Universities that Don't Look at Extracurriculars

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>I live in the US and participated in very few extracurricular activities in high school. I joined a few clubs and was a founder/president of two. I also spent much of my time playing piano, but didn't receive any official awards or recognition.</p>

<p>However, my unweighted high school GPA is 4.0 and score 35 on the ACT. I've taken all honors classes throughout high school and will have a total of 12 AP's by the time I graduate (majority of them are 5's).</p>

<p>I know that University of Toronto and McGill don't look at extracurriculars at all, but are there any other universities that don't stress extracurriculars too much? </p>

<p>I am looking at a major in business, so UWO Ivey and Queens School of Business would be my top choices.</p>

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<p>If I am not mistaken, Western does not look also but Queens does.</p>

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<p>The Schulich school of Business at York university is also pretty well regarded so you might want to consider it. </p>

<p>Anyway your grades and test sores are literally near perfect so you are a safety for just about any numbers driven school in the country (Even the Business schools that do look at ECs are much more numbers driven than US schools).</p>

<p>Anyway the top 6 business schools in Canada (there is much debate about which is number 1) are: Rotman (Toronto), Ivey, Desaults (McGill), Schulich, Queen’s Commerce and Sauder (UBC).</p>

<p>Upon doing a little research it seems hat Ivey looks at ECs for determining acceptances of people near their cut off point. For you this is irrelevent because of your grades and scores so you Ivey should be a safety as well. From what I read even Queens commerce puts more weight on grades than ECs and if you have an A average or better, they don’t care about your ECs.</p>

<p>Anyway chances are wherever you apply in Canada you will get in. You have to remember that since most Canadian universities don’t really emphasize the importance of ECs, most Canadian high school students don’t really focus on collecting ECs the US students do, so your ECs that are weak by US standards will look fine compared to Canadian applicants.</p>

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<p>Thank you for your input. However, after some research, I stumbled upon Queen’s University’s Common Data Set. They specifically list extracurriculars as “Very Important”, which is on the same level as GPA and test scores. </p>

<p>Here is the link: <a href=“Redirect Notice”>Redirect Notice;

<p>I could not find the Common Data Set for other Canadian universities, so I don’t know how they factor in.</p>

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<p>One more question: how is US high school GPA converted into Canadian percentages? There are scholarships that require 90%+ or 95%+, so approximately what GPA would one need to qualify?</p>

<p>Does this sound about right?: <a href=“http://inquiry.princetonreview.com/leadgentemplate/GPA_popup.asp[/url]”>http://inquiry.princetonreview.com/leadgentemplate/GPA_popup.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>HarryS, that is for a different school in North Carolina named Queens.</p>

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<p>I knew that.</p>

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<p>I found the answer to my own question. It’s about 50% extracurriculars and 50% academics. Thanks for all your help though.</p>

<p>[Official</a> Q&A with Ivey Admissions and Recruiting - Business - Get With Your Program - Studentawards Conversations](<a href=“http://www.studentawards.com/forum.aspx?g=posts&m=37808#post37808]Official”>http://www.studentawards.com/forum.aspx?g=posts&m=37808#post37808)</p>

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<p>[Prospective</a> Students - Alberta School of Business - University of Alberta](<a href=“http://www.business.ualberta.ca/Programs/BachelorOfCommerce/ProspectiveStudents.aspx]Prospective”>http://www.business.ualberta.ca/Programs/BachelorOfCommerce/ProspectiveStudents.aspx)</p>