Hey everyone, I’m a Canadian student applying to University soon and I had a couple of questions about ECs.
First of all, how are ECs weighted on college applications? For example, currently, I’m in a couple of clubs (debate club, junior business club, school paper and student council). If I’m applying to a top Canadian business school like Richard Ivey and Queens School of Business, do they only care about leadership positions? In my student council club, I’m only a member and so should I just not even mention this? Also, how important do competitions/honors have to be to note them? I was a finalist in the Scholars Cup last year, is this worthy of recognition?
And finally, would anyone know how ECs are given to the Ivey school admissions? Do you usually just list them in your application or do they only see the 3 of them you talk about in your entrance essay?
The Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University is the only “American style” school in Canada in the sense it looks at the entire application, very much like elite universities in the United States. Ivey will look at grades, test scores, leadership and accomplishments in ECs, unique abilities (music, athletics, debate/speech, art, math/science awards), etc. Just being in a club doesn’t mean much. One has to show leadership and/or accomplishments in ECs.
Most Canadian universities and programs ONLY look at grades, which is incredibly one-dimensional. So a 95% gets you into McGill Mechanical Engineering, but a 94.5% doesn’t? The kid with a 94% who is on sports teams and attends a rigorous high school and has other ECs gets passed over because someone else has a 95% and does nothing but homework - doesn’t make sense. This is why elite Canadian university programs unfortunately tilt toward test takers and grade seekers, and not those who excel both in school and in extra curricular leadership. Focusing only on grades and test scores is also why Canada is producing a lot of robot Doctors with ZERO bedside manners.
It is starting to change. Queen’s Commerce is now weighing other factors more significantly, and a handful of other Canadian programs are as well, but most do not weigh other leadership factors very much. Hence Western and Queen’s business students may have SLIGHTLY lower entrance grades than UBC and Toronto because these latter two schools attract more test takers/grade seekers with less demonstrated leadership and EC involvement than those at Western and Queen’s.
If one applies to the Wharton School undergraduate business program with high SATs and grades, with nothing else of distinction - they have absolutely no chance of getting in. If the same person applies to University of Toronto Commerce - they will probably get in. Admissions policies based mostly on grades and test scores are not effective at identifying future leaders.
The Ivey School has a great admissions policy, and that is why it, and Queen’s Commerce, produces business leaders and sends a lot of kids to prestigious US grad schools where those kids thrive disproportionately well.
“Focusing only on grades and test scores is also why Canada is producing a lot of robot Doctors with ZERO bedside manners.”
That’s not the way med school admissions work. They are very much holistic. Right from U of T’s website:
“The admissions process identifies the best possible candidates for medical school by assessing each applicant’s overall achievements, including those in academic and non-academic areas. Academic excellence is necessary, but not sufficient, to ensure success as a physician. A multitude of factors are used to determine candidates selected.”
There is also an interview requirement.
While I agree that it makes sense for applicants to business programs be well rounded, the point of the majority of undergraduate education, is just that education. Most professional programs are not direct entry from high school anyway so which extra-curricular activities you participated in high school are completely irrelevant. What matters is what you’ve done while you’ve been in university. Outside of professional programs, the purpose of university is not to prep you for the workforce. It’s to further your education. What possible value does being captain of the football team have to earning a B.A. in English Literature or a B.Sc. in Physics? What does have value is being a strong academic student. That’s the whole point of Academia → academics. If you want to play football in the NFL, no one is going to assess you based on your GPA, so why should someone who wants to do scientific research be assessed based on their ability to play football?
@MVY4evr Ivey and Queens Commerce are definitely not the only Canadian programs that assess qualities other than academics. There are several engineering and commerce programs that do, including UBC and U of T. Their graduates also do very well at prestigious US grad schools.
If you follow any of the chance me threads here on CC for US schools the EC’s that are listed are mostly unverifiable and often consist of puffery. Essays are often written or rewritten by parents.
@TomSrOfBoston University of Waterloo asks for references for each activity on their additional information forms (AIFs). Maybe other schools should do that. It would cut down on the puffery. But then, it would also cut down on the income from application fees. 
You are assuming that those students who have excellent grades do not also have excellent ECs and may also have attended ‘rigorous’ high schools. This, frankly, is an incredibly one-dimentional view. 
While it may be true that not all admitted students have extensive ECs, experiences, etc., many, maybe even most, do. And those are the students who often go on to excel at schools like U of T and Queens and McGill.
Colleges and universities across North America have access to a large database of high school information that assists them in assessing applicants. They know what high schools may be more rigorous than others.
The negative comments by @MVY4evr about Canadian schools, and students/grads, bring to mind the difference between Canadian and U.S. law schools. Canadian schools are far more selective and yet many take a holistic view of admissions, while U.S. schools don’t care where you did your undergrad, what ECs you have, there is only gpa and LSAT in their view.
As @bouders says, Western is not the only school that uses an assessment policy that looks at factors other than grades.
Stats only admission has not prevented McGill from having 142 Rhodes Scholars and 10 alumni winning Nobel prizes.