I haven’t seen many posts about Canadian colleges, so maybe it couldn’t hurt to add one with a few questions. I’m an international student (although just from the USA) and really like Dalhousie University. I hope someone who is from Canada or another international student there can answer these.
- Entrance Scores: how are these calculated? I have a general idea of what these are but I’m still confused. I meet the general GPA and SAT score requirements, however I really want to know about these seeing as they are important to admissions and scholarships. I have a 4.1/4.5 GPA (3.9 UW) and if anyone knows if this could result in a good entrance score, I would appreciate it.
- Is there good financial aid for international students? I do realize that it is less expensive to go to a Canadian university than the majority of American ones, but any little bit helps (I have 7 siblings)!
- How important is it to them about extracurriculars and unique experiences? I have a heavy research background and have participated in research in many different labs. I also was captain of my academic team, both my sports teams, and volunteered a lot at my church and with an orphanage. Normally, I would think that it has to count for something, but I don’t know how important Dalhousie University may see this in comparison to academics.
That’s all I have to ask! Hopefully I and others can learn a little bit from this post!
We live in the northeast of the US, and toured Dalhousie a couple of years ago. I liked it quite a bit. My daughter wanted a smaller school. We also toured smaller universities including Mount Allison (which is in New Brunswick near the border with Nova Scotia), Acadia, St Francis Xavier, and Mount St Vincent, as well as Bishop’s which is Quebec as as such quite far from Nova Scotia. We also toured quite a few schools in the US.
For Canadian schools your unweighted GPA is the most important thing. A 3.9 unweighted is going to be quite good for Dalhousie. I am not sure to what extent Dalhousie gives merit based financial aid for international students, but I would not be surprised if you get some aid. We have dual citizenship and did get some merit aid from the smaller schools that we applied to. Also, even without aid for an international student Dalhousie will be quite a bit less expensive than the better known Canadian universities such as McGill and Toronto and UBC, and might even cost less or about the same compared to your in-state public universities in the US.
I doubt that your extracurriculars will matter much. This shouldn’t matter since you should get in based on your strong grades.
My personal opinion is that it is a great school in an attractive location and I would encourage you to apply and seriously consider it. It is close enough to the Halifax airport that travel also won’t be a major issue. Depending upon where you are coming from, the ferries from Portland Maine to Yarmouth Nova Scotia and from St John New Brunswick to Digby Nova Scotia might also be useful. The ferries won’t save you much time, but allow you to rest during the trip and are very comfortable with good food on board.
I’m from the Northeast too, so in terms of being “international”, I’m not that far away. This helps, thank you!
I know your post is a few months old. We toured Dal in September, and really liked it. Ds was able to sit in on a class, eat lunch in the cafeteria, talk to some students, and do a tour.
The admissions person said that their scholarship process opens on December 1st. They also said that everyone should apply for scholarhips because they like to try and give money to everyone.
My ds was accepted the other day for next fall. His stats aren’t as good as yours. He has a 3.2 gpa and a 1230 on the SAT’s. He has some AP courses in there as well.
The application didn’t ask about extracurriculars at all, or an essay either.
Something different there- you don’t choose a major your first year. You choose a general degree program (like arts and sciences) and then choose your major at the end of your first year.
With the exchange rate, Dal costs the same as living at our local state university.
Dalhousie is a well regarded university amongst Canadians, with a long history and tradition. It is already very inexpensive compared to US schools. Don’t know why you think that Canadian taxpayers should fund an International who is likely to leave their country after college. Canadian schools are heavily funded by the government, driving the costs down.