<p>i'm canadian, and the marks are good, but not great. her ec's are pretty good though and should make for a competitive applicant. and cfuc_4, i know exactly what you mean by unmotivated kids in canada. Totally sucks and rocks, cause it lowers competition, but the kids are su ****ened dumb. Anyway, i realized my ivy dream this year. i'm a sophomore, and boy am i ecstatic about finding cc. Real insightful, but rather intimidating, but i can always comfort myself by thinking: kids in canada are more lax and negligent about school, so yea, whatever. LOL</p>
<p>yeah, when kids are unmotivated there are less competition, however as i said in my previous post, you miss out on a lot of things. I though i was doing pretty well at my school (compared to other kids who are so lax), but in reality there are so many competitive ppl out there who are doing way more. I only wish i discovered CC earlier.</p>
<p>I think the reason you feel there is a difference between Canada adn US is that US rank their high schools. there are magnet school, high competitive ones where everybody applies to, and most ppl on CC is from such schools. In canada it's all the same, except private ones</p>
<p>i s'ppose, but some private schools, most actually are unqualified to deem themselves something as prestigious as "private" schools. You can beg ta differ if ya like...lol</p>
<p>our school is public but hell competitive, (90% asian) so ya...and everyone has loads of ECs and competitive GPA.. i am only like average in our school, so i need advice, lol, ur rite about Canadian schools being laid-back and ppl unmotivated, but certain schools in Vancouver are not the case! lol =)</p>
<p>Canada is socialist, that's the reason why. I guess the feeling amongst Canadians is that such a competitive system would promote elitisim and differentiation. </p>
<p>(I am a Canadian junior in Ontario by the way - experienced the Albertan, Saskatchewan and Ontarian education systems - so I think my generalizations are rather valid, at least for the public system which is where almost everybody attends)</p>
<p>On a tangent to this observation, while I used to live in Saskatchewan for about 4 years prior to moving to Ontario, from grades 3 through 7.</p>
<p>The mathematics taught in the Saskatchewan cirriculum... was relative to the rest of the world... the epitome of idiocity. I requested a grade nine mathematics textbook in grade five from my school to do some half-meaningful mathematics. However, I was brought to the principal's office and questioned as to what my motives were - in a negative fashion.</p>
<p>Presumably the school systems desire uniformity, which is why I respect the American system of education far above that of the Canadian.</p>
<p>This lack of differentiation demonstrates itself in the Ontarian cirriculum itself; the lack of Advanced Placement courses of International Baccalaureate programs at some high schools to provide opportunities for ambitious, intelligent Canadian high school students.</p>
<p>Instead, we have an incompetent system of dividing it into two tiers; academic/university and/or applied/college level courses, which merely distinguishes between those planning to attemd university and those planning to attend college.</p>
<p>However, there is a lack of distinction between the ranks of the academics. For instance, clearly the average academic level student that would be, in the United States, admitted to a University of California campus (none in particular, just a generalization - so forgive me if I'm belittling the institution), is not placed in a different class that the student, that for example, would be going to Harvard or Yale.</p>
<p>That lack of differentiation promotes this dilatory attitude from students, where the general consensus is that only grade 12 marks count.</p>
<p>Furthermore, our post-secondary institutions themselves, have a lack of distinction of the different types of students; for instance, look at the entrance requirements for biological related programs at the Univeristy of Toronto - the marks are extremely low - mid 80s (despite how much we Canadians would like to believe that our system is more difficult than the American, I beg to differ); and consequently there is no distinction in where the applicants go; that range of applicants that have marks from 80- 100, from the University of California type student to the Harvard/Yale student all go to the same institute.</p>
<p>While I use Toronto as a case, this is true of nearly all the large institutions in Canada.</p>
<p>At any rate, as we can see, this socialist attitude of Canada, which is reflective in their social welfare system and their universal health care system, is also evident in the education system.</p>
<p>As a Canadian, I truly hope that this attitude of laxity and uncompetitiveness would end, but alas, not in our time, friends.</p>
<p>long chancellor_phoenix, but I can't express in words how much i agree.
