My background

Hi, my name is Claire. I graduated from Burnaby North Secondary School, located in British Columbia, Canada. I was French immersion in elementary school until grade seven, but I stopped it when moving on to high school. I have always enjoyed both STEM and the humanities, so my course selection in school was well-rounded. I didn't focus exclusively on one area, taking on a heavy course load that included many AP classes. However, I had a slight preference for math and economics, which I eventually chose to pursue as my major. One of my main hobbies is swimming ever since I was six. Swimming helped me get a lot of jobs and volunteer opportunities. Before swimming, I was also a competitive rhythmic gymnast, but unfortunately, I stopped because I got injured. I definitely had more of an athletic background, and that’s what I spent most of my time doing outside of school.

Why I decided to study in US

This is because Canadian schools like Western and UBC, have very similar demographics as where I used to live my life so far, compared to UCLA. I aspired to step out of my comfort zone and meet more diverse people outside of Canada.

Why UCLA

First of all, UCLA is the only school in the state I got into. Between UCLA, Western Ivy Business School, and UBC Sauder, I ended up going for UCLA because LA is one of my favorite places, and I have visited it multiple times. I love the location and environment of the school, and being able to meet new people outside my comfort zone was one of my main goals. In addition, UCLA is a large community with a diverse student body, which can allow me to meet people from all over the world. One more thing that got me attracted to UCLA was that I can easily change my major and it is very flexible. As I am not yet set on economics yet, I wanted the opportunity to change into something else if I could at the future. UCLA is a public school whereas a lot of other schools in the states are private schools. This made me a lot more open and less restricted for having a clear path on what I am doing now and in the future.

Stats and Test scores

Here’s a funny story, I studied for an SAT for three months and even signed up for the test. It was the first year of digital SAT, and I forgot my laptop! At that point, I thought it was already pretty late and decided to forget about it. For my ACT, I got 29, but didn’t report the score because UCLA is test blind. My weighted GPA is 93/100. Additionally, I took 12 AP courses and the test scores were usually 4 or 5. One thing that made me stand out as a strong applicant was that I took APs from all different areas and scored decently well on them in general.

Extracurricular activities

One of my biggest commitments is being a competitive swim coach, a role I started in Grade 10. Initially, I started as a volunteer coach through my own swim club, but I was later hired as an actual coach. Now, I am also running the volunteer coach program, mentoring the volunteers to become a coach. As an actual coach, my main role was to train groups of kids throughout competitions up to the provincial level. In British Columbia, where I live, we participated in competitions across the province. During the summer, I committed about 8 hours on weekdays and 15 to 20 hours on weekends when we had races. I worked with various age groups, ranging from 7 to 13 years old. This activity also led to several award achievements. At school, I was named Athlete of the Year in Grade 11 and Swimmer of the Year for three years straight. On a provincial level, I won multiple gold medals that I reported on my application.

Another major commitment was a business systems internship that I completed over the summer. I found this opportunity through my personal connection, and it was with a private engineering company with over 300 employees. The company is well-known for producing cardio machines. The internship lasted for a full month, during which I worked about 30 hours a week. My main responsibilities included conducting research on business systems, studying workflow management software, and shadowing other employees to gain hands-on experience.

At school, I also took on a leadership role as the president of a club called Math Challengers and managed it alongside other executives. I had been a member of the club since Grade 8 and eventually became part of the executive team later. In addition, I was part of the Student Government in our school during my senior year, which allowed me to participate in planning school-wide events and initiatives.

Canadian Schools vs American Schools

If you are planning to major in business, there isn’t a significant difference between Canadian and US schools in terms of the application process. However, it is important to note that Canadian schools place a much stronger emphasis on academics, grades, and overall GPA. Whereas US schools focus more on extracurricular activities, courses that I took, essays, and awards. From my experience, East Coast Canadian universities like the University of Toronto, Queen's, and McGill were heavily focused on my GPA rather than other aspects of my application. 

For business majors, both Canadian and US schools typically require video interviews and essays, and the application process tends to be more holistic compared to that for STEM majors. Additionally, US schools care a lot about letters of recommendation, so it is important to build strong relationships with school teachers, counselors, and coaches. For instance, I had my swim coach write one of my letters of recommendation; it is crucial to form deep, personal connections with those you ask to write for you. Another big difference I noticed between applying to Canadian and US schools is the approach to essays. US schools offer more freedom in terms of topics and prompts, allowing for greater personal reflection. In contrast, Canadian schools tend to provide more specific and focused prompts. Overall, if you are applying for a business major, the process is pretty similar between the two.

Advice on Personal Insight Questions

I wrote a lot of essays during the cycle, but most of them centered around my extracurriculars, especially my swim coach experience. While this topic is not very recommended, I also wrote an essay about an injury that happened in grade eight while doing gymnastics, which had a significant impact on me and how I overcame it. Again, sports injury is a very common and not highly preferred type of college essay, which is not the best topic to choose. Additionally, I wrote an essay about my cultural background, connecting it to the COVID-19 pandemic and my grandparents. 

Overall, I think it is important to emphasize the outcomes of your experience and how you have applied the lessons learned to other areas of your life practically. Instead of simply storytelling or trauma dumping, focus on the “lessons” you learned and how they have shaped you into the person you are today!