Am I going into the right direction? (chanceme)

[curejoker]

Currently a Junior (grade 11), super anxious about my extracurriculars

Demographics
International student (Canada!)
Type of high school : Large Public school
Gender/Race/Ethnicity : transgender Nonbinary and Chinese
Other special factors : none as far as I know.

Intended Major(s) Political Science/Public relations ?

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

• Unweighted HS GPA: not sure how to convert, around 94% or 3.89?

• Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): Idk

• Class Rank:* None

• ACT/SAT Scores:* Taking in March

Coursework
Freshman year: fully French Immersion and/or Honors
Sophomore: French Immersion and/or Honors, 1 Pre-IB
Junior yr: IB diploma

Awards
severely lacking here ik…

• 4x city wide annual creative writing competition winner, 2018-2021
• 3x Waterloo CEMC math contest top something%, won top 5 in my school
• won a regional piano competitions
• MUN best delegate at a provincial conference

Applied to: Scholastic art and writing, global piano competition, but I need suggestions!

Extracurriculars
Lacking here too… pls help

• Familial responsibility: taking care of father and grandmother (primary caretaker)

• Playing Piano for 12 yrs: participated in music festivals, Honors in RCM Level 8 Exam, won a few competitions, volunteer at local choirs and retirement homes. (10hrs /week)

• Playing violin for 7 years: first violin in my city’s youth orchestra, been in orchestra for 2 years, student librarian in the orchestra (12hrs /week)

• President of my schools model UN club, a member (9-10) exec (11-12) : attended conferences in Toronto, grew member count from 4 to 30, won best delegate in provincial conference (5hrs/week)

• Student council member, grade 9-10. Elected Exec grade 11 (4hrs/week)

• School Debate Team co founder, grade 11. Other president is beefing with me so I may have to drop this oops(1hr/week)

• Intern/volunteer for mayoral campaign: in the volunteer inner circle, canvassed and phone banked, won btw. grade 11 (3hrs/week)

• Assistant director of a city non profit meant to get youth interested in politics, planning summit/conference! grade 11

• French summer program: during my sophomore summer I attended a program called Explore and was learning French for a month on a uni campus.
  Super fun and I got a B2 fluency certification. Not very prestigious but it was the most fun I’ve had in my life

• art account: I draw and I post it to an audience of 300 followers , it’s a bit inactive but I’m getting back into it , grade 9-12(5hrs/week)

Essays/LORs/Other
I’m applying to YYGS and TASS and my essays are okay, idk how good they are since I’m biased lol.

Cost Constraints / Budget
Don’t worry about it ! (I’m low income but it won’t be an issue)

Schools

• Safety (certain admission and affordability)

York University (Ontario)

• Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)

UofOttawa

• Match*

UofT (probably still a reach lololol)

• Reach

HARVARD
Yale
Georgetown
Columbia
Princeton

• Oxbridge etc

[DadTwoGirls]

I grew up in Canada and attended a couple of well ranked universities in the US (MIT and Stanford), so I went on a path similar to what you are considering, although with a very different major.

It makes sense for you to consider only the top ranked universities in the US. On the one hand you have excellent universities in Canada. There would be no reason to come down here to attend an expensive university that is almost as good as what you can find locally in Canada. Also, given that you say that you are low income, the only way that you will be able to afford university in the US would be to attend one that gives full financial aid for international students.

I do not know whether Georgetown gives full financial aid for international students. You should check unless you already have.

Also, you should run the NPC’s for each school in the US and make sure that they appear to be likely to be affordable. For example, if you Google “Net Price Calculator Harvard University” you will find the one for Harvard. You will need help from your parents to run the NPCs.

Do you know how your grades compare with other students in your high school? At the high school that I attended (somewhere near Montreal) a 94% would have made you the #1 top student in the high school (and would have knocked me down to third). However, I do not know whether the typical grading scale is the same where you are attending. For universities at the “Harvard, Yale, Princeton” level being the #1 or #2 student in your high school would be quite common among applicants, even the ones who are rejected.

