So I completed my IGCSE exams may 2017, got 6 A*(math b , further pure maths,bio, human bio, chem , physics) , 1 A (Bengali) , 1B (English language b). Moved to USA at the end of December 2017 and planning to start school on Jan. I’m really paranoid right now and would appreciate a lot if someone could answer my questions
(1) If I enroll myself into mid of 11th grade , will I be able to graduate high school by getting enough credits? I’m willing to do extra classes if that’s an option of course
(2) if I enroll myself into mid of grade 10 , I’ll be 21 years old on April of 12th grade (2020). So will my school kick me out for being too old or let me graduate with my high school diploma?
(3) what would you people recommend?
I would STRONGLY recommend you register as a 10th grader since entering school mid 11th grade would SEVERELY impact your college prospects.
In addition, you have to make it very clear that all the IGSEs are honors classes and that you already completed precalculus honors, that the IGCSE scale is NOT the s scale in that marks go to G and U, so a B is equivalent to a US A-, a C is a B, an E is the lowest passing grade, F and G are two further grades below an E and a U is an F. Have the in writing by a parent and bring it to your gc when you register for classes. Depending on where e you are, the gc may be well aware of all this or know nothing at all.
Due to your age however your school may place you in 11th grade, in which case you’re already behind for college purpose 
Missing a full semester if classes will be a problem. What have you been doing during the Fall?
Thanks for the reply , much appreciated. I’ve been studying for my AS exams the whole fall, the decision to move here was pretty sudden . So if I enroll myself into 10th grade , will age be a problem ? Are there any age restrictions?
Are you planning to attend a public or private high school? Have you met with the guidance counselor yet? Mind telling us which state you are heading to?
There’s a few competing considerations here.
- Public high schools usually have an age limit set by law, beyond which taxpayers won't pay for someone's education. You may have to be 18 or younger at the beginning of the school year to qualify for attendance. (The cut-odds vary by state.)
- You need enough time to finish the graduation requirements. This will partly depend on how many credits your high school grants you for your prior coursework in the core subjects (particularly English). And partly on how many specific courses the state requires that you have not yet taken. (There'll probably be a few, like US history, civics, health...) It complicates things that you are starting mid-year. It means that any requirement that's a full-year course will have to be postponed to next year.
- You don't want to stay so long that you'll run out of courses to take. For example, most high schools would offer you at most 1.5 more years of math (AP calculus and AP statistics) on top of the content you have already learned for your IGCSE.
If I did the math correctly, you are either 18 or 19 right now. American high school students typically finish school at age 18. Based on your age alone, I would guess that most public high schools would either place you as advanced as possible, or possibly even refer you to an adult program that leads to a GED.
ELL (English language learners) can typically stay till age 20-21 so they can ass state tests and demonstrate English proficiency but it depends on the state and if you’re classified ELL or not (diem districts classify if the majority of your schooling was in another language than English, others will have you take a proficiency test…)
Do you have a transcript for your AS classes? Which subjects?
Guessing they’re only 3-4 which means you may jump straight into, say, AP calculus but you’ll have semester deficiencies in English and other subjects.
^ @barium
Planning to attend a public high school in NYC (William Cullen Bryant , I so don’t wanna go to this place)
Currently I’m 18 , gonna be 19 this April.Do you know the exact age limit? In most sites I’ve heard it’s 21 years and in case I do hit 21 before the year ends , they’re gonna let me finish the year I turned 21 .
Assuming I get into 11th grade, can I get enough credits to graduate? By finishing 2 year course in 1.5 years if that’s an option . Is that an option?
You’ll have to take summer classes - try to take classes through CollegeNow! ( a program that lets you take college-paced classes to strengthen your profile).
What AS levels have you studied?
William Cullen Bryant is actually a pretty good school in some respects (connotes you as lower income in an underserved community which is important for private colleges and EOP/HEOP, easier to reach the top and stand out) - they have a STEM program with math/science research opportunities- based on your A*'s, it 'd be right up your alley, right? Sure you DO NOT want to be in “regular” math classes, where fewer than 10% meet State standards, but it means your IGCSE and Alevel preparation qualifies you for AP (if not automatically, insist - BRING YOUR SYLLABI to the GC, offer to have them reviewed by the relevant STEM teachers.)
