<p>What are my chances at McGill? Its definitely one of my top choices! And does it help at all if I’m the only Finnish applicant? Like does that give me a chance in getting scholarships?</p>
<p>I think your chances would be decent. McGill really isn’t that hard to get into (almost 50% acceptance rate) and you seem like a fairly strong applicant. When you get your SAT I & II scores, you’ll have a better picture of your chances - I’d say 700+ for each section/test would be a good target.</p>
<p>I hold Finnish citizenship as well and just finished my first semester at McGill and McGill really doesn’t care at all about your nationality outside of whether you pay international tuition or not. People come from all over the place and they don’t award anything besides merit scholarships really so I doubt it’ll give you much of an advantage. They also don’t care about extracurriculars because sports aren’t really a big deal and they admit almost entirely on gpa and test scores. Doing well on your AP exams will help since they take those scores seriously and give you credit (I got a year of advanced standing). But doing poorly probably won’t hurt you either. Canadian schools view admissions very differently than U.S. schools do, they want to know you’re smart and that’s it- they don’t care about who you are as a person. McGill’s easier to get into than school’s of the same academic caliber but they’re grading is quite difficult, you’ll work pretty hard for B’s, there’s no coasting so I would focus on doing well in your testing and making sure you actually learn how to write a 10 pg research paper before getting here. Unlike the Ivy Leagues, there’s no “gentleman’s B” and in my arts classes there’s no curve or padding in the grades. Anyway, I digress. it’s a great school, challenging but worth it and it seems like you’ll do fine in admissions.</p>