Hello everyone. I am a tenth grade high school student interested in applying to Ivies/Oxford from Canada. As such, I was wondering if any Canadian students that have made it into Yale, Oxford, or Harvard, could potentially give me some advice. I currently have a 4.0 in grade 9 and grade 10. My lowest marks last year was a 79 in Science and an 84 in Geo (COVID messed up my marks), but otherwise all 92+. This year for science, I will get 95+ to balance last year’s. I am currently taking three language courses (French, Chinese, Spanish) and plan to continue for the whole duration of high school. The following are activities/awards that I have either planned to do or have already done.
My ECs:
Started a feminism/global affairs club at my school, largest club at my school with 100+ students
A member of the city youth cabinet (collaborates with the city of Toronto on youth employment outreach)
Volunteer for an Economics professor at a university
Going to write a book on my political ideology (in process")
District Presidents Council
Volunteer for a senator of Canada
President of model UN at my school
President of speech and debate at my school
National Political Organization Founder
Volunteer for a foreign government (ministry of women’s affairs)
(so a politics spike, but I have more extracurriculars for econ that I chose to exclude, because I’m more interested in polisci)
AWARDS:
Yale/Oxford Asia Model UN best delegate
Canadian Economics Olympiad
international Essay Contest Finalist
Specialist High School Major for Business
For APs, my school doesn’t offer any but I am planning to self study and take the exam for:
AP US Government & Politics
AP Language & Composition
AP US History
AP French
AP Comparative Government
AP Macro
AP Micro
AP Calculus BC
PLANNED SAT SUBJECT TESTS:
Math II
French
English
Am I a competitive applicant? If not, what are some international awards or extracurriculars that can make me stand out?
It was a very long time ago, but years back I was a Canadian high school student who attended MIT for undergrad. It is possible.
You should definitely think of Ivy League / MIT / Stanford as reaches. The large majority of applicants are very well qualified and very few get accepted. Fortunately you look to be very much on track for great universities in Canada.
In terms of extracurricular activities the general guidance is to do what you want to do, and do it very well. If you are president of a club, make it better for everyone who participates. If you compete, then win.
In terms of self studying for APs my personal guess is that doing better in fewer would be better. It is going to be too hard to self study for that many APs. One daughter self-studied for a language AP and it was difficult to find a place to take the test. We did eventually find one and she did well.
You should look carefully at the costs of university in the US. Run the NPC (Net Price Calculator) after first checking that the schools you are considering meet full need for international students. Keep the exchange rate in mind. You might be better off with a bachelor’s in Canada and a masters in the US.
One issue that I ran into after graduating: Canadian employers often prefer to hire graduates from the many excellent Canadian universities. It can be tough getting a job in Canada after graduating even from a top university such as MIT or Stanford. Again my experience here is from a long time ago.
There is a great blog that is relevant to applying to top US universities. You can find it by googling “Applying sideways MIT”. I would recommend reading it. I think that it is relevant for other top US schools also.
I wouldn’t bother self studying for APs. US universities are more interested in GPA in the class than AP scores, and Oxford is perfectly able to interpret your Canadian education: International qualifications | University of Oxford
If you’re interested in PPE at Oxford the econ supercurriculars will be useful as well as the politics ones. (I might leave out the book though.)
I am pretty sure that the PhD will be funded regardless of whether you do it in Canada or the US. The other two (bachelor’s and master’s) would of course be less expensive in Canada. A master’s however being only one or two years if you are full pay will cost less than the bachelor’s.
I do hope you are aware there is not really such a thing as a UK law school. “Law schools” in the UK teach exactly two things, the so called “legal practice course” for kids who come in with an undergrad law degree, and a so called “conversion course” for kids who come in with another degree. Neither is an actual academic qualification the way a JD is. Actually learning how and qualifying to be a lawyer happens in the two year trainee period with an actual law firm, and no one who doesn’t have a trainee place with a law firm actually does law school.
After reading this message and the other one about Yale EP and E, I think you have a misconception about how admissions to US universities work. It is very different than UK admissions.
In the US, most top colleges and universities do not admit by major. There are exceptions: the university of Pennsylvania’s Wharton school does admit students directly from high school. Duke admits to its engineering school. But for the most part, you are admitted to the university and can change your major later. Thus, it would be silly to omit Econ extracurriculars from your application because they do not relate to your intended major. Yes, you are asked your prospective major, But this is just to give the universities an idea of your areas of interest.Unless you list a rather unusual major with a demonstrated interest in it, your choice of prospective major has little to do with your chances of admission. Indeed, about 15% of each class admitted to my alma mater apply as undecided.
This is very different than the British system in which you apply for a particular major and usually are interviewed by someone with knowledge of that subject.
Agree with the others: self-studying all those APs is a waste of time: the US unis won’t be impressed and Oxford will look at your Canadian qualifications. If you have that much extra time, put it into your ECs.
Realistically, your odds are (statistically) better for Oxford than the US Ivies. Getting an UG from Oxford, a Masters from an Ivy and your PhD from Toronto will build up just as solid a path to an academic career (which I assume is your goal?).