Our Ontario curriculum

<p>Hey guys, just wondering, is the regular Ontario curriculum (no IB/AP or any of that) below the US standards? Are we essentially behind when we graduate out of high schools in Ontario if we didn't do AP/IB and go to the US?</p>

<p>For myself, when I go to the US for university, would I be behind in the Sciences and such? I know they divide up the sciences and maths in grade 9 or so, and they get into more detail earlier than us, but by the time we graduate are we on a level playing field or not? Like, we just have regular math in gr.9, 10, and 11, but they have AP courses, geometry, trig, pre-calc. and all those specific courses divided from the start of grade 9.</p>

<p>So, what do you think? Are we inadequately prepared? Also, could you refer to the differences in curriculum/teaching/standard between the Greater Toronto Area/Vancouver and all those great school districts in comparison to a district such as Greater Essex County (Windsor, Tecumseh, Leamington, etc. all those cities are in this district). I assume students from the GTA are far better prepared than kids from my school district (Greater Essex).</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>no has thought about this? Is our generic Ontario curriculum behind the US and will we find ourselves behind when we go to the US? Since, our science, maths and such all divide in senior grade levels and not right away like in the US.</p>

<p>bumpppp??? no one thought about this before or something? is our curriculum (ontario) the equivalent to the US for students NOT in AP/IB and all that good stuff?</p>

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<p>There are no US-wide standards, so you might want to rethink your question. For example, in 2005 only 1,145,392 of Grade 12 students (including students abroad) took AP exams, out of a total Grade 12 enrollment in the US of 3,094,349 that year. Many of the students who take the exams are from private or magnet schools, so I think it’s safe to say that most public American high schools to not prepare their students to take AP exams. And only a minuscule fraction offer the IB programme.</p>

<p>If you want to compare the Ontario curriculum to the AP one, that’s fine, but you have to recognize that only a minority of US students follow the AP curriculum in any given subject. Also recognize that the quality of instruction in US states varies much more widely than in Ontario because of the way American school districts are funded. But, in general, Ontario U-level courses are less rigorous than their AP counterparts in calculus, the natural sciences, history, economics, and comp sci.</p>

<p>This may seem like a dumb question, but then would top schools almost expect/teach their courses as if all, or almost all, the students took AP/IB? Because I would guess that the vast majority of US students at top schools took one of the 2.</p>

<p>I just don’t wanna be very far behind, and living and going to school in Windsor sucks too.</p>

<p>I heard that US schools actually add a few percent to your GPA when converting Canadian percentages to the US standards. And also, the ontario curriculum is the best in Canada and most most the canadians who get accepted to ivies are those from that area. So don’t worry about it, I did HS in BC and they had one of the worst curriculums in canada and I still got into Yale.</p>

<p>how’s Yale? And what are you majoring in?</p>

<p>I’m majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science which is an interdepartmental major.</p>

<p>man, how’s the workload? That’s seems really intense to majoring in those you areas. could I ask how your GPA is and if Yale is truly grade inflated or not?</p>

<p>yes, Yale is (at least somewhat) grade inflated. Actually, one of the reasons I chose Yale was because everyone said it was grade inflated, lol. And workload is pretty intense since my major spans two different fields. And about my GPA, ummmmmm… I tell you that it’s in the top 30%</p>

<p>lol, yea, if i chose a school GPA inflation would def. be a consideration. And top 30%, i’d say that really good considering the caliber of students, but you made it sound so bad lol. If you don’t mind, later on in your free time, could you PM me your “stats” and all the stuff ppl on this forum fill out when they get accepted and post their decisions? Kinda wondering what it takes to get in, and if I should bother.</p>

<p>No matter how “average” your stats are, always give it a shot. If you don’t apply, there’s no chance you’ll get in. And all those other people who apply also only have a 10% chance anyways so just do your best and pray. When I have some time I will pm you my stats of when I applied like 2 years ago (I hope I can remember!) but I won’t post in any of the decision threads since it would be kinda weird (and late) for a sophomore at Yale to post in decisions thread of Yale 2012 that ended like 2 years ago and even weirder to post it in the EA decisions of 2014…</p>

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<p>Not to be discouraging, but no, everyone does not have a 10% chance. It may appear to be an unpredictable process, but it really is NOT a lottery or random selection. </p>

<p>If you are a legacy, your parents are big donors, you are a recruited athlete…your chances are much higher than 10%. Likewise, those with perfect SATs who won national awards do, objectively, have much better odds that someone in the 10th percentile of accepted SAT scores, and so on.</p>

<p>@YaleRocks, lol, I meant if you could PM me your stats in the same format is they do on those threads, not post on those threads themselves. srry, I worded my message kinda weird.</p>