<p>I wonder if Harvard treats Canadians as harshly as Stanford does. Over there in SCEA, we've not had a single acceptance. I was the only Canadian out of like 8 to be deferred. Why is that, I wonder?</p>
<p>Is there any data on the percentage of acceptance of Canadian students to Harvard?</p>
<p>Harvard likes canadians... stanford doesnt really cuz my friend told me that stanford is big on in-state students to (my friend is a sophomore at stanford and said about 40% were californian residents... yay me for being a cali resident LOL)... anyways... yah it does come down to ECs cuz being a nerd is so easy... LOL... 98 is cheap...
if you've done research, i heard they like that... canadians don't get the chance that much i heard... plus internships... im pre-med so... u guys got any good ECs?</p>
<p>Hey guys, is there anybody from BC? How would they boost the marks from BC?</p>
<p>Currently I'm holding an average of 90% and a EC list of two pages. Anybody got an idea how are my chances to get in?</p>
<p>Yay for Canadians!
I'm from Quebec and I'm applying next year. As it was said, the grading system here is even more different. We have that R-score thing, even though I'm not 100% sure the adcom actually looks at it. </p>
<p>''I'm in CEGEP (Quebec post-secondary school) and I have like an 85 average... I was actually wondering how so many members had perfect GPAs, because up here anything over a 95 is pretty much unheard of''</p>
<p>Yeah I agree. Someone said that a 4.0 was like getting 94 or higher in every course, and that it was pretty much impossible. I totally agree. Getting over 94 in a few courses in CEGEP is extremely hard (even more if you took full IB). Top 5% is probably 88-94. Getting a 97+ average would mean you skipped sleeping and eating, drank too much Red Bull and avoided any ECs. And then again, it would have been hard, even though I guess some geniuses managed to achieve such marks with a decent schedule.</p>
<p>Oh and 98% averages? That is insane :)</p>
<p>"EC list of two pages"</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>u do know common app has room for 7 ECs... and i highly doubt u got any significant ones if you said that lol... cool_xp2002 amuses me with what he said LOL</p>
<p>illuminar, I completely apologize
its almost 20 out of the ~30 Ontario applicants were from GTA...I have no clue what the stats are for out of Ontario because i've never got to talk with any other admissions officer...and yes Ontarians likes to make everything Ontario-Centric, like what we do with OFSAA and sports =P </p>
<p>@serenpidity: I really hope you make stanford =) I saw the ridiculous results for Canadians and I had 2 friends rejected last night.
and admit rate for canadians is pretty much the same as the overall, probably ±1%</p>
<p>Haha thanks Canadianftw. Stanford is definitely not first choice... Harvard is, obvsiously. That said, I hope getting deferred instead of rejected means there's a little more to me than my average and scores.</p>
<p>Why is getting 94+ is every subject impossible?! I have a lot above that, and captain the rugby team, and chair school events, and volunteer. Can someone elaborate on that?</p>
<p>^^lol what easy school do u go to lol... im in french immersion and our profs mark out of 10 lol... if u dont get a 10 on a test then ur automatically at 90... lol... each school has a different weighting system and stuff... so i donno... our school considers a 80% average in honour roll lol... 90+=silver medal honour roll (A+)</p>
<p>the things im gettin 100 in are in math, coop, 95 english, and last year 95 chem</p>
<p>Haha Ambitiousteen I love how you try to make other people seem inferior/make yourself seem superior.</p>
<p>We'll see, I guess, 3.5 months from now.</p>
<p>94+ in every single course from grade 9-12 is considerably harder in Canada; not impossible, but pretty damn close. We have loaded schedules where you're expected 7-9 courses a year...so a single mark of 93 out of 32 courses (3% of the courseload) would technically take a literal GPA to 3.9x. And bam, no more 4.0.</p>
<p>In the states, AP takes up 2 blocks in a lot of schools and lots of people can just get away with 5-6 courses a year</p>
<p>And my American friends say the number of credits they need to graduate ranges from 22-24. In Ontario, its 30.</p>
<p>Imagine you had a teacher who believed that class averages should be in the low 70's, or a teacher that held the belief that anyone getting above 90 shouldn't even be taking the course (i've had both these types). In those classes, a student would be lucky to escape with anything in the low 90's.</p>
<p>My law teacher last year marked A+'s as 92's instead of 95's, in a course that was heavily presentation based and few tests/quizzes. Guess what getting straight A+'s on assignments got me in that course.</p>
<p>So yeah I guess there's just more opportunities to get that sub-94 mark that ends up screwing up the 4.0.</p>
<p>I totally agree with Canadianftw. </p>
