-- Posted by Anonymous at 1:20 pm on Feb. 8, 2008 I'm a Canadian student and my dream school is University of Southern California. I'm in grade 11 right now and I'll need a scholarship to attend because it costs too much. My average is 80% (I know it isn't great I slacked in grade 10).. so can someone please offer me some advice with how I can improve my application... is that too low? :( :( I just started improving this semester but it's too late now!!! What about scholarship oppourtunities? I have a lot of community work done/extracurriculars. PLEASE HELP. I know you're not counsellors but I wanted to ask some americans. -- Posted by White Ninja at 1:20 pm on Feb. 8, 2008 You need a killer admissions essay. -- Posted by xdiamondxeyesx at 1:26 pm on Feb. 8, 2008 I've been told that grades in Canada are higher in the states? We were talking about applying to colleges in the states the other day in law and our teacher gave the example that if you have a 70 it would be an 80 in the states. I don't know if that's true or not but it would be pretty good if you are considering to apply to american colleges. And like white ninja said, having a really good admissions essay would help. And I believe you'd have to take the SAT too? so doing well on that would help you as well. Good luck!