<p>Hi everyone! This is my first post, lets hope I don't embarrass myself!</p>
<p>So I know you aren't supposed to use your name, so I'm gaking. I moved from Ireland to Massachusetts during my freshman year in Ireland. Moving over, we expected for me just to transfer right into freshman year, but for some reason guidance messed me around and put me in sophomore year....I was a year younger than everyone and inexperienced in mathematics. After a long chat with some silly counselors, we corrected the grade issue. </p>
<p>I am now a Junior and am enrolled in AP Government and Politics along with Honors everything else. Apart from math, God do I hate algebra. </p>
<p>I participate in track and field in the winter and spring, earning athletic honors my sophomore year. I have been contacted by Bryant, Viterbo, URI and UMass Lowell in regards to my running of the 400m, but the issue is, I haven't a clue what to do.</p>
<p>The Irish education system is not continuous assessment. There is no GPA. Getting into college is based purely on the Leaving Certificate, which is like the SAT only of 10X more importance because you take it once regardless of how prepared you are. When I moved over, the American school took my Irish grades as the basis of my GPA, even though they were just test averages not including homework, quizzes or projects. As a result, my GPA is a 78 unweighted. I had an 86 average my sophomore year taking honors everything, apart from geometry. I have not taken the SAT's or ACT'S yet, but got around a 2000 in the PSAT. </p>
<p>So my question is, will colleges take into consideration the lack of GPA system in Ireland? Will they focus more on my ACT/SAT? Do I have a chance of getting into the colleges listed above?</p>
<p>Thank you so much for any help! These boards sure are useful.</p>
<p>Ask your guidance counselor to mention the GPA change in his/her school report. If you apply through the Common App, these school reports/letters of recommendation are required, and may provide a perfect platform to explain this. Otherwise, many college applications have a specific section that gives students an option to explain something about their application that the college may not be aware of. You could easily take about how your grades transferred when you moved to the US in that short response, as well. Colleges try to be aware of outside phenomena when assessing applicants; you just have to let them know what those things are!</p>
<p>lovethekiller is absolutely right, but I’m also going to warn you: for many schools, particularly elite schools, it may not matter. I had to include an addendum to my applications because I spent a year in Germany and my county converted my pass/fail grades (all passes of course) to straight Bs (negotiated up from Cs, blech). It brought my perfect 4.0 GPA (unweighted) wayyyyy down. The two most elite schools I applied to clearly didn’t care, or at least it made no difference; I didn’t get in. The school I did get into must have actually read my addendum because they offered me a full merit scholarship.</p>
<p>Is it a completely done deal or can your parents talk to the county about how they converted your Irish coursework to a numeric grade? Even getting it bumped up a little could help. Then I would recommend just busting your butt the next two years to bring your average up. Every little helps. Definitely do the addendum, and I’d say don’t get your hopes up for the crazy-elite schools because many of them have an algorithm that screens the first round of apps and simply cuts you if your scores aren’t up to par; human beings don’t always read those addendums/extras in the first round. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you for your insight! Germany is a wonderful country and it must have been a great experience. I doubt I’ll be applying to any extremely elite schools like Brown or UPenn. So far, the most elite I will be applying to is Colby College</p>