High schooler with mid ecs and mid grades please match me (desperate)

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Living abroad, US residency
  • Type of high school: 2 years of Canadian public + private boarding (scholarship)
  • Other special factors: Im planning to attend a boarding school abroad again for G11 and 12 tho.

Cost Constraints / Budget: Max 40-50K. ALSO my school’s network runs a scholarship program to support up to 40K in tuition.

Intended Major(s): PPE, Econ, philosophy, sociology, education, humanities in general

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.96/4.00
  • Class Rank: Both schools don’t rank
  • ACT/SAT Scores: I did one practice test and its around mid 1300 range. (Maybe I can move it up to the high 1400s)

List your HS coursework

Public school did not offer any AP, IB, enrichment programs except for Dual Credit + IB program for the new intl school

I didn’t take a lot of “g12 courses” to graduate. All the grade 12 courses (4U courses) are genuinely done out of my own passion (except for English because that was a grad requirement but I love English)

  • English: ENG4U (G12) + IB ENG LL HL
  • Math: Advanced Functions MHF4U (G12) + IB Math AA SL *** I got a 70 in Math in G10, because of personal issues, I have ADHD I’m unmedicated and I don’t have an IEP because I get “good grades”. I retook it and ended up with a 97 with practical study methods but I’m scared schools might think bad ab it. On my transcript it says R for retake. Any advice?
  • Science: Bio SBI3U (G11) + IB ESS SL (School subject schedules didn’t allow me to take IB Bio SL)
  • History and social studies: Canadian/Intl Law (G12), Econ (G11), World Issues (G12), Philosophy (G12), World Cultures (G12), Psychology (Dual Credit +99%!) + GloPo HL, Econ HL
  • Language other than English: FSF2D (G10 French) and IB French SL
  • Visual or performing arts: G11 Music -

Awards

Music leadership award
deleted bronze and gold award

New intl school doesn’t give out any awards

Extracurriculars

  • Member of student council G11 (Helped raise CAD for a fundraiser)
  • Environment club head G11 (Ran a store to raise awareness for fast fashion, very popular among student ran booths)
  • Environment club grade 10 rep
  • Peer mentor leader G10-G11
  • Volunteer to teach dance for disabled children
  • Class representative in G10
  • Led a youth org that advocates for literacy especially around global conflicts
  • Member of a fundraising committee to raise $17 000
  • Language tutor
  • Language teacher for immigrants for a Saturday school
  • Sold over 120 homemade deleted to raise awareness for immigrants
    other clubs: Chemistry club, stage crew, soccer team
  • Summer: I was in a youth diplomacy program run by a government, and we also moved so I couldn’t do much. Also wanted to spend time with family more since I’m leaving to a boarding school.

I plan to do lots more stuff related to education, econ, finance, neurodivergence, and other advocacy related stuff for the next few years.

Essays/LORs/Other
I think my writing is mid but I get good grades in English and my friends find all my personal statement essays/writings are diabolically funny.

Idk about my LORs but normally I have good relationships with everyone

Schools - PLEASE GIVE ME RECOMMENDATIONS! I have no idea for schools. I didn’t really think about unis until now, I think I’d rate myself a solid B+ student. I want a school that has a social life (not parties but lots of places to socialize/clubs) and a good alum network. Heres my inital ideas:
UT Austin
A&M
GWU (I love DC)
All the UCs
Georgetown… (I know its a super reach. EA?)

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This site aligns with your academic interests and includes moderately selective schools like Trinity, Gettysburg and Dickinson:

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Here’s some that come to mind for your budget with the major, which isn’t at most schools.

  1. Appalachian State
  2. Binghamton
  3. East Carolina may work through its multi disciplinary degree
  4. Florida State - may be a reach
  5. George Mason - since you love DC - it’s close
  6. OK State - has an ethics and public policy
  7. Rhodes - an LAC likely to meet cost

Others to consider- but budget may be a strain unless you get help from the scholarship you noted - Pitt and College of Charleston (in the poli sci major) .

