Chance a canadian IB student oscillating between withdrawing all apps & being delusional for T20s (93/100, 1540)

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • Canadian
  • State/Location of residency: Ontario
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Large-ish public school Very diverse school with large range of students, overall uncompetitive though
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Chinese, Nonbinary +5’5", middle part hairstyle, and i have nice fashion sense allegedly

Intended Major(s)
Government, Political Science, Public Policy, Urban Studies, American Studies, and Art

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 93.47/100 (ow, no weighted)
  • Class Rank: School doesn’t rank
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 (800 English, 740 Math)

Coursework

French immersion grades 9-10, took all my classes in french
Loaded up on summer courses and night classes every semester and summer, I think I have like 32 credits by now because I took so many. They were all honours/regular level, and ranged between Physics and Social Justice Studies
IB diploma grades 11-12

Awards

  1. Scholastic Art & Writing - Gold Key, American Visions Nominee (Political Cartoons)+ Honourable Mentions
  2. Regional Library- Creative Writing Contest, 1st Place in English & French Poetry/Short Story (won every year 2018-2023)
  3. Model UN: Best Delegate at national conference, Honourable Mention at intl. conference, Led club to 2x Best Delegation! + win at every conference lol but I only had space for highlights
  4. Summer Program - Voted Best Dressed out of 150+ people, two years in a row. (let me have a little fun haha)
  5. (FullRide Canadian Scholarship, think Coke Scholars but Maple Syrup Scholars?) - Shortlisted to 2nd stage, approx. 1/10 candidates get to this stage, still selecting

Extracurriculars

#1 Taking care of family members

#2 Model UN President ( i write a lot abt this, very personal to me, which is why it’s #2 )

#3 Deeply involved in 6 election campaigns

#4 Director at a political nonprofit - wrote policy that changed public transit in my city, created youth council in downtown ward, worked with city hall to create first ever town hall & summit to write youth-centred policies to send to city hall

#5 Student council president - changed student council constitution and changed parent council by-law to be more inclusive of intl. students and newcomers to Canada. created a “translations committee” for intl. student outreach.

#6 Summer Program - attendee twice then unofficial ambassador - reached out to create a new role basically bc they didn’t have ppl advertising like me. I write a LOT about this program

#7 Youth Advisory Chair at large labour education nonprofit - I created workshop programming that got students to join unions

#8 Orchestra player at city youth orchestra (audition) & street busker, had social media page + raised $500+ for Canadian Cancer Society

#9 Captain for Relay for Life w/ Canadian Cancer Society. Raised $15k+ in our first year :smiley:

#10 Volunteer Coach & Public Outreach/Marketing director at a long-standing figure skating non-profit. raised $10k for financial aid through bursaries and merchandise sales (forgot to include this in my app, but i think its in my LOR??)

Essays/LORs/My application’s kiss of death
I think my commonapp was certainly vivid but I don’t know if it was good. My supplemental essays varied between absolute trash (most of them) and half decent (one or two schools). Oh well! I hope interviews save me lol.
LORs: Teacher 1 likes me but she’s not super good at writing (she showed it to me. Teacher 2… I’m not sure. She is really good at writing, but is known for being “fake” - she seems to like me, but does she really?. I asked her because my teachers keep leaving halfway through the year and she is the only one who stayed. I got boxed in haha. Supp. LOR is from the Director at the skating non-profit, who’s seen me grow since grade 8.
Counsellor rec will be good I think? She has a good sense of what I do in and outside class, and has seen me in action in Administration Meetings

Schools

  • Safety

YorkU Glendon - Accepted

  • Likely

University of Western Ontario
University of Toronto

  • Match

I don’t need suggestions for USA matches as I’ll happily skip and hop to UofT if reach admissions don’t work out!

  • Reaches (kind of ranked in order of how much I like them)
    Harvard University
    Columbia University
    Yale University
    University of Pennsylvania
    Georgetown University
    University of Chicago - EA Deferred, :frowning: loved my supps for this
    Stanford University
    Princeton University
    Brown University
    Cornell University
    MIT
    SciencesPo/Berkeley Dual Degree
    SciencesPo
    UC Berkeley (yes ik no aid, i applied because i had to for the dual degree)
    Dartmouth University
1 Like
2

Why would you withdraw?

You’re happy with your Canadian schools so see what happens…your background is fine.

3

having hope in such an impossible chance is psychological warfare - i learned this after my summer program admissions bloodbath last year. if i could barely handle 12 rejections/waitlists for summer programs, idk if i could take the ~25 rejections for such a huge chunk of my future :slight_smile:

and yes i’d be happy with UofT, but I’d much rather have a liberal arts education in the USA, where I’d get to have a much better undergrad experience (which is famously lacking at UofT)

4

Then take your list down a notch. Or don’t panic.
But you have a shot.

