<p>My son is a rising senior and has a 2130 on the new SAT, and has scored 5's on the AP French, AP Calculus B/C, and AP US History Exams. He also scored 800 on his French SAT II, 740 on the Math SAT II, and a 770 on the US History SAT II. He has virtually no extracurricular activities, except he was selected to attend the Virginia Governor's French Academy for 3 weeks this summer. His GPA is 4.6, weighted, not sure of the unweighted. For some reason, our school district does not put class rank on the final report card, but I believe he is probably 6th or so out of 500.</p>
<p>He is interested currently in majoring in mathematics or computer science, with a double major in French, and maybe picking up a minor in a more esoteric language, such as Arabic. He has the current career goal of becoming a cryptographer with the ability to work in foreign languages, possibly for the CIA or NSA.</p>
<p>I have heard a lot of good things about McGill and think my son would enjoy going to school where he can sometimes use his French.</p>
<p>My question is: what are the odds of him getting merit scholarships, and any ideas of how much he might get? It is a fairly expensive school compared to going in-state to W&M or UVA, and we could not do it without aid.</p>
<p>namtrag: Your son will certainly be accepted to McGill with those scores, and McGill doesnt look at EC's or essays. However, there is not a great deal of merit aid- particularly as it is a real bargain compared to private schools in the US ( In fact, it is even cheaper for my d. than our in-state university ). There are two types of scholorships- 3,000$ merit and $10,000 leadership, but from my experience these are not easy to get. My d. is a top student and didnt get either.
She does absolutely love McGill and Montreal.</p>
<p>Yes, it is a good bargain vs private school. Our quandary is, we live in Va, so we have W&M and UVA in-state at about $16,500, all-inclusive. This is against McGill at $24-28,000 USD, so it is hard to justify in my mind. We will still check into it, though, because it would be cool for him to live in Montreal as a Francophile.</p>
<p>I think my d. first year was about $21,000 USD even with the poor exchange rate, the dollar is down about 33% from two years ago. (She lived in Solon and did all her own cooking.) It will be even better next year, as she has her own little place in the McGill ghetto that is much cheaper than the rez. Rents in MTL are very reasonable and there are very cheap ethnic grocery stores if you know where to shop. I think your estimates are a little high- but as a grad of UNC-Chapel Hill I know state school's can be a bargain.</p>
<p>McGill is a first-rate Canadian school and will be worth the extra few thousand dollars, trust me. I finished my first year there and met many american students who absolutely love it there and wouldn't have traded it for any in-state school. the experience is amazing. you won't regret sending your son to McGill.</p>
<p>My son's minors are in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic.
He is rather adept at languages with 7 years French prior to attending Mcgill.
Arabic at McGill nearly killed him but he prevailed and is continuing with these studies.
We have friends who have pursued the same goals -one is an academic and the other is with the gov't. Both have commented that McGill is an excellent choice for Arabic Language studies.</p>
<p>I'm with McGill dad as to cost. It worked out to be about $21,000.00 USD all-inclusive for our son's first year on campus-he too will be living off campus next year and so it will probably work out to be a bit less. It is a hard choice next to William and Mary-an excellent school but the atmosphere and international connections at McGill seemed worth the cost (he gave up full and partial scholarships in NYC) to our son (and to us).<br>
Good luck to you.</p>
<p>namtrag-something else to consider. McGill does award advanced placement -those 5s on the AP Exams will earn your son credit at Mcgill. You might want to factor that into the cost. He could possibly receive a year's worth of credit which would greatly reduce the bills.</p>