Objectively speaking: UBC full-ride scholarship is one of the best in the world, with special programming (events, workshops, and info sessions every other week on average) and support system (designated advisor, separate financial advisor, benefits in housing and SOME but not many scholarship-only opportunities) that most of my peers in American colleges do not seem to have. Plus, staying in Canada after graduation is somewhat realistic, drastically contrasted with the situation of graduated international undergrads in the US where a big portion of Ivy league graduates struggle to find a job (ah yes — Canadians don't care about university prestige as much as Americans do. I mean, no one cares about uni prestige as Americans do, but Canadians especially don't care)
Also, most world-known artists, like Carnifex, Zeal & Ardor, Nine Inch Nails (also Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, The Pixies etc) come around Vancouver, too. In fact, it seems like we have a lot of lively artsy communities here, although I suspect that comparable cities on the East Coast or US might have it better.
But there are definitely certain downsides to social life and kinds of fun people have here and according to what people have told me, it's much harder to secure even low-level jobs in Vancouver — and it's harder to afford housing with average wages compared to even New York.
Maybe my relative loneliness here is my own problem, but given how open I am to explore different activities and niches, I just feel that maybe if I was in a smaller American college, I would be receiving a more encompassing liberal arts education, have more flexibility with my degree and get to experience more social fun than here, at a state university with 60k+ student population (ah yes — because there are so many students, you also get a lot of diverse niche clubs, too — like for DJing, where I was in the leadership team for a couple of months, or a metal club, or psychedelics club etc)
