<p>Thanks for the suggestion. U. of Michigan does look really good.</p>
<p>what about trying to pad your EC a bit this summer with an internship or something? you can take something small that you do and make it look stellar on an app. trust me, haha. </p>
<p>mcgill is a great bargain school - top quality, but low cost. u of toronto, too. really any of the canadian universities. they’re on the rise lately.</p>
<p>Well I’m already trying to get a job this summer, and I’m taking a class every day, and I have to get ******** cas hours done. So my time will mostly be full. The idea is then of course to get cas hours doing some sort of good EC…</p>
<p>fyi, you said you didn’t know how comfortable you would be at a french-speaking university, but mcgill is english… montreal is also an amazing city and most people there are bilingual although french is preferred by locals – there is also concordia in montreal which is another great school although the biggest rival of mcgill ;)</p>
<p>Yes I understand that McGill is English-speaking. That was my point :-). I was saying that I was happy to have found an English-speaking university in a French-speaking part of the world.</p>
<p>Any other ideas?</p>
<p>Also, how competitive is NYU (New York University)? Do I have a chance to get in there? (Honestly I have no idea. Don’t laugh at me if this is a stupid question!)</p>
<p>chicago, Carleton, maybe MIT or Berkeley.</p>
<p>It really depends on the story you tell in your application. all the schools you would consider will look carefully at your entire application and get a good read on you.</p>
<p>LACs are usually very, very good in math. You don’t need big graduate programs and labs to support a top notch undergraduate math faculty.</p>
<p>With that SAT and good rec’s, I think NYU is a high match for you. Rice is a great school for science/math/engineering types, so you might check it out. Probably a reach, but you never know. A lot of this depends on how rigorous your high school is; a 3.4 in an IB program at a competitive high school can look much better than a 3.4 at a weaker school. Class rank will enter into it, as will rigour of your courses (not just in math, but all around).</p>
<p>Might want to look at University Of Michigan, U of Washington is amazing…but 3000 miles away from where i live…If you don’t get into Chicago(which is amazing school) Try depaul or northwestern..they are the next best schools in Chicago and both are very highly rated.</p>
<p>Thanks. My school isn’t all that “rigorous”… unfortunately the low grades are mainly due to me having slacked off my first two years and to some extent my third. I’m in the top 15% of my class, not even the top 10%…</p>
<p>How much would that hurt me?</p>
<p>Well, colleges consider your grades to be the most imortant factor in deciding whther to admit you. ec’s test scores, yadda yadda are important, but you won’t get in anywhere (almost) with horrendous grades.</p>
<p>So, yes, it will hurt a lot. The fact you go to a very non rigorous school will not help matters AT ALL.</p>
<p>But hey, laziness is fun, it feels good, I become lethargic a lot and I love it.</p>
<p>Yes I’m aware that I can’t get into any top schools. My question was more geared towards what schools I <em>can</em> get into.</p>
<p>I think you have a very skewed outlook on life if you think that my grades are “horrendous” or that I won’t be able to get in “almost anywhere”. Straight C students in non-honors classes can go to decent state universities, so I really don’t see your point.</p>
<p>Don’t sell yourself short. Contact an admissions person and talk with them about your scores/grades. You never know what can happen!</p>
<p>Hey, wait a minute, I never said your grades are horrendous.
I meant that someone with horrendous grades would have a tougher time getting into top schools or whatever.</p>
<p>I wasn’t referring to YOU.</p>
<p>Ah. Okay, I understand.</p>
<p>But in any case, I still disagree. ANYONE can go to community college, and most people with what we would probably consider “horrendous” grades can get into their local state university.</p>
<p>I said that what I meant that someone with horrendous grades would have a tougher time getting into “top” schools.</p>
<p>I didn’t articulate myself clearly I guess.</p>
<p>If your counselor projects that you will get the IB diploma, I don’t think your grades will be that much of a hinderance. You have an upward trend, As in all your Math courses, and you have taken on the very rigorous IB diploma program. Your gpa will be viewed in that light. Your weighted gpa must be good with all the IB and AP. Your class rank will give the colleges an idea of where you stand in your school. I think the adcoms will respect a “math kid” who has undertaken the difficult humanities courseload of IB when you could have taken honors English and History and limited your college level courses to only math. Don’t sell yourself short. Apply to a safety or two, but I would not be surprised to see you accepted at a reach school.<br>
That being said, I understand that UC Santa Barbara has a ug/phd program in math.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice.</p>
<p>What would you recommend for “reach schools”?</p>
<p>jmanco49: Sorry for the misunderstanding :-)</p>
<p>wow dude…im in pretty much the same boat as you. I got a 2370 with 770 in writing, but my grades are lacking due to crappy grades in algebra, geometry, spanish 1/2 during middle school. </p>
<p>But u know what? The sat is enough of an indicator of your intelligence that it will partially compensate for lackluster grades. Don’t let something like this stop you, cause you never know!</p>