<p>no i got to the american international school, and yes its the IB Diploma and after asking, my predicted grade is a 40/45.</p>
<p>And once again yes, my school assigns letter grades per quarter, I went and asked my teachers for my predicted scores though. </p>
<p>Its not that im insanely stupid or something, well i least i think not. I took AP MicroEcon and AP Calc and got 5’s. Its just that my school grades the IB kids specifically really really tough and when I asked my consuelor if I have to send my GPA she said yes, even though the colleges im applying to said that it wasnt necessary. </p>
<p>I will try to argue it out over the coming year, and thank you all so much for your help thus far</p>
<p>To be truthful, the chances of you getting into those schools are pretty low because international admission to Ivys are very hard and most students have much high GPAs with better scores and ECs. Just a thought.</p>
<p>im a US citizen and so im not considered a intl student at some schools and the % of kids that get a 40/45 or higher is less than 1% of all ib students, so im in the top 2000 IB kids world wide which I dont consider to be that bad.</p>
<p>as long as you do good essays, have good tech recs, add a few more safeties with middle 50% sat score of around 1,900-2050, and keep up with 40-point ib score, you should be doing fine. i really suggest that you consider adding cornell for a somewhat high reach. dartmouth, upenn and u chicago are quite hard, much harder on your list anyways. out of these 3, maybe you can get one, of course with a little bit of luck.</p>
<p>it all really boils down to how you can tie all your stats and figures, ecs, passion, essays, in your application that makes you stand out. all ingridients you have are pretty good. you really should improve your gpas, though. can you just submit your ib score which to me sounds much more impressive than your gpa.</p>
<p>Just an update, the schools i posted were only my reaches, a few of which may be deleted. My safety schools are the University of Florida, Syracuse, University of Miami and George Washington U, oh and edinburgh in england, an incredible school that has low acceptance requirements IB 32 or something</p>
<p>microblaster: i think you also have a shot at imperial which requires 30 ib score if you’re interested in engineering. ucl, warwick and bristol are worth considering too, all pretty much within reach.</p>
<p>sorry let me correct the figures. as for computer engineering, ib score required for oxbridge is 38-42, oxford 38 plus, imperial 38, ucl 34, edinburgh 30, bristol 34 and warwick 36. these were the figures for entering class '08. you may double check at their websites.</p>
<p>microblaster, I don’t understand how you can take the IB diploma and still have a GPA?</p>
<p>I take the IB Diploma but I don’t have a GPA, just IB grades every term and a set of predicted grades that I never see. </p>
<p>And I disagree with Hunt that US schools will not look at predicted grades for admission. I only had predicted grades and SAT scores when I applied this year and I’m pretty sure my predicted grades and high school transcript were used to determine academic record. I applied to two schools on your list and got into both and I’m estimating I have about a 39/42 predicted w/o bonus pts.</p>
<p>uphillbattle, that’s what i was wondering too. normally taking a full 2-yr ib program is time consuming. you’re given quizzes, mock tests from time to time to check progress and for instructers to predict your grades before you have the final comprehensive tests in may. that’s why students are only given predicted grades unofficially and school sends predicted grades direct to colleges together with other stuffs.</p>
<p>some american system schools overseas have gpa/ap/honors program but also give students an ib individual courses as an option, but not the full program, which means students get individual grade (5-6-7 or whatever) for each course taken but no tok, cas, comprehensive paper/research project and so on. that is usually the case but it could be different elsewhere that i’m not aware of.</p>
<p>Yup exactly dconcerned, i think it really depends on the school/program you come from. </p>
<p>I think the IB predicted grades are given more value if you come from a school where the record has shown that predicted grades do match up pretty closely with final IB grades and that the “predicteds” can therefore be trusted as what the student will get in the exams (w/o bonus pts of course as those are nearly impossible to predict). </p>
<p>If you take the full IB diploma program like i have, with TOK, CAS, Extended Essays, World Literature etc. i’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as a GPA. Predicted grades would be used in most cases as most people do the exams in May. I’m guessing if a school takes the November paper (as they run a January-November school year), though, that results would be out in time to be considered in that US school year’s application cycle instead of predicted grades.</p>
