Hi I am just finished with my junior year in high school and I am looking towards my university choices. I am strongly leaning to go to UBC in Vancouver. My projected unweighted GPA is going to be a 3.93 and a weighted GPA of 4.3 after finishing my first semester of my grade 12 senior year, which I will be self-reporting my grades to universities with. I plan to go into the Faculty of Science to major in Biology. I have already taken Biology and Chemistry as well as Geographic Science my other years of high school. The classes I will be taking my grade 12 year will be English 12, Pre-Calculus AB Honors, Physics, Anatomy Honors, and US Government Honors. This will fulfill the requirements for American curriculum students for the Faculty of Science that states on UBC’s website. I have taken the SAT and just got my score last week and it is a 1260/1600, this is the first time I have taken the SAT. Should I retake it to get a better score? I also have taken the ACT once this year and got a 22 on it and an 8 on the writing portion. Should I be worried to retake it as well? My ECs are lacking right now but I plan to volunteer at a local hospital this summer for 300 hours or more hopefully. What are my chances at getting into Science at UBC Vancouver? Thanks.
It’s confusing since UBC does not publish any sort of guideline for standardized testing. My D18 will apply to UBC, and it is her #1 choice. We went to a special event for American prospective students last November. An admissions counselor said that they “look for an ACT of 30.” She also gave a target number for SAT, but I don’t remember what it was (I think it was 1400 but I’m not positive). She did not give separate expectations by faculty. Given that, yes, I would retest–whichever one you are more comfortable with.
If you just can’t get your score up, still apply. UBC, unlike most Canadian schools, uses holistic admissions (to some degree). The rest of your application is strong, so I think you still might have a shot. Good luck.
UBC will only look at your grade 11 and 12 marks, not grades 9 and 10. Your current GPA is great. Admission to science will be more difficult than say, to English. The equivalent of a 30 on the ACT (about 1400 SAT) is about right, but a 28 (about 1300 SAT) could do it, if the math and verbal scores are similar. Your SAT score is much better than your ACT score. I would retake the SAT and try to get your score above 1400 or at least 1300.
You need to bring that SAT score up.
Does your school offer AP Bio or AP Chem?
I agree. My SAT I’m predicting to be at least 1350 once I retake it as I have signed up for an SAT summer course. My high school introduced AP classes during my freshman year and I felt like it wasn’t going to be a good program as it just started so I decline my invitation to the AP program. I know plenty of friends who are in the AP program and get terrible grades. They do offer those classes but I took Honors courses instead. Will not taking AP courses impact my chances of getting into UBC?
Probably not. Good AP scores (4’s or 5’s) would help, but if you haven’t taken any AP exams yet, the AP scores from next year would come too late to make a difference.
UBC wants/likes to see AP. In particular, because Nevada secondary education is quite bad, they may trust the AP curriculum more than your honors classes. For some programs, you must have AP classes (calculus + sciences) or dual enrollment classes - admission to first year biology would likely require AP calculus, AP chemistry, and AP biology.
If you can switch to AP classes senior year, try to.
I know that this isn’t what you asked, but you might consider also applying to the University of Victoria, and/or Simon Fraser as backups. They should be a bit easier to get into and if you are not Canadian will probably be a bit less expensive. UBC is a great choice if you get in. Good Luck!
Yes that is my plan to apply to those universities as well and since I am a canadian citizen, would I be paying the domestic tuition rate? Thanks
“since I am a canadian citizen, would I be paying the domestic tuition rate?”
Yes. We ran into the same situation (although on the east coast rather than west coast). My daughters and I are dual citizens who live in the US, but my youngest decided for a long list of reasons to go to university in Canada. Every university in Canada that we talked to has verified that as a Canadian citizen my daughter will pay the Canadian rate for tuition. In our case it will be about C$1,000 per year more than the in-province rate, but given the price difference between Canadian versus American universities we are not concerned about C$1,000 one way or the other.
For UBC this is a significant difference. Since you are Canadian there won’t be much difference in price between these three very good west coast universities.
Good luck. It sounds like you are doing very well with a good plan going forward.
“since I am a canadian citizen, would I be paying the domestic tuition rate?”
One thing that I should add however: When my daughter got her acceptances back from universities in Canada, having applied from a US high school, at least two of them had missed the fact that she was a Canadian citizen. For example they sent information on how to apply for a student visa and one of them included a financial estimate that was based on our being Americans. I called in each case and they had me send them a copy of her Certificate of Canadian Citizenship so that they would know to charge her the lower Canadian rate. You will need either a birth certificate that shows that you were born in Canada (if born there), or a Certificate of Canadian Citizenship (if you were born in the US). You will also need a Canadian passport. The Certificate of Canadian Citizenship can take quite a while to get (many months). The passport is quick.
One addendum to DadTwoGirls good advice. If you are a dual citizen, you will need a U.S. passport, in addition to the Canadian one.