I’ve never had a specific university in mind. I’ve never had a dream school, and I’ve never known where I was going to end up.
That was all fine until it was senior year and I had to decide. Suddenly, I had to know what I wanted to do.
I finally know.
In September I will be attending the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.
The decision to go to school in Canada was pretty easy. I have dual citizenship, so I’m considered a domestic student, which made the application process a breeze. And my twin brother, Adil Ally, also will be attending the University of Toronto. He really copied me on that one.
My brother and I also have family who live just outside of Toronto, so the area is pretty familiar to us.
The application process is a little different for Canada than the United States. First, I didn’t have to write any essays. My application included only my grades and extracurricular activities. So once I filled out my application in about 10 minutes, I waited a couple of months to hear back.
Another way Canadian universities differ from those in the US is the price. Because of my dual citizenship, I pay the domestic tuition, which is around $5,000 annually, considerably less than what I would have paid had I stayed in the US. Room and board is similar to the states – between $15,000 and $20,000 annually. An international student at the University of Toronto pays around the same as someone going out of state.
Honestly I didn’t think I would get into any of the four Canadian universities I applied to because admissions were mostly on grades and my GPA is just shy of a 4.0. So I kind of forgot about them. Instead, I focused on writing my UC application essays and making sure I had every section of the Common App completed.
Once decisions started rolling in, though, I had to choose between the three Canadian schools that accepted me and a half dozen in the US. But I wasn’t just choosing my education, I was choosing my location, and Toronto provided me with the best opportunities.
I’ll be studying social sciences, while my brother studies life sciences. We’ll declare our majors at the end of our first year, so I have no idea what I want to do yet. But I do know that I will be figuring it all out in Canada.