<p>McGill premed is this program whereby you do one year of undergrad taking the prerequisites and then go straight into med.
If you didn’t hear back from them by now, you got rejected for sure. They already sent out all the interviews.</p>
<p>How do you know that they already sent out all the interview invitations?</p>
<p>I called them. They told me.</p>
<p>My status still says “ready for review.” Does yours show the same?</p>
<p>Darksoulz, sorry I did not answer your question before…
Yes, I am settled on Emory because I visited and loved it… I am just saying that I’m thankful to have choices.
future physician, so where are you planning to go?</p>
<p>yes, my status still says ready for review.</p>
<p>Wow, I never realized that so many Canadians want to go to an American university. Why is that? After all, American universities are sooo expensive! I’m an American by the way.</p>
<p>ivy financial aid makes the money problem disappear. and basically prestige and opportunities.</p>
<p>Hows the SAT studying going ViggyRam? I am taking mine in May too, and have given up on trying to understand absolutely all the math concepts completely. Instead, I’ve opted to learn the “shortcuts”, as I have a hunch that this will go farther in the time I have allocated for studying (due to the predictable forms of questions).</p>
<p>area: Halifax, NS
school: tough public school, 1000 students in 3 grades
school program: taking all advanced courses possible at my school
grade: rising junior
gpa: so far, 4.1
sat: i haven’t taken this. I have no idea how, and my guidance counselor says not to bother…
sat ii: ^
ap: taking all advanced as i said:)
EC: what’s ec hahaha
hobby: reading, volunteering, sports etc 
award: math contest, principal’s list, um…i won the provincial spelling bee in jh haha
race: caucasian.
to major: hopefully child psychology!
to note: i might be going to yale explo next summer, does anyone know antyning about this?</p>
<p>Area: Niagara Region, ON
School: Very competitive public - just over 1000 students in four grades (some of the highest standardized test scores (ie literacy) in the province)
School program: Heavily business/math focused cirriculum, all at the U level. No AP or IB offered at my school
Grade: finished my senior year
GPA: 4.0/4.95 UW/W
SAT I: 720 W, 690 CR, 680 M
SAT II: 650 Math I, 560 Lit
EC: Track and field (2 national titles/over 30 provincial titles)
-Ran Breakfast Club (provides free breakfast to 20-40 students per morning)
-Ran Tobacco Awareness (extol dangers of tobacco use and how students are the new targets of the industry)
-Ran Healthy Living Awareness (show students how living healthily is both fun and can actually taste good)
-Relay for Life committee member (helped to organize the event - raised over $75,000 in one night for the Canadian Cancer Society)
-Student Council, grades 9-10
-Athletic Council, grade 12
-Prefect Duties, grades 9-12
Hobbies: Reading, Email, Facebook, Skype (my new addiction)
Awards: Principals Honour Roll, grades 10-12
- Athletics Ontario Youth Boys Thrower of the Year
A few others… I kind of forget them right now.
Race: Greek, Italian, British (Caucasian)
Major: probably Econ, maybe poly sci
Notes: <strong>Im a recruited athlete</strong> Im going to Yale! Got accepted at Western AEO Ivey, Rotman Commerce at U of T, and Yale. Got rejected from Queens Commerce, UPenn - Wharton and Lehigh University. </p>
<p>Not too sure how my stats would help potential applicants, but I hope it does in some way!</p>
<p>so there is no money problem if we get into ivy???
