International student :P

<p>Hello everyone... I have a couple of questions, if someone can answer me I'll be totally grateful :P</p>

<p>So, I'm an international student, and I was wondering, how do they know how good my GPA really is? In my country, they measure grades on scale from 1-5 where 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest.. I'm finishing my junior year now, and through this 3 years I had all 5, so my GPA on our scale is 5.00.. So, I have the best GPA that I can have, but, how do they know how good that is actually cause the educational system in US and here are different..?</p>

<p>I'm in mathematical high school, so I guess that's a plus, (4 years of physics with 4 classes per week, than 4 years of physics 8 classes per week, 4 years of programming 4-5 classes per week) but how does that compare to students from USA that took APs etc...</p>

<p>And yeah, about the SAT II, (i'm totally nervous, i'm takin the test this saturday :)) ), is it good to have three subject tests, or they don't even look at the third one?</p>

<p>thanks to anyone who replies :D</p>

<p>They know this because they have a profile on your school / school system. I'm not sure how your system compares to the AP system in the U.S. (you haven't even told us what country you are from!) but I will say that most students here haven't taken four years of physics in high school. As for the SAT II, there should be guidelines somewhere on Caltech's site telling you what you need to take... I can't answer it at the moment as I am running off to class.</p>

<p>Yeah four years of each sounds intense, in a very good way. I go to a very good public school (ok, I live in Georgia, but it's one of the best in the state anywho), and three comp sci's and 2-3 physics is the most anyone ever does. (That's through two AP's for each).</p>

<p>Are you from Russia, may I ask?</p>

<p>'cause...the thing is that this 5-point grading system and Physics starting in 6th grade sounds awfully familiar.</p>

<p>Two SAT 2's should be fine. I gave two SAT 2 subject tests(Math level 2 and Physics) and I got admitted. I am an international student as well(from India).
Although I think Math level 2 might be compulsary.You should check that out.</p>

<p>Edit- Math level 2 is compulsary. <a href="http://admissions.caltech.edu/applying/freshman%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.caltech.edu/applying/freshman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I said:</p>

<p>( 4 years of physics with 4 classes per week, than 4 years of physics 8 classes per week, 4 years of programming 4-5 classes per week)</p>

<p>I meant:</p>

<p>( 4 years of physics with 4 classes per week, than 4 years of MATH 8 classes per week, 4 years of programming 4-5 classes per week)</p>

<p>I'm not from Russia, I'm from Serbia (former Yugoslavia), but I think that russian and our educational system is similar :) think the only difference from russians and us is that they have astronomy since 6th grade, and we have it in only in 12th :P but other things are the same.. </p>

<p>Yeah , I'm taking MathIIC and physics, but I was wondering if there is a point in taking 3rd subject, because I know some colleges look just the number of test they require (for caltech - two subject tests), and some even though they require 2, if u take more, they will take them in consideration too..</p>