Canadian student, help w/ RD list?

College Search & Selection
1

Hey cool kiddos

Trying to figure out a college list. I already EDed UChicago (reeeeally crossing fingers on that one), but it’s been pretty tricky to find schools for the second wave that is RD. Some preferences:

  • Would prefer to be in or near an urban setting
  • Would maybe prefer not too uniformly liberal (a la Vassar) or conservative (a la W&L) but a diverse range of views
  • West coast or Northeast preferred (Chicago as the exception), probably NOT the deep south…
  • An academic atmosphere would be nice, not too overtly pre-professional, minimal Greek life / weed / binge drinking
  • Generous financial aid for Canadian students is basically a must (so no public schools really)
  • Not too big of a school population, Penn’s ~10k is probably the biggest I would go
  • I don’t know if I want to go onto grad school immediately, so I’m not 100% on whether liberal arts colleges would be right for me, though the concept does interest me quite a bit
  • I’m not 100% on what I want to go into but I’m thinking something along the lines of Statistics / Economics / Computer Science (but definitely the science side of CompSci as opposed to coding or software engineering), but I would like somewhere I could do some exploring to figure things out more

Now for some info:
Male, Chinese background, not religious, from Vancouver, Canada
Middle income, public school with ~300 people in grad class

Academics / Testing:

SAT – 2260 single sitting (770M 790R 700W)
SAT II – Math 2 800, World History 800, Literature 730
GPA and class rank – school doesn’t do GPA but 3.8-3.9 I guess, school does not report class rank

Taking full IB Diploma Programme, but I don’t have my predicted grades yet so I just have a current estimate:
IB English Literature HL – 6
IB History HL – 6-7
IB Physics HL – 6
IB Mandarin SL – took last year, 7
IB Chemistry SL – 6
IB Mathematics HL – 4-5

Extracurriculars: (just the major ones)

Model UN (10-12)
-> Secretariat at one of three high school run conferences in Western Canada
St. John Ambulance Brigade (9-12)
-> Non-commissioned officer (corporal), volunteer teaching middle-school aged kids first aid and leadership skills
Math Competition Club (9-12)
-> Co-leader of club, got a few placements in the contests themselves
Reach for the Top (12)
-> Founded trivia team and recruited members, began inter-school competitions just recently
School Band (9-11)
-> Concert Band and Jazz Band, Tenor saxophonist
Debate Team (9-10, 12)
-> Competed in a few regional and provincial competitions
Non-profit (10-11)
-> School executive position in a non-profit seeking to improve literacy, collects books to send to less fortunate locally and worldwide (inc. Philippines and China); we conducted a book drives and fundraisers throughout the year
Work Experience (11-12)
-> Worked as cashier in local supermarket over summer, independently ran a booth selling first aid training and equipment at largest fair in Metro Vancouver also over summer

Awards:

Placement in a few math contests sponsored by the University of Waterloo, several Model UN delegate awards, academic awards in individual classes (History, English, etc.), admission into SHAD Valley summer program (analogous to university summer camps)

Final notes:

A few places I’m considering are Pomona, Penn, Brown, Macalester, and Georgetown but all of these are suuuuper hazy and not completely sure on any of them. Yes I know a bunch of these are super long shots as well (and verrrry different from one another), but I am not really looking for safety schools in the US though since I’m also applying to schools in Canada like Queen’s, U of T, UBC, and SFU.

Sorry if my criteria are too restrictive… but thanks so much for your insight!! Good luck with y’all also applying this year ^^

2

Are you applying to Waterloo? It’s probably the best for undergrad comp sci in Canada. You get extra points on their AIF for SHAD and the math contests.

3

I’m considering Waterloo as well, but that would be dependent on whether I can solidify my math mark this year for predicted IB grades.

4

For Waterloo, your performance on their math tests may substitute for higher math grades. They’ll also consider your subject test scores and your SAT score.

US universities that are higher or similar tier to Canadian universities, won’t give merit-based aid, only need-based aid. Unless you qualify for need-based aid, the cost of universities that are arguably “better” than or competitive with the Canadian schools that you are looking at, will be about $60 - 70K USD/ year, if you can get in. The Chinese ethnicity will be a hindrance too (and my kids are Chinese). There are schools that will give merit aid, such as University of Alabama (but it’s in the deep south and it’s public and you would probably be better off academically in a Canadian school). Do you have an EFC (expected family contribution) and are your parents willing to pay it? https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator

5

In terms of the study of economics, these analyses, if considered judiciously, can be helpful:

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.usecondept.html

These schools offer flexible curricula that may suit your diverse interests:

http://www.hercampus.com/life/9-most-flexible-colleges-country?page=2

Urban or suburban settings can be found here:

http://www.newsweek.com/25-most-desirable-urban-schools-71889

http://www.newsweek.com/25-most-desirable-suburban-schools-71867

6

Some ideas: Tufts (kinda reachy), Brandeis (match), U Rochester (match), Clark U (safety)

7

In response to bouders: I am eligible for need-based financial aid, but schools do vary on how much they give to Canadian students.

In response to merc81: Thank you for these resources! These are really interesting to focus on things I am in particular interested in.

In response to lalalemma: Tufts and U Rochester were definitely ones I was considering, but I wasn’t sure how generous to Canadians. As for Brandeis, do you know how they are to non-Jewish students, given that it’s around 55% Jewish if I’m not wrong?

8

If you like Pomona, look at Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd. Also Santa Clara and University of Southern California. If you get your U Southern Cal application in by December 1, you will be eligible for their merit awards - and they give pretty substantial merit awards. http://admission.usc.edu/docs/Scholarships.pdf

9

Forgot to mention, make sure to show lots of interest to the schools you apply to - sign up for emails, follow them on Facebook/twitter, immediately open and forward any emails you receive from them to your parents, email the admissions rep for your region. Interest counts a lot at many of these schools.

Harvey Mudd has started doing interviews, but you have to request one, unlike other schools.

10

@thessaloniki Brandeis is closer to 45% Jewish, and most of that 45% is more culturally/ethnically Jewish than religiously. But more importantly, Brandeis is an unaffiliated, non-sectarian school. While it has a long history with the American Jewish community, it is not even remotely a Jewish school in the sense that Georgetown/BC/Notre Dame etc. are Catholic schools.

11

Bumpppppp… any other suggestions?