Help! Please consider me and my odds for admission to McGill University as an American applicant.
Demographics
Texas
Fairly Competitive High School
Intended Major
Sociology
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Weighted HS GPA: 105.417
Class Rank: 106/586
List your HS coursework
Freshman: Honors English I, Honors Algebra I, Honors Human Geography, Honors Biology
Sophomore: AP Psychology, Honors Geometry, Honors Chemistry, Honors English II
Junior: AP US History, AP Environmental Science, AP Lang, Honors Algebra II, AP Biology
Senior: AP Macroeconomics, AP Gov, AP Lit, AP Seminar, AP Statistics
Awards
Homecoming Court Duke (Freshman)
Freshman of the Year - Theatre Department (Freshman)
Best Actor Award - Theatre Department (Freshman)
UIL OAP - “Describe The Night” (Freshman)
3rd Place @Zone
1st Place @District
2nd Place @Bi-District
4th Place @Area
Honorable Mention Acting Award - UIL OAP Zone (Freshman)
Destination Imagination (Sophomore)
2nd Place @Regionals, State Qualifying - Service Competition
Destination Imagination (Junior)
1st Place @Regionals - Team Extreme Competition
1st Place @Regionals - Fine Arts Competition
“Spirit of DI” Award
“Da Vinci” Award
Extracurriculars
HOSA Club Member (Freshman)
Thespian Club Member (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior)
Class of 2026 Treasurer (Freshman)
Student Council Class Representative (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior)
Principles Advisory (Sophomore, Junior, Senior)
Mean Girls Cast Member - Featured Role (Sophomore)
Destination Imagination (Sophomore, Junior)
Mamma Mia Cast Member - Leading Role (Sophomore)
National Honor Society (Sophomore, Junior, Senior)
Thespian Club Historian (Junior)
Johnson City Science Mill Diversity and Inclusion Marketing and Communications Internship (Junior, Senior)
STUDENT BODY VICE PRESIDENT
CLASS OF HISTORIAN
Please let me know. My top 2 schools are UW-Seattle and McGill University.
Help me understand why the rank is lower than expected with that weighted GPA (agree with @tsbna44) that we need to know some kind of unweighted) and so many honors and AP classes, Also, what kind of numeric bump are you getting in your weighted for honors, and for AP?
I don’t see trigonometry or precalculus on your list. Universities can teach you calculus, but the prerequisites for calculus are likely to be expected for admissions to top schools. Statistics is likely to be useful for someone majoring in sociology.
Did you take any foreign language, or any language other than English? (I am not sure if Spanish really should count as “foreign” for someone from Texas).
Do you have all A’s throughout high school? If not, then how how many A’s and how many B’s do you have?
Do you know any French at all? It is not needed for McGill, but might be useful to have some fun in Montreal. I am pretty sure that you could learn this after arriving in Montreal (for example they could probably match you with an intensive immersion course over the summer).
The class rank competition in the state of Texas is tense. Especially because of the top 5% auto admit to UT. The GPA game starts so young and students will load up on summer courses for ever a little bump. (Including myself).
It’s not great - but I think, for sociology, you have a decent shot at UW. Not a safety but a fair target. Their OOS acceptance is 40% so I’d say 50.1/49.9 - meaning even but I suspect you will get in.
UMN might be a similar type school (except not coastal) to bookend it with - a likely. Or Oregon if you want to be on the west coast - it’s a ssfety.
Would you please confirm that you will not be submitting tests?
Regarding McGill, I lean that you will not be admitted. On the other hand, given you are not applying to one of their more challenging schools, you may get accepted on the tail end of the process. Note McGill admissions is somewhat formulaic… just do not know their cutoffs until they start getting applicants. You seem 50/50 for U Washington. Do you have any safer choices?
Sociology doesn’t have subject pre-reqs (so Algebra2&AP Stats is fine) and isn’t the most competitive compared to other McGill majors but still not an easy admit (for instance, where 22 RScore is average and 32 is topnotch, sociology would require about 27). Odds in your favor due to being an international but don’t expect a quick decision.
Hopefully you have safer, affordable choices. As a sidenote, run the NPC on Beloit - they’re very good for sociology.
I think that I may be a bit more optimistic than other responses.
This I am not sure about. The people who I know who applied to McGill all had at least taken all of the prerequisites for calculus and did well in them. For engineering or math I would be quite concerned. However, for sociology I just don’t know. McGill does admit by major.
I think that you will figure this out and be fine. You do not need any French to attend McGill. You will pick up some just living in Montreal. There are also some good French intensive courses over the summer in Montreal, and in Quebec City, and elsewhere in Canada. It might be worth signing up for one, whether before your freshman year of university or between freshman and sophomore years. However, I do not think that this is necessary, nor required.
To me this looks fine. I know three people who were accepted to McGill (myself, a daughter, and a sibling) and I used to know a lot of people who were accepted there (most of perhaps the top 1/10 of my high school since we were local). I am not sure if any of us had a better mix of A’s and B’s.
I do not think that it is a safety, but I think that your chances are reasonably good.
As others have sort of hinted at, the rate at which people are accepted depends upon how strong their application is. Applicants who are obviously going to be accepted (high GPAs, all requirements very solid) tend to get their acceptance quickly. Applicants who are likely to be closer to the cutoff tend to get their acceptances much later in the process. You hear whenever you hear.
I do think that UBC is worth an application. Another school to consider might be Concordia, which is in Montreal just up the street from McGill. York University in Toronto is also quite good for sociology, and would be significantly safer for admissions.
In our experience filling in the applications for universities in Canada tends to be much easier compared to universities in the US, so applying to several schools at least should not be much of a strain on your time and effort to get the applications done.