The Thin Envelope

This is for every high school senior – or the parents, grandparents, or others who love a high school senior – who has recently received, or dreads receiving, the “thin envelope” from his or her college of choice.

I have a place for you. 

Unless you follow my writings very closely, you’ve probably never heard of it, but it’s one of the best universities I’ve ever seen.   (And, having taught for ten years at some pretty exceptional high schools, I’ve studied these things.)

This mystery school is still happily accepting applications.

It doesn’t require SAT or ACT scores (though if you have them, it will take a peek).

And it is, by today’s standards, remarkably cheap.  Cheaper than in-state.

It’s called Mount Allison University, and it’s located in the small, culturally rich town of Sackville, New Brunswick.

Yep.  Canada.  But listen.

First, Sackville isn’t absurdly far away.  It’s a five-hour drive ENE from Bangor, Maine, but if I were going there, I’d fly into Halifax, Nova Scotia, a wonderful city.  Sackville is 90 minutes from Halifax, by rental car or public transport.  (And if you’d rather, there’s an airport at Moncton, 20 minutes west.)

Sackville might sound like a place where hobbits live, but it’s very cool.  And incredibly safe.   There are only two stoplights.  It will probably remind you of a small, New England town – like, say, Stars Hollow.

The main thing in Sackville is Mount Allison, a superb, small liberal arts and science university of 2400 students.  The academics are terrific – at least as good as William & Mary or UVA.  That’s not easy to say (I went to college and law school at UVA), but I’ve visited MTA twice, and it’s that good.

Also, classes are smaller – much, much smaller than at most American schools – and students and faculty regularly interact on MTA’s intimate campus.

Here’s another metric:  Rhodes Scholarships.  In the past 14 years, MTA has produced 12 Rhodes Scholars.  Find a small college or university in the US that matches that record.  (You won’t.  Not even close.  Only big places like Harvard, Stanford and the US Military Academy regularly produce Rhodes Scholars.)

If you share my sense that American universities are too much about semi-professional sports, here’s another thing to like about Mount Allison.  Football is a varsity sport, but the Mounties play in a “stadium” surrounded by a waist-high, wrought-iron fence.  There are bleachers for maybe 200 people.  Most of the fans sit on a hillside.

And I’m told that any American kid who played high school football is pretty much a lock to make the Mounties.  At MTA, as at its big rivals – Acadia, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Mary’s – football players are students.  More-or-less regular-sized students.  The season is 8 games long, including home-and-away matches with all three league rivals.  They don’t fool with playoffs.  (Winter is coming.)

To my mind, that means MTA keeps sports in perspective, although I understand women’s varsity ice hockey generates a fair amount of passion during the long Canadian winters.  (Men’s hockey is only a club sport.)

But I mentioned money, and I suppose it’s time to get down to cases about that.

An “international student” – which means an American – pays a tuition of $16,420 for a year at MTA.   (It’s a good deal more for students who major in Aviation, because of the costs of airplanes and maintenance, but let’s skip that for now.)

Student activity fees are $544.50, and other fees (including technology) add up to $325.

Since American students aren’t automatically entitled to Canada’s free health care system, there’s a fee for that - $595 for a year.

Plus there’s housing.  Mount Allison’s dorms are modern and very nice.  Assuming you want a single room with its private bath, that’s $6426.  There are other options, of course – the lowest being a triple room with bath for $4,493.

Regardless of your room choice, there are residence fees.  These add up to $693.

And there’s food – which I’ve tried.  (It’s extremely good, with lots of healthy options.)  The cost is $4509 for the year.

So let’s add that up.  Assuming you pick the most luxurious housing, your total cost for a year, all included, would be $29,512.50.

In Canadian money.

That’s important.  At present, the “loonie” now worth 71 cents in American money, which substantially reduces the bottom line.  Tuition, fees, room, board, and Canadian health insurance will end up costing you about $21,000 American.

Plus a bit for extra sweaters and really good boots.

And that’s the pitch.  For $21,000, you can attend a university which has been ranked by McLean’s magazine (Canada’s equivalent of the US News & World Report) as Canada’s Number 1 small university for 18 of the past 25 years. 

You can live in a lovely, small, safe town, among the polite (and mostly unarmed) citizens of Sackville.  You can absorb the culture of a legally bilingual province.  (Even fortune cookies at the Chinese restaurants come with a fortune on each side – English in red, French in blue).

And you can live in a country where Justin Trudeau is prime minister.

Not bad, eh?