I’m having quite a hard time choosing between these 2.
I’ve written down the pros and cons :
University of Toronto
high ranking
well-known university esp in Canada
tough academics (this could also be a con though hahaha)
Toronto is a multicultural city
some students say the academics are way too rigorous
4-year program
Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherland)
multicultural city
everytime i watch videos of EUR i get goosebumps (the good kind)
It’s in europe, basically close to everywhere
dutch are known to be very tolerant
3-year program
tuition fee is way WAAAY cheaper than U of T (it’s 8800 euros, U of T is 43000 CAD)
Unfortunately, europe hasnt been the safest place lately (lots of bombings and attacks)
not as highly-ranked as U of T
My sister told me that when applying for jobs, employers also consider whether you’re from a well-known university or not (but she might be biased cause she’s from U of T)
I applied for economics in both unis.
Any other advice on how to choose the “right” uni? I’m really scared of making the wrong choice
I live in a city right next to Rotterdam (Schiedam, about 5km away from Rotterdam’s city center), so I know quite a bit about the city. The university itself is in the ‘rich’ part of the city, and mostly white people and students live there. You probably won’t ever visit the ‘multicultural’ parts of the city. You will also most likely be very safe. Crime rates are pretty low, and there have so far been no terrorist attacks or plans for these caught by the intelligence in this country.
And indeed, it is close to everywhere. You can ride the Thalys and get to Paris in 2,5 hours and Brussels in 2. There’s an airport in Rotterdam (an empty one, though) and you can get to London in an hour. Antwerp (Belgium) is an hour by train, and Amsterdam is an hour too. In the city itself you can get anywhere by bike.
Perhaps you should think about the prices too. A place to stay, tuition and food might be a lot cheaper in Rotterdam than in Toronto. And even though Erasmus might be lower on the list, it could boost your job chances in the future because a European university shows that you are not going for the ‘safe’ route, but would rather explore the possibilities (independent).
Do you want to work in North America or in Europe?
Or are you international at both and would thus return to your own country (which is neither in Europe nor North America)?
Studying internationally is pricey and fees for international students in Canada have gone up a lot in the last decade, and UofT has some of the most expensive international fees of any Canadian university. This is largely because it is the provinces, not the Federal government that dictates how much the universities can charge domestic or international students and Ontario allows universities to charge a lot more for internationals. Some provinces might have Universities that charge less for internationals, I know McGill (in Montreal, Quebec) used to attract a lot of attention because it was well known abroad and had (comparatively) lower fees due to Quebec government legislation, than Ontario based universities so you might want to check that out as an option as McGill generally has a good amount of name-brand recognition abroad, especially in the North-East of the US.
In terms of safety, I cant speak to Rotterdam, but I did my undergrad at Toronto and my Masters at McGill so I can tell you both are in the downtown core of their respective cities and quite safe. The streets are always well-lit and busy at night and students are always out at night so you should be fine there.
NOTE: Pretty much all Canadian and American Bachelor degrees are 4 years for a bachelor or honours degree. Masters are a full two years and a PhD are 4 to 5. That’s just the standard in North America. There are shorter “Associates Degrees”, but you really want to avoid those as a Bachelors is really becoming the standard nowadays.
Note on price: remember that 1 Euro is worth like 2 $C so cut the Canadian prices in half in your mind. Still, I personally would prefer to avoid spending a huge amount of money on a undergraduate degree, particularly if you are thinking of doing graduate school or a professional degree afterwords so if I were in your situation I would probably take Rotterdam or look for a cheaper international/Canadian school then Toronto. Especially since UofT’s reputation is largely built off its graduate departments and its research output rather than its main undergrad programs.
I am open to all options but I would prefer to work abroad because to be honest, here in Indonesia, the job payment is really low even for graduate students who got their degrees from universities abroad and unless you have a massive empire/family business to run, well…let’s just say the chances are not looking too good…
Unfortunately, I didn’t apply for McGill even though it’s my dad’s alma mater. He said the weather in Montreal is too extreme for me especially since I live in a tropical country that is humid all the time (sigh). I’m also a senior and will be graduating in May (yay) and I only applied to UBC, U of T, and Erasmus so those are al the choices that I have.
Even though as a giant public, Toronto will be closer to a European public than an Anerican private is, there will still be some pretty major differences.
Well the weather in Toronto is only slightly warmer (although somewhat less snow in winter). These are cool northern cities (although the summers are generally 25-30+C all through June to the end of August). Think roughly on par with New York or Chicago. Rotterdam is probably warmer than Toronto on Montreal. Vancouver is a maritime rainforest climate (the surrounding area is officially classed as a temperate rain forest) so it tends to have cooler summers but much warmer winters (generally little to no snow). Vancouver generally has the most mild winters of any Canadian city. However, none of these places are remotely tropical, so you will have to adapt to that one way or the other.
I wouldn’t be worried about bombings in Rotterdam, a minor city in a relatively small country (I also wouldn’t call two bombings “lots”). I spent a good amount of time in the Netherlands in February-March and was never concerned/worried for my safety. “Close to everywhere” is a bit of an exaggeration, though.
