As a dual citizen of both the US and Canada, my parents thought it prudent that I check out colleges and universities in both countries. So here is what I felt was most different from my visits and a little bit from what I’ve researched.

The whole process seemed much less stressful since the competition is not as heated as it is here in the Northeast. It is a smaller country with government-funded universities; the University of Toronto has nearly 90,000 students so the stress of actually getting in is not as prevalent. However, US News still ranks it as 20th in the world and I would assume it is due to the rigor of the different course levels and variety of degrees available.

The campus life to me seemed a lot different, most if not all students only lived in dorms freshman year. There seemed to be a tradition of friendly rivalry between universities. For instance, the engineering programs of some of these schools will try to steal each other’s mascots. They also had a big tradition with dying themselves purple in honor of royal engineers. They all wear these special types of jackets specifying their degrees with an aura of pride.

Compared with American Colleges where the amount of stress and competition on the tours themselves was nearly visible, the Canadian system has a much more relaxed system.