<p>High school (Ontario, private school):
Grade 11 average - 91
Grade 12 average - 94
Top 6 average - 96</p>
<p>Took seven APs, earned 5 on six of them. </p>
<p>Then I went to the University of Waterloo, where I had the biggest failure of my life--literally:
Math (actuarial-science oriented) - took four courses, failed three (two maths and one computer science, overwhelmed myself with advanced courses and stuff), 81% on an English course
Non-degree term - taking Classics, North American Business, Business Laws, Canadian Laws, and Sociology; current average is 3.5/4.3 based on midterm grades; hoping to bring that to 3.7/4.3 after the exams</p>
<p>I'm applying for Arts. McGill told me that they are considering me based mainly on my high school grades because I completed less than 24 credits, but they are ALSO reviewing my university gpa.</p>
<p>What are my chances? I really want to get away from UW, cuz I don't really like this place. But I'm pretty doubtful about my chances to get in because of McGill's high academic standards.</p>
<p>Yep, choosing Actuarial Science was the biggest mistake of your life.</p>
<p>You could have easily gotten into McGill with your High School grades, but you got wooed by the ‘‘Best Job’’ advertisings there are on the interweb (by actuarial recruiters who try to get as many students to pay them for their crappy services).</p>
<p>Well, good luck I guess. Warn as many people as you can from pursuing the actuarial bandwagon.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply :). Yep, it most certainly was the biggest mistake of my life. That’s a really expensive lesson learned.
Today I read somewhere that a person got in with a gpa of 3.8/4.3. I think that’s achievable for me. So I’ll work hard to get it there and see how things go then.</p>
<p>But McGill will look only at your non-major GPA? They won’t consider your first year in which you had three F’s?</p>
<p>I am in the same boat as you. </p>
<p>I got into McGill in 2010 (sophomore year cause I’m a Quebec resident and we start university in our sophomore year cause we do 2-years of pre-university courses after High School which ends in Grade 11; total 16 years for a bachelor’s degree: 11 + 2 + 3, compared to your 12 + 4).</p>
<p>I got into BOTH the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Arts & Science. In Science I was gonna do Math, but I declined that and chose Math & Economics in Arts & Science.</p>
<p>In summer 2010, I was studying for FM (August sitting) on my own cause actuaries on a discussion forum told me to go to McGill and do something else other than actuarial to keep my options open. Well, in late July I thought it would be better to go to Concordia cause their actuarial program had a high entrance requirement (87%) and I thought I could make future contacts in there, the classes would help me to pass exams and their co-op program would help me get internships. The only thing that bugged me was McGill’s reputation. I ignored it and withdrew from McGill at the beginning of the Fall semester and accepted Concordia’s offer.</p>
<p>I passed FM in December 2010 but my grades suffered badly cause I was burnt-out after studying for FM. My GPA was 2.68 on 4.30.</p>
<p>In the winter semester I failed my actuarial class on life contingencies (exam MLC) and ended the year with a GPA of 2.33/4.30. I passed P in May though and I had also found a part-time data-entry job at a reinsurance (insurance for insurance companies) company. I took a summer course and got an A+ in it and brought my GPA up to 2.51/4.30. At this point (end of summer 2011), I was pretty confident of finding an internship for next summer.</p>
<p>Wow, your story makes me feel incredibly lucky!
Thank you for sharing it. I know your pain. <em>Pat on back</em> Good luck to you too! Let’s keep in touch and hopefully we will meet in McGill!
If we don’t get in, at least we can find comfort in the fact that life is not entirely decided by what we do in university. </p>
<p>I don’t know how they’ll do it. I only did actuarial science for one semester. I’m really hoping that they will look at my entire academic record, and say ok, she failed her actuarial science courses, but did well in others, and since she is applying for Arts we can overlook her bad grades in the math and computer science, which are irrelevant.
I’m praying for that. I’ll try again next year if I can’t get in this time. But still…I hope I can get out of here by fall! I hate Waterloo!</p>
<p>Checked my emails today, and found that I’ve been accepted by both Desautels and Arts.
Thank God! I’m SOOOO happy!!!
The only thing I’m concerned now is the possibility of McGill withdrawing the offers. I’m sending them the transcript after this semester. If I get like a 3.8/4.3 average, they should be willing to overlook my poor grades from the first semester, right?
