Employers care little about the name on the degree and you should care more about the professional education, not to hang out in music venues.

With the obvious out of the way, Loo and McGill are top dogs, then it matters little as the rest sorta all become equivalent.  UofT is at the bottom because they admit too many students from their piss poor bachelor program so it waters down the quality of the M.arch entrance group. Look at the research topics of the graduate teaching staff and pick according to your interests.

As an international applicant, ask yourself if this is worth all the trouble.  Tuition is super high and acceptance rates are low.  Think a few dozen students per term and you're in competition with a tonne of applications.  Some schools will even run interviews.

Best advice is aim for schools in cities/provinces where you would like to work/live in in the future.  Canada is very big and every province has it's own peculiarities (Quebec being the worse).

Potholes on Montreal streets! it's the World capital of potholes; I'm sure Kabul has better roads than Montreal does...be prepared to go though a bunch of wheels and tires in a year...and you can't sue the city for damage.

Also, services are becoming more and more difficult to get in English the further east you go in Montreal. Unfortunately, there is some discrimination going on by the French speaking Quebecers towards the English speaking people. The current Quebec governments is contemplating bring in more discriminatory measures. It has the makings of 1970's crisis all over again. Language police are at it again. I had a run-in with them at a Walmart parking lot of all things! Fucking racists bastards - told them that in English...they didn't like it!

Healthcare sucks as well..I've been waiting now for over three years to be assigned a family doctor...will probably either die of old age or move before I get one. 

On the plus side, Quebec architects, and builders are far more creative when it comes to housing than their counterparts in Ontario or anywhere else in Canada. Authorities are also very loose when it comes to issuing building permits in flood plains, so be careful if you're buying a place or renting an apartment - make sure you don't get flooded! Taxes are a little higher than other places in Canada, but they have better wine selection in their stores than in Ontario.

Hi, I would suggest you to send an email to each program asking them if you are qualified to apply to their master program. I was also an international student interested in m.arch programs in Canada but some of them don't allow b.arch students to apply to their m.arch because there's already a CACB Certificate program for international architects.

[Sorry, that "enter to post" feature made me send the last comment]

Hi, thanks everyone for responding. I've looked into that as well.

I don't qualify for BEFA since I haven't been out of school that long.

However, I could get my Indian B.Arch. evaluated by CACB and if that works out, I would be equivalent to a freshly graduated Canadian M.Arch (Professional). Doing an M.Arch. in Canada would just duplicate a degree I already have (not to mention be suuper expensive) and be redundant unless I specialised in Landscape or Urban Design (post-professional) which I'm not particularly interested in.

The challenge then would be to break into the Architectural Intern job market to rack up my internship hours for licensing — seeing as how a Canadian schooled graduate familiar with the work culture, design typologies, bye-laws, etc would naturally be preferred by firms over me.

Would it be a good idea to train under a BIM or Construction management course to improve my chances of getting into a firm? And would I be able to work as an intern at a firm or be restricted to only architectural technologist/Construction management, so called 'lower ranked' jobs for lack of a better term?

Meaning, would a BIM/Construction management qualification be looked at as:

A. Wow this architectural intern has more specialised skills than a regular graduate

or

B. Let's hire this kid for less money and make him do work that no one else wants to?

Would that position allow me to rack up the hours in pursuit of a license?

Several observations/comments;

1. The first question you will be asked by a Canadian employer will be, "How much Canadian experience do you have?"

2. The second question will be, "Do you know Revit/AutoCAD?"

3. The third question will be, "Are you willing to work weekends and evenings?"

4. The fourth question will be, "How much are you expecting to get paid?"

Those questions are a hint of what they expect out of you, and what kind of a position they offer you.

Your degree will matter little to them.

In terms of building technology, unless you already have Canadian experience, you will not be given responsibility to work on a project by yourself - you will be put on a team where, at least the Job Captain, will teach you/hold your hand. Learning Canadian building techniques/technology can take as many as five years, depending on the size of the company you work for, the projects you are put on, and the number of different projects the firm gets. You should familiarise yourself with wood frame construction, masonry veneer on structural steel studs, masonry veneer on masonry back-up, precast construction, steel siding construction, EIFS, and probably some more I cannot think of now. To help you with that, buy guides/manuals that are available from CMHC, CSSBI, and CMHC.

To get involved in Construction Management, you will have to get a few years of experience. The firm will not send you to the site unless they feel certain that you know Contracts, Construction Laws as well as building or construction technology.

Also, very importantly, if you are from outside of Canada (maybe India?), expect some form of discrimination. It may appear subtle or in-your-face, but you will come across it. This is why I recommend you look for a job where the firm is young with younger staff and management. More established, and older firms tend to be worse when it comes to that - you will be the last-in-first-out in them when work slows down, and it does slow down every 5-7 years in Canada, particularly in Toronto, Ontario. It's very much of a cyclical business here with many firms depending on either the Federal or Provincial spending/projects for jobs. Private sector has nearly vanished from Canadian construction/development, except for condominiums. Those are already handled by a few firms and it's very difficult for new ones to get such jobs.

All the experience you gain will be valuable one-way-or-another when it comes to registration. For specifics and guidance, contact OAA if you end up in Ontario for details or other governing bodies if you work in other provinces.

Good luck.

The best graduates I ever hired came out of Waterloo, but I have to say I have two young architects who came out of UBC right now and both are as much I could hope for, skilled, good experience, decent design skills and well tuned to the region we live and work.  I agree that if you are planning to stick it out in Canada in the future consideration of getting educated the region you want to live is a good plan..... and by the way it's very busy out west right now!

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