<p>I know it's pretty late in the year to be asking questions about the common app, but I am extremely confused, getting different answers to my question everywhere I've asked. Answers to these questions will be greatly appreciated...</p>
<p>1.) What is the difference between secondary school, mid year and final year reports? (Are they reports about classes 10,11 and 12 respectively or only about class 12)</p>
<p>2.)In the secondary school report the part where you are asked to fill in the current year courses, since in the Indian school system we don't have courses, as such, are we just supposed to write the subjects we have taken? Also what is credit value?</p>
<p>3.)In the background information part of the SSR do we have to fill in the highest GPA in the class? because we don't use a four point GPA system here. Also What are 2 and 4 year institutions in the part where we have to write the percentage of the students immediately attending? Does this percentage have to be very accurate?</p>
<p>4.)I have been told that I can submit scanned, attested copies of my school report card as transcripts, Is this true, or do I have to take out transcripts separately ? Similarly Should I send my ICSE Mark sheet or do I mention the marks in a transcript? </p>
<p>5.)Can my class Teacher act as my secondary school counselor since my school doesn't have an official counselor? How is the counselor's recommendation different from other teacher recommendations?</p>
<p>6.) Does the teacher's email id have to be an official email id of the school's for that teacher or will gmail,hotmail etc. also work?(our teachers don't have any such official email ids)</p>
<p>Answers to these questions will be highly,highly appreciated. I know I'm late but the answers to these questions are all that remains from finishing my applications. Please Help.</p>
<p>—>Secondary school report consists of your courses and grades from Class 9 to Class 11.
—>Mid Year report is the transcript of your 12th marks, whatever is available. If your school does not host mid-term exams or if you are a gap year student, you can leave this part blank.
—> Final year report is after you get your 12th finals marks. </p>
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<p>Yes, list the subjects you have taken. Credit value - I have no idea. </p>
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<p>Yes, fill in the highest GPA in your class. You can fill in the GPA on any scale. As for your doubt regarding 2 year and 4 year institutions, well, I daresay everyone in your school goes to a 4 year institution after school. It doesn’t need to be “very accurate”, but then, as I said, it most likely is going to be 100%.</p>
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<p>Your counselor can scan and upload your report cards as they are; it doesn’t need to be attested either, as far as I know. </p>
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<p>Your school principal can act as a counselor. If he/she declines, then yes your class teacher or any other school official can. The counselor’s recommendation is different because it includes your transcripts, school profile and class rank, apart from the letter of recommendation. </p>
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<p>If your teachers do not have official IDs, then personal IDs are acceptable. But remember that if you use personal IDs, then there might be some doubt in the minds of the admissions officers with regards to authenticity; I’d suggest that in this case, get everything your teachers upload signed by them, especially the counselor recommendation part.</p>
<p>^I sent a few mails wrt to credit value and it seems that they have international admissions experts in their committee, who knows the kind of system followed in different countries… They would probably know that we have one joint curriculum which is very,very rigorous. But ,I guess you could ask your counselor to mention it once on the school profile…</p>
<p>I begged all my teachers to mention it at least once that we dont report GPA, credits, etc… </p>
<p>This personal id thingy… I am getting scared ya, my teachers used all personal ids… if they have a doubt they could always call and ask right??</p>
<p>Thank u for taking out time to answer my questions. Just a query, if the Secondary School Report is supposed to be 9,10,and 11 what about the rank and highest class Gpa Asked for in Background Information. There cannot be one rank and one highest class Gpa for all 3 years. Also do you have to submit the email address or can you jst submit the teachers phone number? The Background Information part of the mid and final year reports say that it has to be filled in if there are any changes from the SSR, If they are for different classes Then obviously the class rank and GPA would have changed and hence that line would make no sense???</p>
<p>the rank would indicate that of the most recent class, as far as I know… </p>
<p>you will have to give the email address, since that is where your invite to a particular teacher will go , if u are submitting online… offline dosen’t necessarily need an email id…</p>
<p>The secondary school report is filled in by the counselor, and mine was done by mine… I have no idea, apparently she had no problem…so I dont really know!</p>
<p>^ same here. I gave my princi the forms and thought that he wud ask me abt the filing of the form (since no from around here applies to US colleges). I go to school next day and see all the envelopes sealed and stamped ready to be mailed… No idea how the counsellor filled them …</p>
<p>Though he didn’t send the school profile … We had to make 6 enveloped again for the school profile …</p>
<p>Generally counselors use the 10th and 11th class details to fill in such information. But again, very few schools in India actually give exact rankings. More likely your counselor will use the deciles system, i.e. top 10% or top 20%. Chances that your rough standing in your class changing drastically from 9th to 11th (even if you changed schools) are very low. So there is no need for a specific rank over 3 years. </p>
<p>As for your GPA, again, the highest marks obtained by a student in your class in 11th grade is the most appropriate measure used by your counselor. </p>
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<p>Phone calls are rare for international applicants to check out such small details. They only do it if they are highly suspicious of an applicant, and rarely do they waste time and energy on verifying an email ID. However, they can generally make out a recommendation’s authenticity by its tone and content. I think overall, no one would bother you or your school if your teachers actually wrote your recommendations. </p>
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<p>Submit both, regardless of whether your teachers are submitting the school forms online or offline. </p>
<p>^ Phone calls are not rare at all… In my experience, of what I’ve gathered, if they think you’re a borderline case, then they are mostly likely to call up that teacher… I am worried about authenticity, but if they’ve used the same sort of stuff to describe me?( cant trust them, don’t know what might be popping into their head at that moment!)</p>
<p>I did it through my class teacher, because my principal cant handle online stuff whereas my class teacher… she’s very tech savvy…did it in 6 hours!!
I am sure there cant have been authenticity issues with mine, otherwise cornell would have rejected me straight out… but I am a bit worried, it quite possible that they might have said the same stuff about me…they could have even sat together and wriitn my reco… My school, I tell you!</p>
<p>^ Absolutely, my teachers might have written the same thing…see, they are all pretty thick with each other, and honestly 2 of my recommmenders are bone-lazy…my counselor is fab though, she is the one who has given me an amazing reco, I’m sure, </p>
<p>but something tells me…she only might have written the other two… I jsut hope that didnt cause my deferral… it might have seemed like I wrote one and replicated them for the others( If I was doing it myself, I would have taken pains to make sure they were different…duh!)</p>
<p>…fingers xxx!!!..</p>
<p>A borderline case… one who’s standing in the no-man’s land between acceptance and rejection!</p>
<p>^If your teachers indeed wrote similar recommendation letters, then there’s no worry about authenticity. As you pointed out, a student who fakes his letters obviously will not write them similar (even a complete idiot would not do that), so it’s a good thing if your letters are similar; they’ll believe you, at least, although in that case the negative impact would be worse, since that would lead colleges to believe that you’re not worth spending time on.</p>
<p>Smart? I think no one would take such a chance and be black-listed by the universities if they smell a rat… I said this cause I know my school, my teachers and their lackadiasical attitude!</p>