I am a junior who’s planning to spend my senior year abroad in a boarding school. I’ve lived my entire life in a rather poor and unadvanced country where the educational system is insanely bad and puts me in hideous disadvantage considering I want to apply to colleges in the US, Europe and Canada. I realize there couldn’t be a worse time to be changing schools but I believe it to be a good opportunity that may compensate for the lacking of my previous High School education/experience.
There are many problems though. I have never taken AP courses/classes because my current and soon-to-be previous school has no idea what AP courses are let alone offer them. I’ve also realized that taking AP courses in the new school I’m attending wouldn’t even matter that much since it’s senior year and the college admission process starts as early as December. I even thought about retaking grade 11 in the new school that I’m attending but their college counsler had told me that it wouldn’t look too good on my application. Can anyone tell why though? I mean it’s not like I’ve failed a grade or anything.
I really hadn’t done anything special at all to mention in my application due to the fact that my school and region in general literally offers me absolutely nothing (no AP, extracurriculars, competitions, etc…). I live in the Middle East so go figure. All I can say is I’d have to write one heck of an essay.
My question would be, is it impossible for my senior year alone to help me boost my application? I am eager to do my best in all areas this particular year and take advantage of every opportunity in front of me.
Also, about the AP courses thing, are colleges like the Ivy Leagues willing to understand that such courses weren’t available to me before? Would they even consider that I am taking AP classes in my senior year instead?