I recently experienced my first international college tour (!) at the University of British Columbia.
Here are a few takeaways from my experience:
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is the largest university in Western Canada in both campus size and student population (60,000 students). Located about 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver, UBC is a beautiful campus filled with mature trees, gardens, and plenty of space for students to gather, relax, and study. The school is walking distance from one of Vancouver’s ten oceanside beaches.
Sustainability is a major focus on campus, from the way buildings are constructed with recycled materials, to how academic subjects are presented. Our tour guide, a Forestry major, said that sustainability was addressed in all his coursework, from the sciences, to music, to politics.
UBC is a very international university, with students coming from 147 countries. It is the #1 most international university in North America according to Times Higher Ed World University Rankings.
My favorite part about UBC was the variety and number trees on campus - so pretty! One of our tour guides was from Santa Cruz, and I commented to her how much the wooded areas of campus felt like the Santa Cruz Mountains. She agreed, “We all think it gives very Bay”, which I took to mean it felt like the Bay Area, in young person speak :)
Check out the UBC campus on Amazon Prime’s “Off Campus” (based on the books by Elle Kennedy) which is filmed on campus. We walked by tents set up for the cast and crew, and our tour guides talked about recognizing their lecture halls and sports facilities on screen. The show may claim it’s set at a fictional university in Boston, but we all know the real location is UBC!
I loved my first international tour experience and am planning for more to come. In the meantime, go Thunderbirds!
