By Stefanie Pervos, news reporter

As tuition continues to soar at many American universities, an increasing number of students are choosing to spend their college years north of the border in Canada’s lower-tuition universities.

Canadian universities such as the University of British Columbia are receiving more and more applications from U.S. students each year.

“We have seen a significant increase since we started recruiting actively in the U.S. in about 1999,” Donald Wehrung, director of International Student Initiative, said. He noted the increase over the past year was 55 percent.

Of the 317 U.S. students who applied to the University of British Columbia, 215 were offered admission, and 95 registered.

Wehrung said entrance requirements are similar to those of University of Michigan or University of Washington and that GPA requirements are high according to Canadian standards.

The advantage of Canadian universities for many students is the low cost of tuition. McGill University, a private school in Montreal, has an international-student tuition fee of $7,000. Compared to the average tuition fee of at least $20,000 for private schools in the United States, McGill looks like a bargain to many students with limited financial resources.

“My friend considered going to McGill University because she thought of it as the ‘Harvard of Canada,'” University of Wisconsin freshman Sari Toberman said.

Although Toberman’s friend ended up at Indiana University, she thought McGill might be a more affordable version of what she was looking for.

On a recent trip to the University of Toronto, UW professor of education Adam Nelson learned that there was an extreme shortage of openings at universities in Ontario, where universities had recently switched from a five-year to four-year high school system, which resulted in a doubling of the amount of students applying to school the following year.

“I certainly did not get the impression from my visit that Canadian universities were eager to accept Americans in order to fill empty spaces,” said Nelson, who was unaware of the increase in the number of American students going to Canadian schools.

There is no Canadian equivalent to the SAT, so students are admitted based solely on GPA.

Wehrung said many American students choose to go to Canadian universities because it allows them to be away from home and gain a foreign perspective without a great deal of culture shock.

“Canada is a way to get international experience with the comfort level of English as the primary language, as well as common foods and standards in accommodations,” Wehrun said.