<p>Lol, let me start by saying that I could never afford a private high school no matter how appealing the idea is. I am in 11th grade at a local public high school in BC, Canada. I know that if I want to get into an Ivy league school I have to do more than I am doing now. The problem is that I cannot compete with all of these AP courses etc. Mt school offers honours math from gr 8 through to 11 and an optional calculus course for grade 12s, honours english 8 through to 10 and thats it. We don't have AP courses. Will I be penalized for not being able to take these courses? Another question, A girl I spoke with on a college tour awhile ago told me her GPA was 4.15, she had just transfered from new york, how is this possible? I thought GPA's could only be up to 4.0 or atleast that is the policy at my school...and how are GPA scored usually because I am used to 1.0 for A, 0.75 for B, etc but I realise that most scoring systems go more indepth than such. Also, what extracurriculars really stand out on a college application form? I am a member of the school choir and the student council, I play baseball and soccer on community teams, I am a big sister with the big brothers big sisters program, I volunteer in the summers with the local youth volunteer corp, and I have a part time job. My life is generally pretty full but not quite up to par with many other potential applicants I'm sure. What other activities should I look into doing? And my final direction of inquisition, how do the courses I am taking compare to american high school courses? I was skimming through a college brochure and was noticing all of the courses that don't quite equate directly to any of the ones I've taken. For example, we have principals of math 12 and calculus 12 while the brochure listed several different courses, none of them were easily compared to these. We have plain old English 12 not composition, etc. Another thing I noticed was that American schools required students take many more courses that canadian. We take eight courses a year in grade 8-11 and have a choice of between 6 to 8 courses in grade 12. How does this compare? And how do my courses compare to what I should be taking. Grade 11: English, Business Computers/Portfolio (required), Comparative Religion, Math Honours, French, Social Studies, Chemistry, and Physics. Grade 12: English, Litereture, Principals of Math, Calculus, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Pyschology. Anyone know the answer to any of these questions? Anything would be appreciated. Thanks :)
One last though...well, rather a very dumb question here, what is a PSAT, I know I have to write an SAT and a couple SAT II's next year up at the college if I want to apply to an American college but I have no idea what a PSAT is... I am one of about four students in my school planning to write the SATs. Provided, my school is relatively small, but still there aren't many people available to talk to when I have any such "less than brilliant" questions?</p>
<p>yes, one is in Canada and the other in the USA :D</p>
<p>LOl, Haha, very funny but slightly... make that entirely useless information... ;)</p>
<p>"Write" the SATs? Oh, you're cute. You definitely need to get cracking on studying if you don't even know what the test is, especially if you want to get a score good enough for an Ivy. I'm not saying that you're stupid, its just that everyone does better when they're more prepared, and we Americans have been preparing since middle school.</p>
<p>Summerskter, the OP knows what the SATs are. "Write" is synonymous with "take" in many regions in Canada.</p>
<p>And I don't know much about the differences between American and Canadian high schools, but admissions committees do, and will take the different schooling system into account as you will be considered an international applicant. Not having AP classes won't hurt you-- some American schools don't offer them either, and it's taken into consideration. The important thing is that you take the most challenging courses offered.</p>
<p>I'd stay in Canada if I were you and avoid the admissions bloodbath, but hey, your choice... you could go to UBC, though, which has as much prestige as prestigious American universities without the battle to get in-- and not be hundreds of thousands in debt. Canada has it figured out, man. Anyway, that was just my patronizing advice paragraph, ignore it.</p>
<p>The PSAT is a test-run of the SAT that most people take in grade 10 or 11, to determine scholarship money and things like that. They might offer it in Canada, but you don't need to take it.</p>
<p>what about McGill?</p>