Hi, I’m a high school student in studying in Toronto. I moved to Canada last year from my home country where I did my Grade 10. My new school in Canada gave me Five grade 10 courses, and Three grade 11 courses(Even though I’m in Gr11), saying they do have space at the moment and would shift me to grade 11 as soon as possible. It was almost too late when I realized I’m in a trap and am doing courses which are too easy for me.
Right now, I want to do AP courses, Online courses, etc and better my profile each day. I am aiming for an ivy league university, University of Pennsylvania. Even tho I’m a highly motivated student and pursue my interest in business outside the school, I feel like I’m doing less than the people who will be applying to these universities at the same time.
The Big Question now is, should I admit myself to grade 11 the next school year and do all the Grade 11 courses and APs I should have done in the first place (this will be one extra year at high school) OR do the grade 11 MATH and ENGLISH (pre-requisites for gr12) in the summer and just continue with grade 12 next year.
Please share your thoughts and suggestions. This is a very important decision I have to make and since I have no knowledge about how universities evaluate a candidate (based on academic backgrounds, in this case), am am not able to decide on my own.
Thanks in advance !
in my opinion, taking the grade 11 courses over the summer and then continuing to your senior year might be the best option, colleges will understand the transition year from canada to us might have caused your classes to be messed up (in terms of you not taking the ap’s you would have wanted or being in as challenging classes as 11th graders) but at the end of the day, if you take all those ap’s in your 12th grade year and keep your grades up with good ec’s, it should not make a difference to where you attend. I would highly consider this option over staying an extra year of high school because depending on how long you plan to be in college, you dont want to push back the year in which you would finish your education
This is helpful! Thank you so much
Take the Grade 11 classes. Your school actually helped you because I assume you got really good grades for Grade 10. So, take the grade 11 classes you need + 3-4 APs.
Don’t focus on just one dream school though. There are 3,700 colleges in the US so 370 are top 10%, ie. , Excellent.
Get a Fiske guide and start reading.
In theory you should be fine IF you can actually take 2 new credits over the summer (many school boards will restrict you to only 1). Most grade 12 courses are going to have the grade 11 equivalent as prerequisites. With the 3 grade 11 courses you took this year plus the 2 you plan to take over the summer you will be able to take their grade 12 equivalent but there are going to be very few other grade 12 courses you can take that you can use for admission to university that will not have a requirement of having taken a grade 11 equivalent course first (business courses maybe the exception). The other issue you have is regardless of how many grade 12 credits you have if you will be able to meet graduation requirements. I would make an appointment with your guidance counsellor to make sure you can do this. With regards to the AP courses, if your school offers them, you need to look into your school’s eligibility criteria for taking them because as some schools they have restricted access (you need to be in a special program).