<p>I also found that UK schools tend to look a lot more at academics than other aspects compared to the US, where the entire package is taken into consideration. For example, 3 kids from my school this year got into Cambridge (1 for cambridge med) and 2 out of them had perfect 42/42 predicted (and will probably go on to get 45’s in the exams). Interviews also tend to be a bit more strange. One of my friends applied to Oxford for economics and was actually tested on his economics knowledge throughout the interview instead of the more relaxed question and answer style interviews in the US app process which aim to find out more about the person. Another Cambridge engineering applicant was asked, as soon as he entered the interview room, how he would find out the volume of Oxygen in the room using no tools or measurement devices whatsoever.</p>
<p>microblaster, i think we’d all appreciate it if you could enlighten us on your school’s program and how they measure GPA and IB scores etc. What kind of system is it and how you can have a 3.14 GPA with a 40 IB score.</p>
<p>“If you take the full IB diploma program like i have, with TOK, CAS, Extended Essays, World Literature etc. i’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as a GPA.”</p>
<p>I can’t speak for the OP, but I can tell you how it is for many IB programs in the US, including the one my son is in. While it’s a full IB diploma program with CAS, TOK, EE, etc., they still receive regular letter grades in each class, including all the IB classes. They also take the IB exams. So, they have a GPA which is averaged over all of their classes (all will have at least some non-IB classes as well, such as band). At my son’s school, IB classes are weighted for GPA purposes the same as AP or honors courses. Thus, colleges will get a transcript that looks like a typical American high school transcript, with letter grades for each course for each semester, and showing weighted and unweighted GPAs. I think that IF a school produces grades like this, a college in the US is much more likely to focus on those grades than on the somewhat speculative predicted IB score. Obviously, if there are no such grades, the colleges will look at what you do have.
I should add that in this system it’s easy to see how one could have a 3.14 GPA but have a high IB score.</p>
<p>thks a lot, hunt & uphillbattle, for your input. i learned something new today. so in the us, some schools offering ib full diploma program still give grades to individual courses. that should make it easier for colleges to consider/compare. but we must remember that ib full diploma program in essence emphasizes the scope, depth and analysis of not only each and every individual subjects (3 HLs and 3 SLs) but also how they’re all related to one another and that should reflect in the courseworks of tok, ees, cas etc. in ib philosophy with which i totally agree, by giving grades to each/individual subject defeats the purpose of ib full program. also students taking ib in their first year are likely to not be given the full academic scope/strength of the whole 2-yr program yet. is that why grades (gpas) are somewhat deflated? i mean if you compare predicted grades of 40/45 (more or less A plus) as opposed to
3.14 gpa which is just B something.</p>
<p>“is that why grades (gpas) are somewhat deflated?”</p>
<p>For my son, the difference is in what generates the grades. His IB score will be generated primarily by the IB exam, and by some specific assessments, but his letter grade is generated by tests, quizzes, and homework over the course of the semester. So. for example, he’s taking the IB SL math test today and tomorrow, but the “IB” course he’s actually taking is essentially AP Calculus BC (he’s also taking the AP test today!). The IB exam covers mainly precalc material, which he had last year. So there may be some connection between his IB score, his AP score, and his class grades, but it’s very easy to imagine that he might get a high score on the standardized tests but get a B on his transcript for the semester. Similarly, his semester grade in French will depend entirely on grades given by his teacher, while his IB score will depend on more standardized assessments. Thus, for example, if a student simply fails to hand in a few homework assignments, he could get a B on his transcript, while still doing very well in his IB scores.</p>
<p>ok the reason for the low GPA is because when i graduate, I would have taken more than 30 credits whilst only needing 24 to graduate, this kind of confroms to taking 5 years in high school in 4 years, in addition in IB we get our predicted’s based upon HLs: a 75-80 and up are 7s (our school only gives ib specific papers, for example all of our essay topics in english are manipulated exam questions along with all other subjects.) for SLs: its like a 80-85 and up, so therefore im getting 7s in econ and 6’s in everything else. And my EE was scored by some teachers who siad it was excellent</p>
<p>What I am thinking is that you are applying to ivies so that if you do get accepted and enroll you can say you went there. In other words, you want to go to Dartmouth so you can say you went to Dartmouth. This isn’t aimed specifically at you, but I get the impression that many people choose their colleges based on prestige instead of what is really best for them. My sister went to USC even though she was the most outstanding student I have ever seen and could definitely get accepted at an ivy league…your education is more important than the name of the school you go to.</p>