IB student in Canada graduating a year late

Hi, I’m a Canadian high school student in my last year doing the full IBDP. My scores will probably be around 39/45. I would really like to get into a school like U of T, UBC, or Mcgill but as I said in the title I am not the average application…Because of bullying and my mom abandoning me forcing me to move around that year I failed grade 10. After I redid the year and got a 3.8 GPA non-weighted and then did very well from there on.

Just for some context here in Canada universities only really look at grade 11 and 12 marks, some don’t even ask for 11, so I’m wondering what the universities will consider that year?..I did all grade 10 courses but was in the computer as a grade 11. Will they look at it as 11 or 10?

I don’t think that I fully understand what you are asking. Are you going to take an extra year and take the normal set of grade 12 courses one year later than you otherwise would have, and then apply to universities while you are taking the grade 12 courses? If so would this mean that when you are taking your grade 12 classes you will already have completed two good years (your second grade 10 plus your year when you took grade 11 classes)?

What year of classes are you taking right now? When do you intend to apply to universities?

I expect that you would be much better asking the admissions staff at the schools directly. You should however be very clear what classes you were taking or will be taking at what time, and when you intend to apply.

I would say that I don’t think that this is all that unusual. Students sometimes do have one bad year for a variety of reasons, whether in high school or in university. I would expect universities to know this. I know a few people who had one or two bad years somewhere along the way and ended up graduating university one or two years late, but who in the end were very successful in life. One year plus or minus is not a big deal. Life is not a race.

Also, you should be aware that Toronto, McGill, and UBC are pretty much as stressful as you can find among Canadian universities. There are a lot of other very good universities in Canada to choose from.

They’ll look at your LAST TWO year whatever they are. What happened before you started the IBD sent later to Canadian universities.

If you are a Canadian student applying to Canadian universities, they will only be looking at your grade 12 marks. At most universities you won’t even be applying with your IB marks but rather your converted marks (out of 100%). The universities aren’t going to care what “year” you are in, only that you are presenting the grade 12 courses necessary for admission to the program to which you are applying and that you have a competitive average. Many students in Ontario take a 5th year of high school (a hold over from when we used to have grade 13) known colloquially as a “victory lap” and taking a gap year is not uncommon. A few select programs will require a supplemental application but even they will only be considering your grade 12 marks. The only time grade 11 marks come into play is for early admissions (ie prior to May), and even then if your marks aren’t high enough with your grade 11 marks included they will just wait until they receive your second semester grade 12 mid-term marks and re-evaluate you then. If a school does provide a supplemental application you are more than welcome to outline any extenuating circumstances that you feel might impact your evaluation for admission, but I wouldn’t worry about it. Having a bad year in grade 10 is not going to hurt your chances of admission.