<p>Hi I am a first year Canadian student currently in Pre-Medicine at University of Toronto. This was possibly the worst decision I ever made, because a) I am not a Pre-Medicine student, I originally applied to Engineering, and just for the sake of it applied to this. I got into engineering, but i was forced to go here because of parents/family b) University of Toronto has one of the worst undergraduate treatment - are treated like **** c) my GPA is low (and I mean low)</p>
<p>I applied in high school to US universities such as Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, U Penn, Cornell, U of Michigan - Ann Arbor. I was offered admission to Cmellon, U of M, waitlisted at JHU, and rejected everywhere else. My high school GPA was good (92% average - ~4.2). SAT (700, 610, 700), SAT 2 Math II (740), Math I (720), Chem (650), excellent recs. I had MANY significant extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Now in U of T my gpa is 2.5 (I got 3.7s - which is extremely hard to get in U of T, in some, but I have a failure). I hate it here, and I really want to transfer to engineering in some Universities in the states by the end of summer. What are my chances at the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Rutgers U</li>
<li>Northeastern U</li>
<li>Syracuse U</li>
<li>Temple U (really want to go relatives near here)</li>
<li>U of Pitt</li>
<li>Boston U</li>
<li>U of Rochester</li>
<li>U of Maryland - College Park</li>
<li>Drexel University (really want to go here because of coop)</li>
<li>Penn State: U Park (top choice)</li>
<li>Ohio State: Columbus (also good)</li>
<li>U of Colorado - Boulder</li>
</ul>
<p>All for engineering.
I was wondering how much will they value my high school marks because they are good and I am just completing first year. Will they also consider the difficult curriculum, pressure, workload, and environment of U of T?</p>
<p>Is it possible to drop out entirely at this point from the University of Toronto and say you did a “gap year” of sorts?</p>
<p>2.5 doesn’t look pretty, particularly if you’re in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Engineering students getting 3.5’s transferring into Arts and Sciences (life sciences) get 4.0’s pretty easily. If you had been in the Faculty of Engineering… it’d be less worse… but still pretty bad. I don’t think they’re going to give you the benefit of the doubt with regards to difficulty. It’s not so much the difficulty as much the tedium.</p>
<p>The other alternate option would be to 4.0 it this semester and next year and transfer after sophomore year if you’re intending to go to the US.</p>
<p>Why don’t you look into switching to the Faculty of Engineering within the University of Toronto if transferring schools is too difficult? It’s probably different than the life sciences. Life science courses at the University of Toronto are designed as a bunch of memorizing hoop exercises almost explicitly for premedical students. The premedical stream has the worst courses if you’re actually interested in learning and applicability, particularly since you’re interested in engineering. Just avoid the standard courses if you end up staying in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. MAT135 versus say MAT157. CHM220 versus CHM225, and onwards. </p>
<p>That’s my advice as a fellow student at the University of Toronto trying to transfer out from life sciences (I agree, worst-decision ever, unless you’re a premedical hoop jumper) to engineering at MIT.</p>
<p>will they accept me in engineering based on my gpa (I did get into Chem Eng in Gr.12 at U of T)?</p>
<p>do you know anything about those univs cause I don’t like the U of T undergrad treatment. My situation is that I got high marks in some courses and fairly bad in others.</p>
<p>The problem is that you missed the deadline (February 1st) for transferring into engineering at the University of Toronto.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.prospective.engineering.utoronto.ca/Contact.htm]Contact[/url”>http://www.prospective.engineering.utoronto.ca/Contact.htm]Contact[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Try contacting the admissions department anyways. I think that those US schools are unlikely given your GPA. If you really want to go to the US, you’re going to have to bring up your GPA and apply as a junior transfer more likely than not. Transferring to a Canadian university… say the University of Waterloo (which has the world’s largest co-op program) is going to be just as difficult because of the low GPA.</p>
<p>What I’d do is contact the individual admissions departments to the engineering faculties (all those you’ve listed, as well as the Canadian ones) and ask them about your situation (if they would overlook your current university grades) if they can use your high school ones as the primary basis for evaluation.</p>
<p>It doesn’t hurt to try applying.</p>
<p>The U of T deadline has been extended to April (contacted them previously). Some of the US schools say they will accept 2.5 (i.e. temple). Some others say 2.75-2.91 which is the range I see so far.</p>
<p>I know my GPA is lower than what they ask, but is it possible to ask them to consider my high school one. I plan on contacting them tomorrow. </p>
<p>I will try again in Sophomore year if this year doesn’t work out, but i really want to get in somewhere except U of T. As you might know, U of T isn’t the greatest choice, and I wish I accepted Waterloo or ponied up the money and went to the states.</p>