<p>I won a scholarship to my dream international IB school in the states, and planned on attending it after my igcses, which I did really well on. Unfortunately I am now unable to go because my family are worried about me leaving them (it's a boarding school).
When I went to see other schools here in America (after finishing my igcses in Sudan) I was told that it would be impossible for me to go to eleventh grade to do the IB, because I've already done "year eleven". I explained that Year eleven is the equivalent of American tenth grade, but apparently I'm stuck.</p>
<p>What on earth should I do? I'm really worried and school should start soon, help!</p>
<p>If you are in the US now, and your options are that boarding school, or a local school, then you need to take your parents with you to visit the local schools that are options for you. The public school district that you are in will have specific policies about how to accept your foreign records, and how to place you. If you are their first international student, you can have those records formally evaluated by [World</a> Education Services - International Education Intelligence](<a href=“http://www.wes.org/]World”>http://www.wes.org/) or another organization whose results that school system will accept. Each private school will set its own policy, and you will need to ask each of them individually.</p>
<p>It is not necessary to complete an IB in order to attend college/university in the US. If you will be attending college/university outside the US, you need to find out what the requirements are for students who graduate from a US high school. For some non-US educational systems, and IB would be preferable to a US high school diploma. Should that be the case, if the scholarship to the boarding school would make that school affordable, it may be the best option for you and your family.</p>
<p>My main problem is that I’m not “international” as I’m an American citizen who was living outside of the country (like an expat). I want to do the IB, not go into college immediately, as I really like the IB course and feel that it would best prepare me for university. If I went to uni now that would kind of be like jumping from half-way through high school straight to university classes. Not pretty.</p>
<p>I would’ve loved to have gone to the boarding school, but unfortunately it’s not an option anymore-I can’t go.</p>
<p>I am not sure what sort of advice you are looking for. Can you clarify?</p>
<p>
You’d be perfectly well prepared academically. The ICGSE curriculum covers what the average American high school student has seen before they would start college. (The IB curriculum would make you one of the strongest students in the US; it’s far above average.) But I understand that you might be concerned about the non-academic aspects of going to college. Many 17-year-olds would struggle to live on their own in another country without adult supervision.</p>
<p>Does your current international schools offer A-levels? That might be your best option to study more advanced material right now.</p>
<p>If you want to follow a more American curriculum while applying to college, consider taking a few AP classes online. There might be an international school in Sudan where you could take the AP exams in May; if everything else fails, you could always fly to the US.</p>
<p>Now is a good time to start preparing for American college admissions to enroll in fall 2013. Here’s an approximate timeline:</p>
<p>Now: start researching colleges and preparing for standardized exams
October - December: take the SATs and/or ACT, TOEFL if required
November - January: applications are due
December - April: admission decisions are released
May 1: deadline to decide which college you’ll attend</p>
<p>To add to my previous post: if you want to consider online courses, take a look at Stanford EPGY. Its not cheap (most courses are around $500) but you’d work with an instructor who’ll review your homework and answer questions.</p>
<p>If that breaks your budget, there are plenty of cheap or free resources that would help you self-study for AP exams. Khan Academy has some great high quality videos, but they are better as supplemental review than stand-alone courses. MIT Open Courseware has some free online courses (videotaped from actual MIT classes). Most of those might be too advanced for you right now, but do take a look at their single-variable calculus course (18.01).</p>