<p>Hi everyone,
I am from Romania and I came in United States one year ago. I finished the 9th grade in Romania, but here I started the 11th grade so basically I will be skipping a high school year. When the school starts, I'll be a senior. I really want to get into a good college, but there are some problems:
- I haven't take any tests yet (SAT, ACT etc).
- I brought my grades from Romania and my counselor keep saying that they will some kind assimilate my grades from Romania into American grades. It's been almost a year, and they haven't do that, therefore living in California I need 220 credits to graduate, and so far, after one year of high school I got only 70.
- I don't have the required classes for college.
- The english that I speak is very poor (especially the vocab).</p>
<p>Everyone keeps telling me that it would be better to go to a community college and after 2 years transfer to a university for another 2 years which I really don't.
My GPA after the first year is 3.56 but I failed Algebra 2 in the first sem., and even though I took it again this summer, I failed it, which is one more problem.</p>
<p>I just scheduled a SAT for October 6 so I will have only one chance to do something with my SAT. I am still worried about the credits and classes that you need in order to getting in college.</p>
<p>I would want my degree to be in business and study in a college outside California (east coast). I can't say that the money isn't a problem, because they are, but for right now I just want to solve this problem some how.</p>
<p>Any advice?</p>
<p>Thank you for your time</p>
<p>Who said you need to graduate in one year? Take an extra year after your senior year to complete your remaining credits IF your high school will let you. And there are plenty of internationals I know who have abominable English but have managed respectable scores on the SAT - along the lines of 1700-1800.
But you know what I think you should do? Take a gap year. A gap year is a very good solution to all your problems. A little practice for the SAT/ACT can go a long way, and since you’ll have all the time in the world during your gap year, you can do just that. Moreover, if you think your academics are not that great, you could always focus on your ECs. A gap year is a perfect way to enrich them. Volunteer, maybe teach yourself a language, and most importantly, get involved.
You don’t have the required classes for college? That’s a bit of a problem. But I know some colleges (like the UCs) which allow one year to be satiated by the SAT II, which only require some amount of prepping. I think you should get a tutor for that. If not, there are still some colleges which only RECOMMEND the courses, not require them. And you must have taken some courses of math, science and english, right?
Don’t worry if your english is not great. Start reading newspapers, books and once again, someone could work with you on your vocab and fluency. Do you think all internationals (not that you are) coming to college here were always good at English? They worked really hard to achieve whatever level of fluency they have right now. Practice and dedication are really important in such cases.
Hope this helped! 
P.S.I don’t think FA is much of a problem as long as you’re an eligible non-citizen (holding a green card)</p>
<p>The thing is that I wanted to take advantage of skipping high school one year, and besides my high school doesn’t let me stay here one more year ( a friend has the some problem and they didn’t allow him to stay one more year ). About SAT, that’s my target too, somewhere around 1700-1800, my aunt says that the average is 1500 so I believe that having 1700-1800 should be good enough for a good college. I have no idea what ECs are and you lost me at SAT II. What’s the difference between regular SAT and SAT II? Last year yes, I had a little bit of each (mach, sciences) and I will have it next year too.</p>
<p>What FA is? About green card, not have it yet. I had a interview with my family and we are waiting the answer on August 16th, so if the answer is positive, probably by the end of august I will have a temporarily green card).</p>
<p>One more question: I read some articles on internet and people say that colleges outside California (especially east coast) are better. I also heard people saying that education in California is very poor and people are kinda dumb, comparison to the people on east coast. I really want to go on the east coast, what you advice me about it? Is it better or not?</p>
<p>Thank you for your time</p>
<p>SAT II is another term for SAT Subject Tests. Subject tests are like taking the SAT but focussed in one subject. They make them for almost every subject, common ones are different sciences (so bio, chem and physics) and history (they have world and us history). EC’s are extra curricular’s, they can be volunteering, leadership, board positions, clubs, sports, basically anything that you are not doing in school. California like any state has a mix of schools, some are amazing (Stanford, Pomona) and some are not so great. Personally I am choosing to look at east coast schools but that is simply because I live on the East coast. There are more top tier schools on the East Coast (ivies, baby ivies and just overall very competitive schools), but beyond that I don’t think there is much of a difference.</p>
<p>Do I have to take the SAT II too? I haven’t seen anything about SAT II on collegeboard.org.
Thank you for your time.</p>
<p>Some schools require them, some don’t. Personally I am choosing not to take them, that being said it is a good idea if something else is low to help compensate.</p>