<p>I am a grade 11 girl in Canada. I go to a public high school that doesn't have a great reputation for academics as it is a sports school. I am fairly strong academically and I intend to have mark in the high 80s and 90s next year (senior year). I am play soccer and involved in some music lessons (previously drums and getting back into singing). I have done quite a bit of volunteering and I have organized my upcoming semester to only have one class and two correspondance courses which will allow me to do many hours of volunteer work every week. </p>
<p>I plan to do the ACT in April.</p>
<p>At this point I am looking to do go into a business, possibly finance or international business and international development for my undergraduate degree and then possibly law school. Since I live in Canada, a Canadian university will be more affordable but I am definitely looking at US schools. I have done research into what the best undergrad business schools are and have found that Harvard, Stanford, UChicago, UPenn and a few others have very good business programs. </p>
<p>I am wondering what other suggestions other people with experience have in regard to good business programs. Also, I would appreciate application and admission tips for getting into prestigious universities.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to say that there is no reasonable chance of your going to any of these schools, where their athletes will have a higher GPA than yours. You can prove this to yourself by doing a little research. </p>
<p>There are dozens of business schools in the U.S. and Canada where you can be accepted and at which you will get an even better education because you fit. Do some research, perhaps beginning by using College Confidential’s Super Match database, and narrow down the possibilities. Then come back and ask CC for help.</p>
<p>You should translate your percentages into letter grades because the letter grades of percentage values differ hugely between Canadian and US schools. In the US Cs are roughly 77% - 84%, Bs are roughly 85% - 92%, As are 93+. So from the perspective of the Americans on this thread responding to you, you look like a C/B student when in fact you are an A-/A student. You should maybe just re post your question with your letter grades or cgpa.</p>
<p>To all American people posting PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE RESPONDING ON THIS THREAD: In Canadian schools class averages are generally in the 70s (B range) 80-85 is an A-, an 85-90 is generally an A a 90+ is usually an A+. 80s and 90s are much harder to get in most Canadian provinces then in the US (NOTE: Grading standards differ by province, those that I posted are just a rough summary). gpa translation: the OP like has a gpa of 3.7-3.9 so although the schools she are applying too are tough as hell, if she were to pull off a high 90 to low 90 average at a Canadian school (ie. a final gpa between 3.7 and 4.0) she would stand a chance.</p>
<p>FYI the Canadian grading system carries over to Canadian universities (ie. most courses at the University of Toronto have a C+/B- class average, which is between a 67% and a 73%).</p>
<p>I really do think you are confusing undergraduate with the well known business graduate schools of these universities. You need to look at your undergrad schools again. Many top colleges in the US, like the ivy league and Chicago are basically liberal arts schools. Harvard and Chicago do not offer undergraduate business majors. Stanford just has a concept of per-business to prepare for grad school. They do offer financial mathematics. Only Penn is the exception as the Wharton School also offer an undergraduate business degree. This is an exceedingly competitive program.</p>
<p>I don’t really track undergrad business programs, but what comes to mind in addition to Wharton is NYU Stern, and USC, Univ Michigan Ross (only a few are accepted in directly), Berkeley Haas (can’t be accepted directly.)</p>
<p>Kelley at IU Bloomington is really respected… as well as Tepper at CMU (very expensive), Dyson at Cornell (really hard to get into), Kenan-Flagler at UNC, School of Management at BU, Caroll at BC</p>
<p>I agree with SurvivorFan, by far the most common ranges for A/B/C in the US are the ones SurvivorFan lists. There are variations at some schools, but most follow that standard.</p>
<p>I think given the OP’s grammatical errors in their posts and also that they intend to volunteer a lot and take limited academic coursework next semester, they have no chance at the very top schools. Which is okay, there are a lot of good colleges in the US besides the very top ones.</p>
<p>What the exact grading system in different states in the US wasn’t my point (Note I said “ROUGHLY”). My point to the OP (and to the posters below who read her grades as a US system of marking) is that she should understand this and post her gpa or letter grades instead of percentage values so people on this thread aren’t confused like jkeil911 was.</p>
<p>NamelessStatistic is right, “high 80’s” in Canada is generally considered very, very good. For instance, average of admitted students to <em>McGill</em> goes from 77 to 85, with the most selective programs (engineering) going from 82 to 91 (that’s not the minimum threshold, that’s the average of admitted applicants).</p>
<p>OP: in the US, outside of specific, prestigious schools that have been cited above, Business is considered a post-graduate endeavour for students who have already started working and know what the classes deal with from experience. At the undergraduate level, students who are good academically may study math and/or economics in a general “liberal arts” program.
To have an idea about schools, type in your browser “USNWR” followed with
“national universities, 30-50”, then “national liberal arts, 50-85”, then “regional universities” (look at the top 20). That will give you a list of schools to explore, from which to cull about 25-30. Those would be your match and safety schools. Then you can add as many “dream schools” as you wish, those aren’t difficult to find.</p>
<p>Some highly-ranked universities (including Chicago,Harvard,and Stanford), as well as most liberal arts colleges, do not offer undergraduate degrees in business. However, many other colleges do. According to Department of Education statistics, business is by far the most popular college major in the USA ([Fast</a> Facts](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=37]Fast”>Fast Facts: Most popular majors (37))).</p>
<p>High-ranked schools don’t offer business at the undergrad level (some exceptions: Wharton, Stern, Ross, etc) because they don’t consider it very demanding - in “typical” universities (with Wharton, Stern, etc, being atypical) business majors write less, read less, etc, than other majors. It’s the most popular major because it seems “immediately practical” for students who aren’t interested in intellectual discussions or academics in the traditional sense. It’s like nursing vs. premed: many courses are similar but the purpose is different. It doesn’t mean it’s a “bad” major, but the “orientation” of the courses is different from a major in math, economics, etc. That’s why the choice should really be what you intend to do after your undergraduate degree. If you have grades in the (Canadian) high 80’s, choose either the schools on the list given by informative, or select other top colleges that offer more academic majors. However make sure you have matches and safeties (unless those are in Canada) because all these schools are reaches and they can be quite expensive - Michigan would cost $50,000/year, for instance, and no financial aid.</p>
<p>A quick advice: There is no doubt top US business schools have the best business programs in the world; but comparing by the sticker price (since we don’t know how much you end up paying each uni/ what is your EFC), studying in Canada is much much more cheaper. My advice to you: if you’re gonna end up paying the college’s fees all by yourself, top Canadian unis are better options for you. After all, it is only college! There is not much difference between school’s curriculum and quality. You can always study MBA in states!
Go to each college’s website and see what courses their offer in their business programs.</p>
<p>I will clarify. This year (grade 11) I have all A’s, next year I intend to have all A/A+. I should have put the letter grades in the original post. </p>
<p>I don’t have any hooks that will help me in my applications. I come from a middle class family, not first generation to attend university, etc. </p>
<p>As for my next term plan (February- June), I am still taking courses but I have already finished most of my grade 11 classes. I am taking grade 12 classes already so next term I will just be finishing up the grade 11 classes that I have left. That being said, I will not just be sitting around. I will be taking leadership and public speaking classes, volunteering at a community legal centre, volunteering at some local charities, getting involved with youth conferences that speak with the government to address education policies and legislation in my province, and other charity work that I am currently working out the details for.</p>