myself is not a MBA student, but i can help you out with some general questions you need. Life is quiet in Ottawa,nothing special you can do in Ottawa. Bars, bowling place, pool place usually close2-3pm. food is not good, expensive and lack of variaty. Rent is pretty expensive. usually students here shares rent together.Usually the rent is about 350-400 for one room in an apartment or house. A bacholor will cost you about 600-700 dollors per month, one bedroom cost 7-800 depends one what type of quality of room you are looking for. Books are very expensive, although you buy second hand, still cost you a lot.so a lot people photocopy books, which will cost you 4 cent per page.Professor here like to earn money by changing editions every year, in order to make you buy new books. For your guys who are taking language courses before you start the actual class, they are not that useful as it seemed to be and cost you a lot. if u can't take it, doesn't really matter. Ottawa is pretty cold in winter, bring a lot winter cloths. If your guys smoke, bring as much cigarett as you can because it;s cost around 4 dollar for one pack of cigarett. If your English is not that good, doesn;t really matter for the first few months becasue all your classmates will be Chinese becasue you all taking core courses together, seperate from Canadian student, you won;t have time using English actually,unless writing papers adn do presentations. Hope these informations will help your guys a bit,and welcome to Ottawa.