admission problem

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>Hi all! I'm a international student studying at the first-ranked secondary school Hong Kong; and I intend to study in the US in 2014. As far as I'm concerned, one of the most important admissions factors is secondary school records, namely GPA and class rank. Nevertheless, for one thing, under the current education system in Hong Kong, there is no GPA and the only grades that appear on the transcript are course work grades - even the top students can't get straight "A"s; for another, since I am taking HKDSE (Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education) and self-studying US pre-college tests including SAT, TOEFL and AP at the same time, my class rank has been adversely affected in recent terms. The thing is, there are significant differences between the education systems of the US and Hong Kong, so it will be unfair to me if the admission office of the universities in the US consider my application with the same standard as local students. My question is, how will a international student like me be considered in the university admission in the US?</p>

2

<p>first of all, your school counselor will need to indicate what percentage students in the school AND in the country get x score for an A, x score for a B, etc. Your transcript will have to be translated into English with a KEY indicating what score indicaqtes you are in the top 5% at your school, top 10%, top 20%,… as well as what this would mean compared to ALL students enrolled in all secondary schools in Hong Kong. Since your school is ranked 1st, it means the selection scores for admission are pretty high aqnd that would have to be explained too (“only students scoring at the top2% nationally are admitted to our school. Typically applicants were enrolled in the Gifted and Talented Class or Class 1 in years 7-9 and among those only 15% are admitted.” etc)
For highly competitive schools it’s common fr students to be unranked. Leave it as unranked unless your school specifically ranks all students.
In addition, don’t waste too much time on TOEFL: once you’ve reached the level they ask for, they don’t care if you are 5, 7 or 10 pts higher, they move on to your SAT scores.</p>

3

<p>See <a href=“http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/E6EDCDCF-DAD8-447A-A75A-C7DB83E0FC5E/0/EvaluatingForeignTranscriptsAZManualNYCDOE2066.pdf[/url]”>http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/E6EDCDCF-DAD8-447A-A75A-C7DB83E0FC5E/0/EvaluatingForeignTranscriptsAZManualNYCDOE2066.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Most schools would use something similar to evaluate foreign transcripts.</p>

<p>

You should have a discussion with your secondary school; come up a list of American schools that past students from your school had applied to. Your searching should start with this list of American schools, as they would at least familiar with your school’s grading already.</p>

4

<p>Read through everything here: <a href=“https://www.educationusa.info/[/url]”>https://www.educationusa.info/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Then make an appointment with the counselors at the advising center in Hong Kong. They have worked with students like you before, and will have useful information for you. <a href=“https://www.educationusa.info/PASHongKong[/url]”>https://www.educationusa.info/PASHongKong&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;