With the massive skyline of Vancouver lending a particularly chic, metropolitan backdrop, the University of British Columbia tends to provide its foreign students with a well-rounded international experience in a sufficiently academic environment. The school is great at assisting its international students to get set up with on-campus accommodation, which is highly advised if you’re into the social thing, but not so useful if you want to improve your English (as you just might fall into a group that’s not speaking it as their first language). That aside, don’t expect any more favors from the administration or your professors—exchange students are treated just the same as locals here.

The local students themselves are quite into culture (check out The Ubyssey), and their diverse interests can been seen represented by the huge number of student organizations, the presence of the biggest and most active Greek system in Canada, the lively Student Union (home to restaurants, cafés, pubs, a theater, and a nightclub), an on-site farm, and regular outings to nearby Wreck beach, one of the largest clothing-optional beaches in the world. The campus itself has all the usual amenities, and students especially enjoy the rock-climbing wall, the state-of-the art aquatic center, and the main library—the second-largest research library in all of Canada.

[Primary Image credit: iStockphoto/Thinkstock; #2 and 3 iStockphoto/Thinkstock]