<p>Hail to the all-knowing CC crowd,
Here's a question I'm struggling with: coming from a non-English speaking high school/different academic setting, how do you know your chances?
I'm a fresh US resident and my high school diploma isn't in English. It's also in a different grade system. From my talks with admissions (Harvard, Dartmouth and some others state U's) I learned that it doesn't need to be evaluated into American system with GPAs and God-knows-whats, only simply translated. And though I was in top 5 students of my graduation year and graduated with honors, having no real evaluation throws me off. Where do I stand in American system and what my options are - is what I ask myself to determine what to do next. Do you evaluate no matter what, just to see for yourself, or do you hope that you're in good standing? How do you know if you took enough hours or classes to be even considered for a good school, how do you know that classes were AP enough or something else enough (again, no idea what an American AP class is and whether mine are comparable)? That is apart from SATs that I can use to chance myself.
Also, dear international students, let's talk about teachers reports and evaluations. My teachers are across the pond from US and most of them don't speak English, unless they teach English. Quite an issue, huh. We also don't utilize teachers reports and evals so that's a foreign concept to them as well. Which wouldn't be so daunting really if I could help, translate the forms, explain and translate back the answers (whether myself, or give to the services) and then upload to Common App or mail to colleges. Well, FERPA and admissions do not like this, I checked. I can not see my reports or even help my teachers out myself. All I can do is get familiar with the forms. How do you solve this task? Also, keep in mind that there's no way of submitting the reports electronically from school through some universal program as you can do here. Only paper, only hardcore :) Someone needs to help out and translate the papers and then somehow they need to be transferred to me and uploaded (it is preferable, I was told) without me seeing them. Uhm.
I'm sorry for this novel, though it could be longer, in the best literary traditions of my country (you either write a four volume or can pull off a beard, better both). Hope I made your day, people-with-less-problems! :) Anyways, I'd be happy to hear back. Ideas? Condolences on my lost case? Evil laughs? Help out a girl! :)</p>
<p>Hi, and welcome! The non-trad students section is generally for students who enter or complete college later in life, or who attend part-time due to work/family, or both.</p>
<p>I’ve asked the mods to bump your question up to the main admissions section so it will get the attention it needs to get good answers. Sadly, this one is outside my expertise. However, I will note that you have an enjoyable sense of humor and if I were an admissions officer that would certainly be helping your case. :)</p>
<p>Perhaps ask in the international students forum?</p>
<p>Even if you don’t need to have your school records professionally evaluated to apply to the colleges and universities on your list, it might be worth it to you to spend the $100 or so to have that done. Several organizations evaluate transcripts. I usually recommend <a href=“http://wes.org/”>http://wes.org/</a> because their evaluations are widely accepted.</p>
<p>If no one from your old high school has ever applied to college in the US, contact the office of EducationUSA that is closest to your high school, and get some advice from them. The counselors in that office will be able to give you some help by phone or email. <a href=“https://www.educationusa.info/centers.php”>https://www.educationusa.info/centers.php</a></p>
<p>You also should visit the International Students Forum here. Here is a quick link for you: <a href=“International Students - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/</a> Look for anything posted by b@r!um She is one of the experts on the issues that you face.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, I’ll check! :)</p>