<p>I'm taking 5 A-levels in my junior and senior year (Literature, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Maths). It is the most rigorous curriculum offered by the school.</p>
<p>By how much would this increase my chances for schools like Harvard and MIT, assuming I get A or B in all of them?</p>
<p>All As using the UK curve. But if you are from Hong Kong, perhaps one or couple Bs won’t kill your chance. Regardless, you will need much more than just good grades to get into MIT/Harvard.</p>
<p>I’m in Turkey, how’d that work?</p>
<p>And yup, I’m aware of that.</p>
<p>Getting A’s and B’s would be great provided you have a great SAT too. I think you might not face any problem with CR and W on the SAT as you’re taking Literature.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask any questions you have.</p>
<p>Yeah, I intend to give myself almost no free time this year! Only for watching House.</p>
<p>Since most candidates take 3-4 A-levels, I knew I would have an advantage if I did exceptionally well in 5 A-levels. Maybe I’d get an advantage for being in Turkey.</p>
<p>Speaking of which. My IGCSE marks if you want to know:</p>
<p>English as a Second Language: A+ (my English is a lot better than my Turkish, I could probably handle Lit)
Physics: A+
Biology: A+
Maths: A+
Chemistry: A
Computer: C (only because of my 24 year old computer teacher who spends time talking to her boyfriend on MSN instead of teaching us…)</p>
<p>I don’t really have any questions… I think you two covered pretty much all of them.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Well, if all you have are just good but less than perfect (that C does make people wonder a bit esp. for MIT) grades and nothing else (ECs), you will have a hard time for even the non-HYP ivies and other top privates, let alone HM. </p>
<p>In my year, one guy from my HS got 10 straight As on O-level (probably only 10 out of 100,000 kids got 10 As that year; the curve gives no more than few % As in any given subject) but he was rejected by HYPS. Our school offered only 8 subjects to the arts students and he self-taught 2 subjects including Additional Math, which was challenging even for science students. This kid was so impressive academically that when he initially got 9A and 1B, the faculty in my school asked the education board to review the grading and sure enough there was an error. This is someone that could have got perfect GPA from any of the HYPS if he were given the chance to attend. This goes to show you grades don’t mean everything for college admission. On the other hand, some people with grades like 8A1B do get into HYPS but they have things like piano performance championships…etc.</p>
<p>IGCSEs really don’t matter much anyway.</p>
<p>I have lots of plans for ECs (I intend to make the most out of this crappy embassy school) so I’ll somehow have that covered. Editor of the newspaper, Prefect, Head Boy, captain of the football team, voice acting for children’s English books, swimming, best promising actor at a competition, etc.</p>
<p>I’m not Asian, so I think that’s an advantage.</p>
<p>I’m going to have to write a killer essay too, something that’ll blow them away.</p>
<p>To be honest though, O-levels really are inferior to the A-levels. I’m honestly not surprised at the rejection, considering that the O-levels were ditched in favor of the GCSE.</p>
<p>If it were A-levels instead, do you really think he would have been rejected?</p>
<p>Sephiran,</p>
<p>That’s actually called HKCEE, not “O-level”; I used that term so people know the equivalent. Now that I think of it, I should have used GCSE instead. But the technical term is really HKCEE. Think of it as the Hong Kong version of GCSE. It’s a bit harder or deeper than GCSE but the real difference that matters is the much tougher curves. Smart people that participate in IMO, IPhO…and valedictorians (many schools never have a single student that has straight As) get Bs, Cs, or even Ds/Es in certain subjects easily.</p>
<p>It’s not so much about the 10As, it’s more about the fact that he’s one of the only 10 people or so that got 10As and there were 100,000 candidates. That put him at 99.99-th percentile.</p>
<p>Straight As in A-level aren’t really that impressive anyway. I read that slightly over 20% of the grades are As. You just need to be at an average of 80 percentile for each subject to get straight As. It’s good but I wouldn’t think of anyone with that result as little genius. Many people applying to Harvard would have straight As.</p>
<p>A-level in HK again uses much harsher curve. But I don’t think it’d change the outcome if he got straight As there. US college admission is not all about grades. Harvard could have filled its whole class with 2400 on SAT if it wants. But it chooses to reject many of them and accept some people with 2200…etc. So when you look at the stats, don’t let that fool you. Just because there are people with 2200 and you having 2350 doesn’t necessarily mean you are having a good chance. It doesn’t work that way.</p>
<p>I am confused. I don’t understand what you guys are talking about.
In my part of the world, A-Level grades dont matter much. For instance, my friend X has 12 As in O-Level (including two distinction: one world and one regional), 5 As in A-Level. He participated IPho (won bronze medal). Had many other achievements too, but ended up nowhere. He now attends a local college.