I think that your ECs are good. The best thing to do in terms of ECs is to do what you want to do, and do it very well. This is for example what I did (and it worked). Other family members have used the same approach to get into Ivy League or other top schools, and what they did was completely different from what I did. We each did what was right for us. You might want to read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions website. While MIT is not on your list (understandably given your intended major) the same approach is also correct for other highly ranked schools in the US.

Applying Sideways | MIT Admissions

This approach of “do what is right for you, and do it very well” sounds like exactly what you are already doing. You do not need a long list of ECs. You do need to do well in whatever you do for the top schools in the US.

I am not sure that the University of Toronto is a reach for you. It seems likely unless I am missing something.

I might also add that I know or have known multiple people who attended university in Canada for their bachelor’s and who then attended well ranked graduate programs in the US, including Stanford and Princeton and Harvard (this was four different people across the three schools). This is another option that you can think about. Taking a semester abroad in the US or the UK is another option.

One last nit: Many of the US schools that you are applying to require what they call a “foreign language”. Of course for you and me French is not really “foreign”. This is fine. It is foreign to them and counts. It is in fact the only human language that I ever studied other than English, and growing up in Montreal French was obviously not foreign at all for me.

[collegemom3717]

Oxford and Cambridge are typically not affordable for ‘low income’ international students. Cambridge does have one for people who face ‘severe barriers’ to coming to Cambridge (think Ukraine or the Sudan) and Oxford has several for very specific populations, but otherwise there is unlikely to be an financial aid.

[curejoker]

First of all, thank you so much for the advice and insight!

My school’s pretty big, with 1600 students, and about 300-400 in my grade. (I live in the greater Toronto-Hamilton area.) The students range from “college confidential/a2c level” students to kids who struggle (due to a variety of reasons) to attend school all week.
Because of that, I have no idea what the medians look like, but there is grade inflation in some courses while there is grade deflation in others. I try not to compare myself to others since I see firsthand what that does to people, but I do consider myself to be in the 93-95th percentile of students in my grade.

I’ve run all the NPCs, and the prices are affordable enough. I’m low-income now mainly because my father became disabled and unable to work earlier in my childhood, but he had a high income job before. I’ve been blessed with parents who invested into my education. The reason why my financials wouldn’t be a large issue if I got into a top USA university is because of my family abroad. Sparing the details, they are willing to help finance my education if I attend an Ivy/T20. I’m very lucky to be this privileged (although it comes with the expected toxicity!)

I appreciate the insight into my ECs- they’ve caused me a lot of worry that they’re not impressive, but I truly do love everything I’m doing right now!

[DadTwoGirls]

@curejoker

Political Science/Public relations ?

One more question: What do you intend to do with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science or in Public Relations?

The reason that I ask is that I am wondering whether law school or some form of graduate program is likely in the future. If you are being funded by relatives, and if you are for example considering law school, then you might want to find out if they are also able and willing to fund law school, or if you save money for your bachelor’s degree will you be able to apply that money to a graduate program?

At least in my experience in Canada master’s degrees are often funded, and in both the US and Canada PhD’s are usually funded. Other graduate degrees such as law degrees, medical degrees, or a master’s degree in the US, are typically not funded and can be expensive. If you can save money for graduate school it is possible that this might be useful at some point.

[curejoker]

I honestly don’t know if I want to go into law. I think it will be something I’ll decide in my first years of college.

I know I’m really interested in politics and want to be a politician, but I think it depends on how I feel later in my life…

Thanks for the info about this though!

[DadTwoGirls]

@curejoker

I think it will be something I’ll decide in my first years of college.

This makes sense. Do not be surprised if it takes longer than a year or two. We figure it out over time. At the point that I graduated from university (with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics) I still did not know what I wanted to do with my career. I tried a bit of this and a bit of that, and eventually found exactly the right thing for me.

You have plenty of time to figure this out. I was just wondering out loud whether leaving some college dollars in the bank might or might not help out in the future.

Of course if you get into a highly ranked school, and just as importantly if you feel that it would be a good fit for you, then it is hard to turn down an offer from a relative who is willing and able to pay for it! Also if your immediate family (you plus parents) have limited resources, several of the top US schools do give good need based financial aid.