<p>Serendipity: I'll just add a few things about the grading system in CEGEP, since I think it's a bit different from the rest of Canada. It's quite impossible to get 94+ in CEGEP because of the subjects that are taught and what the teachers expect the students to do. </p>
<p>The grading system is not made so that the best students/works get 100. In fact, my French teacher has probably given about 10 perfect scores in 38 years of teaching. Sure, you can still manage to get above 94 in math/science because these are subjects where there is only one good answer to any test question. But in CEGEP (from what I know as a full IB student), those who teach subjects such as French, English and Philosophy expect their students to go way beyond any evaluation criteria. The grading system is not made so that the more you study, the more your chances of getting 100 increase. Sure, stuying helps, but in the end, it all comes down to how you are able to develop/present your points. There are no magical recipes, you can't take a bit of this, add that and remove this and BAM! You have a 94+ score. </p>
<p>Even if you try really hard to fulfill every requirements perfectly, a 94+ score is not guaranteed, merely because the teachers might not have the same point of view on how you were able to do what was asked. In CEGEP, critical thinking is what must be pursued above all, and, while it is quite feasible to tell if one's work contain evidences of critical thinking or not, it is almost impossible for 10 different teachers to grade it on a scale of 0-100 in the same way. Therefore, everything is graded in a very subjective matter. Even in Geography/Sociology/History, there are very few exam sections that are made of short-answer questions (ex: What is the name of the theory that...). Questions that are meant to be answered in 300+ words account for 75% of the exams, and people rarely manage to get a perfect score on these sections. </p>
<p>In short, teachers kind of assume that it is impossible to achieve a perfect level of critical thinking, so that is why anything above 95 is outstanding.</p>
<p>Of course, I only speak for myself. It might be like that in other provinces and you might still be able to get outstanding grades (congrats for that! :) ). I think the teachers in CEGEP might possibly be more severe than in high school (at least in Quebec), may it be good or not. But of course, this is only my opinion, and, as I said, I might be totally wrong ;)</p>
<p>Wooow, sorry, that was long ahah.</p>
<p>I've never really known how CEGEPs work, but thanks for the explanation. Expectations for each school, and for each teacher, for that matter, are different. Marks are reflected in this. It's hard to say relatively how each student from different schools and systems compare. Of course I don't have EVERYTHING above 94 since grade 9 (lowest was 93).</p>
<p>Anyhoo, I really hope we can form a Canadian community at Harvard in the near future! It'd be great to meet you guys.</p>
<p>^So do I :) That would be incredible.</p>
<p>Oh, and CEGEPs are a bit like colleges. You take about 8 courses per semester, each of them divided into 1-2 blocks of 2-4 hours per week. You don't have to be at school from 8am to 4pm for example. You just go to your classes whenever they are scheduled.</p>
<p>Hm, so Perle, you will have quite a few transfer credits for university? I know that the most I can get are for my IB HL courses.</p>
<p>I'm not quite sure how IB credits can transfer outside the province. The only thing they tell us in Quebec is that IB grades can add a few points to our R-Score (it's like the weighted GPA thing). I have heard of that transfer credits thing, but I don't quite know how it works. Teachers in Quebec assume we'll go to university here, so they probably consider information about transfer credits outside the province as superfluous.</p>
<p>And in CEGEP, it's either full IB or the ''regular'' courseload. Honors are pretty much only available for native English-speakers, which I'm not, so IB was the only ''rigorous courseload'' option for me. </p>
<p>I don't know if this weird system affects the credits thing at all.</p>
<p>Pretty sure taking full IB anywhere in the world has to be considered "most rigorous courseload" for high school students. You won't have to worry about that.</p>
<p>I think Harvard gives transfer credits for 7's in HL courses.</p>
<p>this thread is worrying me slightly lol! i go to a grade 12 program in Montreal and the highest average is around 94 and i have a 92-93 average in the most rigorous courseload. A 98 average is unheard of in my school. Most of my activities (orchestra, figure skating etc...) have been outside of school. Im hoping Harvard will take loads of Canadians this year!</p>
<p>Serendipity, thanks for the info.
And good luck! I really hope you get in :)</p>
<p>You're very welcome. I hope you get in too. It goes like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Apply to Harvard</li>
<li>Get into Harvard</li>
<li>?</li>
<li>Success</li>
</ol>
<p>(Anyone know the reference?)</p>