FaithManor Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 Middle boy - zooming in on a degree in ecology and wildlife management with a zoology emphasis in the hopes of eventually becoming a herpetology researcher or temperate rainforest management specialist/ranger/dude...I don't know what they call them...has now added the University of British Columbia to his hot list. This is what I know. We live in Michigan. British Columbia is not only out of the country, so that adds a whole new wrinkle to the college admission's process, but though on the continent is far enough away to be practically OFF continent in terms of airline tickets. The tuition is VERY reasonable even to international students. It is ranked 45th in US News and World Reports 400 International College rankings. The program looks VERY good. Ds did a research report - approximately 10 pages so he knows the basic information - on British Columbia's Temperate Rainforest. He's fascinated. My heart will break if he goes that far away. Sigh....his short list gets worse. He removed Ohio Wesleyan and added University of Hawaii... which makes U of BC seem close. I am rather opposed currently to Ds attend U of H. However, I take distinct pleasure in attempting to persuade DH that a college visit is a must. If I let him attend U of H, is there anything inherently wrong with a mother sharing the dorm with her son? :D BC - I've been to Victoria. That's it. It was for one day - a ferry ride from Seattle. So, I am not going to claim to know anything at all about British Columbia except to say that Victoria was very pretty and the folks were friendly. Anyone have any info at all. Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 Isn't the University of British Columbia in Vancouver? You could fly to Washington and drive up. Vancouver is a great city and much closer than Hawaii. lol It's really hard since he's picked an ecosystem that lives away from home. :( Maybe he won't like the grey and rain. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 That's so interesting! I don't know anything about it, except that last week my #3 daughter has said she would really like to apply there! I have been researching it as a result. We live in the U.S., and I thought international tuition was quite high, especially compared to the Canadian residency rates. And I heard that they most likely will not take U.S. grants/scholarships. Do you know anything about that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeeTee Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 Delurking to answer: I grew up in Vancouver, where UBC is, though I don't live there anymore. I'm not an expert about UBC, even though my siblings and a few cousins went to college there. Their science department has a great reputation and I think it's fairly competitive to get into it. It is a beautiful campus right by the ocean, surrounded by a lot of parkland. There are a lot of locals that go to UBC so you do get a lot of commuters from all over the Lower Mainland (Vancouver and surrounding cities/burbs). Vancouver is a nice place to live, especially if you love the outdoors. The ocean and the mountains are all a short drive or bus trip away. It's somewhat gloomy for much of the fall, winter and spring, but summers are beautiful. The city fairly laid-back and it is ethnically very diverse (especially Chinese). If you do not live on-campus, Vancouver can be a pretty expensive place to live in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aug17girl Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 Here is a link to the Macleans 2013 ranking of Canadian Universities with some info on UBC http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2012/11/01/2013-university-rankings/ Here is info on the on campus Botanical Garden and Plant Research that has a rainforest canopy walkway. http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicole M Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 Since my aunt used to be the president of UBC, you'd think I'd know more about it than I do. I only know that it's a terrific school. The band director at the college where I work here in Washington jumped ship to be the director of bands at UBC, and, gosh. If the faculty in science are anything like him, in terms of caliber, professionalism, and vibrant and kind personality... WELL! Go! The cost of living is high in that city, but presumably there would be more affordable student housing. And, yes, driving up from Seattle would not be difficult at all. You will LOVE visiting. Vancouver and Portland, Oregon are my favorite cities in all of North America. Although, I was once stopped at the border, and had to go inside the scary building and convince the Canadians I was not stealing my own children from their father and spiriting them out of the country. The young man ahead of me in line was a student at UBC, American citizen, and they wanted to see his acceptance letter! So, heads-up, bring every single item of paper when you are going through the border. (You'd think we were at war with the Canadians, we make it so hard to get in and out of that country. It's worse coming back into the US.) My son is looking at doing his graduate work in urban planning at UBC, and he is very excited about it. What an exciting opportunity! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freesia Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 Isn't the University of British Columbia in Vancouver? You could fly to Washington and drive up. Vancouver is a great city and much closer than Hawaii. lol It's really hard since he's picked an ecosystem that lives away from home. :( Maybe he won't like the grey and rain. :) This is what we did when we lived in Vancouver. It's only a couple (3 maybe?) hours from Seattle. We almost always drove down and flew out of Seattle, saving more than half the price (actually more as dh always volunteered us to switch on overbooked flights!) We had a lot of friends who went to UBC. Vancouver is a wonderful city. The area is gorgeous. The rain does get to be a bit much but the summers are awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freesia Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 Delurking to answer: I grew up in Vancouver, where UBC is, though I don't live there anymore. I'm not an expert about UBC, even though my siblings and a few cousins went to college there. Their science department has a great reputation and I think it's fairly competitive to get into it. It is a beautiful campus right by the ocean, surrounded by a lot of parkland. There are a lot of locals that go to UBC so you do get a lot of commuters from all over the Lower Mainland (Vancouver and surrounding cities/burbs). Vancouver is a nice place to live, especially if you love the outdoors. The ocean and the mountains are all a short drive or bus trip away. It's somewhat gloomy for much of the fall, winter and spring, but summers are beautiful. The city fairly laid-back and it is ethnically very diverse (especially Chinese). If you do not live on-campus, Vancouver can be a pretty expensive place to live in. Vancouver is expensive. Many students share basement apartments in the area near campus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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