<p>I'm an American student, with an 87.4 unweighted gpa and an 89.1 weighted gpa. My test scores are as follows:</p>
<p>SAT:
reading: 660
math: 730
writing: 740
total: 2130</p>
<p>Sat2:
Math II: 690
US History: 710
Physics: 720</p>
<p>APs:
U.S. History: 3
World History: 4
Statistics: 4
Psychology: 5
Calculus AB: taking this year
Physics: taking this year
US Government and Politics: taking this year</p>
<p>Would I have any shot with my gpa?</p>
<p>yes, you should get in no problem. The grades are not as important as the test scores</p>
<p>Seriously? Isn’t it the top school in Canada? I’m not even in the top 30% of my class, and I just figured I would apply to have one super reach. How could it be that I might not get into some of the top tier SUNY schools, but I’m guaranteed to be admitted to the top university in Canada?</p>
<p>McGill places less weight on grades because they are usually a poor indicator of the calibre of student and often more a reflection of the quality of the high school than of the student (i.e. extremely high grades are more likely to suggest a slack high school than a bright student). </p>
<p>You clearly have some intelligence given your SAT scores and you are more likely to be successful at McGill than some of the recent applicants that have perfect GPA’s (4.0) but low SAT’s. Their work ethic probably won’t be sufficient to overcome their intellectual deficits.</p>
<p>High school grades too often reflect compliance and responsibility more than they reflect insight or intelligence. At McGill you won’t generally be given marks for punctuality, smiling, writing neatly, behaving well, or demonstrating good toilet training. </p>
<p>Canada is a very small country (fewer people than California), so being the top university in Canada is not that huge a deal. Canada’s highly developed equality means that it doesn’t have any bad universities, but also means that it doesn’t have any spectacular universities.</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that they value SATs more than GPA. To be honest, I’m a kid who did basically no work at all in high school that managed to do well on my aptitude tests. Is McGill University really looking for people like that?</p>
<p>@jeff…: The guarantee of admission comes from econgrad, not McGill. Your GPA of 87.4 would translate into a B+ or a 3.3 GPA. You would have a good chance for admission except in Science and Management. Those faculties have a published minimum of A-/3.7 GPA.</p>
<p>jeff32593: If you were a university what would you rather have: a stupid hard-working kid that stands no chance of success because of their stupidity (i.e. you can’t change stupid) or a lazy bright kid that stands a chance of success if they start working (i.e. you can change lazy and many students do when they leave high school and enter university).</p>
<p>While the stupid hard-working kid can be successful at all those colleges that are basically glorified high schools because their standards are so low, they will have difficulty at real universities that uphold the traditional standards of academe. While it is nice to believe that anyone can do anything (and there is a kernel of truth there: we usually underestimate what we are capable of), the truth is that some people do not come with the intellectual hardware to be academically successful at a high level.</p>
<p>No, McGill is not looking for lazy people. Certainly McGill, like all universities, would prefer that all its students be incredibly hard-working as well as brilliant, but McGill has just set the balance between work ethic and aptitude at a slightly different point than some other institutions.</p>
<p>violindad is absolutely right.</p>
<p>Mcgill cares a lot more about your standardized scores than your gpa.</p>