How's funding? Is tuition remission and/or a stipend available for international students, or is debt basically guaranteed?
An actual student can give you more details, but this is what I've gathered from speaking with international students in Canadian programs. Different programs have different amounts of funding available for international students, so I would highly recommend contacting current international graduate students to get their take about their programs. Copying and pasting from a different thread:
As an American citizen, you will not qualify for most of the funding from the Tri-Council Agencies (Canada Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council); the one exception is the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, which is one of the most competitive and lucrative fellowship programs in Canada. The application process involves being nominated by the institution.
Furthermore, as an American citizen abroad, you will not be able to take many of the major predoctoral fellowship awards (Ford Foundation, NDSEG, NSF GRFP) to a Canadian institution. I have heard that one can use NRSA funding abroad if one can justify why one is seeking training outside of the United States, but I haven't yet run into someone who has done so successfully.
This is not to say that attending a Canadian school is impossible without funding, as the American graduate students who have been generous enough to let me ask have made it work. In particular, because most Canadian graduate students bring Tri-Council funding with them, the department may be able to fund you after a selection process and/or through assistantships (at least in the cases of the programs I investigated).
Another thing worth noting is that your study permit will allow you to work only on campus. If you want to work off-campus, then you will need a study + work permit, which may require consent from your department.
