[LINK
http://www.macleans.ca/news/students-affected-by-travel-ban-look-to-canada/
Canadian universities are experiencing a ‘surge’ in applications post-Trump
Laura Kane, The Canadian Press
February 3, 2017
Students relax on the lawn next to a football field on the McGill University Campus. This part of the campus is known as "the beach" because of its exposure to the sun. Photograph by Roger Lemoyne
Students relax on the lawn next to a football field on the McGill University Campus.
Photograph by Roger Lemoyne
VANCOUVER - Mahdi Ebrahimi Kahou was awarded a full scholarship last year to complete his PhD in economics at the University of Minnesota, a top-five U.S. school in his field.
But last Friday, the Iranian citizen said he watched his dream evaporate with a stroke of U.S. President Donald Trump’s pen.
“I don’t know how to explain the feeling, to be honest,” he said. “I can’t do anything. I can’t concentrate. I can’t study. Everything is hectic.”
Ebrahimi Kahou is now part of what Universities Canada calls a “surge” in applications to Canadian institutions by U.S. students, in the wake of Trump’s executive order banning entry of citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries for 90 days.
Some schools have moved quickly to extend application deadlines for foreign students, including McGill University’s graduate law department and Brock University. Others said late applications from qualified applicants will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Ebrahimi Kahou, 29, holds a graduate degree from the University of Calgary, and his common-law wife and five-year-old stepdaughter live in Alberta. Trump’s order means the man can’t leave Minneapolis to visit his loved ones for at least the next three months.
Shortly after the order came into effect, Ebrahimi Kahou contacted Kevin Bryan, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management who had published a blog post offering to help economics or strategy students affected by the travel ban.
RELATED: Could new U.S. travel rules bring more students to Canada?
Bryan responded to him immediately, said Ebrahimi Kahou, and put him in touch with schools. Since then, McGill University and the University of British Columbia have both advised they will extend application deadlines in his case.
“That is very Canadian,” Ebrahimi Kahou said with a laugh. “It’s a miracle.”
Mujan Kia, a 24-year-old Iranian who has lived in the U.S. for six years, is in her final semester in her master of public health degree at Johns Hopkins University. She had been hoping to work for a year before applying to American medical schools.
“Now I don’t know if I will even have a future in the U.S.,” she said. “I’m thinking about whether it’s even worth it to stay here and continue my education, or is it better to come to a country that actually wants me?”
Her new plan, she said, is to apply for jobs and to medical schools north of the border, ideally in Vancouver, where her parents live. The only problem is that Canada doesn’t have as many opportunities for the research that she wants to do, she said.
Canadian universities are experiencing a ‘surge’ in applications post-Trump
Laura Kane, The Canadian Press
February 3, 2017
Students relax on the lawn next to a football field on the McGill University Campus. This part of the campus is known as "the beach" because of its exposure to the sun. Photograph by Roger Lemoyne
Students relax on the lawn next to a football field on the McGill University Campus.
Photograph by Roger Lemoyne
VANCOUVER - Mahdi Ebrahimi Kahou was awarded a full scholarship last year to complete his PhD in economics at the University of Minnesota, a top-five U.S. school in his field.
But last Friday, the Iranian citizen said he watched his dream evaporate with a stroke of U.S. President Donald Trump’s pen.
“I don’t know how to explain the feeling, to be honest,” he said. “I can’t do anything. I can’t concentrate. I can’t study. Everything is hectic.”
Ebrahimi Kahou is now part of what Universities Canada calls a “surge” in applications to Canadian institutions by U.S. students, in the wake of Trump’s executive order banning entry of citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries for 90 days.
Some schools have moved quickly to extend application deadlines for foreign students, including McGill University’s graduate law department and Brock University. Others said late applications from qualified applicants will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Ebrahimi Kahou, 29, holds a graduate degree from the University of Calgary, and his common-law wife and five-year-old stepdaughter live in Alberta. Trump’s order means the man can’t leave Minneapolis to visit his loved ones for at least the next three months.
Shortly after the order came into effect, Ebrahimi Kahou contacted Kevin Bryan, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management who had published a blog post offering to help economics or strategy students affected by the travel ban.
RELATED: Could new U.S. travel rules bring more students to Canada?
Bryan responded to him immediately, said Ebrahimi Kahou, and put him in touch with schools. Since then, McGill University and the University of British Columbia have both advised they will extend application deadlines in his case.
“That is very Canadian,” Ebrahimi Kahou said with a laugh. “It’s a miracle.”
Mujan Kia, a 24-year-old Iranian who has lived in the U.S. for six years, is in her final semester in her master of public health degree at Johns Hopkins University. She had been hoping to work for a year before applying to American medical schools.
“Now I don’t know if I will even have a future in the U.S.,” she said. “I’m thinking about whether it’s even worth it to stay here and continue my education, or is it better to come to a country that actually wants me?”
Her new plan, she said, is to apply for jobs and to medical schools north of the border, ideally in Vancouver, where her parents live. The only problem is that Canada doesn’t have as many opportunities for the research that she wants to do, she said.