Hi there!
I just completed my first year at another Ontario university and unfortunately, because I wasn’t in a program I was very passionate about, I only achieved a GPA of 73% during first semester, and as things worsened, my GPA was only 61% – so I now hold a low cumulative GPA of 68%. However, my high school transcript is much higher at about a 94% average for the whole year, and I have lots of volunteer and extracurricular experience under my belt.
I am dying to transfer to UofT St. George for an arts and science/humanities program (something involving writing). I’m aware that the average to transfer must be a solid B. What percentage grade does this translate to? I know a B is considered to be a 75% for some schools, but an 85% for some schools. I’ll be taking more courses this summer to try and boost my GPA, but what percentage average would I need to even be considered? I’ve calculated and even if I take 10 more courses and achieve a 90% in all of them (which is not likely), I’ll still only be able to get my GPA up to 79.6%. Even if I’m able to achieve a 75%, I’m assuming this wouldn’t be enough to be competitive – would my high school grades help me at all? Is there any way you think I can make this happen?
Thanks for any advice you can give me!
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hello and welcome,
glad you managed to figure out where your interests lie and are brave enough to take this jump! as previous askas have stated, none of us really know how u of t’s transfer admissions work, but hopefully i’m able to help you out at least a little.
at u of t, a solid b translates to a range of 73% to 76%. however, based on what i can find on the admissions site, it looks like you’d need a high B in uni to be competitive. i’m guessing that means a B+ (77-79%) to be safe. the website does suggest that high school grades will be considered, as it reads that admissions are ‘based on your overall academic record.’ there’s a chance, then, that your 94% average may be able to help you out here. the thing is, it’s not explicitly stated so if you’re really keen on your high school grades being used, i would shoot the admissions office a question here just to confirm whether or not it’s possible. you might also want to ask them whether they’re looking for your school’s equivalent of a high b or u of t’s.
as for your volunteer and extracurricular experience, unfortunately i doubt that’s going to help you out. u of t is one of those schools that really only considers academics for admissions, as far as i know. what’s holistic admissions? we only see numbers here.
other than that, i would also consider whether you have the prereqs for the program you’d like to transfer into. there are generally fewer requirements if you’re shooting for humanities, but either way you can check those using the program finder.
if you do decide to take more courses to increase your gpa before transferring, keep in mind that after you have second year standing, it becomes significantly harder to transfer to u of t. i don’t know how similar your current field of study is to what you want, but the school will literally bar you from continuing your studies in that field when you transfer. eg. if you were already in biochem somewhere else, once you hit third year standing you can’t decide you want to be a biochem major at u of t. there’s also a limit on how many transfer credits they’re willing to take. i’d recommend that you keep yourself aware of these possible complications if you don’t feel that your chances at transferring are at their best right now.
either way, good luck with everything! if the process continues to be confusing, feel free to send in another question.
over n out,
aska