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Toronto

Canada · North America

Canada's largest job market by a distance: banking and insurance, a substantial technology sector, and the hospital and research network that comes with the country's biggest city.

Who this suits, and who it doesn’t

Suits you if a predictable path from study permit to permanent residence matters more than prestige or salary, and you want the deepest job market in the country. Look elsewhere if you can't fund substantial international tuition, or if software specifically is the plan and you would rather have paid work terms built into the degree. That's Waterloo, an hour and a half west.

The catch, and the way in

The catch

International tuition is substantial, housing has become genuinely difficult, and the winters aren't a joke.

The way in

The most predictable immigration ladder in North America: study permit, then a post-graduation work permit, then permanent residence, a route the US doesn't offer.

Living there

What living here is actually like

Genuinely multicultural in a way that makes being foreign unremarkable. A large share of the population was born elsewhere, and the city is organised around that fact. It's big, flat and transit-served, though the transit is stretched and commutes are long. The winter is long and cold, and that is worth taking seriously rather than laughing off.

How the money works

International tuition is substantial and housing here is the single hardest cost in this guide's North American entries, which together make Toronto less of a bargain than its reputation suggests. Work during study is permitted, and the thing actually worth planning around is that the immigration route rewards Canadian work experience, so a job that counts matters more than a job that pays slightly better.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

English, with French an asset nationally and a requirement in parts of the public sector. No language barrier to study or work, which combined with the immigration ladder is much of the appeal.

The work that clusters here

The kinds of work Toronto is a route into, each with what it actually involves, and what the catch is.

Who is named here

Not a ranking and not in order of merit. These are the places a subject is actually studied and taught at in this city, so you have something to search for.

  • University of Toronto

    • Medicine & Health
    • Computer Science
    • Humanities & Social Sciences
    • Law

    Degrees taught in English

Language of teaching moves within a cycle, so check it on the university’s own page for your own entry year.