Freaking out

[Maurice Ravel]

Hello again,

I learned from my suspension, so all hostilities aside...

Our school has a number of teachers that are simply not qualified for the job. For instance, last semester, I did bio and I got converted from an 81 to an 86. This semester, another biology teacher (grade eleven) converted the same mark to a friggin 96!

I am determined to move to the US for undergrad and med school, but in Canada, my GPA fluctuated between 94% to 88% because I was in so many different programs within the course of 3 years. According to the Canadian criteria, I am a straight A student with one small B on the side (phys ed...refused to do push-ups, lol). I am going to get 7's on my French and math exams and a combination of 6 and 7 predicted scores.

Now, which scores are good universities going to look at? IB predicted scores or my transcript?

I will have three fantastic recommendation forms (I mean it) along with good essays and a 2200+ SAT score. The thing is that I moved to Canada in grade nine with a pathetic background in English. I learned and progressed so fast that practically all teachers at school know me. However, my transcript is going to be very ugly in comparison. It's still A's, but there are applicants with 99% GPAs from lesser schools in Canada. My counsellor,however, did say that she would send our school's rankings to render the competition fair and our school does have a very high IB average.

I'm still not convinced. By the way, I am not saying I want to get into Princeton or anything! I just want to get into UC San Diego, LA, Berkeley or Vanderbilt.

I swim and play the piano on a competitive level. Next year, I will also enroll in Young Artists Performance Academy, a very selective extension of the Glenn Gould School and RCM for junior and senior high school kids. I don't know if that's going to help though. I have nice supplemental material (which they're prolly going to dump in the trash).

My marks are moving up though. I think I can manage to get 90s on my second semester grade eleven report card as well as my grade twelve mid term report.

Also, are admission officers familiar with the ARCT diploma? It's a music diploma that's offered in Canada.

[Ongfufu]

Canadian universities will only look at transcript when deciding your entrance. This is because IB predicted grades are usually too late (I just got them recently), and final grades are always too late. US universities will consider many more factors when deciding for your entrance. SAT I and II, current transcript, Common App, reference, EC, and maybe IB predicted grades (but its usually too late). If you are seriously convinced that your geographical location plays a big part in impressing the admission officers, that's fine, but what I'm telling you is that there are other factors that the officers care more about. Good luck.

Edited April 28, 2009 by Ongfufu

[moneyfaery]

All hostilities aside... when we last talked, I told you it'd be best for you if you could change your attitude. It's really quite an ugly personality trait to regard others as 'inferior' (i.e. 'applicants with 99% GPAs from lesser schools'). Anyway, there's always the interview - another chance for you to impress the admissions officers.

US schools are looking for well-rounded applicants, not just strong academic applicants. Seems like you've got the EC department all set so just improve your attitude and you'll be fine. Perhaps be a bit more altruistic and less GIMME GIMME.

Edit: Since you're probably in Ontario... talk to the seniors (if you can find any at this time....) and see how the conversion changed from grade 11 to 12. Teachers in your senior year tend to convert more generously.

Edited April 29, 2009 by Irene

[Sandwich]

I don't know if it is the case here, but in the UK there are certainly 'lesser' schools. Acceptance into university is actually partially weighted in their favour if people have gone to schools considered to be underperforming as opposed to schools where everybody is coached and the learning environment is solid. There're some extra things which get you additional consideration as a candidate and one of them is that-- other things are like having spent more than 3 months in care etc.

I dunno if that's what he meant O: Possibly not.

Most places look at your IB predicted scores, to the best of my knowledge

[moneyfaery]

Canada is unlike the UK in that we don't have colleges or sixth forms. We go from elementary school to high school/secondary school to either college or university (bother are considered post-secondary studies). Sure, some schools tend to perform better than others (apparently, mine is such a case, I didn't know it was ranked 'higher' until my parents pointed it out in some newspaper) but overall, schools are mostly public and equal. The only difference perhaps is region, but that has to do with more or less culture and not specially funding or better/worse teachers.

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Ok I've deleted off-topic posts. Please keep it civil and on topic please.