmates (and sometimes even the professors) come from the exact same place as you?
That sounds like a horrible way to waste money.
Look for colleges that have a well-balanced mix of nationalities and cultures. You will learn more, be happier, and get a real feeling of what living in Canada feels like.
One more thing. In some colleges, Canadian students are a rarity. Keep that in mind before enrolling.
Co-op
I’ve noticed that colleges don’t like to discuss their co-op programs in detail.
Go ahead and try to read from any college’s website about how co-op programs work.
You will soon realize that they tend to use vague language to describe co-op enrollment rules, and they never mention how co-op programs will delay students’ graduation dates.
None of my classmates really knew how the co-op system worked, but all of them had preconceived ideas that were originated from those same vague paragraphs available in the college’s website.
If you plan on going for the co-op option, make sure to ask your college some very specific questions before you send them any money for enrollment.
Here are some questions you may want to ask:
- From which semester may I start my co-op?
- What are the language requirements to join the co-op program?
- What are the grades requirements to join the co-op program?
- Are all your co-op opportunities paid or will I be working for free?
- What percentage of your students are being paid for working during co-op and what percentage is not being paid?
- May I work in co-op while studying or will I have to take a semester off?
Co-op can be a golden opportunity to join highly competitive and saturated markets in cities like Toronto and Vancouver, but don’t be fooled because there are major drawbacks, and you must be aware of them before making a decision.
I will be writing a whole article dedicated to co-ops soon.
PGWP
A 3-year Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) is one of the best ways to increase your chances of immigrating.
If you have already saved some money and are determined to move to Canada to attend college, don’t even consider picking a course that will give you a short PGWP.
I’ve already mentioned this a number of times in this post, but I will say it once again because it’s important: stay away from 1-year courses because they will only allow you to get a short PGWP.
In case you’re lucky, you will be able to immigrate right out of college, but sometimes life gets tough. Immigration streams are evolving at an increasingly fast rate, and you need to get all of the advantages you can while they’re still available.
There are three things that play a major role in an immigration journey:
- Language proficiency (either in English or French).
- A 3-Year Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP).
- A job offer.
Don’t worry, you don’t need these 3 items to immigrate, but having 2 of them is almost a guarantee that you will be able to successfully get a Permanent Residency card sooner or later.
Job Market
The job market in Canada is ruthless.
I know, I know…you’ve been bombarded with ads mentioning that Canada needs workers.
This is true, never have I seen a country with so many positions available. You will only be unemployed in this land if you choose to.
However, let me assure you that all those stories that you heard about people struggling to get high-paying skilled work are also true.
This is not really Canada’s fault, it’s simply the nature of a capitalist society.
Canada is largely a meritocracy and in order to get a good job you will have to compete against everyone, including all of those thousands of professionals with years of experience pouring from every country on Earth.
What does this have to do with college?
Everything!
I see a whole lot of people picking certain fields of study solely based on earning potential and this is a huge mistake.
If you’re someone who likes Graphic Design, History or Sociology, don’t think that picking an IT course is a good idea because “IT professionals earn high wages in Canada”.
If you pick a course you don’t like, you will suffer in college. Assignments that could be finished in 2 hours will take you 6 hours, and, once you finally graduate, the job market will be crowded with professionals who love what they do and with much more experience than you.
Guess what, this is the people you will have to compete against.
Pay close attention to this:
Choose a topic you are truly interested in. This will make your life easier and will substantially increase your chances of earning a decent salary once you start looking for a job.
Conclusion
Those who will move to Canada to study need to understand that college will help establish the foundations of their lives in this land.
Choosing the right college will impact your happiness, circle of friends, professional connections, and future salary.
Make sure you take the time to carefully research what are your options and how can you make the best of them.
I wish you all the luck in the world and I’m sure we will all succeed in the end.
Take care,
Bruno
