I have some experience with this since I grew up in Canada. Yes, the most recent two years are what matters for universities in Canada. In high school some of us got admitted early to good universities based on our sophomore and junior years of high school. I knew a small number of students who had bad freshman and sophomore years, but a very strong junior year. In some cases the universities waited to get their mid term grades junior year, or I think in one or two cases even their final grades junior year. This can result in a rather late acceptance, but acceptances did show up late in a couple of cases. My vague recollection is that they had already put down a deposit somewhere else, but then switched (similar to what might happen if a student gets in off a waitlist).
I am not sure whether the OP would want to go north however. In OPâs situation, for example I am not sure what I would do if I had acceptances to U.Delaware, Toronto, and/or Waterloo and/or McGill. For us the Canadian schools would cost less since my daughters and I have dual citizenship. However, for an American who is a Delaware resident the Canadian schools would be significantly more expensive (and larger and colder and further away). Toronto and to some extent McGill are also known for grade deflation.
0 chance for CS for GaTech or UMD. Sorry. CS us the most difficult major to get in at both and you canât transfer into CS major. Students with much better credentials will be denied.
UD is your only hope from your list. You shoot way too high.
And RHIT can be generous with merit aid. They offered my son a package equal to 50% of tuition with his acceptance. My son did a summer STEM program there while in HS and we were very impressed with the professors there. The school does not offer PhDs and the professors self select for teaching.
Thank you all of your guys feedback so much it has helped me a lot here is my new and updated college list
Boston University
Duke University
New York University
Northwestern University
Purdue University
University of Delaware
University of Florida
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
University of Maryland
University of Michigan
University of Notre Dame
University of Southern California
University of Virginia
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Vanderbilt University
Virginia Tech
Let me know your guys thought on my new list of colleges which are still extremely good but not ivy level. I also have college counseling but they will be out for this week due to christmas so I wonât have any revision on my supplementals. Does anyone know where i can get extensive feedback for these essays?
i rlly hate my gpa as a raw number and have worked insanely hard to bring it up and despite lots of effort within the last 2 yrs iâve been able to show a strong trend of improvement and explicitly stated that i had severe family issues and covid problems throughout freshman and some of sophomore year. I hate that fact despite a decent sat score and pretty good ecs i will most likely not even be considered when they look at my gpa as a raw number. I have a 4.28 W and a 3.68 UW.
The most important thing isnât what college you go to, itâs what you do when you get there. I know thatâs the kind of cheesy thing that moms say but it is true.
Your college counselor should have given you better guidance, nearly all of these schools are extreme reaches. It doesnât mean you canât apply to them, but you need more likely schools. Youâve been given some good suggestions, let go of the prestige hunt and think about where you will be able to thrive.
Yes and test. Iâm not an AO. So itâs my opinion - doesnât mean Iâm right.
But you are missing many schools that will get you to a similar place - an RPI RHIT and more - schools like Ohio State, UMN, NC State etc.
You are seeking a high rank. Iâd rather you find a good fit. For many companies you will have to pass placement tests - theyâll be agnostic on where you attend.
My nephew has a poli sci degree, self studied but guess what - he passed the test.
Good luck.
Ps - your record is fine and Iâve given you really strong schools !! These are not âweakâ like you are surmising. They have great track records but are easier admits - thatâs ok.
Since youâve added Purdue as an âeasierâ admit, I want to share this information with you to give you some context about the type of competition there is to get into CS.
Purdue is not test optional, so your SAT score (which is one of the strongest parts of your app) is below the 25th percentile and your GPA is well below the 25th percentile. So even though Purdue might look like a more accessible school with an overall admit rate of 50%, when you dig into the details for what it takes to get into CS, you will find that itâs significantly more challenging.
Based on your updated college list, it seems as though you might need some more concrete guidance. Thus, I would suggest the following:
Eliminate any school if its overall admissions rate is below 20%
Eliminate any school if its admission rate for people of your type (i.e. out-of-state) is less than 20%.
Eliminate any school if its admission rate for CS is less than 20% and your academic stats are below the 25th percentile
Once youâve eliminated all of the above, then build your college list.
After youâve completed the applications for your college list and there are any schools that were eliminated due to reasons 1-3 that you absolutely love and would always wonder âwhat ifâ about if you didnât apply, then add back in that very small number of schools (no more than 3, preferably 0-2).
I tend to classify schools using these categories:
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Likely (60-79%)
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Low Probability (less than 20%)
Right now I would put Purdue CS in the Low Probability category for you.
Of the schools on your list, the only ones that might still stand after criteria 1-3 are these:
I see UWisconsin Madison as a maybe, but they do like OOS full pay applicants. However, CS is still super competitive.
UIUC has less than 10% acceptance rate into CS with average GPA being higher than yours.
Instead of U of Michigan, perhaps look at Michigan State.
Consider Drexel? Syracuse? College of the Holy Cross?