Hey guys! I am a high school student from Canada, and I find myself in a crisis (sorry for being dramatic but I’m very worried about my current situation)
So here is how things are:
I am hoping to attend a university in the US along the lines of the UCs (i.e. UCLA, UC Berkely), Cornell, or NYU. What I’m hoping to go into is political science. I am currently a grade 10, which means that the majority of courses I am taking are mandatory courses determined by the school, and I cannot start picking larger amounts of electives until next year. My grades were decidedly terrible in grade 9 (5 As, 2 Bs, 1 C+), with all course credits being 4. I will include a GPA list from my province below since it is different from the US. However, they have improved since then, but I am still struggling with some of my current classes, especially Pre-calculus 11 honors. My current grades are:
English 10 Written - 91
English 10 Spoken - 91
Socials 10 - 91
Science 10 - 96
French 10 - 95
Photography 10 - 98
PE 10 - 86
Pre-calculus 11 H - 76
Which I do not know how to convert based on the US GPA scale (all course credits are 4)
I have also done some APs, but since my area offers no AP courses at school, I can only self study them. Here are what I have done so far
AP Microeconomics - 5
AP Music Theory - 5
AP Macroeconomics - 4
AP Psychology - Ongoing
AP English Literature - Ongoing
APUSH - Ongoing
I also have won prizes at piano competition, and is an avid participant in lots of volunteer work. What I am worrying about is that competition is extremely strong, and people with stronger GPAs and APs are pretty common in my area as well. What I would really like to know is what more I should do in order to better fit the profiles of the universities I would like to attend in the future, and which other ones I should consider? It would really be helpful if someone can give me some advice. Thank you!
Yes, my parents can afford the cost of US universities. The reason I would like to study in the US is because there are simply more work opportunities. The people who study at the top 3 Canadian universities that I know (which is above 30 people) all had trouble finding jobs, and spent years working minimum wage even after graduating from prestigious schools on those campuses.
Doing an undergraduate degree in the USA does not provide you with the ability to work in the USA for more than a year, after that, you’re in the same boat as somebody who got their degree in Canada. Then there is the extra cost for an American university.
I think that, as a Canadian, the average Canadian college would cost you CA$20,000-$25,000, or about US$15,000-$18,000, a year. The cost, for you, at a private university in the USA would be about US$60,000-$70,000 a year, and a UC would cost you about the same. So, that would be an extra cost of about US $170,000-$220,000 or CA$225,000-$290,000, in the four years that you will be studying in the USA. That’s without other costs, like travel, etc.
I do not know what you want to study, but I’m pretty sure that it will not be paying the kind of money that would make this extra cost worthwhile in the year, or even 3 years if you’re luck, that an international students who did their undergraduate in the USA can stay to work.
So studying in the USA because you hope to find a job here is not a very good idea. It would be better to do your undergrad in one of Canada’s excellent, and cheap, universities, and look for a job in the USA after you graduate.
My impression is that a degree in political science tends to imply a need to go to graduate school. One option that you might want to consider is to do undergrad in Canada, and then get a master’s or other graduate degree in the US. US admissions know how strong Canadian universities are. I know several people who did undergrad in Canada and then their master’s and/or PhD in the US.
One issue that I ran into many years ago: As a Canadian graduating from a top US university, I found that Canadian employers prefer to hire graduates from Canadian schools, and US employers prefer to hire people who have the legal right to remain and work in the US. This at least for me made it very difficult to get a job after graduating from university in the US. I was in a field which should have been a bit more employable compared to political science.
I and my kids now have dual citizenship and live in the US. My US born daughter is now at university in Canada. What we are saving compared to what it would have cost for her to attend a comparable school in the US is about the cost of a car, plus a small house within commuting distance from her campus (and yes, this does mean that she is not studying in Toronto nor in Vancouver). The numbers that @MWolf has above were pretty much accurate for us, except that the schools that she would have preferred in the US were closer to $75,000 per year. Another advantage of Canadian schools is that admission is highly predictable, particularly for students with very strong grades and test scores.
You need to target colleges that match your GPA. Right now, your odds of getting into UCB/UCLA are low. In addition, why not aim for universities that are really different from what you’d find in Canada (Macalester for a reach, Whitman for a match, Willamette for a safety?)