I am currently a junior in high school with a decent gpa/sat scores. I am wondering what colleges I should apply to next year.
Freshman year GPA: 3.3
Sophmore year: 2.8(with 1 F that I made up in a cc with an A)
Junior year: 3.8(I finished all math classes offered at my school, completing Calculus BC this year with an A both semesters)
SAT: 2100
EC: -soccer 3 years
-cross country 2 years
-track 1 year
-200 hours of community service
-President of Go Green Society (recycling club)
-School Site Council Secretary
-Member of Speech and debate
-Member of Youth and Government (running for 69th Secretary of State this year)
-Member of Interact for 2 years
-2 UC credits from ucla for completing their 10 day mock trial summer program
What do you want to study? What part of the country? Do you want a big school or a small school? Lots of things to consider. The schools ranking on a list doesn’t matter as much as what kind of school will make you happiest.
Thank you for the response! I want to study neuroscience or psychology! I’m looking for a modern campus(kind of like UC Irvine). I would love to go to any UC, except Merced or Riverside (because my parents think they’re lower tier universities) or UC Santa Cruz because my sister attends there. I’m not looking to study in the south, but maybe the east. Syracuse has always been a dream but I think because my sophomore year grades were so terrible I have no chance. I would also love to study in Canada because I have so much family there, but the only universities I would want to attend are McGill and UoT.
No you actually have a better chance at Syracuse than ANY of those schools you listed (McGill, the UC’s, and U of T.) I think you have a decent shot at getting into Syracuse! The others are reaches because of your gpa. Top publics are generally more unforgiving of low gpa than Syracuse. What makes you think you have no chance at Syracuse but some chances at mid tier UC’s, McGill, and UT? Haha, Syracuse is less selective than those schools.
First off I should not that their is a big variation in admission requirements at Canadian universities based on what program you are applying to as much as what university you are applying to. For example engineering or business or life sciences will generally have much tougher admission requirements than a lot of the humanities simply because seats in those departments are more competitive. I will give you some info on general admission requirements at both universities but you should do some research about the specific requirements for your desired program.
Well McGill doesn’t look at grade 9 marks, only grade 10, 11 and 12 (with a big emphasis on grade 12 gpa). so your 3.3 in grade 9 means nothing to them. QUOTE: “Grade 10, 11, and 12 academic results will be considered, but special attention will be paid to results from those courses most relevant to the intended program of study.” As it stands you might have some trouble with your gpa as it stands now but this does mean that if you have a similar year in grade 12 as you did in grade 11 you should be ok at getting in McGill (grade 10 marks really are the least important of the 3 years considered).
They also exactly spell out what SAT scores they want for applicants to get accepted (included in the link below). You didn’t post your sub-scores so I cant tell whether you meet their threshold for sure but with a composite of 2100 you shouldn’t have a problem unless one score is much lower than the other two (basically you want 620-650 or better in reading and writing and 560-650 in Math for non-math or architecture based majors).
Neither McGill or UofT (and most Canadian Universities really) care about extracurriculars or any demographic features (ie. gender, race, ect.); its just grades and scores that matter. The plus side of this is that applications tend to be quick and painless.
The University of Toronto, also like McGill doesn’t care about ECs, again it is just grades and test scores. Oddly at UofT Psychology is part of the Life Sciences program at UofT (so the degree would actually be a BSc) so you would apply through life sciences. For Life/Biological Sciences/Psychology they are pretty vague on actual grade requirements, just saying “a high grade point average”. Again, like McGill gpa in your later years is much more heavily weighted in determining admissions than in your early years at highscoll, which could be good for you if you do will in grade 12. Aim for at least a 3.7 in grade 12 to have a shot at admission into the life sciences department. They say “successful applicants” need at least a 600 in each SAT component so that’s pretty straightforward. Make sure to actually take a look at what highschool credits are required for admission as well so you can take all the righ courses next year.
In short for the Canadian Schools you listed you have to make up some ground in the gpa department but it still is up in the air because of the weighting of gpa between years and because grade 12 gpa is so important for admissions. So if you can pull a similar result in grade 12 as you did this year in grade 11 you actually stand a good shot, because McGill and UofT would probably be quite willing to overlook a poor grade 10 in light of a strong final 2 years.
