My daughters dream is to study in Canada. She has a 4.3 weighted and a 3.6 unweighted GPA and just received a 31 on her ACT with a 35 on her Reading. Her top choices are University of Toronto or McGill in Montreal. What are the chances or a good scholarship to either of these schools? With the above grades, can she expect scholarships to any California colleges? She is a junior this year and plans to re-take the ACT at least 2-3 more times with hopes of receiving a 33. Thanks for any insight as this is the first time we are applying to colleges and are kind of overwhelmed with where to find the $$'s.
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Unless your daughter has permanent residency in Canada, Canadian citizenship, or citizenship of one of the countries that Quebec gives discounted rates to, she will pay international tuition rates. Tuition rates depend on the program of study. Here’s a link to McGill’s rates https://www.mcgill.ca/student-accounts/tuition-charges/fallwinter-term-tuition-and-fees/undergraduate-fees U of T’s tend to be higher. Most funding for Canadian students in university comes from the provincial government in which they or their parents are resident. Your daughter won’t be eligible for this unless she satisfies one of the groups listed above.
She will be eligible for funding via FAFSA though. https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2015/02/25/use-federal-financial-aid-to-pay-for-college-abroad
There are some scholarships available. Most scholarships are on the order of $2000 (one time only), but there are a few that are about $10000. IME, Canadian schools will send the amount of scholarship that a student is awarded along with the acceptance letter. Acceptances for US applicants come any time between December and May.
D16 had a 33 ACT and received $2000 from U of T.
McGill does offer merit and need based grants to Americans but don’t expect anything approaching full tuition in aid.
My older daughter had similar grades (although GPA is calculated differently at different high schools) and was accepted to McGill three years ago, but with no financial aid. Of course your results may differ.
One thing to think about: McGill and Toronto are both academically very challenging. Grading is challenging. You have be be sure that you want to work that hard for grades which will probably be significantly lower than she is used to in the USA.
And a question: McGill and Toronto are the best known Canadian universities, but there are a LOT of other very good universities in Canada. Does you daughter want to consider other less famous (and in some cases smaller) universities? The Macleans rankings are one good place to start looking:
http://www.macleans.ca/education/unirankings/university-rankings-2017/
Hi,
Here at UAlberta, the minimum ACT, before we can consider grades given on the high school transcript, is 26. It is then a matter of the high school grades earned and courses taken to determine admission. If admitted, we automatically assess for several scholarships, and there is also a few awards that require a separate application. Some of those automatics and applicaiton based awards are only for applicants in the USA. All award information is at: http://studyincanada.ualberta.ca/TuitionAndScholarships.aspx
For more information: welcome@ualberta.ca