What are my chances of getting into top Canadian universities for CS major

Student Lounge International Students
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Hi all, my son is a Canadian citizen studying his high school in Georgia, USA. He is currently a junior. He has studied in Canada until 7th grade. Considering the high cost of universities in the U.S. for international students, we are considering Canadian universities for his undergrad degree in CS(Intended major).I am looking for some reach, target and safety schools in Canada that offer a good/reputable academic program in Computer Science. Any leads are highly appreciated! He is a strong student with all A’s except one B (87) in first semester of his sophomore year. But he is not so strong on extracurriculars. Here are the stats:

GPA 3.94(u/w) and 4.2 (w)
(Our school doesn’t weigh honors classes and offers AP’s in junior and senior grades only)
99th percentile on PSAT
1510 on SAT (superscore) : 800 on Math and 710 on English; 1470 on one SAT test (he plans to retake the test and do better on it)
6 Honors classes in 9th and 10th (including Chemistry, Biology, Algebra, Geometry, French and English)
8 AP’s ( AP Physics 1 and 2, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP CAlculus BC, AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A and AP Psychology)

ECA:
Plays soccer (club sport)
Honors clubs at school
Volunteers at library

Kindly share your views on if targeting top universities like Uof T, UBC, McGill, Waterloo etc. will be realistic or what other universities would you suggest as target and safety schools. Any insights will be really helpful!! Thanks in advance.

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Your son is competitive. Waterloo and U of T are somewhat holistic in CS admissions, so there’s no guarantee. McGill publishes their cutoffs (minimum SAT scores and GPA). Your son clears that hurdle for McGill.

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Thank you for posting. I will forward this thread to a family member interested in McGill and UofT.

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Waterloo CS is the most competitive program in Canada. McGill, Toronto and UBC would be near safeties.

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@ bouders and TomSrofBoston
Thanks for sharing your insights. It really helps!!

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Your son has every chances to get accepted in all Canadian universities. Most applications do not really take into accounts extracurricular activities. UBC has a more detailed application which requires students to answer a few personal questions about themselves but for McGill and all schools in Ontario, there are no personal statements.
My daughter, a senior at a top New York City public school applied to 8 Canadian schools (for financial reasons, being Canadian but also because she can get into a top 10 Canadian schools which is not the case in the US). She applied to a Bachelor of Arts, which is maybe a bit easier and got accepted to all 8 schools she applied to: UBC, McGill, McMaster, Western, Waterloo, Ottawa, Dalhousie, Calgary. Her GPA is 3.9, her ACT 32, 6 APs and College English.
By all means she was not in the top of her class overall but was very solid in English, languages, Economy & Psychology and terrible at maths :wink:
It looks like your son meets the requirements for McGill, which is not a guarantee though but you can use the other schools for safety. He has to make sure he keeps his grades up in Senior year all the way to the 3rd marking period as we had to submit these in late January before she got accepted at McGill. The other schools accepted her right away, besides UBC which came in in the beginning of April (like McGill).
Good luck to your son, he has great chances and the universities in Canada are top notch. We toured all of the ones she applied to but I don’t know if is a determining factor.

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I agree with the other comments above that your son with his great stats has a good chance at any university in Canada, but that computer science is a tough major to apply for. For most other majors, I would have called any university in Canada (except the few that teach in French) a safety or a near safety.

Given that your son will be applying for computer science, I would probably apply to a few more schools than I would have otherwise. The top schools such as Toronto, Waterloo, UBC, and McGill are no worse than a match. Out of excessive caution I might throw in an additional application or two to Simon Fraser, McMaster, Queens, and/or U.Victoria.

There are also some small universities that we could suggest if you want a small school, but they are not well know.

1 Like
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@DadTwoGirls: I don’t know about other Canadian unis but at McGill, you don’t apply in to a major (at least for Arts, Arts&Sciences, and Sciences degrees, all of which allow you to major in CS), so it’s hard to see how McGill isn’t a safety.

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“at McGill, you don’t apply in to a major”

I did not realize that. I do know a few people who applied to McGill with stats that were very similar to OP’s. They (actually “we” since I was one of them) mostly thought of it as a safety and all were accepted.

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Waterloo and McGill are direct admits to CS. UBC and U of T are second year admits. All 4 are very good for CS, but if i had to rank them, I would say;

1- Waterloo - (smaller(but not small) city 75 Minute drive from Toronto. Cutting edge CS and coop program. Medium size University. Very selective.

2- UBC- Nice building, beautiful grounds, large size.

3- U of T. Biggest campus. Very competitive program.

4- McGill. Two CS buildings. One old and drab, one newish and inviting. Smaller than U of T and UBC, but still major.

All 4 have VERY intense academics, with grade deflation compared to most American Universities. My 2022 is also a dual citizen interested in CS. I have tried to get him interested in UBC, but he doesn’t want to go that far away from home.

He has visited and liked Waterloo(very cool building). My family has roots in that part of Canada, so the southwestern Ontario vibe is familiar to me, making it a comfortable choice. Definitely less intense socially than U of T.

I have not tried to interest him in U of T because of the second year admit, and my own opinion that it is a bit of a meat grinder of a school, with a disturbing amount of suicides connected to the CS program. Great school, just one I am biased against. Some love it.

My eldest is at McGill, albeit in another faculty. So far, so good, VERY challenging academically, but overall, it has been a positive experience for him. Truly diverse student population, very bright and sophisticated for the most part, and while a large school, not as huge as UNC and U of T. It has a good CS program which seems to be picking up steam. It will certainly be on my 2022’s list. He is a bit more of a homebody than his brother, so might be end up at a local State school, which is still quite good for CS. I am definitely of the thinking that fit is more important than rankings, so if he chooses to go local then I’m good with it.

I would say that your son is a strong contender for admission to U of T (Sciences), UBC (Sciences), and McGill CS. Waterloo…who knows…it’s very tough to get into. Be aware that most CAN schools are far less interested(if at all) in EC’s, and are race blind when it comes to admissions. I know for a fact that McGill considers rigor of schedule as important, as well as grades and test scores. All CAN schools ignore gr. 9, but most consider senior year more than many US schools.

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@57special, for McGill, if, by direct admit, you mean students in various degrees/faculties may be a CS major (just by taking the required classes) and there’s no special application process after you enter, that’s true. Though you don’t get admitted by major at McGill, you get admitted by faculty/degree/department, and various ones allow you to major in CS.

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I don’t recommend U of Toronto. The school is notorious for taking large amount of students and then weed out 50% of them.