College Counseling Update

August until December, Grade 12s have experienced a busy semester at ISD. Highlights from the past month include university acceptances. We celebrate four students who have received five acceptances so far.

Pictured: Andrea Celeste Amaya and Ahona Azman celebrate their university acceptances.

Upcoming university decisions:

Seniors who completed early acceptances and submitted their applications in October-November are on track to receive university decisions by mid-December.

Grade 12s upcoming university deadlines: 

1-15 January: Deadlines in the United States and Canada

15 January: numerus fixus in the Netherlands

26 January: UCAS application to the UK

PSATs:  Grade 10-11s students who took the PSAT received score reports by 7 December and their testing booklets to use as a study guide.  Students were also guided to sync their College Board and Khan accounts to review question types before taking the SAT in March, May, or October 2022.

29 Nov 29 & 1 Dec 1 IELTS Tips: Grade 11s received an IELTS session with Mr. Fyruz Khan, a local IELTS instructor who shared his top tips for taking the English proficiency test often required for university admissions and visa purposes.  Students asked questions about preparing for various sections, and registering to take the test in Dhaka.

6/8 December, Alumni Guest Speaker: Grade 11s heard from a recent IB graduate from the Class of 2021, Ahnaf Rahman.  Ahnaf graduated from an IB school in Malaysia but returned to Dhaka, his place of birth. After receiving the prestigious Lester B. Pearson International Student Scholarship from the U of Toronto. Ahnaf used his visit to ISD to promote the scholarship awarded to just two students from Bangladesh.  In addition to this honor, Ahnaf also applied for scholarships at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and University of Melbourne, Australia, and shared with ISD students suggestions for using in addition to sharing his top tips for succeeding in the IB DP:

  • Treat the second language as an opportunity, not a burden.
  • Schedule everything
  • Make connections between subjects.

University at a glance

Mission: The University of Toronto is dedicated to fostering an academic community in which the learning and scholarship of every member may flourish, with vigilant protection for individual human rights and a resolute commitment to the principles of equal opportunity, equity, and justice.

Notable university feature:
The University of Toronto has evolved into Canada’s leading university for learning, discovery, and knowledge creation. It is among the world’s top research-intensive universities, driven to invent and innovate. The University offers over 700 undergraduate programs to a cohort of some 90,000 students from more than 160 countries. U of Toronto has three campuses – St. George, Mississauga, and Scarborough located in and around Toronto. Mississauga campus combines advanced research with an intimate academic experience, while St. George features diverse college communities within Toronto’s vibrant downtown core. And to the east, the Scarborough campus leads community-engaged research, hands-on learning, and co-op programs locally and internationally. With a longstanding reputation for innovation and research, U of Toronto was the birthplace of such groundbreaking scientific moments as the discovery of insulin and stem cell research and the invention of the electron microscope.