<p>I was wondering, and parents are probably the best source of such information, how selective are good high schools in United States?</p>
<p>And second information is, I am learning in Polish system, and I do not know how to compare my grades average and GPA.</p>
<p>Assuming that my school accepts about 8% of applicants, and I took the most demanding course in my school [it is not available, actually. I organised it for myself :). How competetive is GPA a bit above 3.8? </p>
<p>I see all the time students with 4,0; 3,96; 3,94 etc. and 3,8 looks poorely.</p>
<p>jpsi,
Colleges - at least the more selective ones - at least try to look at your grades in the context of your school. Your 3.8 is probably great - within the context of your school. What you need to find out about is the information that your school sends to colleges - see if you can obtain a copy of your schools profile. If it contains information such as you related - selectivity and so on, you are probably in good shape. If the standard profile does not contain this information, you need to talk to your GC to see if he or she will include it. </p>
<p>BTW - most HS's in the US are public - and most public take everybody. Some public schools are selective - but this is more the exception than the rule. Of course, the famous college prep schools are very competitive - I don't know if more or less so than yours.</p>
<p>Help this helps - maybe others will have more information.</p>
<p>It is public school. There is a rank of high school in Poland. My schools is somwhere in the Top 50 in the country, but 5th in capital, and most selective - students most likely choose this school. </p>
<p>Thank You for this information, Ohiomom. I am a BIT less anxious now :).</p>
<p>HIghly selective colleges who admit foreign students have some familiarity with the grading systems in some countries, though not necessarily Poland, which does not send so many students to the US. They know, however, that getting 15/20 in a French lycee is an excellent grade, although here it would be 75/100--a C (2.00) . So, as Ohio Mom posted, they look at the grade average in the context of each school (they do the same with US schools since grading systems vary wildly in the US, too).
If your grades are excellent in the context of your highly regarded school, you have a good chance.</p>
<p>OK. it is in this way:
6 is given for special achievement, 5 is for 90-100% from all tests etc, and it is reported to be american 'A', and 5,5 'A+'.</p>
<p>As You can see, I have perfect grades in some subjects. And in other...errr not that perfect. But I am working on it, and I should not have nothing worse than 4 by the end of this semester. It is quite hard to follow so many activities + learning to american college. </p>
<p>While national average grades mean is 2,76 [for public high schools], in my school it is a bit above 4,0. It can also show competetivness. BTW:</p>
<p>What will be the best way of showing value of school? I will use the mentioned data about selectivity and higher mean grades average, but what more could I tell? How it is estimated in US?</p>
<p>This is something that your Guidance Counselor should do. You need to ask your GC to spell out under what conditions grades are given (eg. 6 is special achievement, 5 is for excellent performance); ordinarily, the GC would also give a sense of how large your school is, what percentage of students receive grades of 6, 5, etc... Finally, state the ranking of your school (top 5 in Warsaw, highly selective). If some students from your school have been accepted at American colleges, it is also helpful to note that. </p>
<p>While you have a weak score in German, you have good scores in English, so that should not be of concern. I'm assuming that Polish is Polish literature; that is a bit weak, but it may not be worrisome either, since you will not be studying Polish literature. In other subjects, you seem to be doing fine, mostly As and a few A+s.</p>
<p>We have no guidance counselors. I have written everything for my headmaster, basing on Ministry of Education injunctions, and she accepted it. A+ is not a 6.
Six is for olympiades, competitions, researches, other beyond programme.</p>
<p>Thank You, it helps. I am intensively thinking how to put much emphasis on competetivness of school. 3 is average in my profile [Special Physics and mathematics]</p>
<p>I am the first that tries to attend american college :/.
I would like rather that the colleges knew my school, but I wanted to study the special physics profile, and transfer in the meantime to United Kingdom, but it is a longer story...</p>
<p>It's okay for the headmaster to fill out the information. Make sure that the value of 6 is properly explained so as to put the other scores into perspective. Highlight the importance of 6 in Physics since this is what you want to study.
The headmaster should have information about how other students are doing. While 3 is the average, it is also useful to give a sense of how many students score higher than that. For example, at my S's school, the SAT average is below the national average but that is because many more low-achieving students take it (it is not compulsory) than at other schools. The high-achieving students score above the national average and quite a few are admitted into the most selective schools. That is something worth noting on a school profile.</p>