5

Better to work on taming your anxiety than withdraw. You have a very interesting and impressive profile (as well as a sense of humor, which always helps), so, although you never know, you definitely should not give up now when you’ve already done the work. Chicago is not necessarily the most obvious choice to me in any event.

6

Don’t withdraw. Just apply to a couple more American schools even if you don’t intend to go, just to have the “yes” to buoy you through March. The point is not competition with UT but rather having a cushion to withstand a potential bloodbath.
Some colleges have Jan 15 or even Feb 1 deadlines, not to mention state flagships with rolling admissions.

1 Like
7

How much aid do you need?
Are all these schools affordable?

8

Most of these schools have now filled nearly half their 2028 class with ED or SCEA. Acceptance rates for most are around 5%. But you’ve got solid stats, interesting activities, and a sense of humor (which hopefully came out in your essays). So you’ve got a chance, but remember out of 100 hopeful kids who also applied and who also have stats, grades, etc. around 95 of them will be denied. Still you’re certainly a contender.
If you’re set on the US college experience, why not send off RD applications to both University of Michigan and The Ohio State University. I’m pretty sure they are both February 1 deadlines.
Good luck - and do share all your results here.

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9

Yes, these are all reaches…and even moreso for international students.

Asking again…are all of these affordable? Most of your reach list is need aware for international students…so your level of financial need can be considered when your application is reviewed. So…how much aid do you need to attend these schools…and can your family afford the $75,000 a year for Cal.

You have an acceptance already and likely a guaranteed acceptance to Toronto. If you are happy with those colleges, fine. Just wait and see on the others.

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10

It sounds like you only want to come to the U.S. for your liberal arts education if you can go to only the very top ranked colleges. If you really want to come here, there are plenty of less competitive colleges where your chances of acceptance are not under 10%.

4 Likes
11

Your apps are ready so it’d probably be quite easy to meet the deadlines below. All of these colleges will offer a very strong undergraduate experience and challenging education for your fields of interest.

1/15 deadlines
UDenver
LMU-LA
American University (* )
Grinnell (* )
Tulane (though most of the class was filled ED)
Holy Cross
Kalamazoo
Carleton
Macalester (* )
St Olaf
Case Western Reserve (* )
Dickinson
Lafayette
VTech (though class probably filled in Priority round)
UWisconsin (" ")
Trinity CT

Feb1
DePaul
DePauw
UMBC
UMichigan (probably filled class in priority round though)
TCNJ
St Lawrence
Muhlenberg
Knox

** *= I’d make those a priority **

If the deadline hasn’t passed, apply to the UBC/Sciences Po program. Your odds are MUCH better than for the UCB/Sciences po program and as a Canadian it makes more sense. Otherwise why not apply for the Trinity Dublin/SciencesPo program?
There’s also a McGill/ESCP program i think but you need 12th grade math.

2 Likes
12

a number of them give aid to Canadian students

13

yeah, although i like the liberal arts education UofT’s programs are the best in the country + I’m on track to get a handful of good scholarships with a foundation yr program that accelerates my career. so that’s why my list is very selective

14

thank you for the suggestions :slight_smile:

i considered this but after visiting the ubc campus i felt an inexplicable sense of dread. i think its the Los Alamos-esque campus and the looming trees

15

It sounds like your mind is all made up…so what exactly IS your question here?

16

im genuinely considering like withdrawing my applications and pretending like i never applied bc of how likely it is that I’ll see straight rejections in March; i guess I’m worried there’s glaring red flags or a huge hole in my application that would guarantee that

17

You don’t have any glaring red flags that I can see. You just need to wait and see. That’s the way it is with ANYONE waiting for results from reach schools.

Just wait and see…and good luck.

Oh…and by the way…if you withdraw those applications, there is NO way you will be accepted. Just saying!

18

Who cares. U got U of T. The minute you step on campus you don’t even remember other schools.

You’ve done everything. You can’t control the schools.

If you get rejected everywhere, so what.

It doesn’t matter. Life contains lots of rejection.

What happens when you start applying for a job ? Or seeking a mate ?

Lots of rejection in many cases.

But I know one thing - the only way to get accepted is to try.

2 Likes
19

As a Canadian with a bachelor’s degree from MIT, I would not describe MIT as having a “liberal arts education”. Have you checked the general education requirements at MIT? The math and science classes there are quite challenging.

Otherwise I think that you have solid safeties in Canada, and the various US reach schools are possible. I think that you just need to be patient and wait and see what happens.

However, I would not take on any significant debt to get a bachelor’s degree in the US if you can manage U of Toronto (or Western or York) without debt.

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20

People get into these schools with your stats. People get rejected from these schools with your stats. No one can say for sure how many acceptances or rejections you’ll get. You could still get admitted from UChi. Work on being okay with seeing rejections. You don’t want to always wonder if there were some acceptances. I say stay in the game.