【help!】should i transfer or not?

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>i'm a student from china, studying in a IB school. i used to study in a normal chinese high school for 1 year, then i transfered to the IB school. because the IB course is different from the normal course i studyed in my first high school. after i transfered to the ib school, i studyed in grade 10. that means i have already waste one year.</p>

<p>now i'm going to be a junior student in the ib high school. but i find that this school is not the best school for me. in the ib school, i have much more free time than before.but i can't manage my time well. i wasted a lot of time in my first year in ib school. and i think if i keep studying there, i'll waste more time. </p>

<p>and, although all the courses except chinese are taught in english by foreign teacher. i got a really low score in my first time toefl test. (toefl is a kind of language test.) toefl test has 4 parts, including reading, listening, speaking, writing. the total score for each part is 30. i got 20/30 for reading, 15/30 for listening, 19/30 for speaking, 24/30 for writing. my total score is 78/120. top50 america university&college require 100+ for toefl. 78! this is a terrible score for me! my eglish is the top3 in class. but i got 78 in my toefl test! my ex-boyfriend got 90+ in his first time toefl test just because he has been to america for one year! and after i told him i got 78, he and his friends laughed at me for the whole semester!</p>

<p>i talked to my father about my thought. he didn't agree with me. because i got very good score at ib school. i study chinese, english, mathematics, physics, chemistry, economics. ib system has ranks for our score, from7 to 1. 7 means your total score is 90+.6 means 80+, and so on. and all my subject score is 7 except my chinese(i got 6, because i was sick on the chinese exam day.)</p>

<p>my dad thinks if i go to american high school for grade11 and 12. i have to spend a lot of time fitting the new life there. and obviously i can't get high GPA for at least one semester. gpa is really an important thing for university application.</p>

<p>and it's too late now to apply, my dad thinks those good high schools won't accept my application.</p>

<p>but then he said if i can find a good school, he will pay for me. i'm not sure whether he is serious or not.</p>

<p>i could not make my decision. so i came here for some suggestions.
thanks a lot!
~~~^_________^~~~</p>

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<p>I don’t think that if you came to an American high school, your GPA will be low for a semester, just because it’s a new country. You can do really well here if you put your mind to it, then again - it depends on how well you handle your new life.</p>

<p>That being said, why don’t you keep practicing your English and write the TOEFL test again?!!</p>

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<p>Some general info about transferring
[Q</a> & A: Transferring to another university | So You Want To Be Homesick](<a href=“http://wannabehomesick.blogspot.com/2010/06/q-transferring-to-another-university.html]Q”>http://wannabehomesick.blogspot.com/2010/06/q-transferring-to-another-university.html)</p>

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<p>It’s really dangerous because you’re basically committing to missing out on gao kao with no guarantee that your English would improve to a point where you can get into a decent university. Remember: correlation isn’t causation, and your ex’s 90 on his TOEFL might not have anything to do with him spending that year in the US at all. I know so many kids who came to the States during high school and simply couldn’t fit in. The cultural gap is huge and if you surround yourself with Chinese speakers, your English won’t improve, but if you isolate yourself from the Chinese community you might end up very lonely and homesick.</p>

<p>Also, are you talking about going to a private high school in the US? Public schools are assigned by school districts, kind of like in China (mostly dependent on where you live). Good private schools have standards as high if not higher than a lot of universities. As much as I hate the whole concept of tutoring, you might just want to stay in China and hire a tutor and study TOEFL until you can get a decent score. It’s ultimately a test that tests how well you take tests. I know tons of Chinese kids who do great on the TOEFL and come to the States and are basically dumbfounded at how English is really used everyday. It’s not even something your foreign teachers can convey. </p>

<p>I’m Chinese but I grew up in the States and got my BAs here before I sold real estate in Suzhou for the last six months, spending most of my time after work with expat teachers and tutors. A lot of them are under the impression that Chinese students focus so much on studying for the TOEFL that they basically… forget to learn English. Figure out what you really want to study and what you really want in life (NOT what your parents want, I’m Asian too and I know how that works out). Come to the States if you want to get a head start on integrating into American society, don’t come here because you might have a better shot at getting a higher TOEFL score, because it’s a test, not your US citizenship interview.</p>