seriously?</p>
<p>it depends on what you define as “problem”. They do an assessment and then give you a financial aid package that contains either grants, scholarships, loans, and/or tell you to get government loans. So technically, it won’t be a “problem” but it’s certainly not “free education” either unless you’re (your parents) below a certain bracket and have no assets.</p>
<p>Yupp. Since the recession hit, the uber wealthy universities (the Ivy League mostly) revamped their financial aid so that students can still consider the schools even if money might be an issue… More or less, if you (read: your family) make less than $60,000 per year, there is no costs, and from $60,000 - $200,000 per year you pay around 10% of your income…</p>
<p>SO, like Fallenmerc said, it is by no means free (unless you make almost no money) but it makes it much more affordable – in some cases more affordable than local universities in your province who dont have the financial resources to offer that kind of aid. Sure, the tuition is MUCH cheaper to start off with, but with aid factored in from the Ivies, you may end up not even paying tuition costs (they would be covered under your scholarship)</p>
<hr>
<p>Okay, just a little background: I’ve been a casual reader of this site for a while now, just looking at the answers to other people’s questions that are similar to mine mostly. Now I have a more specific question for myself, on whether I can get into the institutions in the USA (Undergraduate) that I want. Good, constructive answers would be appreciated.</p>
<p>General Information:</p>
<p>Year: Senior this Fall.
Age entering college: 17
Ethnicity: African-Canadian (Born in Nigeria, West Africa)
Location: Canada (I go to the top public school in Western Canada)
Class Rank: School doesn’t rank, I would probably gaurantee top 10%
SAT: Not taken yet (When answering, assume a 2100+ score, I never score lower on practice tests. Will be taking it in October)
SAT II: Math II and Chemistry (Will be taking these in November on the same day, expect a 700+ based on practice)</p>
<p>Grades</p>
<ul>
<li>Freshman Year Grades: N/A, these are not put on transcripts where I live (Alberta) because high school starts in grade 10.</li>
<li>Sophomore Year: Essentially straight As, marks ranged from high to mid 90s.</li>
<li>Junior Year: First semester I basically had straight As, with one 89% (we do percentage GPAs here) and one 87%. Second semester I fell off a bit, with all my grades in the high 80s; which is why I’m making this thread haha. </li>
<li>Senior Year: Unknown so far, I’m going to work WAY harder than I did in the second half of my junior year and shoot for straight As.</li>
</ul>
<p>Honor Level Courses: I’m in the IB Certificate program because I had a teacher in grade 9 for Humanities who decided not to give me a recommendation for Social or English IB despite having high 90s in both her classes. The IB Classes I do take are:</p>
<p>IB French A (IB 10, 20, 30)
Pre-IB Science (Pre-IB 10)
IB Biology SL (No HL offered) (IB 20, 30)
IB Physics SL (No HL Offered) (IB 20, 30)
IB Math SL (Couldn’t fit HL into my schedule because I’m taking all 3 sciences) (IB 20, 30, 31)
IB Chemistry HL (IB 20, 25, 35, 30)</p>
<p>I only started taking IB exams this May so I don’t know any of my scores out of 7 yet, I felt good when writing them though so I expect to do well.</p>
<p>Extra-Curriculars</p>
<ul>
<li>Club Basketball for about 5 years (Equivalent of AAU in the USA)</li>
<li>Varsity Football (Sophomore and Junior years, will likely play as a Senior)
Community Basketball (9 years)</li>
<li>Royal Canadian Air Cadets (For 3 years, attained the rank of Flight Corporal, Cadets is a great leadership program)</li>
<li>Patti Falconer Acting/Modelling Agency (Received many scholarships to acting schools outside Alberta, that I was unable to attend because we won’t move. I also received an offer of a lead role in Like Mike 2 the movie; but was unable to participate because my parent’s were not around for me to go to Vancouver for the casting. I was 12 or 13 iirc.)</li>
<li>Debate Club, never won anything significant </li>
</ul>
<p>Awards:</p>
<ul>
<li>Honor Society (All of High School)</li>
<li>Alexander Rutherford Scholarship (National Scholarship for Academic Acheivement, received for all of high school)</li>
