Hi!
I am an international Student from Pakistan… And I was a good student in my (pathetic) local education system where they force you to memorize sentences and never try to explain anything.
I was a topper - Like I seriously received the award for Highest percentage score in exams for all years in a school of more than 600 students, I never lost a single mark on exams, I was so obedient and my teachers treated me like a daughter or sister. Until I decided that I need learning and not just Awards and I made the most dreadful decision a 13 year old girl from a 3rd world country could make. I decided to jump into the CIE- Cambridge International Examination board, Its an alternative to local education system which is an older version of current GCSEs prevalent in UK, so its really awesome and educative and actually teaches you something, but in my country its a posh system reserved for posh kids.
What I did, having studied in a trust school for my entire middle school life - I decided to pursue home-schooling as I financed my studies through some meagerly rewarding Freelancing projects.. I could only earn enough to pay for exam registration so this is what I did.
Now due to some whirling family situations, where my mother married a US man who has called us there - means I got to apply to US universities and I have no idea how my foreign education will affect the process.
Fore mostly, I need teacher recommendations as one of the first steps beside SAT and while I can have my Aunt, who has been one of my education supervisor and one of my employers give two of them. But I want my former Principal to write one yet how am I supposed to provide it to Colleges…
Remember, its a third world country we are talking about - I don’t think she is aware of emailing systems - I don’t know if I can pay for her to post her Recs from Pakistan to US…Are posted Recs even accpetable? I have nothing right now. .
Someone please please help me through this…
No one can answer your questions. You need to contact individual universities’ admissions offices and ask them how to proceed. Homeschoolers in the US have to comply with their state’s laws. Applying to a university in a different state with different laws can cause confusion and require clarification about how compliance with laws were met.
Your situation is complicated. How and if any university will use the paperwork you have to offer is really up to the individual universities.
@AreebaKausar1
Have you fully completed your secondary education?
If you have fully completed the CIE exam series and you have your final scores, you need to contact the international admissions offices and ask them what they need from you. Some will not need anything other than your exam scores.
Will you have passed your 18th birthday before you arrive in the US?
If you will not have passed your 18th birthday before classes begin in the public high school where you will be living in the US, your very best option may be to enroll there. The guidance office will convert your Pakistani school records and your CIE results into course equivalents, and you will be able to study in that high school until you have fulfilled the local graduation requirements, or until the end of the school year in which you turn 21. Assuming that you do graduate in a year or so, you will have local recommendations that you can provide.
And yes, of course, your recommender can mail the letters of recommendation to the colleges/universities that you apply to! Don’t worry about that. They are perfectly happy to receive paper letters. Your recommender should seal her letters into an envelope, and then sign her name over the seal so that it is obvious if the letter has been tampered with. She can get advice on how to handle that by contacting the closest EducationUSA office. There are three in Pakistan: https://educationusa.state.gov/find-advising-center?field_region_target_id=&field_country_target_id=316&field_center_level_value=All