Universities from Quebec to British Columbia say applications and website traffic from the United States have been skyrocketing since Trump won the election in the states. Canadian schools say the spike in numbers has even been beyond their expectations.
Applications from U.S. students to the University of Toronto jumped 70 per cent compared with this time last year, while several other Canadian schools have seen increases of 20 per cent or more. Nearly 10,000 people in the U.S. visited the university’s “Future Students” website the day after the election, up from about 1,000 the day before the election.
U.S. applications to McMaster University in Hamilton are up 34 per cent so far. As of Nov. 16, McGill saw a 30-per-cent increase from U.S. applicants and a 16-per-cent increase from other international students.
UBC recorded a 26-per-cent increase in U.S. applicants in the weeks after the election compared with the same period in 2015, along with a 40-per-cent spike in web traffic to its main website.
On the Prairies, the University of Manitoba has only seen a slight increase in admissions from American students and the University of Winnipeg noticed spikes in traffic to its “Future Students” (11.3 per cent) and “Future International Students” (37 per cent) webpages in the four weeks after the election.
It’s interesting to note that Canada hasn’t been a hugely popular university destination for Americans. In 2014, it drew about 9,000 students from the U.S., compared with 57,000 from China, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education.
Other factors that add to the appeal of Canadian Universities to US students include the strength of the US dollar and the affordability of housing in Canada.
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