Chance/Match a Canadian at a crossroads applying for the US [top 10%, 1540 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • Canadian citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Canada
  • Type of high school: Small, Private, semi-competitive school
  • Other special factors: None

Cost Constraints / Budget
Full pay, money is not an issue

Intended Major(s)
Material Science / Electrical Engineering?

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 96-97/100%
  • Weighted HS GPA: School doesn’t have one
  • Class Rank: School doesn’t have one but prob top 10% at least
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 SAT (taking again in August)

List your HS coursework

IBDP program… IB predicted 38/42 for G11 (Will change in November when I get my second round of predictions, hopefully higher)

IB Math AAHL: 7
IB Physics HL: 6
IB L+L HL: 6
IB Chem SL: 7
IB Mandarin SL: 6
IB Global Politics: 6

Awards
First @ reigonal science fair
Bronze + Best in catagory award @ National science fair
Also represented Canada at MILSET ESI
Canadian U16 champion/represented canada at international U18 championship in mindgame (won’t say which bc very doxxable) [think shogi, go, xiangqi etc.]
2x AIME
Honour roll for Fermat/Euclid math contests

Extracurriculars
Embedded Hardware Intern at neuroscience research center

  • Basically helped CAD components/fabricate PCBs needed for research purposes

Independant Research

  • Electrical Engineering/Material Science project I did for my science fair project, some parts were done in nearby uni lab
  • Wrote a preprint for a research paper that is currently in rev

School Math Club Head

  • Led weekly lectures/organized math contests (led school to be ranked first reigonally)

School Science Club Head

  • Led weekly activities/organized guest speakers/ different science olympiads

Mindgame self study

  • Self studied mindgame to become nationally ranked + also part of an organization that teaches the game to others for free

Freelance Website and Circuit Designer

  • Made $1000+ in profit

Semi-prestigious summer program

Also if it counts for anything I was challenger in TFT

Essays/LORs/Other
Prob solid LOR but nothing extraordinary

Schools
Cornell, UCs, Rice, georgia tech, Umich, WashU, Purdue, CMU, UNC, UIUC,

These are the main ones I’m looking at right now but I can easily add more schools to cast a wider net. I don’t have any safety schools as I have solid back ups in Canada

I would be estatic if I got into any of the schools on this list. However, I really want to get into Cornell as it has been a dream of mine; I was wondering if I should ED there or wait until RD where I can hopefully improve my IB scores and some of my awards (mainly hoping to qualify for AIME again which I am semi-confident in) for a stronger chance.

Also, for my ED, I have the option to apply purely with my percentage grade (as in unis don’t see my ib score). I was wondering if I should report a 38/42 especially for some of the more competitive schools.

Additionally, I am also at a crossroads between applying for Electrical Engineering or Material Science. Originally I was going to apply for EE but over the course of the past year I’ve realized that I kind of like Material Science more (Though I would also be happy with EE). However, currently most of my ECs align better with EE and my parents think that Material Science is kind of unemployable (which ig is kind of true) so I have no idea what to do.

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If you are interested in the UCs it would be helpful if you could calculate your three UC GPAs. You can use this calculator, carefully following the directions (pay attention to the notes about which classes are counted as “honors” etc.) GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

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Just a heads up that Cornell does not give as big of an ED bump as before: Cornell Reduces Proportion of Students Admitted Through Early Decision Track - The Cornell Daily Sun

Also, you apply to the college of engineering but don’t declare a major until second semester sophomore year so you don’t have to decide now between EE or MS.

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EE is much more competitive these days. If you like both, I’d apply for Materials Science Engineering.

There are many great engineering schools which are ABET approved and which are not safety schools. I’m curious why you’re restricting yourself to this group at an early stage in the process.

I’m also interested in what your long range plans are for after college. Do you want to go directly into the job market after college? Do you want to go to grad school? If so, master’s or PhD? Are you looking for a career in hands on engineering, research, business?

Full pay will give you a great advantage at some schools in the current political climate.

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You have a chance anywhere. But no assurance.

UNC doesn’t have EE of course so if it’s a possibility, I’d replace it with another strong but safer school -like NC State unless your are is in Canada.

Best of luck.

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yeah tbh I’m only applying there bc my school nominated me for the more head cain scholarship

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What’s the point if you can’t study what you want / if it’s EE.

What’s your sure bet school?

