Hi, I’m a Junior from a pretty well respected public high school in Minnesota. I have a 3.8 GPA and am an IB bilingual dip can. I speak English, Spanish, French, and have a semester of Arabic from Tulane University. I have studied abroad in Morocco (where I learned Arabic), India, and Spain. I am an AP scholar and have taken AP Human Geography, AP United States History, and AP Spanish, all of which I have gotten a 5 on. I am in a Spanish Immersion program. I got a 30 on the ACT. And I don’t know if this helps but I am a first generation American who grew up speaking both Italian and English at home (I didn’t include Italian above because I never learned how to read and write). However, I will only take 3 years of science and I wont be taking any level of Calculus. I have my heart set on both of these schools as I love the areas they are in and both have good international relations departments. So what are my chances of getting in anything I can do to improve?
For NYU I’d suggest retaking the ACT to try lift your score a bit, and to be honest I think you should probably at least either do calc or a 4th year science - not doing either puts you at a disadvantage to many applicants. (You’re aware I trust that IR is an honors major at NYU?)
Why I say this: Your overall bio sounds quite similar to my daughter (different countries but same kind of thing and similar academic profile, but she did 4 years of science)- who also applied for IR, got accepted to NYU but into a second choice program (LSP), which is apparently not uncommon for those whose stats fall a little short (middle ACT is 30-34 at NYU now), and my current read of your stats is that you might get the same, especially if you are applying RD, which is becoming very competitive. It’s not a bad outcome at all as you can still transfer into CAS and IR (or many other majors) after 2nd year, but I’m guessing you’d want to max your chances directly into IR.
I know nothing about McGill… sorry. But I’d suggest you also look into GWU and American for IR, they have good programs and DC is a wonderful city, especially for that major, and your stats should make you a match for those; again, a bit of a bump on your ACT would probably help though.