<p>Hi</p>
<p>My name is Pedro and I am from Portugal. Some months ago I started looking into college applications and requirements and although my grades are quite good, I am not sure how would they look on American standarts. </p>
<p>These are the following subjects I take
(note: in portugal you can't actually choose what to take, everyone who is in the same course, which in my case is Science and Tecnology, takes the same subjects, only differing in one maximum)</p>
<p>10th grade Final grades
Physsics and Chemistry- 20 (100%)
Biology and Geology- 18 (90%)
Mathematics -20 (100%)
English-19 (95%)
Philosophy-18 (90%)
Portuguese -19 (95%)
Physsical Education-16 (80%)</p>
<p>11th 2nd term (final grades will probably be better)
Physsics and Chemistry- 19 (95%)
Biology and Geology- 19 (95%)
Mathematics -19 (95%)
English-20 (100%)
Philosophy-18 (90%)
Portuguese -17 (85%)
Physsical Education-17 (85%)</p>
<p>-grades range from 1 to 20</p>
<p>Could anyone say what would my GPA probably be and what are my chances of applying to top colleges with this grades (for instance, MIT)?</p>
<p>I don’t know about your GPA but your counselor sends them as they are,and there is a system they use to get you there!my brother is in yale,he’s tanzanian but he studied in kenya,they use pretty much the same system and you have solid grades,just make your essay distinguished and have good recs.</p>
<p>k thanks
Anyone can help with the gpa issue?</p>
<p>Hey Pedro,
I was also an international applicant just a few months back. I was studying in an Indian curriculum and just like you I too had doubts about how my marks (1-100 scale) would be converted into the equivalent American GPA.
After a bit of reading on CC, I came to the conclusion that there is no realistic way of converting international marks (except for IB marks probably since they are graded in a centralised system) to an American GPA.
But rest assured, the admissions committees in almost all US universities have someone known as a Regional Admissions Officer who has extensive knowledge about the rigor of that regions curriculum. So, for example, the Regional Admissions Officer for Middle East and India from UPenn (the university I will be attending) knew how difficult the Indian curriculum is in terms of the coursework. HOWEVER, you should also remember that different schools following the same curriculum also have different standards of scoring, heck even different teachers teaching in the same school have different marking schemes. So I suggest you don’t worry too much, as it is your marks qualify you as an academically strong candidate.
Coming to your next question, what are your chances of getting into MIT or Caltech with those marks? Well I or for that matter anyone else on CC CANNOT tell you your chances. In fact, no one apart from the admissions officer who reads your application can tel you your chances. We can tell you if your marks qualify you as a strong candidate in the MIT admissions pool or not. The answer to that is yes they do. But there are so many more components to the admissions process (essays, ECs, recommendations) that you need to provide us with much more information to give us a better picture.</p>
<p>k Thanks for your post.
Considering recs I am not really worried about then. I will probably ask my maths teacher since he is the one who knows me the best, and I think it will probably be quite good.
In terms of Ecs well I admit I don’t have as many as most people here on CC. It is just not that common for high schollars in Portugal to participate in so many things. For example, most public and even private schools may have only one or two clubs. However, I do have some ecs, mostly related to physsics:
-I was one of the 50 students chosen nationwide to attend a 6 month(one weekend per month) program as preparation for IPhO(got in an year earlier as I am still in 11th grade);
-I attended some summer scholls on physsics, chemistry and maths.
-In a week I will find out if I was one of the international students chosen for ISSYP
-Class rank- welkl we dont rank students although if you consider average grade then I will be on first, along with other to colleges of mine(we have the same grades xd) on a class of 26.However, if you consider the entire school then I will probably be in the first 5.</p>
<p>I am proud of my achievements so far and altough I guess they are pretty few compared to other applicants those were the ones available to me.
I really wish I could attend MIT because mainly I like physsics and from all collegues I have searched, it is the one which I most identify myself with.</p>