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I think that different provinces might have slightly different grade scales. I grew up in Canada and attended high school in Canada. At least in my high school an average of 96% would have put you #1 in the high school (and would have knocked me down a spot). Top universities in the US will know how strong this is.

And 1540 SAT is also excellent. It is not clear to me that you need to take it again. As a potential engineering major your math score is likely to be more important than your English score. How did you do on each part of the SAT?

That is a good thing, since you are applying to universities in the US that by the time you get there might average US$100,000 per year for four years. You could easily spend well over C$500,000 by the time that they hand you a bachelor’s degree (more than this if you go on for a master’s degree).

Other than cost there is one big problem that I see for a Canadian studying in the US. International students in the US are required to return to their home country after graduating. US employers want to hire people who have the legal right to work in the US, which won’t be you. Canadian employers, at least in my experience, seem to prefer to hire students who graduate from university in Canada. Thus having a degree from McGill or Toronto or McMaster or UBC or any of 10 or 20 other universities is likely to be preferred, in terms of getting a job in Canada, over having a degree from Cornell (or from MIT or Stanford, where I got my two degrees).

I do understand that for a potential engineering major there are more jobs in the US, and they pay better. One option if you do get a degree in the US might be to get a temporary extension of your visa to get work experience (apparently there is some sort of temporary visa possible) for a year or two, work for a US company that has an engineering office in Canada, and then transfer to the Canadian office after your temporary visa expires. However, there is no guarantee that you will be able to do this, and this might also be possible with a degree from a Canadian university.

If you do get accepted to university in the US and subsequently apply for a student visa, if you tell US immigration that your intention is to stay in the US after graduation, this can be a reason to deny your student visa. You will want to be careful what you say when applying for a student visa to study in the US.

Are you applying to all of the Universities of California, or only a few of the higher ranked ones? I think that your chances for Merced or Riverside might be relatively good, but I do not understand why you would prefer them to a Canadian university. There is no safety on this list, but to me it seems very reasonable for your safeties to be in Canada.

I would only apply ED if two things are both true: It is clearly your #1 choice and you are sure. You can afford it with no debt and no family hardship. If both of these are true then ED is reasonable, even if it only helps a little bit. If they want more information (such as first semester grades when available) they can ask for it.

Some of the schools on your list admit by major (I think that the various UCs are in this category), and some do not. At least for some universities in the US you get to pick any major you want, for example in some cases at the end of your freshman year of university. For those that admit by major, there are usually restrictions regarding the ability to switch to a more popular major. However, changing majors is quite common in the US (and in Canada).

I might be tempted to start with the EE major because it is likely to be more difficult to switch into, try to take some classes relevant to materials science, and then decide which you prefer after you have a few classes taken. Both daughters did change their majors, and in some cases they needed to apply for permission to switch major. Very good grades in the relevant classes might have helped their case. However, if you turn out preferring material science, then this might at least tend to be highly correlated with doing well in the associated classes.

This doesn’t matter. If your ECs were competitive sailing, violin, and ju jitsu that would be fine also. Your ECs do not need to be related to your major.

I think that there might be fewer places where material science is employable. I was under the impression that there were however jobs. I thought that I read somewhere that the energy industry hires some materials science graduates, and Canada of course has quite a bit of energy industry (as does the US). This might be something that you might want to research before you decide what to major in.

One thing that I have read is that a graduate degree is not all that unusual for a materials science graduate. A master’s degree is also a possibility for an EE graduate. Getting a bachelor’s in Canada plus a master’s in the US is a possible option. I do know a few people who have done this (one of whom also then got a PhD in the US at the same school where they got their master’s degree).

And I do think that you are a competitive applicant anywhere. However, so are the large majority of applicants to top schools in the US, and you know the acceptance rate (and acceptance rates are even lower for international students).

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Materials science and EE do have some overlap. My son is studying EECS at UCB and because he’s interested in devices and circuits, he is also taking upper division classes in materials, chemistry, and physics. UCB also has a combined major of EECS and materials science for students with these interests.

For students interested in materials and devices, a joint major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS)/Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) can be valuable. The program combines the study of materials from a broad perspective, as taught in MSE, with the study of their applications in electronic devices and circuits, as taught in EECS.

If the OP’s interests are in this overlap area, my understanding from what my son is hearing is that graduates with background in this area are employable regardless of whether their undergraduate degree is in EE, materials, or physics… but for the good jobs, most do some kind of graduate degree.

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Thanks I’ll check this out