<p>I'm an International student studying in Australia and I'm planning to apply to US colleges for the fall of 2010.</p>
<p>I have pretty decent ECs (mostly leadership/ community; others include piano & guitar), and Straight As in freshman & sophomore classes (i'm pretty sure I chose the hardest courses available) - top 5% - 10% in a 300 class - until this year. </p>
<p>I and another 20 kids are the first guinea pigs to do the IB course at our school. I'm now in my junior year: this is the first year of the IB course- there are still so many experimental things and these have incredibly affected my GPAs :(</p>
<ul>
<li>although what we learn is accumulative, the assessment & grading criteria used are past papers, ones that are supposed to be used after 2 years of learning. </li>
<li>they also tried to translate the GPA to the main system of my state in Aus. which is a very strange decision, since the IB and the other course dont hav the same criteria at all.</li>
</ul>
<p>My courses at the moment
Maths HL
Chemistry HL
Biology HL
English SL
Economics SL
German Ab nitio</p>
<p>And so I'm pretty screwed really, my current GPA is around B-/C+</p>
<p>I will take the November exam for the IB. I'm aiming to get at least 40 for IB. As the November result comes out at around January, colleges will have my solid score by then. </p>
<p>Will that help at all or I will the admission people use my GPAs?</p>
<p>Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Which are you applying to?</p>
<p>That's the problem, cause I think I should base my list of schools according to my GPAs and such.</p>
<p>And i think I forgot to mention that my school dont weight GPA.</p>
<p>Oh, and btw, my first SAT I taken last year was M:630, V:630, W: 580 - pretty bad, and I will definitely retake it beginning next year + SAT II</p>
<p>But atm, I'm thinking of UC Davis, Grinell, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>You'll get admission based on predicted grades....final score is not something you need to worry about.</p>
<p>Impress teachers, suck up to them, do well in your internals and school exams.</p>
<p>thanks for your post, GregoryHouse - so they will just look at the predicted grades and not the GPA? I'm worried due to the sudden drop in grades this year. </p>
<p>Final score I was hoping will make a more stellar result since it will come out during admission time - but may be not a big difference then.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Agree with GregoryHouse - the main factor for IB admissions is predicted scores on IB exams. But they will also look at your school transcript, so it's important to have good grades throughout high school years. IB curriculum does not translate well to GPA, and from what I understand, colleges will not try to do it. Unless your school does and reports it on your transcript. You are taking a hard combo in HL, maths and two sciences, maybe consider dropping one to SL and replace it with English? English doesn't have much difference between SL and HL, but maths certainly does. Good luck with IB!</p>
<p>Get a 7 in Math HL and you look like a hero who's just doused a burning Rome.</p>
<p>Truly, the final score does not matter AT ALL. Only for credits, it does. But otherwise, even if you fail, most of them can't rescind your admission. </p>
<p>Predicted grades, on the other hand, are in your favour, because they don't just depend on hard work. Sucking up to teachers, constantly speaking up in class, being the 'bright spark', etc. are things that are much much more easier to do than hard work :P On the other hand, if you get 7s in all your subjects and your teachers hate you, you still get a predicted grade of 42 on 42.</p>
<p>If you want to, and are skilled enough -- slowly build your way up to potential so that they notice an upward trend, lol!</p>
<p>Lol seriously though....just work well and you'll be fine. You're in the toughest programme there is. Good luck!</p>
<p>hahhaha 'a hero doused a burning Rome' lol </p>
<p>thanks a lot for your advice, us<em>uk</em>mom and GregoryHouse :D</p>
<p>I was really worried but will try my best!</p>