Or you can go in state in Texas and do a Poli Sci major with a philosophy and econ minor or change the major and do the other two in minor - and look at schools like Houston, Texas State, Lamar, Texas Tech and more. A&M could be a reach.

GTOWN has no merit aid - so you’d have to have your folks fill out the net price calculator to see.

Welcome | Net Price Calculator

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UT is going to be very difficult without a class rank but worth a try.

I assume you’ll be attending a UWC abroad after completing Ontario secondary school so your UWC and IB grades will be given a lot of weight.

St Olaf has a partnership with UWCs. Worth looking into.

Also look into Denison and American University.

UCs won’t meet budget, cross them out.

Run the Npc on the colleges on your list. Are they all within budget?

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All schools meet the budget except the ucs. I’m also trying to look into schools for the Davis partner schools right now. Thank you!

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Georgetown, GW, and the UTs all fit within the finances. I like GM too or most schools that are close to DC! What do you think about William and Mary? Would you think its too competitive? It seems like an amazing school but no one seems to talk about it.

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Are you still in Canada? If so, then what is your status there?

How is this “mid grades”? Isn’t this vanishingly close to straight A’s?

How is this compatible with a 70 in math in grade 10? Does only your retake count towards GPA?

Given that you are out of state, these will be expensive.

Do you have some ideas regarding what you might want to do with one of these majors? Are you thinking of some kind of graduate school?

I am confused again. Have you already graduated high school? Are you intending to do two more years of high school, and then look for universities to attend?

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William&Mary is superb indeed and would definitely be a reach but you can always try if your UWC results are excellent (36+). Run the NPC first.

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Canadian grades are different from US grades. Off the top of my head I think an 85 is an A+ and a 70 a B.

OP may be doing the secondary school-> college-> university path (like in Quebec where you need 2-3 years of college/cegep after secondary school, before you apply to university. The degree only takes 3 years, mainly focused on one subject and is related subjects whereas the college degree includes French, English, philosophy, and subjects related to pre-reqs for broad swaths of possible majors.) Here it would be a United World College.

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  • I forgot to mention that Ill be attending a private international school outside of Canada! I was considered an intl student in Canada, but my parents were working there. We all moved to Texas because of my parents work.
  • No this is because Canada counts 80-100% as As and 70s as a B. Our school doesn’t do GPA so I used an online calculator. Most my marks are pretty mid-- like high 80s low 90s. It’s not considered good for unis (or they say). I do also have ADHD so subjects marks fluctuate. Subjects I enjoy are in the high 90s while subjects I find boring are in the low 80s.
  • Yeah I’m scrapping the UCs out
  • In terms of my major ideas.. these are the subjects I really enjoy doing, and this might be a very small plan of mine but I do want a masters in sociology focusing on new religious movements (aka cults). I also do like academia so probably yes. As a back up plan, I wanna be a guidance counsellor for high school students. I personally really like teaching and helping others.
  • In short, yes. I graduated high school, plan to do two extra years and look for universities to attend. I applied to a international school called UWC in grade 11. (This school makes you do the IB program so it made me repeat a grade. I didn’t mind cuz I was born in December so it works out the same way as the Texan education system would). I got accepted to UWC in December, and in early February I realized I could graduate with my Canadian high school if I take G12 English because I had so many credits. I took the G12 English online and got my diploma. In total I’ll do 5 years of high school. I totally understand ur confusion- all my friends are confused too.

Are there any schools you’d recommend to people with a similar profile as me?

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It’s hard to understand your profile other than the test - but you need one, preferably two safe and affordable schools. So if you like W&M, try. The worst they can say is no. Mary Washington would give you regular DC access that W&M won’t based on location - if you wanted to go in on weekends but doesn’t have the PPE major.

