What college I can get into?

College Search & Selection
1

I am very nervous about it

Bio: international student
gpa: 4 unweighted
honor: no honor
ap: ap calc ab 5 in freshman year, bc 5 in sophomore. stat, ush, biology in junior.
plan to self study in senior: ap eng language, chemistry, physics c both, economics both, us gov, pretty sure i can get 5 for all of them
sat: 1450
act: n/a
sat2: n/a
EC: uh… maybe soccer for 1 year? nothing else could count
recommendation letter: sure will be good
rank: maybe best in my school
app essay: i dont know

i learned algebra 1 in first semester of freshman year and ap calc ab in second semester

question:
1: i want to apply to university like maryland, virginia etc. what else i have to prepare
2: can ap score substitute sat2 and acts?
3: i got a chance to retake sat but its really time consuming, should I?
4: I heard many student studied linear alegbra, possibilities, multivariable calc, etc. i can study all of them in senior year but theres no AP exam presented, how Do i write in if theres no proof? Is there any other test I can do?
5: Do I need higher toefl? i only got 90 on it.
6: Can ap eng language substitute toefl and sat?
7: i heard canadian schools pay less attention to ec and recommendation letters, should i try that instead of us schools? i want to get into U of Toronto but not sure my scores good enough?

My parents are worried so Do myself, really need some confirmation thanks guys

2

i am condensed in ap so much, honestly how serious universities view it? does canadian universities favored standard tests? i am wondering maybe u of Toronto is a better place for me?

I will be very happy to see theres a way to qualify linear alegbra, possibilities, and multivariable calc

3

I think I can answer some of your questions since Im also an international student:

Q1) I dont know what you mean by that question, are you looking for similar schools to UVA or UMD?
Q2) I don’t think AP scores can substitute sat2 scores but you have alot of AP’s so maybe it can mke up for the lack of subject tests
Q3) depends on the schools you want to apply to. a 1450 is sufficent for me and the schools im applying to but if you’re going for ivies etc. you may want to take it again. When was the last time you took it? And if youre willing to take a risk, id say don’t study super hard for it cause i didnt study super hard for my last sat and still managed to raise 100 points
Q4) idk about all colleges but in the UC application, they ask you to choose the level of the course so maybe there’s something similar you could look for while writing your senior year courses
Q5) Like I said previously, depends on the schools you apply to. I think 90 is enough but super high ranked schools and ivies prefer a score above 100
Q6) I don’t think ap lang can substitute toefl, because they require it seperately.
Q7) I think Canada schools are a good choice. I dont know about the recommendation thing but I would suggest you apply cause I know people with lower academic profiles than you get into UToronto, Mcgill or UBC

Hope this helped! Let me know if there’s anything else

4

@akcollege123 thanks for the reply.
I am now seriously considering to go to a Canadian school, can you give me some examples on succesful applicant’s academic profile? specific scores would help a lot

again thanks for the answers, they really helped in my decisionmaking

5

I will do my best to answer some of your questions:

“3: i got a chance to retake sat but its really time consuming, should I?”

1450 is probably enough for Canadian schools. It is low for the Ivy League schools (or MIT, Caltech, Stanford). If you have the chance of doing more preparation then it might help you get this up a bit. How much preparation did you do before taking it?

“5: Do I need higher toefl? i only got 90 on it.”

I think that this is worth working on this. A TOEFL over 100 would be very helpful. Also, the work required to get your TOEFL over 100 would also improve your English, which would help you when you arrive in the US or Canada.

“7: i heard canadian schools pay less attention to ec and recommendation letters, should i try that instead of us schools?”

There are some very good universities in Canada. On the most part getting accepted to schools in Canada is easier compared to getting accepted to the top schools in the US. However, once there, the top schools in Canada (McGill, Toronto), are probably just as academically demanding as Harvard or similar US schools. The Canadian schools won’t care much, if at all, about ECs. Toronto, McGill, and UBC are the top ranked schools. Waterloo is very good for computer science. McMasters, Queens, and Alberta are also very good. There are quite a few other very good schools but these are the top ranked. Canadian schools are generally less expensive than US schools, but the ones I just named are the best known and are also among the most expensive of the Canadian schools for international students.

“i want to get into U of Toronto but not sure my scores good enough?”

Toronto is academically a very challenging university. However, it is also a very large school in a country that it not all that large in population, which means that it accepts quite a few students. If you maintain a 4.0 unweighted GPA (all A’s), and with a 1450 SAT your chances there are very good, particularly if you can get your TOEFL over 100.

6

so deadline for u of t st george arts&sciences and applied engineering for us high schools is jan 19 right?

7

I would try to beef up my ECs before you apply. There are a lot of schools that will accept a student with your grades and test scores, but you need the ECs to back them up. Don’t eliminate any Canadian schools from your list just because they are in the US or Canada.

8

Thank you for all of the informations! I plan to retake toefl, and add ap physics c and ap chemistry in junior year,
I found all aps are pretty simple and with a bit effort, i could make sure theres no 4s on my ap exam score report. However, how about the corresponding sat2 tests’ dificulty compare to its ap compartments? I have almost no ec and wont have a chance to compensate it, would it be a huge drawback? how serious the problem is?

9

yes, the normal deadline

for early or late app i dont know.

And I am just in mid of junior, planning to study all senior curses and take the exam before senior, cuz i heard that canadian universities favors standardized test scores. I have called their admission office and the reply emphasized on the word “holistic” which contradicts what i got from online comments. So I dont know how true the rumor is.

10

@Dododododo I think ap’s are supposed to be harder than subject tests since they are college level courses. However, I think that may differ from course to course. I took the french subject test last year and im taking ap french this year, and i think the ap test was easier. But you can look up some practice tests for the subject tests you want to take.

As for the question about students who got into canadian schools, i dont know exact details cause ive only heard about them but just a couple weeks ago a guy who’s gpa is around 75-80% got into Toronto. But idk if he got into the main campus (ive heard there’s a difference between utoronto campuses but i didnt apply to canadian schools so im no expert)