I am currently considering universities in both the US and Canada. After some research and responses from my friends, I’ve heard that the it often takes not as high of a grade to get admitted to Canadian schools such as UT, UBC etc. However, it takes a higher score to get into schools like GIT, UIUC, UW-Madison etc. These are all amazing schools. but UT and UBC obviously has a higher ranking in the world compared to those schools, why do the Canadian schools have a lower score to get in?
If you were to look at the entering SAT scores for students at McGill, for example, and compare them to those for students at US colleges, you would find that McGill would place about 44th, in a tie with Colgate. This may only indicate two things with reliable certainty: 1) World rankings attempt to evaluate entire universities, but have limited relevance to their undergraduate component and 2) both of some Canadian and US colleges can be regarded as highly selective, in the sense that a ranking of 44 within the US is still firmly credible and indicative of an accomplished student body.
That said, for a Canadian undergraduate-focused college experience closer to that available at some US colleges, consider Mount Allison and Acadia, provided they offer the disciplines you would like to study.
The freshman retention rates and graduation rates at top Canadian schools is lower than for comparable US schools. They are “easier to get into, hard to graduate from” schools. Also Canadian schools only require SAT/ACT scores for American applicants, not for Canadian or overseas applicants.
Canadians seem less likely than Americans to travel far for the purpose of attending a slightly more elite university, so the top universities are primarily (though not completely) drawing from their own local area or at least their own province. Whereas the top American universities often have a lot of applicants from all over the country and lots of foreign countries.
The top Canadian U’s are also quite large compared to the top American U’s, which also impacts how how difficult they are to get into.
I am not convinced with the assumption that the top Canadian schools are any easier to get into than a comparable US school. I would also add that it is far more competitive for you to get in as an American student than a Canadian student. At McGill for example, US applicant’s admission based on SAT/ACT and GPA grades 10-12 vs. “Top 6” classes for Ontario applicants.
