your stats, please?-Canadians aiming for US schools

<p>You have to prove that you can’t get the money. They’ll have copies of your parents’ tax forms and what not when you apply for FA so they can reasonably estimate if you’ll be able to meet the needs through any part time jobs or parental contributions.</p>

<p>Sure, my stats are</p>

<p>SAT:
1st time: (1890) 640 CR 630 Math 620 Writing
2nd time: (2170) 720 CR 720 Math 730 Writing</p>

<p>Math 2: (770)
Physics: (760)
World History: (770)</p>

<p>GPA:
3.870 total (Unweighted)
Rank: Top 10%
IB predicted score is 39/45 </p>

<p>And I didn’t apply for financial aid, that might have been another aspect that helped me in…</p>

<p>@Powa2, did you convert your percent average to GPA? And could we know what school/school district you are from? I suspect IB also helped you, but your SAT II’s are great! </p>

<p>@darksoulz: ah, ic. So, it could get complicated I guess. Like, my parent should be able to afford it, but it would mean shelling out a lot of income/loan and other things. You know what I mean? We are upper-middle class, I’d say. So, we’re kind of in the middle, which is basically the worst spot. I guess I’d have to talk to my parents about applying ED and such next yr.</p>

<p>@Powa2 How did you improve your SATs so much from 1st to 2nd time?</p>

<p>Powa2: Can you please also list some of your major EC’s as well? Since they are no less significant than test scores and GPA in applying to Top-tier schools in US</p>

<p>@cdnhockeymom, a 280 pt. improvement is very doable, you just need to practice a lot for it to be done. lots of people improve by such amounts</p>

<p>and yea, i agree with mathematicism, could u post ECs Powa2? and did u convert your % to GPA or what? And what school/school district are u from?</p>

<p>area: Toronto
school: high school with good reputation academically
school program: No ap or honor. just enriched english…(school doesn’t offer anything)
grade: 11
gpa: Low 90s?
sat: Not yet, been testing myself on the reading and writing sections, with fairly consistant scores of high 700s in reading and high 600s in writing - - gotta get down to practising!
sat ii: I’m thinking of taking bio, and then maybe chem or french or literature? I’m not too sure about what to take, does anyone have any suggestions?
ap: Ermmm, this is gonna make me sound really clueless, but what IS AP?! Everyone keeps mentioning it, and I never got around to wiki-ing it. xD
EC: School Newspaper head, Music Council head, Multicultural Assembly Head, School Show Costumes head; Starting a sub-group of not-for-profit student-ran charity thingie in my school (Over Bounds); Almost 200 hrs of volunteering
hobby: Visual arts, fashion design, piano (did only the playing portion of the RCM gr 8 exam…I don’t think I’ll be mentioning this to the uni xD)
award: Subject distinction in Visual Arts, and nothing else T_T
race: Asian, female
to major: Liberal arts, maybe focusing on bio or psychology
to note: After writing down my stats, I’ve become a lot less sure about wanting to apply to Brown…- -+++</p>

<p>Looks pretty solid, so far, with excellent gpa and ECs. </p>

<h2>To understand AP: below is what I had posted on another thread.</h2>

<p>I understand from friends living in the States and some research that: </p>

<ul>
<li><p>Honor class: more intensive than regular class. You are allowed to take ‘honor’ class only when approved by your highschool. I suppose this honor class might be similar to Canada’s ‘enriched’ class. However, they differ in that when applying to US college, our enriched class does not gain us extra points while honor class in US does.</p></li>
<li><p>AP (Advanced Pacement) class: more intensive than regular AND ‘equivalent’ to college freshman course. When you complete this class at highschool or selfstudy AP subjects, AND take the CB’s AP exams in May (May only), you earn college credit on the subject, that is depending on your score. For instance, if you take AP calculus at your highschool and get a B, the chances are that you get 5 points for that B instead of 3 in regular calculus class. In case you write the CB’s AP calculus exam in May and earn a score of 3 or higher, you likely earn ‘college credit’ as well. It is known that the more APs, the better. Check college board.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>In US schools where AP is offered, students get 5 or even 6 points rather than 4 points for an A, and 4 or 5 points for a B rather than 3, etc. Most US highschools offer honor and AP program for competitive students.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>unweighted gpa: gpa when weighing just 4 full points for A’s in ‘all’ classes including honor and AP.</p></li>
<li><p>weighted gpa: gpa when weighing higher points (5 or 6 depending on each school) for honor and AP classes.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>@hinderpanda, your CR scores are great! For writing, if you are using the Blue Book (College Board), look up the answers online. Or, if your not using the Blue Book, just try to figure out why your answers were wrong. I guarantee you’ll get into mid-high 700s without too much effort.</p>

