Compass
The guide
Montreal
Canada · North America
The cheapest big city in North America for a student, with two strong English-language universities, a serious artificial-intelligence research community, and a games and animation industry.
Who this suits, and who it doesn’t
Suits you if you want North America at the lowest cost and will learn French to stay. Look elsewhere if you need an English-only path to permanent residence, or the largest corporate job market — that is Toronto.
The catch, and the way in
The catch
French is a real requirement for staying, and Quebec runs its own immigration selection and its own tuition schedule, separate from the rest of Canada.
The way in
Tuition at the English-language universities sits below the Canadian average for internationals, and Quebec's own selection programme is a separate route to residence from the federal one.
Living there
What living here is actually like
Bilingual, cheap by North American standards and genuinely enjoyable — the festival calendar and the food carry the year. Winters are long and hard in a way that has to be planned for rather than endured. The city is walkable and well served by its metro, apartments are large for the money, and student life is spread through neighbourhoods instead of gathered onto a campus.
How the money works
The lowest total cost of any North American option here: tuition at the English-language universities is below the national average for international students and rents are far under Toronto's or Vancouver's. Work during study is permitted, and the province runs its own scholarships and its own selection programme, which together add routes that do not exist elsewhere in Canada.Described in shape rather than figures on purpose: rents and salaries move every year and we cannot keep numbers true, but what is expensive and what quietly eats income stays true for far longer.
The language you actually need
You can study and socialise in English and the two big universities are fully English-speaking, but Quebec's immigration route asks for French and employers outside the research and technology bubble expect it. Treat French as the price of staying rather than the price of arriving.
The work that clusters here
Fields with a real market in this city
Computer Science · Engineering · Arts & Design · Humanities & Social Sciences