Another friend Y, has 7 As in A-Level and very strong ECs. He attends the same college. It is considered prestigious here. But come on. Its not MIT.
I have 3 As in A-Level. (out of 3) But its not even worth boasting about.</p>
<p>Instead SAT scores are very very important. Try to work hard on them.</p>
<p>7 A-levels?! it’s unheard of in my real life… in my school history, 6 a-level is already the most… I think with 7 As in A-level, you can get in Oxbridge like for sure… or places like UCL and Imperial.</p>
<p>I know a person who has 21 A’s in A-Levels. Now what do u think?
btw, thats a record.</p>
<p>And yes, I didn’t lie. Infact, I know more than just two who had more than 6 A-Levels. And the students I just mentioned were rejected from Oxbridge (beats me tho).</p>
<p>The Pakistani guy with 21 A Levels is the biggest idiot I’ve ever seen. He was accepted to all Ivies along with MIT and he surprisingly didn’t go there but rather chose Cambridge U in UK to study Computer Science! I would never do such a stupidity to reject MIT and choose Cambridge for Computer Science!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>-facepalm-</p>
<p>If he wanted to attend Cambridge more than the others, its absolutely right he chose it. Who are you to say he made the wrong decision?</p>
<p>uagha,</p>
<p>What you said is consistent to what I said just before your post:</p>
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<p>What I also said was that Hong Kong has a very different curve such that getting an A is a lot more difficult. One study from UK says a C in Hong Kong is equivalent to A elsewhere but I think it may be even worse than that (my good friend got a D on pure math but 800 on SAT math). It’s really all about the curve (grade inflation or deflation). That’s why getting straight As (if the curve is the one used in UK) doesn’t really mean much for HYPMS (unless you have 21 of them like that guy) and one should have something more to bring to the table.</p>
<p>I think that we have veered away from the question asked by the OP in our discussion of how A-levels vary around the world. He/she asked:</p>
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<p>Schools like Harvard and MIT expect that their successful applicants will have been taking the most rigourous curriculum offered by their schools. As a result, I would say that you would make yourself competitive for MIT and Harvard, but I do not see it as increasing your chances at all.</p>
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That’s the wrong approach. Pick one or two activities you are passionate about and achieve as much in those as you possibly can. Preferably beyond the local level.</p>
<p>FYI, I have heard through the woods that Princeton assigns each applicant two numbers rating their competitiveness, one for academic achievements and one for extra-curricular achievements. 4 stands for international distinction, 3 is national, 2 is regional, 1 is local. Apparently most accepted students fall into the 3-2 category. For a regional extracurricular distinction, you would need to accomplish things beyond the boundaries of your school…</p>
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<p>It’s very rare for people to take above 4 A-levels, and I believe 5 A-levels would make me more distinguished. Other than that, I have to agree.</p>
<p>The A-level system is far more different than the US. There are people with 3 A-levels (the normal amount) who get accepted into the top US schools.</p>
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<p>Passionate about. The problem with that is, my school is EXTREMELY limited in terms of extracurriculars. EXTREMELY. I plan to do research for Physics, Biology and Chemistry (which I am indeed passionate about). And I did like drama and voice acting.</p>
<p>I completely agree, but if I went to a, say, good US school, I would have followed your approach.</p>
<p>For crying out loud, there’s like 12 people in grade 11 this year. Probably about 10, maybe less of them will graduate next year.</p>
<p>I just hope that I won’t be at a disadvantage because of my tiny school.</p>
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Nobody says that you have to limit yourself to what your school offers. Can you get involved in the local community? Are there any organizations or clubs or… that are looking for members or could need a helping hand? Can you start your own club (maybe or maybe not connected to your school) or organize an event to get people involved in what you are interested in? </p>
<p>Spending an hour a week each in 10 different activities isn’t going to impress an Ivy admissions committee. They are looking for initiative and leadership skills, for students who would enhance the life on campus outside of the classroom. Usually the only way to accomplish something worthwhile is to invest a lot of time into it. </p>
<p>That is not to say that you cannot get accepted to Harvard without extracurricular accomplishments. Some students are accepted purely on their academic merits. Some students are accepted because of their background or family ties. You say you are attending an embassy school - maybe you do have the sort of interesting background that opens doors.</p>
<p>Good luck with the admission process! Please keep us updated on how things are going!</p>
<p>You’re too helpful, more than I deserve. I will use your advice to the best of my ability.</p>
<p>This just makes me realize how much and how hard I have to focus on my essay.</p>
<p>US students don’t realise the huge difference in the availablity of EC’s in other countries.</p>