Not every school you listed has a PPE major if that’s the goal.

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Whether “high 80’s low 90’s” puts you as an average student or the number 1 top student in the high school or somewhere in between is likely to depend upon what high school you attend. University admissions will be able to interpret this based on grade scales that are typical in the schools that you attended.

I’m glad it is not just me!

To me it looks like you will have a relatively unusual application to universities. However, it sounds like you will be attending a school for grades 11 and 12 that is likely to have very good college counseling. Also, there really are a LOT of very good universities (in Texas, and in the US, and in Canada) and there should be lots of universities and colleges where you will be a competitive applicant when the time comes.

One problem is figuring out what you want in a college or university. Do you want a large school or a small school? Do you want to be in a city or a small town? Do you have geographic preferences (northeast, southwest, whatever)? How you do in the next two years of high school will also matter of course.

Right now your main job is probably to get ready for the academic year that is about to start. Job number 2 might be to think about what sort of university would be the right fit for you, or perhaps to just live your life and have some fun.

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UWC should have great college counseling and your profile will look quite different as a result of that program. Congratulations on that.

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You have several majors listed. I looked for PPE schools because if you want that, or similar, there’s only so many. But how important is that.

There’s likely a ton of schools you fit into.

I don’t know if it was you in another thread, but someone else posted this Davis link.

If you can spend $40K and the program will give $40K, I don’t know who will have PPE - but schools like Beloit, Brandeis, Denison, F&M, Grinnell, Lehigh, Pitzer, Sewanee and more might make nice apps.

The list I gave above were PPE schools or a derivative of it that will come in at budget without Davis.

DUWCSP Partner Schools 2026-27.pdf - Google Drive

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I’m a little confused by your profile, both academic and financial but that’s ok. You have several good ideas and suggestions here and I wanted to add just one thing…

As a Texas resident you may be able to get on to UT Austin for a major within the College of Liberal Arts (which includes Govenrment). At competitive in state high schools a lot of kids outside of auto admit still get in to the “easier” Colleges.

Even if you don’t get in…as a TX resident you are automatically eligible for CAP,
Which offers guaranteed admission to enroll in the College of Liberal Arts as a sophomore after completing one year at another UT school.

This year they created a fully online CAP option that actually allows you to do your first year online (through UT PB) while living in Austin. So…that can be a great option if you want UT but get CAPped. Best of luck.

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Will you and your parents have been in Texas for a year before you enter university?

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As others have said the school that you are about to be attending is likely to have very good counselors who will be able to point you towards many very good colleges and universities. However, one thing popped in my mind that I thought that I might mention just because counselor’s outside of Canada might not know about it.

Overall, and specifically for PPE, one school that you might want to look at is Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. It is usually ranked as the number one top “small primarily undergraduate” university in Canada, and has a very good PPE program in addition to many other very good programs. Admissions will be largely based on your last two years of high school, and like pretty much all universities in Canada is largely stats based. However, admissions to top universities in Canada tends to be much easier compared to top universities in the US. This appears to be based on there being a much larger number of seats available at the top universities in Canada compared to the US when expressed as a percentage of the population of each country. The cost for an international student, if you remember to adjust for the exchange rate, is under US$40,000 per year (even if just over C$40,000 per year).

One daughter was admitted to Mount Allison, we visited I think three times in total, liked it a lot, and had some trouble deciding between it and a couple of other excellent relatively small schools that she was also admitted to. In our experience the high school guidance counselors in the US that we talked to seemed to be pretty much oblivious to the existence of very good small “primarily undergraduate” universities in Canada which is why I thought it might be worth mentioning.

The main plus of attending a small school in Canada appears to be an excellent education at a reasonable price at a very good university with very good opportunities of various kinds, and not too stressful of an environment. The main negative appears to be that no one in the US has heard of the small universities in Canada, although that did not seem to harm our daughter’s applications to graduate programs in the US.

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Look into James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.

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