My DS is only Gr 7 now but is exhibiting signs of “wanting to go to the US for university” – I’m just doing some reality check on his behalf – he’s too young to worry about this so lemme figure this out and have some things in my head and since this thread has some of the schools that I went to for my Masters (I have an MBA from Penn but it’s been over 2 decades since I got that degree), I need some “baseline” to mention to him what he needs to get done –
so for schools like these mentioned earlier: Rice, Penn, Vandy, Duke etc –
a) GPA - minimum 3.8 or higher? (I actually am confused between weighted and UW gpa - i just submitted a GPA from uni to my mba program then - no weighting - the latin honors spoke for it self LOL)
b) SAT - 1450 or higher?
c) lots of AP and only in the 5 score range? I’ve seen some “chance me” forums with 10-15 APs (is that even doable in life?)
d) 10 or more extra curriculars (and at least a few that you have leadership positions in)
I mean the list goes on and on – and even I am confused by all these - FWIW, we are Canadian now (I was not a Canadian when I went to UPenn for MBA). Just reality check-ing myself (and eventually my son). My time? 680 in GMAT with Magna Cum Laude from my 3rd world country alma mater plus perfect TOEFL scores and great work experience landed me admissions to MBA programs of Penn, U of C, Northwestern, etc. (NYU was my safety then and easily made that)… these days, I’m not even sure I can make any of the schools I applied to despite my credentials…
It’s just a maze out there - I can read chance me posts one by one, etc. Is there some quick and dirty secret sauce guideline I just need to follow to guide my kid who’s only in Gr 7? (Am aware we’ll have to pay full tuition as an Intl student - similar to my own experience then more than 20 yrs ago - that has not changed LOL)
Thanks!
Confused parent
PS I think I know where my son gets this idea of “Wanting to go to US schools” - he’s the competitive type, and wants to follow parents’ schools, we’ve toured campuses while visiting metro cities in the US like, well, Penn, Columbia (when in NY), NYU (also just in downtown NY), Georgetown (when we vacationed in DC - hell we stayed in George Wash Uni area), Boston (you know what schools to visit - plus my friend was doing his Aeronautics PHD at MIT so he took us inside his lab of airplane turbines etc), etc etc etc…
I think you have lots of time to tease this out. At this point, your seventh grader should be allowed to be…a seventh grader. Let him explore ECs that are of interest to him. Try not to pidgeon hole him into anything. Let him try and find his own interests.
To attend college in the U.S. you parents will need to determine what will be affordable for you. Many U.S. colleges don’t provide any aid of any kind to students who are not U.S citizens or permanent residents, even from Canada. So…have a budget in mind.
Don’t forget to look at many of the fabulous colleges IN Canada. There are many, and I’m sure others will comment.
Re: SAT or ACT scores, this is a wait and see. The landscape of these scores will most likely change in the 5 years until your student applies for college.
Right now, you want a happy, well adjusted young person, who does their personal best in school, has friends, and enjoys life.
Yes, the college admissions landscape is quite different now from 20 years ago, even different from 5 years ago, and it will probably continue to shift and change as your 7th grader gets older!
Please don’t start getting into this in 7th grade
It’s great to feel inspired by things he sees when visiting friends and relatives (like your airplane turbines story)… I remember visiting my aunt who was doing a PhD in geophysics, and being really excited about how she was using an electron microscope to take pictures of moon rocks. This kind of experience might get a kid excited about learning more about a subject or a possible future career. But try not to encourage him to get attached to specific dream colleges, try not to shape his interests by what you think colleges are looking for … and especially try not to pressure him with things like GPA and SAT and number of APs and leadership positions in ECs.
Google “MIT applying sideways” for a helpful perspective that is great for prospective college applicants (and their parents) in any grade!
Yes, it is way too early to think about the colleges – especially too early to focus in on a few hyper competitive universities. I would impress the following things on DS.
–Do as well as possible in the most rigorous course-load he can comfortably manage;
–Get involved in activities he cares about and can make a meaningful contribution to (most importantly when in HS);
–Enjoy time with family and friends.
The only goal right now should be to have your S become the best possible version of himself – later you can see how things work out in terms of college plans.
BUT for the elite colleges, the statistics do not tell the full story. With acceptance rates under 10% (some under 5%) there are many more well qualified applicants than spots available. Applicants with perfect GPAs, perfect standardized test scores, and strong activities are routinely denied admission.
If you do end up considering US colleges (and personally, I’d hold off thinking about college until junior year of HS) consider if affordability might be an issue. And instead of focusing on a few of the most competitive universities, I’d encourage you to all keep an open mind and broaden your horizons. There are tons of amazing colleges and universities throughout the US where your son can get a fantastic education and have a wonderful four year experience.
Right now US highly selective schools are less than 5% acceptance rates, and most applicants have very high stats. Plus it is nearly 90k a year. U Toronto is a great bet, really cheap for you, and then a graduate degree possibly in the US.
Dont get stuck on US for college, when you have great options in Canada, for a fraction of the cost.
First, 7th grade is WAAYYYYY too early to even think about thinking about college. The kid is what, 13? Who know what they will want next year, much less four or five years from now?
My kid changed a lot from 7th to 8th grade, and even more drastically when she started high school. By the time she started looking at colleges between 10th and 11th grade, she had changed again. Her interests, her idea of life, who she felt that she was, were radically different when she was applying to college from what they were in 7th grade.
Let your kid be a kid. They only get a few years to be a kid, and it is cruel to have them waste their kid time on pursuing things that may or may not help them as adults.
At this point in their 7th grade, your kid should be thinking about high school, and how to make use 8th grade to help them move on to high school.
If, by the beginning of 9th grade, your kid is still yearning after the USA “college experience”, that may require a bit more early planning than if your kid was being raised in the USA. However, that also requires that USA college life still be interesting for him, at that point.
Until then, middle school sucks enough, and there is no reason to add stress and pressure on the kid about what they may have to do sometime in the future, in order to achieve a goal that is even farther in the future.
