After Trump win, Canadian colleges see spike in US applicants

Remember the time where some American liberals said that they would move to Canada if Trump won the election? That time could be now.

Since the presidential election on November 8th, colleges across Canada from Quebec to British Colombia all say that website visits and applications have been up from before the election — and by a pretty large margin. Applications from the U.S. to the University of Toronto are up by 70 percent compared to this time last year, with other schools seeing similar numbers.

Canadian colleges are even using the Trump election as a way to recruit and bring in more U.S. students. The University of Toronto held a panel about the election results in Washington as a way to potentially attract students feeling uneasy with the outcome. Some college recruiters are saying that prospective college students from other countries are avoiding U.S. schools and looking to Canada and Australia as alternatives.

I asked Julia Couillard of The University of Ottawa why she thought Canadian universities were seeing an increase in Americans applying.

“Most Americans at Canadian universities that I know are dual American/Canadian citizens, like myself, and price is a major factor since tuition is much less expensive for Canadians. The political climate could also be a factor. Personally, that’s not the reason I chose to attend school in Canada, but I definitely see it as an added benefit. I’m fairly satisfied with the Trudeau government and for many Americans it could seem a better alternative to the impending Trump government,” she said.