<p>I'm an international student from South Africa. There are no counsellors in my school, so what should I do?
The schools here also work very differently from those in the US. In our system, our scores actually appear much lower than the scores I would get when I was in China, while the standard of the work is actually the same. I'm afraid that would hurt my GPAs if I have to calculate mine.
The courses we take are also different. We have no APs or honours here and we don't do calculus in maths. There is also a compulsory subject called life orientation, which I consider totally useless. Would these affect my application?
And one more thing, I don't really have any leadership positions except being the leader or concertmaster of my school's orchestra. But I've won a lot of awards in music, art, science and maths, and I participate in lots of activities, including Amnesty International and all sorts of volunteer work. Will these make up for my lack of leadership positions or do US universities prefer leaders?
Thank you!</p>
<p>There is a whole forum here for international students. You can reach it by clicking on "Discussion Home" in the upper left of this screen and then scrolling down.</p>
<p>You should also visit <a href="http://educationusa.state.gov/undergrad.htm%5B/url%5D">http://educationusa.state.gov/undergrad.htm</a> and read absolutely everything there. Then make an appointment with the counselors at their advising office closest to where you live. These people are the real experts on helping students from your country find good places to study in the USA.</p>
<p>Thanks but I don't think there are any counselors around here.</p>
<p>Happymomof1 is referring to the counselors provided by the US State Department.</p>
<p>Can you get to Durban, Jo'burg, Cape Town or Pretoria? Follow the link above and read the information for South Africa and their fact sheet.</p>