Canadian Student - What are my chances into an ivy league?

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I'm wondering what my chances would be at making an ivy league college/university in the states.</p>

<p>I am from Canada and our education system is obviously different than the American one, so I may not be able to provide as many specific details regarding the requirements to enter an American College/University, but I'll try my best based on what I've accomplished so far as a student.</p>

<p>NOTE: I used this system from another invdividual who is after the same sort of answers as me, so if you notice our layout of organizing our scores and such is similar, well yah haha...I'm international and new to the American university system so...might help a bit</p>

<p>Race: Caucasian
Gender: Male
School: Public
School size: 1000 Students
Region: Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
Yes, I would have enough money to pay for any ivy league university</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 (every year consistantly stayed at 4.0 AND unweighted)
Class Rank: Top 5% easy</p>

<p>SAT I: 2150
Math II: 800
Literature: 710
Physics: 730</p>

<p>Courses I have taken in highschool and my percents: (these are combined scores of the school mark and provincial exam scores)</p>

<p>Math 12 - 93%
English 12 - 96%
Chemistry 12 - 85%
Physics 12 - 95%
English 12 Literature - 92%
Geography 12 - 96%
Calculus 12 - 91% (not provincial exam however)
English 12 AP - 4
Average: 93%</p>

<p>Extra-Curricular:
*Over 100 hours of community service
*Shad Valley Alumni (International University corporation - see <a href="http://www.shadvalley.ca%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.shadvalley.ca&lt;/a&gt;)
*Development of many websites for non-profitable organizations
*5 Years of Select Soccer (Highest league in my city)
* Y League soccer team for my grade 12 year (It's part of MLA soccer in the states)
*One Year volleyball at my school and club volleyball
*Over 200 hours of logged fitness hours at my school's fitness facility
*Owner of my own eCommerce website that makes approximately $50,000 USD a year
*Built McMaster Universities RBC Shad Cup website</p>

<p>I can't think of everything at the moment, but those are definately my main EC's.</p>

<p>I want to pursue a career in Business, probably something to do with real estate and business managment. I want to attend Harvard School of Business or equivalent program at Stanford as my top two choices, but I'd consider any Ivy League university as well (Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Yale University...and any other Ivy League ones)</p>

<p>PLEASE, let me know what my chances are. Be completely honest, I just want to know how far I could go with what I've accomplished.</p>

<p>Thanks guys.</p>

<p>Thank you</p>

<p>are you applying to undergraduate schools? harvard school of business is only for graduates. the ivy league colleges dont offer an undergrad business program except cornell and upenn. you'll be accepted to 25% of the schools you apply to. good gpa, satisfactory SAt, great ec's</p>

<p>dude I'm in BC too..How are you applying when you already know your gr 12 marks? Are you on a gap year?</p>

<p>Also, could you link to your ecommerce website? And provide some more info on that, it seems VERY interesting</p>

<p>Well, they'll make you use the $50K/yr to pay so not neeeing aid helps. You are a very average applicant to most ivies and HYP are unrealistic reaches. Your best chances are at Penn and Cornell where you are not a shoo in. If you want the US, you need to add some lower ranked schools.</p>

<p>Isn't a 93% in Canada exceptionally good though? I thought it was much harder to get an A average in Canada. Raise your SATs. Bobby100 is right...Cornell is a good chance (especially since you can pay). Make sure you actually research the schools though and pick the ones that you truly like, as whether you did your research or not will show in your essays. Good luck.</p>

<p>Okay, so I'd need to apply to the undergraduate program, my bad, again I'm a little hazy on the whole American education system.</p>

<p>As for Cornell, still being an Ivy League university, it must have a tremendous reputation, correct? Getting a degree from their school would be highly respected?</p>

<p>Essentially, I'd only go to an American University or College if I knew that my degree would be worth more than going to the best Canadian University. I can get into into virtually any Canadian University I want, most cut-offs are around 88% into any faculty, and that's high, so I'd get in relatively easy in most cases.</p>

