Moved to Canada for junior year... APs, Acceptances, etc

Student Lounge International Students
1

Unwillingly, Ive moved to Ontario and am about to start my Junior year.

At my school (and most of Ontario) the highest level of difficulty at public high schools are “University” level classes. And at my high school you have 4 classes 1st sem and 4 DIFFERENT classes 2nd sem. SO even if these “university” level courses are supposed to be the equivalent of APs, which i doubt, is it possible for a teacher to even teach all the subject matter in one semester? I honesty doubt it, but, if any of you are from canada, what do you think? Im most likely going to have to get a tutor for these APs

Also, ive moved from Norcal, and was thinking about applying to UCs (UCSB, UCB, USC, etc), so now that ive moved how have my chances of getting in changed?

2

Well colleges are a semester based system so I think calling those courses “university” level courses is appropriate because in college that’s more or less what you’ll encounter (4 classes for fall, and 4 completely different classes for spring). According to Berkeley an International student doesn’t have a U.S. citizenship, but I’m assuming that you do, so you won’t be considered an international student. As for your odds, I’m sure all the UC schools know how to relate international courses to US ones (ie they should know that the courses you’re taking are like taking APs in the US), so I don’t think the chances of you getting in has changed. The main issue that I see is you having to pay OOS tuition now since you no longer reside in Norcal.

Have you considered applying to any colleges in Canada?

3

So since APs arent available at my school, and I choose not to take them, that wont hurt me when applying to UCs? because if thats the case Im not putting myself through AP Exams again lol. And OOS tuition is a problem, but hopefully im able to get some type of scholarship. I honestly cant see myself living in Canada for longer than the 2 years I have left for highschool, so i have not considered applying to canadian colleges @itsintheprocess

4

If your school doesn’t have APs your solid. Of course you still have to take whatever challenging classes your school offers and do well in them, but colleges know if your school doesn’t have APs and they can’t hold that against you because it’s not like you chose where to go to highschool.

5

University level classes are well-known as very demanding. Taking three U/M a semester is plenty (6 a year) and you’re free to take M or D or electives for your other classes.
You will not be expected to take AP’s although you can.
Will your parents (or a parent) keep a house, pay taxes, and keep voter registration in California? If so, you’ll still be considered instate. If they don’t, you’ll be considered OOS meaning you won’t be eligible for any financial aid. Scholarships mostly cone from the colleges themselves so if a parent no longer owns or rent in CS, no longer pays taxes and you don’t graduate from a California HS, you’ll be submitted to the cap (20% max OOS) and your parents will have to pay 60k a year, no aid.

6

“now that ive moved how have my chances of getting in changed?”

There is good news, bad news, and good news.

The first good news: My guess is that your chances of getting into a top UC have probably improved a bit.

The issue is that Ontario has a very large number of VERY good universities, which are VERY reasonably priced for Canadians (and permanent residents of Canada). As such, there is very little reason for a student from Ontario who could go to Queen’s or McMaster or Toronto or McGill for less than C$25,000 per year to instead spend more than US$60,000 to attend university in California. Also, universities in the US care about diversity. One form of diversity is “geographic diversity”. Given the cost difference, you have relatively fewer Canadian students to compete with when applying to top schools in the US and therefore may get a “diversity” advantage at US schools.

Bad news: If you have lost your residency in California, then the cost of attending any public University of California might have increased a LOT, to a level that is probably not actually worth paying.

And the last good news: If you have become a permanent resident of Canada, you just gained the opportunity to attend somewhere between 20 and 40 really great Canadian universities at a VERY reasonable price. Also, admission will be based almost entirely on grades, which means that if you have nearly all A’s then you are pretty much in at any university in Canada that you want to attend.

7

  1. University or “U” level courses are not equivalent level to AP’s/first year university courses. They are courses for students intending to go to university (as opposed to College/“C” level courses which are designed for students headed to 2 year colleges or Mixed/“M” level courses that are for both). You can consider them roughly equivalent to U.S. honours level courses.

  2. As you mentioned, most schools in Ontario are semestered so in grade 11 you take 4 courses in first semester and and a different 4 courses in second semester for a total of 8. Since you are only taking 4 courses at a time you take them every day for the full semester which is about 5 months long. Each period is roughly 75 minutes. It works out the same to having 8 courses full year with 4 different classes every other day (or 8 a day with shortened periods). You still end up with the same number of instruction hours. You need a total of 30 credits to graduate and 6 grade 12 credits to apply to university or college (though many students take 7 and at the Catholic schools 8 is common because they have to take a religion course). This is similar to what you will do in university though at universities here most programs are 5 courses/semester for a total of 10 courses/year.

  3. My son is in an AP program at his school. His school is semestered and yes they cover the entire AP curriculum in 1 semester. As a matter of fact, 2nd semester AP courses are covered in 4 months rather than 5 because AP exams are in May and our school year ends in June. The AP courses are a higher level than “U” level courses. The AP program is relatively new in Canada (compared to the US) and most schools do not offer AP courses.

  4. If you are thinking that the quality of instruction or curriculum in Canada is inferior, check out the difference in results of the AP scores between Canada and the US - https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/archived/ap-2015

8

BTW, “college” in Canada refers to 2 year diploma granting/4 year applied bachelor degree institutions, similar to community colleges in the U.S. Universities offer traditional 4 year degrees and professional programs. If you do decide to apply to schools in Canada, you don’t want to mix them up.