Chance my daughter for CS at these schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
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VA resident—NoVA area
Asian
GPA: 4.4/5.0 weighted
County doesn’t provide rank. Most of the courses in 11th and 12th grade(now) are AP level STEM or CS: Weighted GPA is 4.45 with one B and two A- in 11th grade.
SAT: 1490–- 720 in Reading and 770 in Math and total 1490.
AP Physics and Spanish are below 4; AP CS and History are 5; AP calculus AB, English, Macro and Micro are 4,
She is taking Calculus BC and Physics C and some other AP or AP level classes in 12th grade.
EC: President in one big school club, officer in Model UN, sport
Awards: writing awards(2 local and 1 state), Model UN awards, NTHS member, President’s Volunteer Service Award Gold in 2022
She wants to choose CS major (took several dual CS courses in 11 and 12 grade).
Since CS Major is very competitive, I am concerned about the accuracy of Naviance. The people here are very professional and knowledgeable.

Could you all please give us some idea of her chance in CS major of the schools below?
Should she take some of the schools out of her list?
Is it more difficult or easier to apply Canadian school CS major? What is her chance to apply McGill?

University of Virginia—Engineer school -ED
Virginia Tech
Washington University in St. Louis
William & Mary
Georgia Institute of Technology
Harvey Mudd College
Northwestern University
Stevens Institute of Technology

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You have other threads asking the same thing. Why another thread ?

You already have the guidance.

Better for you to update old threads then start new ones

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Good suggestion. I updated the old threads but haven’t received response, I thought nobody look at the old one.
Can I delete this after I update to the old one?

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Old thread has been closed. Please use this one. Thank you!

5

You already had the answers. They will not change. Good luck to your daughter.

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Here is the link to last year’s cut offs for McGill: Requirements for U.S. applicants | Undergraduate Admissions - McGill University

If that one B is in a math or science class, it sounds like that is a deal breaker for McGill. Generally speaking, admission to Canadian universities is more stats based.

It’s very hard to chance with a weighted GPA because each school has its own grading scale, specially with no rank.

That said, I think she’s in at VT and Stevens. I’ve heard crazy things about high stats students rom NOVA at UVA but ED will be a good bump.

The others are reaches for all applicants.

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Thank you so much!
She is very interest in one of the CS program in UVA. We did not know UVA is so competitive.
Unfortunately the B is AP physics 1. So she will have no chance in Canadian school?

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What is her approximate rank? based on what you have said, depending on the school, it could be near the top at some schools vs somewhere in the top 30-40%. She should get an estimate from her counselor. IF she loves UVA, definitely ED. She should have a decent shot at VT and Wm&Mary too depending how many usually get in from her school and how they compare to her rank and rigor.

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McGill is non-holistic and looks only at grades and (to a lesser extent) test scores, with definite cutoffs. Other Canadian universities appear to be slightly more holistic. Is she interested in any others?

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Thank you. She is more interested in the STEM school, University of Waterloo would be the best, but I think it would be even harder for her to get in? University of Toronto is great but too big, I don’t think it fits her.

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She might also consider UBC. My son is very interested in that one. There are also other Canadian universities that are supposed to have good quality programs. Maybe another poster who knows more will join the conversation.

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@DadTwoGirls - Do you have insight for this poster on the Canadian universities?

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I have been wondering about this myself.

However, I do not see an unweighted GPA. It would be helpful to know the unweighted GPA (A=4.0, B=3.0, …) for each year for grades 10 and 11. Weighted GPA is computed so differently in different schools that I do not know how to interpret it. Also McGill and other Canadian universities will not care about 9th grade.

My understanding is that McGill does admit by major, and that CS is tougher than some other majors. Toronto and Waterloo and UBC are excellent for CS. There are other universities in Canada which are also quite good where admissions is safer. Concordia is one option and is just up the street from McGill. However, Virginia Tech is also very good for CS and it is closer to home.

UBC is large and is a long way from Virginia. It is a very good university in a beautiful location. The winters are rainy but not “Canadian Cold”. Every now and then in the winter the clouds will break and you will look up and there will be a beautiful mountain in front of you. Then you go back to class. Summers are gorgeous.

If OP’s daughter definitely wants to attend university in Canada then let me know, along with unweighted GPAs for 10th and 11th grade, and I will try to be more helpful.

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Thank you very much!
Her 10th grade unweighted gpa is 4, 11th grade is 3.73. University of Tornoto is closer to Virginia, so we add it to our list too. Could you please give us any suggestion on the Canadian schools? Thank you again!!

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Certainly. There are quite a few very good universities in Canada. Maclean’s magazine has rankings of Canadian universities. Here is their ranking of the top 20 for CS. I will go down the list and tell you as much as I know.

The first four are famous, large, excellent, and well known. I will assume that you know enough about them. I might choose based on where I wanted to live for four years. McGill and Toronto both have a reputation for being academically quite demanding. All of the top 4 are well known in the US which is likely to help in terms of finding a job in the US after graduating from university in Canada.

Next is Alberta. It is also very good and very much on the same level as the top 4. Winters in Edmonton are COLD, and it is quite a long way from VA. I might skip it just because of the distance and the winters.

Simon Fraser is very good for CS. The main campus is on a small mountain that is just barely outside of Vancouver. There is a smaller second campus but I do not know much about it. Winters are wet but relatively mild. Again it would be a long flight or pair of flights.

The University of Montreal and the University of Sherbrooke both teach in French, which I assume is a non-starter.

Queens in Kingston Ontario is a very good university with a good reputation for being academically strong with good student satisfaction. The University of Calgary is quite good and not quite as cold as Alberta, but still quite far from Virginia. McMaster is in Hamilton Ontario and is also quite good. The Toronto main airport is actually between Toronto and Hamilton, and worked out fine when I had a trip to Hamilton. My father got his bachelor’s degree at McMaster and always spoke well of the school. All three of these are quite good for CS.

The University of Victoria probably has the best winters in Canada unless you like snow. Is has the mild winters of southwest British Columbia, but with Vancouver Island sheltering it from the constant drizzle that much of southwest BC gets in the winter. I have only been there in the summer when the weather is gorgeous. It would be quite a long trip from Virginia.

I do not know the rest as well except that we toured both Concordia and Dalhousie with a daughter. We liked both.

Generally admissions gets easier as you get lower in the list. I am not sure how admissions compares between different majors, but I think that you have a chance at any of these schools.

Canada is of course really large. It can be a long way between major cities so pay some attention to the travel options for anywhere that you are considering.

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Waterloo has some short questions on the Admissions Information Form for CS and is interested in extracurriculars.

Could compare with Wilfred Laurier in Waterloo which offers coop and capstone opportunties for CS.

Also recreational dance Laurier’s recreational dance program engages young adults living with developmental disabilities in Kitchener-Waterloo | Wilfrid Laurier University

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Thank you so much for all of the information! Do you think if she is qualified to these schools? If she has any chance to getting accepted to the top Canadian school CS major?

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Unfortunately I do not know. I very strongly expect that your daughter will be accepted to multiple schools on the list, but I do not know whether it would be the top 5 or 6 or something more in the middle of the list.

My family members in general have been applying for majors for which admissions is more likely. Also, we have Canadian citizenship (dual for me and my daughters) which might have helped us. One daughter had a GPA very close to the same as your daughter but a somewhat lower SAT score. We considered McGill close to a safety for her and she was accepted relatively quickly in the process, but not for CS.

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I think @bouders may have insight.

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Are you and you daughter dual US/Canadian citizens by any chance?