<li>(My school doesn’t do Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude or any of that stuff so it’s not really something I can beef up my resume with).</li>
</ul>
<p>Work/Volunteer Experience:</p>
<ul>
<li>Refereed basketball for 2 years. Paid about $13 per game.</li>
<li>Calgary Women’s Show: Packing gift bags for thousands of attendees</li>
<li>Helped paint a bridge and do a garage sale for a Women’s Shelter in Okotoks</li>
<li>Vacation Bible School Crew Leader at Church for 2 years</li>
<li>Volunteering every Sunday at church for 6 years as a youth leader, teaching younger kids</li>
<li>Tech Management Leader at Church</li>
<li>Miscellaneous other things that I could bring up if I had my resume handy haha.</li>
</ul>
<p>The last thing I want to say is that I’m well respected around the school by teachers, and I’m a good writer so the essay and teacher recommendations shouldn’t be a problem. </p>
<p>Speaking of the essay, if anyone has any suggestions as to what to write about that would be appreciated. I haven’t really experienced any hardships to be honest, other than a very aggressive series of bouts of abuse with my father during my junior year. I guess I could make a sob story and use that as an excuse for the dropoff, but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.</p>
<p>Schools I’m considering:</p>
<ul>
<li>Harvard (USA)</li>
<li>Duke (USA)</li>
<li>Princeton (USA)</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins (USA)</li>
<li>New York University (USA)</li>
<li>California (USA)</li>
<li>Penn (USA)</li>
<li>MIT (USA)</li>
<li>Stanford (USA)</li>
<li>McGill (Canada)</li>
<li>Toronto (Canada)</li>
<li>Calgary (Canada) [This is definitely a fallback, I want to move as far away from here as possible lol]</li>
<li>British Columbia (Canada)</li>
</ul>
<p>Assuming you get a 92+ average during Grade 12, you’ll have no problems getting into those Canadian schools. You might not even want to waste money applying to Calgary.</p>
<p>If it were not for affirmative action, I would say all the US universities (excepting the UCs and NYU, which are matches, though I don’t know much about NYU) are high reaches. However, affirmative action does play a role. Thus, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and perhaps UPenn become low reaches, and the rest remain high reaches.</p>
<p>Thanks peachaso. One thing that I do want to bring up is that my GPA is unweighted at the moment and likely sits at around 3.7 if it were to be converted. </p>
<p>My GPA is higher than 4.0 weighted, because the only classes that I’ve gotten Bs in are all IB courses which means they would go up a full point from 3.0 - 4.0</p>
<p>wow very hard core guys…:O</p>
<p>area: Toronto
school: very asian school. I guess you can say it’s hard.
school program: No ap or honor. Nothing of help
grade: 11 going into grade 12
gpa: 95.7/100 (grade 11)
sat: total 2280 (CR 790, M 800, W 690 
)
sat ii: will be taking math II and physics in october, current practice = 800
ap: none whatsoever.
EC: Lead clarinetist in senior band, pianist for stage band, music council member, volunteered for summer music performances at hospitals and senior homes
hobby: art, music, math
award: …? Staff proficiency for every grade since grade 6, ranked top 3% in SIN, top 5% in Avogadro Contest, …not much else for math… (AIME in grade 10? Orz)
race: Asian
to major: Engineering
to note: dreams of MIT badly. :(</p>
<p>@shinkui. The fact that you took no honors/AP/IB is going to hurt you quite a bit sorry to say. Top colleges like to see rigorous schedules. That being said, you are basically a lock for any university in Canada, but getting into the top ones in the USA will be difficult.</p>
<p>And the other thing is that you’re not very unique. I mean that in the nicest way possible. There are a ton of Asian applicants with very high grades and ECs focussed in music; so it will be difficult for you to stand out unless you write a stellar essay.</p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>@Nosike</p>
<p>If shinkui’s school offered AP/IB/Honours courses but *didn’t * take any, then it would be bad. It’s not your fault that your school doesn’t offer those kinds of programs, but as long you’re taking the most rigorous course load available to you, then it’s fine.</p>
<p>That being said, getting into a top school is difficult no matter what.</p>