ActuarialDropOut, thank you for your support, my friend. Good luck to you in your application! I hope we’ll be able to meet in McGill this fall!</p>
<p>Congrats on getting in! You get your acceptance super quick. Based on my understanding, most transfer students from Canadian universities don’t hear till like June, sometimes even July and August. Either way, congrats I’m still waiting to hear back myself (but I’m an American transfer).</p>
<p>Thank you! Yeah, I didn’t expect it to come this quick. I think they made the decisions based entirely on my high school grades.
Hope we’ll meet in McGill this fall!</p>
<p>Congrats Emma! Are you gonna go to Arts or B.Com?</p>
<p>I’m gonna apply at the end of this semester. I’ll need to submit a letter also explaining why my GPA is below a 3.0 (on McGill’s scale). I’ve already been working on it.</p>
<p>By the way, I went to Niagra Falls this January for the ASNA convention. It was PREDOMINANTLY Waterloo students. Very nice people, made a few friends there. :)</p>
<p>Yeah I really hope we get to see each other in Fall. If not, like I said, Concordia is 10 minutes away by foot. ;)</p>
<p>(But yes, I will be very depressed to have had the opportunity to go to McGill and refuse it and then get refused back when I tried to go back)</p>
<p>Thank you! I think I am going to go into Arts, because I want to do something that I am truly interested in this time, probably Classics. I’m still nervous right now, praying that McGill won’t withdraw the offer if something goes wrong during the finals and my mark goes down…</p>
<p>Glad to hear that you made some new Waterloo friends! I’m not surprised when you say that ASNA is full of UW students–Waterloo is like the largest source of actuaries in Canada :D</p>
<p>Good luck in your application! I look forward to meeting you in Montreal!</p>
<p>Oh my goodness, you guys are scaring me :(. I have been accepted to both McGill and Concordia, and I have accepted Concordia’s offer in Actuarial Mathematics (haven’t been accepted in Actuarial Maths & Finance though…). Reading your posts makes me wonder if I’ve made the right decision…! Also, I applied for coop and I haven’t heard back from them so I wonder if that means I haven’t been accepted</p>
<p>Well, I gotta warn you, actuarial science is REALLY hard.
I got 97 in grade 12 calc, and a 5 on my Calc BC exam. Two weeks into my first semester, I already had to study 12 hours a day to barely keep up. I had wanted to take exam P in my first year, turned out I had no time to read the book at all. The math class averages are usually in the 50s. A lot of people smell bad because they don’t even have time to shower…</p>
<p>My advice is, if you are not 100% sure that you are perfectly willing and have the ability to do actuarial science, then choose McGill. It’ll give you more options if you decide that the thing you are doing is not for you. Actuarial science might leave you with bad marks and thus no way out except into a lower-rating university, which is not worth your talents. Plus, the only thing that matters is the exams, which you can take no matter what program you are in.</p>
<p>I gotta warn you though, if you want to be an actuary in Canada then you need a degree in Actuarial Math. </p>
<p>The situation in Canada is different from the one in the US. In the US, most people cannot go to university due to high tuition. In Canada, you study whatever you want to be, but there is a lot of academic competition. Example, Med School in Quebec costs around $25,000 whereas in the USA it’s 10 times more expensive.</p>
<p>Thus people in the USA are encouraged to study whatever subject in whichever cheap state college they can afford to pay for. In Canada, if you want to be an actuary, it is absolutely important that you get an internship and show your commitment to the field by studying in an actuarial program.</p>
<p>I meant for people who want to be actuaries, they can study whatever they want in the US.</p>
<p>And I studied at Georgia State cause I have family here. I’m moving back to Montreal this July. College reputation matters much less in Canada because of the public education system.</p>
<p>You know what, I’ve completely changed my mind about going to McGill after speaking to a few people, including a counsellor.</p>
<p>I’ve met people in Actuarial Math that come from McGill. I know two guys who did their B.Sc in Physiology and in Anatomy at McGill, applied to Medical School, got an interview, but couldn’t get in, so now they’re doing Actuarial Math at Concordia.</p>
<p>Last week I met a guy who applied to Med School three times: after c</p>
I’m still waiting to hear back myself (but I’m an American transfer).</p>
Yeah, I didn’t expect it to come this quick. I think they made the decisions based entirely on my high school grades.