<p>In our school, whoever gets an average of 80%+ is considered getting a 4.0 GPA. Does that mean that an 80% in Canada is equivalent to a 90% in US? Is it true that Canadian curriculum is more difficult?</p>
<p>from what i have been told (by american coaches), the canadian schooling system is held in VERY high regard when it comes to the USA… </p>
<p>i was told that an average of 95% from a canadian highschool (a decent one, that is) is worth OVER 100% at a good american school </p>
<p>obv, slight exaggeration since its impossible to get over 100%, but you get the point</p>
<p>and it isnt necessarily more difficult, but it is perceived that way. our university level courses are our version of american AP classes, and our AP classes are actual UNIVERSITY classes…</p>
<p>It is true that US schools add a few percent when looking at GPA from a canadian school, but the true reason is not because we have hard schooling, but because most of our schools lack a weighting system (no weighted GPA). Since american schools have weighted GPA, unis add a few percent when comparing applicants. But usually it doesn’t really matter because you get compared to applicants from your own country.</p>
<p>In canada, a 4.0 GPA consists of straight A’s.</p>
<p>First, there is no “Canadian” curriculum. I assume you’re talking about Ontario’s.</p>
<p>Secondly, admissions offices (like here at Harvard, for instance) do not make province-wide generalizations about what certain grades mean. They will obviously hold an 80% average at UCC in higher regard than an 80% at no-name public school in Northern Ontario. You can expect that admissions officers at universities that receive a high number of Canadian applications will be able to make even finer distinctions between schools. In any case, they will use your class rank, essays and SAT scores to compare you to other applicants. I cannot stress enough the importance of the essays: you can have a 100% average and they won’t accept you if can’t write.</p>
<p>But what if the high school doesn’t rank?</p>
<p>^well, they can’t hold it against you in any way, but it may hurt a bit since it’s one less qualitative aspect from your app. that they can’t use. But, I assume just getting a good average is enough if you have good SAT scores to back it up.</p>
<p>I think it’s different from province to province.</p>
<p>According to my friend in Ontario, the curriculum is pretty easy because lots of people get in the 90s, but here in my school in Alberta, it’s very difficult to get past the 90s. Only 1 or 2 students have 80s in the classes.</p>
<p>I was looking at the curriculum for AP Chemistry a few weeks ago and found it interesting that it was almost exactly the same as the Ontario Grade 12 Chemistry curriculum (at my school at least). The only difference is that in AP you learn electrochemistry, whereas my teacher skipped that unit; there was a chapter on it somewhere in the textbook.</p>
<p>If you take chemistry, physics, and biology all the way up to Grade 12, then you’ve basically taken 4 years of every science, unlike many kids in the States. We’re WAY ahead when it comes to the sciences.</p>
<p>^But we are probably behind when it comes to math?</p>
<p>I would just guess based on my experience that they hold our good students in high regard. A good rule of thumb I’ve found is that an average Cdn student is equivalent to an above-average US student.</p>
<p>bb</p>
<p>^What experience triggered you to come up with this conclusion?</p>
<p>Having met students from “upper echelon” schools in the states at various conferences and judging their level of intelligences and know-how against Canadian students from “average” schools is how I based that response. Any other questions?</p>
<p>^At least you have a very high opinion of your own judgement. Do you have any stats to support it?</p>
<p>I wouldnt quite word it like that, but I tend to agree with BlueBoy. Ive been told by numerous Canadian and American colleges that having a very high average from good Canadian highschool is held in high regard, akin to getting nearly perfect at a great (and often private) highschool in the USA</p>
<p>If you excel in your own high school, that is what matters. Also, yes, Canadian grades are bumped up a little bit in the admissions process, I believe.</p>
<p>I personally know a few people who were excepted to Ivy universities from Canada, and their ECs and grades were inferior to the average accepted American applicant.</p>
<p>I took chemistry ib sl in a highly ranked Canadian high school and the topics we had to know for the ib exam were pretty broad and general compared to the final exams administered by Alberta education. For these final exams, we were required to know specific concepts that were more difficult than the concepts learned in the ib curriculum (note that ap and ib are nearly equivalent). In addition to this, we were taught university concepts in both my grade 11 and 12 biology honor classes, and these concepts were more difficult than the higher level ib curriculum (equivalent of AP). Therefore, I would have to agree with the fact that alberta’s science curriculum at least, is considered very highly. On top of this, despite my substandard grades in both biology and chemistry (85ish) I was able to get into Northeastern’s pharmacy program, where I believe, most of my classmates had 90+ in both chemistry and biology.</p>