If you tell us what AS levels you prepared we may be able to help with class selection. Have you seen the class catalog?
Join all the college-readiness groups like GEAR-UP; there’s also an office dedicated to helping students get to college, go there ASAP.
https://www.stjohns.edu/academics/academic-resources/gear-program
http://www.wcbryanths.org/college_office
Look for the GLOBAL Kids people.
You want to join the Math&Science Community. Show your IGCSE results to prove you deserve to join. Don’t join the “Newcomers” group - your English is good enough for a fully integrated schedule (argue you attended a British-type school, hence, in English, and took English B, ie., equivalent to Honors English Language and Literature, not “ESL”.)
You will also be allowed to enroll at La GUardia Community College. Since you’re arriving midyear and CC’s work on the semester, it may actually be the best option for you. This is something to bring up right away. This way you don’t have to jump into AP classes in the middle of the year (many AS classes will be similar in rigor to AP classes but may not cover the exact same material).
These are your basic graduation requirements. Remember that in the US meeting basic requirements is not sufficient to qualify for college. Exams are at the end of January.
http://schools.nyc.gov/RulesPolicies/GraduationRequirements/default.htm
This may be useful for your parents???
http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/69E486AF-3650-479E-90AB-F29E96E63FDC/0/GraduationCard_Urdu.pdf
You’re going to need:
Health& Physical Education
American History => see if you can take that at the CC since you can’t easily jump into APUSH. If not, see if they offer Honors US History. DO NOT take “regular US History” as it won’t prepare you for college due to the academic level in “regular” classes (ie., leading to remedial eduation in CUNY/SUNY…)
For the rest, it’ll depend on what AS you’re preparing.
http://www1.nyc.gov/nyc-resources/service/2296/public-school-eligibility
“Anyone who is between the ages of 5 and 21 on December 31 of the current school year, and who has not received a high school diploma, can attend a public school for free. “
So at least up to age 21, and up to age 22 1/2, depending on the student’s birthday.
So let’s say I turn 21 on the April of my 12th grade (like 2 or 3 months before my high school ends) , will I get high school diploma?
If you turn 21 in April, you would be 20 on December 31st of the school year (which runs from September through June), so you should be in the clear.
Have you contacted the local public high school in NYC that you’re considering enrolling in? They can tell you for sure.
Thanks for the replies guys , shaking a little less now. Gonna go to school this Monday
@IsoWannaCry, maybe I’m missing something here, but why do you think you need to enroll in high school at age 18? Why not apply to some of the 4-year CUNY colleges with your GCE O-Level results? Also, when I did O-Levels, the typical age was 16, not 18 (the age most students sit for their A-Levels). Years ago you could get into CUNY 4-year colleges with X number of O’level passes. Is this no longer the case. OP, have you taken the SAT/ACT?
IMHO, you are wasting your time enrolling in high school at your age, especially if you can get into one of the CUNY 4-year or 2-year community colleges in NYC.
Op won’t be considered instate and most universities require ALevels (some may accept IGCSEs but few of those provide financial aid.) Graduating form a NY high school would qualify him/her for Excelsior (free tuition) or a STEM scholarship at a SUNY, and would allow him/her to apply to 100% need colleges.
Generally speaking, IGCSEs are considered the equivalent of 10th grade, A Levels the completion of high school, even if their respective academic level is more advanced in content.
@sybbie719 is a NYC public school expert. Send her a PM about this today.
It is most probable that you will not be able to choose the grade to enroll yourself into. That will be determined by the school district’s policy. They will evaluate your records so far, and will decide where to place you.
If school is not closed tomorrow because of weather, you should get yourself and your paperwork over to the high school you plan to attend, and get the admission process started.
Ok so about my age , started school late and the country I live in (Bangladesh) made me do like 4 years of classes before grade 1. Some of my friends are like 19 or even 20 now.
