hello,
so I’m an international student from Egypt and I haven’t been in an international school until my sophomore year( secondary school here starts with 10th grade in national educational systems) so I have a problem with my 9th grade gpa as I won’t be able to provide it. is it really that necessary even if I provide the complete transcript for all the years starting with my 10th grade?
All US colleges want a complete transcript, meaning grades 9, 10, 11, then a mid-year 12th grade report, and a final 12th grade transcript upon matriculation. If you application is missing your 9th grade transcript, your application will be considered incomplete.
You obviously went to some school in 9th grade, so you need to get your guidance counselor from 9th grade to send your 9th grade transcript to your current school, so they can include it in your “official transcript.”
The other way to go is to have your 9th grade guidance counselor send an “Official Transcript” directly to Harvard. See: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/34668-official-or-unofficial-high-school-transcripts.html
@gibby well, the problem is in 9th grade I was in a “national school” which ,in other words, has absolutely no idea about the admissions process and has no such a thing as a " guidance counselor". all I can provide is a certificate of my subjects and grades but the problem is they are of a completely different scale and they were all in Arabic. Is there absolutely no chance to make an exception given these circumstances? I mean, lots of students from my school who share my same condition went to us colleges, but all of them didn’t apply for top tier schools, their schools made them exceptions, I wonder if that’s not the case with ivy league.
It’s not a problem, as Harvard admits a few students every year from your country so they deal with this issue all the time. You should have the principal of your old school send an un-translated certificate of your subjects and grades to Harvard Admissions. Harvard has professors teaching arabic who will translate the document, and as Admissions deals with this issue all the time, they should understand the grading scale of your old national school. Make sure your principal includes your name and date of birth with the certificate.
@gibby is correct that you will need to provide your 9th grade transcript and that the Harvard admissions officers are well versed on the grading scales of various countries.
However you might want to check with Harvard if they will accept documents without translation; most schools will not. I can’t find anything specifically for Harvard College, but Harvard Business School requires the transcript to be translated, as does Yale College.
@gibby @skieurope First of all thanks alot.I will send the document and the translation part won’t be a problem.but I’m wondering, should I submit my current application and wait until they email me asking for the missing document or can I submit the document in a separate file along with my transcript?
^^ Send the transcript BEFORE they ask for it, as it will just save you the time and trouble of doing it at the last minute. You’ll have to send it separately by post.