<p>So is a degree from a Cornell or Penslyvania WORTH more than the BEST Canadian Universities degree in terms of respect, class and elitism?</p>

<p>I'm not in a gap year, in fact I'm just entering grade 12 now, but I've taken all of those courses already. In my junior years I was able to skip a lot of classes and take many accelerated honors classes. Our school offered a special English program that allowed me to cover 3 English courses in 1 block and take multiple exams throughout the year.</p>

<p>Vadox, unforunately I'm not allowed to give any direct references over online forums or chat rooms with regards to my eCommerce website.</p>

<p>I'm not sure how a 93% average in Canada stands up against the same percent in the U.S., but if that's the case, it can only help haha. As for raising my SAT scores, isn't it a bad idea to re-take your SAT's, don't universities frown upon that?</p>

<p>Yes a degree from Cornell is very impressive and I would say it's better than one from McGill or UToronto. Cornell may be the easiest ivy to get into, but I've heard it's the hardest to graduate from. You'll have your work cut out for you and employers know how great Cornell does educating its students. I think you are right - you should only attend a US university if you are getting a better education than the best Canada can offer (considering the price difference). You should look into other colleges in the US that are considered equal to or better than some of the ivies as well.</p>

<p>What are the public colleges likes with regards to their respect with degrees and such? Do they compare to Ivies?</p>

<p>Well the best publics as far as I know are Berkeley, UVA, Michigan, North Carolina, UCLA...it depends on what you're going for. Some public schools are the best for certain things, like UTAustin and Accounting (#1) but not necessarily "Ivy League" material for anything else.</p>

<p>I'm striving to pursue a career in business.</p>

<p>Well if you plan on going to grad school it really doesn't matter what you do for undergrad. Just do what you want. If you plan on doing undergrad business, it depends on what area of business you'd like to go into. The top public business schools are usually nearly as hard to get into OOS as the top privates (excludes Wharton).</p>

<p>how does berkeley compare with mcgill/UT/cornell?</p>

<p>um...again it depends on what you're comparing. For business I'd say Berkeley (Haas) is better than all three (and I don't think McGill has a business program undergrad). But for certain things (Management Information Systems/Accounting) UT is better than Berkeley. Cornell is still very new.</p>

<p>Overall, Cornell is the best of those universities, but Berkeley is comparable in many areas, especially graduate programs. For undergrad, I'd still say Cornell is best, then Berkeley, and UT/McGill are kinda on the same level. But it's hard to make such a universal statement. It all depends on your area of interest.</p>

<p>I'd say that Berkeley is better. It's more often than not the highest ranked public university, and its college of engineering is tied with Stanford's.</p>

<p>does anybody else want to share their opinions on how I might do applying to the above universities?</p>

<p>??????????????????</p>

<p>I'm from Canada (near Calgary) as well. I'm studying at Yale University right now. </p>

<p>I did the Shad Valley Program. Did you make it to Nationals? How did your team do?</p>

<p>Oh, that's awesome!</p>

<p>Yes, I played an important role on our university's national project team. I actually developed the website (<a href="http://www.gravigen.ca%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.gravigen.ca&lt;/a&gt;) for our product, and it placed 3rd - so not bad. We came 1st for prototype, and 3rd for application of scientific principles.</p>

<p>That's amazing that you're studying at Yale. Any tips on ensuring my application meets their requirements/standards? Did you apply with really excellent extra curricular (and was shad noted as an e.c. for you?)</p>

<p>Thanks a lot</p>

<p>I did use Shad on my application...I also mentioned the internship that I got following the program (did you get placed in one?)</p>

<p>no :( unfortunately not. i was a grade 11 shad, not grade 12, and I lived in BC, so it was harder to find internships as most were only available to those in the toronto area, but regardless, I'm sure my participation in shad should help with my application.</p>