<p>@prjiki: thanks, and that explained a lot xD</p>

<p>@ViggyRam: yep, it’s the blue book xD. I just did another writing section on the sample tests, and this time I got low 700s…this is really unsettling, what if I get like high 700s next time and then I go take the SAT and get like, mid 600s -0- -0- -0- -0- -0-</p>

<p>@viggyRam: How do you practice for SAT, a given book?</p>

<p>FYI re AP. My son is in an American Prep School now and did advanced biology in Grade 10 in Canada, in addition to highest level of classes in all courses at his highschool. He did amazing, so he took AP Biology at prep. He said it is SIGNIFICANTLY harder than advanced honors bio and the hardest class he has ever taken.</p>

<p>@cdnhockeymom “How do you practice for SAT, a given book?” The Blue Book from College Board allows you to view answer explanations for EVERY question online! It’s really helpful. All you need to do is find the Book Owner’s section on the site and log on. I think you may need to make a college board account, but its all free.</p>

<p>If you don’t have the college board Blue Book, then you just need to go through all the answers and understand why they were or weren’t correct. It comes with repetition. I have around 2100 right now, but i improved 300pts. already in around 1 week of practice, maybe less. It’s just repetition, I used to get so confused, but now things like idioms and such (which used to be so hard for me to find) come easy.</p>

<p>But, I haven’t been prepping lately, I have exams. Which reminds me, I have an exam tomorrow lol, think I should go study now lol.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/763933-new-feature-best-sat-prep-forum-faqs-please-read-before-posting.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/763933-new-feature-best-sat-prep-forum-faqs-please-read-before-posting.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Follow the links on that page. That’s pretty much all the advice you need to score 2200+.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

<p>I was thinking about my EC, and it seems like I don’t really have a “hook”…
Sooooo, I’m curious: what are you guys gonna be selling as your “distinguishing quality”? xD</p>

<p>i’m gonna be selling that I play in the PBLO baseball league in Ontario (one of the best in Canada), and play for a top team, Windsor Selects, and play hs baseball and have started every year in hs. I am also a ref for hockey and umpire for baseball. </p>

<p>So, I will be trying to sell myself as an athlete. I am no college prospect or anything, but nevertheless, that is my only “hook”. I don’t have amazing academic awards, national sci. far awards or anything. I just have sports lol. We’ll see how it goes next year. I wouldn’t mind being a backup player on Harvard’s baseball team. ;)</p>

<p>I have nothing brilliant so far, as you may have checked out in my earlier post: no national level awards, no invention of sort. I am busy these days applying for US summer camp, mostly math/sci gifted… Also working toward some serious physics contests. Hopefully I make one of them and it becomes a hook…</p>

<p>random question, but can you take a college/uni. level course at a local university or college in Canada? I know they have stuff like that in US, do they here in Canada? And how long would such a course take to complete?</p>

<p>@ViggyRam - I live in Alberta, but I know that you can here. You just have to contact the university/college itself and inquire about it. And it would take however long the course at the college is - so probably a full semester.</p>

<p>ah kk, so idont think you’d be able to finish a college course over the summer, could you? Like, if I went every morning for just one class for the length of the summer, would that be the length of a course?</p>

<p>and would you know anything about online college courses?</p>