McGill, St. Andrew’s

[Anonymous]

In terms of chances of admission - which US colleges are comparable to McGill (Canada) and St. Andrews (Scotland).

Of course those two colleges are not equivalent. DS is trying to get a sense of their chances at each. He has a good sense of selectivity of US colleges.

TIA

[Anonymous]

These school IMO appeal to really smart kids who don’t have great ECs so they get shut out of the T20 and would otherwise end up at schools like bates, BC, BU, macalester level colleges.

[Anonymous]

W&M OOS, USC Marshall. My DC chose StA over both of these. Waitlisted at Gtown and ND this year.

Other acceptances include Tulane RD, Lehigh, BC.

n=1

[Anonymous]

They are equivalent in terms of prestige.
Why don't you look up the grades they require on their websites, these can change from year to year and subject to subject. It is better to get that information from them directly than asking on DCUM where its just turns into a bun fight.

[Anonymous]

Oh my…..HUGE thread on this already. Use search function

[Anonymous]

On the other StA thread, they ran the numbers and StA’s admission rate for American students was north of 60%. So chances of admission for your kid are high.

[Anonymous]

Both schools have relatively high admissions rates. Over 45%!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On the other StA thread, they ran the numbers and StA’s admission rate for American students was north of 60%. So chances of admission for your kid are high.

U. St Andrews admits by degree, unlike most US colleges. So the only meaningful admissin rate number for StA is a per-degree admission rate. There are some specific numbers in the St Andrews thread. Also, U. St Andrews publishes the expected minimum academics per degree, unlike US colleges, so few non-qualified students apply there. Both of these factors make a direct comparison with a US college nearly impossible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In terms of chances of admission - which US colleges are comparable to McGill (Canada) and St. Andrews (Scotland).

Of course those two colleges are not equivalent. DS is trying to get a sense of their chances at each. He has a good sense of selectivity of US colleges.

TIA

Not the right comparison to make.

Both are good schools. But they make it so easy for US students to attend. Both have > 80% admit rates in DC's high school.
DC went to a program in Canada where only top kids in Canada attend. Many of them end up at McGill, Toronto, UBC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These school IMO appeal to really smart kids who don’t have great ECs so they get shut out of the T20 and would otherwise end up at schools like bates, BC, BU, macalester level colleges.

I agree. My son is twice exceptional (high IQ, low processing speed) and had a very thin EC list, but very high stats. He was accepted to McGill and St Andrew's no problem, but then got cold feet and decided to go to George Washington, at the Elliott School of International Affairs (he was also accepted at schools like W&M, from out of state). GW itself isn't ranked all that high, but their IA school is in the top 10. He loves the urban campus and is very happy. Ironically, now he's all excited to study at Sciences Po in Paris. It just took a couple of years for him to get used to the idea of going abroad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On the other StA thread, they ran the numbers and StA’s admission rate for American students was north of 60%. So chances of admission for your kid are high.

Each of these schools publish minimum standards for applying so it cuts out some of the YOLOing we see in US applicatoins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the other StA thread, they ran the numbers and StA’s admission rate for American students was north of 60%. So chances of admission for your kid are high.

U. St Andrews admits by degree, unlike most US colleges. So the only meaningful admissin rate number for StA is a per-degree admission rate. There are some specific numbers in the St Andrews thread. Also, U. St Andrews publishes the expected minimum academics per degree, unlike US colleges, so few non-qualified students apply there. Both of these factors make a direct comparison with a US college nearly impossible.

Okay? I didn’t say anything making a direct comparison. But the reality is that Americans have high admit rates there and OP asked about selectivity. And yes, the overall admit rate for American students is still relevant, it’s not like the American students are all hoarding into the highest admit degrees and skewing the numbers or something.

[Anonymous]

McGill employs a GPA cut-off in order to have your application read. It differs by major so look it up but usually you need above an A- in the subjects core to your major. This GPA cut-off serves as a way to weed out on the front end lots of applications that would normally get reviewed in the US. Since McGill prevents those from going in the pile, they have a higher admission rate than comparable schools in the US but that's because they use GPA to reduce the pool on the front-end so that they're only spending time reading qualified applications.

So don't mistake their seemingly higher application rate for it being of lower academic standard. It's not. They just only allow applications for qualified applicants (not 3.3 gpa "hail mary" applications allowed like at the ivies). Secondly for public unis like McGill, Canada has increased seats at their most sought after schools. As a result, classes are large and similar to big, public state schools in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These school IMO appeal to really smart kids who don’t have great ECs so they get shut out of the T20 and would otherwise end up at schools like bates, BC, BU, macalester level colleges.

I agree. My son is twice exceptional (high IQ, low processing speed) and had a very thin EC list, but very high stats. He was accepted to McGill and St Andrew's no problem, but then got cold feet and decided to go to George Washington, at the Elliott School of International Affairs (he was also accepted at schools like W&M, from out of state). GW itself isn't ranked all that high, but their IA school is in the top 10. He loves the urban campus and is very happy. Ironically, now he's all excited to study at Sciences Po in Paris. It just took a couple of years for him to get used to the idea of going abroad

Lol you again

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In terms of chances of admission - which US colleges are comparable to McGill (Canada) and St. Andrews (Scotland).

Of course those two colleges are not equivalent. DS is trying to get a sense of their chances at each. He has a good sense of selectivity of US colleges.

TIA

Probably UMD. McGill and St. Andrew’s have more prestige, though (except for CS).