Hi, I am also an international student in US, and I applied for both PhD programs in US plus UBC stat master. I received offers from several programs in US but honestly I am not very satisfied with the result. So I will attend UBC this fall and apply again later like what fsp did. I think one of the most important advantage of a 2-year master program is that you can have more time to be better prepared for PhD program. A 1-year master program means you need to start looking for school now, and will not even finish the first semester in your master program when you submit your application.
I think UBC is quite generous. I received a package of about 21000 CAD, and 3200 of them must be used to pay my tuition. I applied for on-campus housing, and the monthly payment is about 850. That means I probably need to ask my parents to pay for the remaining about 4000 CAD tuition (which is really not a big deal compared with the tuition of private colleges in US LOL), and I can live upon my assistantship. Given that Vancouver is a large city, and the living environment is awesome, I think it totally worth it.
Hope this would help.
