I once met a recruiter for the University of Toronto (Canada) who focuses exclusively on visiting US high schools. She told me how U of T was behind other "top" Canadian schools in advertising to potential students in the US. She mentioned how McGill University (in Montreal) started going after US students aggressively beginning in the 70s, and as a result, has a far better reputation there today. Even The Simpsons once joked that McGill is "the harvard of Canada", even though most Canadians would probably say otherwise.
I suspect that getting US students is important because they pay significantly more than students from Canada itself. I'm not sure exactly how it works in Canada, but at least at my US public university out-of-state and international students pay far more than instate students which certainly doesn't hurt the budget. Since the US is really close, has expensive education domestically and has a large population, it's probably relatively easy to convince high-paying US students to come to universities in Canada.
I once met a recruiter for the University of Toronto (Canada) who focuses exclusively on visiting US high schools. She told me how U of T was behind other "top" Canadian schools in advertising to potential students in the US. She mentioned how McGill University (in Montreal) started going after US students aggressively beginning in the 70s, and as a result, has a far better reputation there today. Even The Simpsons once joked that McGill is "the harvard of Canada", even though most Canadians would probably say otherwise.
Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc5vN2XReWs