My daughter is also in the same boat, RDP since early March and has to make a commitment by next week regarding the US schools who made offers. Very frustrating to wait so long!
My daughter was just accepted, was on RDP since February
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Thank you for sharing, this gives my daughter hope. She has been RDP since mid- February too. Are you a US applicant? We visited and toured last week and spoke to Service Portal team who could only tell us it could take until late May to receive a decision. So frustrating.
US applicant, but dual citizen
My daughter heard yesterday from McGill. Waitlisted.
Waitlisted, Desautels BCom.
S2 is not interested in his February offer in Arts, where S1 is finishing next fall, so withdrawal of his Arts app will open up a spot for someone on Arts w/l. We put deposit down at US program, Cornell University, but still holding out some hope for BCom spot. Anecdotally, we know of one w/l student offered BCom seat as late as August, but that was 2017 intake --different times.
Accepted to Cornell , waitlisted at McGill ??
Congratulations on Cornell !!!
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That should not be surprising. McGill admissions is not holistic and has rigid cutoffs. Cornell is holistic. Also Desautels is the most selective faculty at Mcgill.
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The world “holistic “ after this admission cycle has a negative connotation for me 
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I think it’s difficult to make sense of McGill’s cutoffs during the chaos of the past 2 admissions cycles. Admissions calculus was likely more clear in 2019 – predictable deferments & yields, required testing – when 1st son was admitted. 2nd son’s marks are far beyond the stated cutoffs, and his brother’s for that matter, but I speculate his predictive IB score report delayed the adcom from looking at his dossier…long enough to fill the Desautels cohort.
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My daughter didn’t get her admission to life sciences until May 31. With a 96.8% average (in Ontario).
My son is applying for McGill '27 and you seem to be well aware of the admission process so I thought I would reach out.
His current GPA is 4.00 UW and 4.71 W (grade 9-11) - 33 ACT - Competitive California HS-
His 4.00 UW GPA does however includes 4 A- (nothing else below an A).
Wondering if McGill recalculates your GPA with A- = 3.67 vs how most US High schools that do not differentiate between an A-/A/A+ = 4.00?
Thank you in advance if you can answer that question for us.
Welcome! I’m not sure whether McGill would recalculate the A- as a 3.7. My hunch is yes. What you should do is recalculate your son’s GPA based upon Grade 10 and 11 academic classes only. (No Arts grades. No PE.) No weighting. Then compare to the minima from the year before in the Faculty he wants to apply to. His ACT is great - no worry there for sure. What does he want to study? Also, keep in mind that your son can apply to multiple faculties. Mine applied to Desautels (got dinged) and Arts (got in). He had a fantastic experience and came out with a very good job. Fee free to direct message me. Happy to help and share what I know.
By “Arts grades” to be excluded, do you also mean music classes? What about music history and theory?
I meant things like art, music, etc. Not sure about music history and theory. You may want to call. What major/Faculty is your son considering? Have you checked out the minima? Requirements for U.S. applicants | Undergraduate Admissions - McGill University
He was originally looking at Arts, but is curious if he would meet the minima for other majors. He had a B one semester, so it’s just a question of how many As he will be using to dilute it. Since the B was in a math class, we are assuming that he wouldn’t be able to apply to the faculties which list A or A- in “each prerequisite math and science”? The grade was 89.5% but our HS doesn’t have +/- grades so it came out as a B.
My daughter is applying for class of 2027 in Arts. Curious as to how exactly to use the minima to ascertain her chances. First does a B+ mean a 3.33? Second, how do you use the minima to gauge likelihood of acceptance? The website is careful to say that being above the minima is not a guarantee of acceptance, and based on prior year’s postings, that seems to be true. So, do you assume: 1) at mimima or slightly above . . . slim chance, 2) somewhat above minima, decent chance, and 3) substantially above . . . shoe in? Just trying to figure out how to use those numbers realistically.
And, thanks for all of your posts - they have been super helpful!
We used 3.3 (B+) and 3.7 (A-). Honestly that is how our HS did it and I never thought about it. Above the mimina is a toughie. My oldest was about a 3.5 at a public suburban Boston HS McGill knows well. (We send about 5-7 students to McGill each year.) My youngest was right at the minima. Both were 31 ACT. Both got into Arts and dinged by Desautels. I think it really differs year by year and definitely by Faculty. Over the last five years, the listed minima have pretty much stayed the same except Desautels which went up about five years ago and my hunch is science and engineering have gone up slightly as well. That said, I would say your characterization is spot on with the exception of the first one - I think that may be decent chance as well. Remember that McGill is pretty much strictly by the numbers. Feel free to ask more - happy to help. (And FWIW: my youngest got into McGill but decided on Concordia, which is about 8 blocks from McGill. He is in JMSB (business school). It’s been a really good fit for him - the workload is insane (sorta like McGill) and he’s landed great internships. Student life has been less meh but a lot of that is Covid related. For a student who wants to be in Montreal, Concordia is another great option. (And easier to get into for most programs.)
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Thank you so very much for your input!
We will recalculate GPA using A- = 3.7 and taking out PE, Art etc.
I wonder if rigor of curriculum is taken into account in the admission process. Would a student having all straight As taking no Honors/AP classes be evaluated the same as a student taking all APs/Honors? He will have 11 AP classes by graduation. I understand that if he keeps 4+ on all APs test, they would count as credit for McGill.
Since McGill is a top choice (dual French/US citizen = Canadian tuition) and he is not 100% sure what he wants to major in, we are applying to Art / Art & Sciences / Desautels / Sciences. (we understand we can submit as many applications with 2 faculties per each application)
My daughter applied to Art and Art & Sciences for fall 2021 and got in very early January w/ entrance scholarship. She however only had As on her transcript, no A- and same rigorous curriculum. So we just knew her GPA was 4.0 UW (no wondering about how an A- is calculated.
Thanks @SwimmingDad. That is super helpful! My daughter is at a bit over a 3.8 UW and has a 33 ACT, so I’m thinking she’s at least in the “decent shot” category, and maybe in the “shoe in” for Arts.