I am an international student. recently moved to Canada. I want to do a second degree at McGill. My previous bachelors was in Physics with 3.73 GPA, now I want to do a BA in Economics (hopefully honours)
I know McGill doesn’t like second degree students but I went to university at 14 (it was possible in my country to fast track) So now, I am at the age students starting today would be at. I just want the real undergrad experience at the right age, and I want to have my degree from McGill since I will be living in Montreal from now on.
What do you guys think my chances are? Is there anyway I can convince the faculty to admit me even though I am a second degree student?
McGill does admit second bachelor’s degree students on a space available basis:
“Transfer or Second Degree
Please note that for many programs (including in the Faculty of Arts) Transfer/Second Degree applicants are often considered exceptionally and on the basis of space available. Admission standards may vary significantly from year to year depending on demand for the program. Estimated decision release dates can be found at mcgill.ca/applying/nextsteps/decision.
Applicants are considered on the basis of university/ college work and previous studies. You should have well above-average academic records and prerequisites appropriate to the program you wish to pursue at McGill. Particular attention will be paid to results of courses relevant to the proposed program of study.
In order to form a basis for admission for a science-based program or to be considered for credit or exemption, science and mathematics courses normally must have been completed within the last five years.” https://www.mcgill.ca/applying/requirements/university
I read everything there is to read on the website. I am asking for personal experiences or anything you guys may have heard of from people with similar situation. Thank you.
Why don’t you make an appointment and talk the the advising at the university? You live in Montreal LOL! CC is mainly US centric.
Can you afford it if you are full pay on international rates? I expect the latter is your big hook. If you are looking for domestic rates and any financial assistance, that will be a factor.
@ragnhild When you say that you’re an international student who recently moved to Canada, do you mean you are now a permanent resident? If so, you may be able to pay Quebec resident tuition and fees, which helps a lot in the money department.
As for your real question, it’s not that McGill doesn’t like Second Degree candidates. It’s just that it’s one of the last (if not the last) pool of applicants they look at when admitting students. So if you apply you won’t hear from them before May (and you might have to wait until July or August).
They will take into account your previous degree and use the GPA there to measure you against this year’s applicant’s scores/stats. That’s why no one can tell you if you will get in or not: it all depends on how “good” this year’s applicants are. So, if last year’s cut off was, say, a 3.6 GPA, your GPA is above the cut off and you stand a good chance of being accepted. On the other hand, if this year’s cut off is 3.8 then you will likely be rejected (unless people decline their admission offer and you’re next in line; but it’s not something you can count on).
However, another thing that makes Second Degree/Transfer students’ admission difficult is that McGill will accept them only if there is space available. No one can know beforehand if there will be space available. Hence no one can say if you stand a real chance.
That being said, I am a permanent resident in Canada who was admitted to McGill last year as a Transfer/Second Degree student (so yeah, it’s not impossible!). I can’t tell you what my previous GPA is because my old uni doesn’t calculate GPA the way North-American universities do. (Using a number of online tools I got something between 3.87 and 3.94 but take that with a grain of salt.) I was admitted to the Faculty of Arts and had to wait until June to hear from McGill. So I’d say that if your stats are well above the minima you have a good chance of being accepted.
It doesn’t hurt to apply (it only costs you money haha) so I’d definitely do it if you haven’t done so yet.
Thank you for replies! @DadTwoGirls As for asking the department, they say they have no control over the admission process. And service point doesn’t give appointments if you are not a student. I can drop by of course but I was just hoping for some advice beforehand. And unfortunately I don’t speak French. @Sybylla I am fine with International student fees but I will get the Quebec residency before that. There is nothing that says CC cannot be used by international students. I just moved here (from the US) @Douglock Thank you for your reply! I am in the same boat about different grading system, my grade was ‘high honours’ and I converted my courses to GPA to calculate mine like you did. If there a way to know last year’s cutoff? It is mainly for transfer students. I saw a few 3.6x’s but I don’t know if McGill prioritizes transfer to second degree. I applied already, this is just to ease my anxiety haha!
@ragnhild No problem, I know what it feels like to be left wondering if you even stand a chance against wave after waver of high-school students being admitted. Anyway, as far as I know McGill makes no distinction between Second Degree and Transfer students, they constitute one and the same pool of applicants. They treat the whole category as “Transfer” (which is why you don’t see a Second Degree applicants cut off separately).
I have no idea why they haven’t published last year’s cut-offs for university students. They did so in the past. Anyway, the last time I saw a table with McGill’s cut-off marks it stated that you needed a minimum GPA of 3.5 to be considered for the Faculty of Arts (that was about three years ago, if I can rely on my memory).