<p>I'm leaning towards computer science or business school.</p>
<p>Let me give you a quick rundown about me:
I'm from Canada, and was born into a family with money.
My work experience in through the roof. I've been filling out a time sheet since 10 years old and working 40+ hr/week throughout the summers in the ages 15,16,17.
I'm just going into grade 12 now and I took English online (academic level). I only got a 70%, because he ended up grading us more on the amount of time online, rather than the marks we got. Unfortunately for me, I did all my assignments away from the computer on rainy days at work etc, so my online time was low. Usually I get 78-88 in physics, chemistry, math, etc. Business classes are a joke because the average is way too high and they're not tough at all, so I just take the hard classes. I also take computer science and get 95%+ every year. For co-op I run the school website.</p>
<p>Anyways, so the good news. I'm a webmaster and business man. I do very well. I mean, this week I had an offer of over $25,000 for one of my programs. I own over 30 websites and over 5 software projects. So, will these projects of mine be strong enough to get me into university or are the marks going to prevent me from even being considered. In Canada, I can't get into most regular universities because all they are about are the people who have marks, regardless if you're on your path to success already or not. However, I think the US universities are a bit more forgiving?</p>
<p>I have not yet taken my SATs but plan on doing them in October.</p>
<p>Please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks</p>
<p>Yes, it’s definitely true that US universities are not all about the grades. You’re not going to get into Harvard with low grades unless you have an incredibly good reason, but if you’re as good of a businessman as you say a good university will probably take you.</p>
<p>What about Berkeley, UCLA, etc?</p>
<p>How are your grades compared to those of the top students in your class? Berkeley and UCLA are stil very solidly in the top tier of US colleges; while US colleges care about things like your business, you are applying to be an academic for 4 years, so you still need a decently competitive academic record. (I ask because I don’t know what kind of grades people in Canada usually get. In the US, 78% is bad and 88% is nothing special for admissions into good colleges, but I remember that being different up there.)</p>
<p>Well in Canada, we have 3 class levels, basically in simple terms: easy, medium and hard. I’m in hard or Academic/University level. At my school, 25% take easy, 40% take medium and 35% take hard, roughly. So that puts me in the top 35%. If I’m average, that’s 17.5% top in the school.
Averages are almost always under 80%, and I’m above average in most of my classes (except English). I’m #1 computer science student in my grade. I mean this year I took Grade 12 Advanced Functions while I was still in Grade 11, and did better than most of the kids who are a year older.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how I’d calculate something like highest-level grade 12 Physics. There’s only 1 class per year, and my grade has 300 students. People don’t take it because it’s too hard and they’re lazy. However, just because I take a really hard course, and do “average” (78%) in it, will that lower my chances? Should I be taking a easy course like accounting or marketing and get a 95%?</p>
<p>Right now, my schedule for my final year is full of hard courses: 3 Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, and English. One math and English is complete already.</p>
<p>Normally, colleges ask for a school report, telling them things like how hard the classes are and stuff.</p>
<p>However, I’m going to be honest here. I don’t know if they put in that much effort to go talk to Canadian schools, I don’t know if your school would provide that information, and I don’t know if they’re going to see you as “#1 computer science student” or “all of this kid’s grades are Bs and Cs in the US system”. Does your school have a guidance counselor or something who would know about this?</p>
<p>We have 2 guidance councilors but they don’t know much about going to big schools in the US. The only ones from my school that go to big US schools are the athletic students with scholarships.
I would go to a creditable private school like all the friends of the family are, but I got to stay back to manage the staff, and cannot forfeit being away from the business too long. Especially since the closest accredited private school is well over an hour away, maybe 2. I’ll have to ask the councilors about them supplying marks. I’m close with them.</p>