How was yer experience in good'ol Saskatchewan? Plain and boring eh. I know i've lived in different partss of the world, and let's just say living in saskatchewan is like living in purgatory! Aand yea, the canadian system is def the epitome of ignorance, and stupidity. Glad some canadians agree with me. Can't discuss this with many kids in school, they really don't give a damn about anything but grades, sports and such. Problem with canada is most kids are all either stupid or above average, it's very rare to find someone who is truly smart and concerned about our world today. Sigh, wish i lived in america, really do. </p>
<p>One more thing, don't you just hate it when canadians say they hate pres. bush. Personally, i'm not a big fan, but what justification is there for hating him? No one is perfect, and ya gotta give him credit for running such a ruthless but brilliant campaign against kerry. Right?</p>
<p><em>shrugs</em> With regards to Bush, I think the root of that ideology is that Canadians are distinct from Americans and the further desire to portray Americans in general as being stupid and less intelligent than Canadians. While that may be the case for some Americans, there are some extremely exceptional Americans as well - perhaps this is Tocqueville's thoughts regarding the nature of democracy coming true -ironically, those are both part of the reason why our education system is incompetent.</p>
<p>dunno if idealogy has much to do with it. In my opinion, canadians feel they have no identity, so they belittle their superior southern neighbor to make themselves feel better. And what better person to disparage but the president of that country, also it's current symbol and representitive the people's the partisonship to their country. Okay, so maybe that premise is slightly implausible, but you get the point. Hopefully...yea, and canada's constitution of rights is a joke...compared to america's independence declaration, they have way more pride in that declaration, whereas canadian high schoolers would say about our 1867 constitution, "duh, what's that?"</p>
<p>So true; I wouldn't say Canadians have no identity - they take pride in their socialist system and their former status as being the "world's best place to live in" from the United Nations that came as a result of that socialist system.</p>
<p>That's what they feel makes them distinct from their neighbors; while, with regards to our issue of education, the United States is clearly superior, it would be illogical to say that Canada is completely flawed without any identity, because there are some advantages to the socialist system - just that it damages education alot, which is the case here.</p>
<p>let's not get into politics..lol, i moved from a small city to vancouver. I agree w/ u that the canadian system is easy and unmotivated in SOME cities.. Vancouver is certainly not the case, when i was in my other city, lots of ppl would get 80+, but here in my new ib school in Van, it is very competitive. I am compared to other azn who have 1500 + (well, at least my friends do) in our school too! =(</p>
<p>okay, not too much into politics, but canada wasn't the un's choice for best country to live in this year or last year, it was sweden or norway, or one denmark i think. Can't remember, but socialism is bad. Its disadvantages rule out its advantages. I mean for goodness sakes, it's ruining our future. yea, and one more thing, i my school, the counselor didin't want me taking physics and chemistry30 in grade 11. Supposedly, studies in my school showed a downward trend in the grades of stupid canadian kids who took them too early.</p>
<p>=(.............</p>
<p>ali_liu are you from B.C. and if you are which school?</p>
<p>i am from...hmm...i dun wanna give identity away....i am in CANADA...not saskatchewan though...</p>
<p>one hint: there's lots of ppl from my school on this site..=)</p>
<p>u might be one of them!!! :p</p>
<p>i dont know...just tell me which province</p>
<p>actually, i figured it out from your previous posts. you are from vancouver. my school has an asian majority and we are like 6th in north america for mathematics considering that our school opened like 8 years ago</p>
<p>opened 8 yrs ago? nah...not my school, but yeah, I am from vancouver! =)</p>
<p>My school has an asian majority too, by far... 98%?
When i first came to the school, i thought i was in Chinese school! lol^^</p>
<p>btw, if u know Canadian_Idol (now @ Harvard), u'll know which school i am from ^^</p>