"How did you choose which school to attend? What things do you like and dislike about your school's location?"
Well, I didn't. The system in Canada is a little different from in the USA. There's only 5 colleges in Canada and one is francophone. The system is strictly regional. In the USA, many (all?) schools take out of state students. They have a smaller chance of getting in compared with in state and they pay higher tuition, but they can apply. In Canada, you can't. If I were to apply to Saskatchewan, or Alberta, or Ontario, as far as I know, they wouldn't even look at my application. This was very frustrating after my first rejection from AVC; I can't tell you how many people told me to apply to Ontario.
There are other options; we can apply to any American school and the overseas ones (Edinburgh, Dublin, etc) and the caribbean schools. But you need seriously deep pockets. In the USA, students are guaranteed the cost of attendance in loans for accredited schools (as is my understanding). In Canada, no such luck. Between federal and provincial government loans, I can get just over $14,000 a year; and banks are pretty tight fisted. Tuition at the other schools starts at $30,000 a year and goes up.
So it was AVC or bust.
My standard response when people ask me if I like the island is, "I love AVC. I hate PEI." Don't get me wrong, PEI suits some people very well. It's pretty in the summer, there are some great restaurants in Charlottetown and there's all kinds of festivals and events during the tourist season. The faculty at AVC are great. Additional benefits are that it's still in Canada, and it's the closest option to my parents' house. I can be home in about 5 hours. Oh, and I can still get cheap lobster and really good fish and chips.
But it's small. Really small. I did most of my undergraduate studies in Halifax, NS and I am very much a Haligonian* at heart. While Halifax is hardly a metropolis itself, I am constantly comparing Charlottetown to a city 10 times the size. It's less diverse. It's less convenient. It's less walkable. The public transit is one step above non-existent. Things close early. Mail is slow here. Electricity is expensive. Hell, everything is expensive on account of needing to be brought from the mainland. There is no Second Cup. I once needed dental wax at 12:30 on a Saturday night**. In Halifax, I ran down to the 24 hour pharmacy. Here, I would have been stuck until noon the next day.
And the weather. May-September is pretty nice. It can get into the 30C+ range (often 35+ with the humidex), but usually it's good. But winter does not screw around. I wasn't prepared. Everyone said, "Oh, it's so windy!" Really, the wind is no worse that Halifax. But the temperature difference? And the snow difference? No one mentioned those!
If you like small towns, don't mind snow and cold, and like seafood and potatoes, give PEI some consideration. If you can't, then do what I couldn't, and apply somewhere else.
With all of that said... If I could apply anywhere, I probably still would have ended up at AVC. Finances just made anywhere outside of Canada unfeasible, and besides, I love my country and I'm reluctant to leave it. My dad was a stroke survivor and not in great shape when I matriculated. My mom isn't that severe, but isn't the healthiest of people. So I'd be really reluctant to go anywhere that I couldn't get home easily and quickly. For me, the convenience factor outweighs the other stuff.
*Isn't that a great word? No one knows where it came from.
**Tooth broke while watching a movie and eating a Skor bar at home. It left a sharp point that I kept scratching my tongue on. Nothing weird.
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