And @Jamrock411 I want to go to a good college, if it means being older than the norm, I’ll gladly be the old guy in the classroom
You belong to the cohort in which you started 9th grade anywhere in the world.
You will be placed in a grade (9th , 10th, 11th, 12th grade) based on the number of credits you have accumulated.
Apparently Op has already been to the office of enrollment at the Family Welcome Center, because they are the only people who can assign a student to a school. If OP has a disposition letter from the Welcome Center/Office of Enrollment s/he already knows what grade they placed him/her in. If not OP needs to go to the family welcome center in Queens to get placed in a high school. Since most of queens is zoned, Op will most likely attend zoned high school.
You are initially placed in a grade by the enrollment office based on what you tell them. Your permanent grade placement is based upon the review of your transcript by your school’s guidance counselor, principal or Ap guidance (most likely the GC/AP guidance since they are most up to date on the academic policy and graduation requirements)
If you are currently 18 years old, you will probably be over-aged, under credited and off track to graduate with your cohort. This could be problematic as a school may view you as dragging their graduation rate (graduation rate is everything at the NYC DOE).
Op needs to get out of his/her feelings about where s/he wants or does not want to attend and use the short amount of time left to complete the graduation requirements for a diploma.
You have the right to complete high school through the NYC Department of Education (this includes, YABC, transfer schools, GED until you are 21). Since your will be 19 in April, you have until June 30, 2020 to complete high school. If you need summer school to graduate, then you can stay for summer.
There are 9 days left to Term 1 (fall semester) as Regents week begins on January 22. You will not be able to pick up any credits for the fall term because you are a late entry. However, you must register for school. Not attending can be cause for your school to start the planning interview process to have you discharged as a Code 39 (drop-pout).
I would recommend going to school tomorrow, seeing what regents you can take this January in order to fulfill the testing requirements for graduation.
Since Math is universal, and you state that you are good at it, I would try to sit for the Common Core Algebra and Common Core Geometry if you know the content. Try to score high enough to be college ready or you will have to do a retake
IF you are proficient in English, I would also recommend sitting for the CC ELA regents. Again, try to score high enough to be college ready. This way if you do start college at CUNY, you will not need remedial classes (that are only given at the community college level)
Bryant is a large school, I am sure that they are running regents prep after school or they have regents prep as part of their programming for day high school. Minimally, your GC should program you for regents prep sections of Algebra, Geometry and English. Even if you are not getting credit this term, it should help you with the regents.
Op will not be eligible for College Now at this time because he needs regents scores (achieving College readiness in ELA and math) and a GPA. Op will not have a GPA. When his/her transcript is updated, Op will simply receive grades of CR or NC.
The GC’s at Bryant will know how to evaluate Op’s foreign transcripts and will place him accordingly based on seating availability.
If OP comes from a country where the primary language is not English and his first language is not English, s/he will definitely be tested for ENL services (it is no longer called ESL). The upside to this is that since OP is coming to school in the US for the first time and if s/he is coming from a country where english is not primary language and not his first language, s/he will have the opportunity to get up to 10 credits in foreign language (this will fulfill his foreign language requirement as well as provide the elective credits needed for graduation, freeing up his/her schedule to take core credits for graduation.
If Op is starting high school as a first time 11th grade student, s/he will be able to have the global regents waived if s/he passes the US history regents. However, Op will still need 4 credits of Global in order to graduate.
Wrong!!! taking this class (which he will not be eligible for because he will not be able to do college now in the spring as those decisions were made in November), will not prepare him for the US history regents, which s/he will need to fulfill the graduation requirement. Op will also need HUS 21/22 or AP US to fulfill the graduation requirement. GC quill probably register op fou HUS 22 for the spring term. Op will take regents in June and take HUS 21 in summer school and retake the regents in August if he does not pass the June regents.
Please be reminded that Op will not be eligible for EOP/HEOP or any state federal aid unless s/he is a US citizen/permanent resident.
Op will still have to take 1200 minutes of labs in order to sit for the science regents . If starting as a 12th grade student, the living environment regents will be waived, but Op will still need to meet the graduation requirement.