<p>Are As and A<em>s seen as different grades? As in do they actually make a difference to your application? Cos I've heard in the US they are seen as the same thing. Please help? I mean like would 4A's be a huge disadvantage compared to 4 A</em>s?</p>
<p>Not really… As long as MIT see you being challenged by the course… Even 4.0s barely mean anything in top colleges now… People could get those grades simply by having a really lenient teacher or not that great of a school… My personal experiences of GPA is that do the BEST as you can always because it is where you attend for school and it stays with you forever.</p>
<p>MIT’s admission officers
International schools when they have different scales… it could even be harder or WAY easier to earn them… Therefore, they look at everything the person has to offer for the community of the school</p>
<p>No, they are generally irrelevant. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that unlike many countries that use A-levels, US Universities do not make contingent admissions offers. So for example Oxbridge, or any of the UK’s Russel Group of universities will make an offer contingent on your actually achieving your predicted A-level grades. MIT or any other US university will make an offer in March without ever getting to see A-level grades. Yes they might have AS scores, and yes there is a predicted grade, but frankly MIT has no way of knowing whether you will get an A or an A* at the time it has to make up its mind as to whether to admit, and hence, these grades hardly matter.</p>
<p>In the US, it is also largely true of AP Scores. That you are taking AP classes, or whatever else is the hardest academic curriculuum that your secondary school offers is a factor that matters hugely in admissions. Your grades are not available when MIT decides, and hence they are largely irrelevant.</p>
<p>Oh I forgot to add that Ill be applying as a transfer, whoops. No its basically impossible and all, but they will have my final grades so in this situation is A and A* treated differently?</p>
<p>Given the few numbers of transfers that are accepted every year, there is nobody on this board apart possibly from MITChris who can possibly answer this question.</p>
<p>How do I get in contact with him? Thanks for your responses guys!</p>
<p>As others have stated, transfers are rare, international transfers even more so. The only scenario I could ever see that happen is if the candidate had won some major international award. I would therefore not plan on such scenario and would rather focus on applying for grad school.</p>
<p>I am not aware that international transfers are any rarer than other transfers, but again, with transfers each year in the single digits, there really isn’t enough data here for any of us to go on.</p>