<p>Hey there. Thanks for reading.
I live in Canada and am a junior at a public high school. I had completely dismissed ANY chances of ever getting into an Ivy League university, but I've read through several peoples' threads and noticed VERY similar gpa's, EC's, etc.. who hope to apply to the Ivies. So I thought I might as well post my information and get some feedback. Thanks for any and all of your comments!</p>
<p>My school operates on a term system, so we have 3 terms per year.
My grades for first term (early december) were as follows:
Art: 86%
English Honours: 86%
Writing 12: 94%
French Honours: 89%
Socials: 90%
Biology: 93%
Principles Math: 76%
Film & TV: 89%</p>
<p>Here, to calculate our GPA we drop the lowest mark (my math mark, thank god, ugh its horrible). which gives me a GPA of 90%.
Now, I feel it should be pointed out that both my english and french marks are unusually low. Typically I'm used to getting 92-94 in both (and they're honours classes). Anyways. the math mark is dreadful, i know i know.. math is definitely not my thing. I think I can pull it up to an... 82%?</p>
<p>School Activities:
*Broadcast Club - perform daily announcements to the entire school, as well as run contests to engage the students in school.</p>
<p>*Street Squad - I've just joined. we have ties with 2 local community centres and do annual bottle drives, clothing drives, food drives, as well as school-wide initiatives. we also go to the absolute worst part of the city every christmas and hand out care packages to the homeless/addicts/etc.
Potential leadership opportunity (leading campaigns etc.)</p>
<p>*Newspaper Club - Our school doesn't have one! So a few classmates invited me to help kick start one from scratch. UNFORTUNATELY the others involved are extremely disorganized and not highly ambitious in my opinion, because we first met in october and nothing has happened. .... I might drop out.</p>
<p>*Theatre Company - costume design. involves attending rehersals, finding, selecting, designing/making costumes.</p>
<p>*French Tutor - I tutor French once a week to a younger student. But I get paid. Not sure if this can be added..</p>
<p>*P.A.W.S. - Positive Action With Students. It's the club OF clubs: leaders/reps of all clubs/teams at school meet each month and discuss current and future projects etc. My Vice Principal asked if I would be willing to take on the position of head coordinator.</p>
<p>*Senior Girls Hockey Team - My school has held the title of City Champs for 4 years, undefeated. This is my first year playing.
*Senior Girls Rugby Team - My third year playing. We made 10th in the Provincials last spring (woot!). Practices 4-5 times a week from March-May plus games, very time consuming. But I love it.</p>
<p>OUT OF SCHOOL Activities:
*Girl Guides - This is my 9th year. I'm now in Senior Branches, the elected leader of my unit, and I also volunteer as a Junior Leader with a younger branch. I've travelled to Ottawa and Switzerland as a participant selected from province-wide applications. (approx. 3 hours per week+organization and outings)
*Ma'Kya Outdoor Program - Outdoor adventure club that I go on camping and hiking trips on. We learn leadership and outdoor survival techniques.
*Big Sister Program - I've been matched with my Big Sister for 7 years in April, which is exceptionally rare as most matches break up around 3 years or so.
*Part-time job - I work at a fast-food place 1-2 times per week, 6-14 hours per week. In the fall, I had 2 jobs and worked 3 days a week for a total of 18 hours. It was exhausting.
*Teen Journalist - One of 9 applicants selected to volunteer as a Teen Correspondant for a nationally-distributed youth magazine.</p>
<p>OTHER ACTIVITIES:
*Summer Camp Counsellor, 2005 - 4 weeks as a volunteer camp counselor at a subsidized summer camp, therefore attracting a high number of kids from lower-class or unstable homes, with a variety of behavioural problems.
*Leadership Camp, August 2004. - 17 days mentored by highly skilled camp leaders.. I can't even describe how much I learned.
*Work Experience - Currently completing a 1 week work experience placement at a widely-distributed youth magazine. I've written 6 or 7 articles so far and hope to gain a position on their Youth Editorial Board.</p>
<p>ANYTHING ELSE:
*Grade 8 - 10, Mini School student (enriched curriculum program @ school, selected through application and interview).
*Honor Roll - Every term through high school.
*I know that nearly all of my teachers would give me really strong recommendations. My Big Sister and Guiding leader would also give strong rec's too.</p>
<p>............please give me any feedback you can.
I'm interested in Arts/Humanities.......... journalism, philosophy, history, writing, international development, politics, literature, etc.
Also, multi-media studies... film, photography, art... although I really don't see myself at art school. I love the academics.</p>
<p>So far, I've thought I could only ever hope to get into Canadian universities. So I decided I'd like to apply to...
-UBC, SFU, UVic.......... as backups I guess, because I'd like to go East.
-U of Toronto
-Queens
-Waterloo
-and my dream, Mcgill. although i don't know if its still my dream.</p>
<p>Please be honest. What do you think? What are my chances, where do I need to improve, what else can I be doing to prepare for university applications?
If I were to even think of applying to the States, I think I'd apply to Berkeley.... I don't know where else I could try for. I haven't taken the SAT's and wasn't planning to because I was going to 'stay in Canada'. My school has NO AP COURSES........... ridiculous.</p>
<p>Feedback, please. thanks guys, so much.</p>