<p>I have taken MPC, and am in 11th grade now under CBSE curriculum. What are the scores that i need to get in order to get into a good American University for engineering? I got an 80% in my first term and am looking at probably an 88% in my finals.
Do they look at your grades only? or do they compare it with the rest of the class. I heard admissions offices talking about "top 5% of class". Does this mean that even if i get low grades, but am doing relatively well compared to my classmates, it counts as a good grade?</p>
<p>U should aim for 90%+ overall and around 95% for PCM. Of course if 80% is close to the topper in ur school then it will be considered by the colleges. But I doubt this is the case since I got 93.2% in 11th and I was still 10/139 in my school.</p>
<p>It wasn’t close to the topper’s grade (93%), but there weren’t many people who scored between me and the topper. I would most likely fall in the top 10%.</p>
<p>Nope, they will not look at just your school grades but it is arguably the most important part of your application. Especially if you are planning to apply to the top colleges like Caltech, MIT etc. </p>
<p>I understand that the internal marking system differs from school to school. In my school, 89% makes you a first grader. Teachers make sure you don’t get in 90s so that you prepare better for the Boards.
But since a classmate of yours is getting 93%, it shows the teachers do allow that and thus you should strive to get those marks and top the class. Again, with your present marks you might get into quite a few colleges but you are applying to selective colleges, you need to score better.</p>
<p>Also, does your school give ranks? In that case you will have to specify your rank in the application and cannot use the “top5%”, “top 10%” etc. options (I think)</p>
<p>Top 10% is a big no-no, it;s good when you’re an american student because your class size is mostly 300+, but in Indian schools, the class size is generally 50-80 max, top 10% would mean that you’re just a mediocre student.
If it’s CBSE, aim for straight up 98%, believe me, it’s easy. This year, around 6-12k students got 95% in their boards.</p>
<p>You should have good high school marks or very good entrance test scores. It is better if you maintain both of them high.</p>