<p>I've used both the built-in search function and the google search, but I couldn't find any information as to how being in an international school helps in the college admission process. </p>
<p>My counselor who's leaving next year (thank god) said that she doesn't really know, and that she heard that being in an international school (eg. Taipei American School or Jakarta International School) would place my application in a separate and smaller pool, which increases my chances of admission.</p>
<p>If what my counselor said was true, then would double legacy (parents both graduated from Yale) plus the fact that I graduated from an international school increase my chance a lot for admission to Yale?</p>
<p>Thanks,
CC is the best resource for me :), as my college counselors are meh.</p>
<p>I don’t think students from international schools are put into any special pile - at least not the US students. But I do think there is a slight advantage in that the experiences students have from living overseas are considered positively. The students I know who graduated this year who either are living or have lived overseas said their experience living internationally was something that was commented upon by almost every school they were seriously considering.</p>
<p>Just adding, I think that there are some international schools (JIS in Jakarta, CAC in Cairo, AAS in Moscow, etc) that are more well-known than others and that may have a positive effect. But in any case - you still need to have done well and to have taken the most challenging courses (AP or IB) available.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the detailed reply!
So basically, graduating from an international school just puts me in the same pile as everyone else…
haha I thought I had some kinda “geographic advantage”.
Anyway, your reply is greatly appreciated :)</p>
<p>Schools like Yale have reps for each region or state. Applicants usually need to pass through the regional rep before being looked at by the adcom. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a rep for overseas students. Criteria for admitting those students would be the same as for American students. Yale may want to admit 50 students from that pool, but there maybe 500 applicants, so admit rate wouldn’t necessary change. Your double legacy status may help you, you may get lucky that fewer overseas applicants apply your year, but I don’t think Yale would necessary lower its standard in order to admit more international school students.</p>
<p>My brother’s kids went to a well known international school in HKG. We looked at number of students admitted to top tier US schools, not very different than American schools. Many of those students were admitted to those schools as legacies, but they also had very good stats. </p>
<p>My brother’s kids are now back in the US, 10th and 8th graders. They were one year behind relative to other US students in every major subject. They’ve had to be tutored and take summer courses to catch up.</p>
<p>^^
Good point about many schools having adcom rep for international schools. I forgot to mention that.</p>
<p>Interesting that your brother’s kids were behind when they returned to the US. My kids were actually ahead in most areas, not behind in any, and were light-years ahead in writing skills. Like anywhere else - it all depends on the school!</p>
<p>They were behind in terms of “track.” To take most rigorous courses offered at their current school they didn’t have required prerequisite courses. Most top HS students will have AP US History, but many international students wouldn’t necessary have taken a lot of US history at their school. The order of science courses taken could be different too. The 10th grader couldn’t take any honors this year, but will be able to next year.</p>
<p>That’s interesting. My kids didn’t have any problems like that. The common sequencing of science was off, but that wasn’t much of an issue. And both boys got credit for World History, but both had to take pre-AP World Geography (which is for freshmen).</p>
<p>My 10th grader came in and went into pre-AP Algebra II. We did move him to the regular Algebra II class due to some other issues, but he is still on the “advanced math” track. He’ll take Pre-Calc next year and then he has a few options for math his senior year (inclu AP Calc or a dual-credit class). He got credit for an Integrated Chem/Physics class and he took pre-AP Biology this year. He is not taking pre-AP Chem next year (he had a HORRIBLE experience with the Chem teacher overseas and I think it just has him really scared), but will take pre-AP Physics as a senior, and is considering AP Biology as well. He does not want to take APUSH (after watching his brother this past year), so he’ll take the regular US History class.</p>
<p>My 11th grader went right into AP English (which we later changed) and AP US History. He had lots of world history overseas, but no specific US History class. He had credit for Biology and Chemistry. Altho he had had Physics as part of his overseas curriculum, it was part of the Chem/Bio/Phys 2 year sequence, so they would only give him credit for 2 years. They offered him the option of taking AP Physics this year, but he chose to take the pre-AP Physics. He’ll take the AP Physics next year. He also went into pre-AP Calculus and will have AP Calc next year.</p>
<p>Our school was pretty good about recognizing that they kids were coming from an IB school (they were in the middle years program) and that - having done well at that school - could handle any of the pre-AP or AP classes that they wanted to take. So, the school put no limits on our choices.</p>