Hello! I am an international student of the 12th grade and I want to be admitted to an IVY league college. So I have come up with an idea of restudying 2 years in another high school which is stronger than mine. I could not take part in in such competitions as Intel ISEF and IPHO and I want to try to attend to them again. Is is possible for me to attend those competitions if I start the education at a high school again and wont it harm to my college application?
(I am 17)
What country?
What are you studying right now and with what grades?
Is it possible in your country to attend a high school after graduating high school? I know that sometimes it’s possible if you want to follow a new track (likewise if you’re stem track and you’d take a new track with philosophy, literature, languages…) sometimes just for a year, that would be considered the equivalent of a us ‘PG’ (postgraduate) year and would be ok. 2 years however I’m not sure.
I don’t know how colleges would look at it if you took 2 years.
You could also go to a Quebec cégep. It’s two years (year 12+13) but it’s acceptable since that’s the way the system is set up and no one applies to college after year 12.
In the US some people will do a one year post-graduate program (sometimes at a boarding school) to improve grades etc.but I don’t think that attending HS for six years will impress admissions officers. You will have to submit transcripts from all high schools you attended.
I am from Kazakhstan and my grades for the last two years (11 and 12) are fine, but my earlier grades are average. In my country, it is not acceptable, I guess, but I applied for a school in another country.
I do want to do that since my resume and achievements are not so high and I want to improve my SAT scores and win some prizes in that period. As I said I would like to take part in Intel ISEF, but I do not if it is possible.
It will be like a gap year for me if I attend the school for the second time, will not it?
No, especially if you did two years in a “developing” system then 2 years in the US. It’ll be assumed your HS was a bit lower performing that the US high school - when US students from from public school, they often “repeat” 9th grade, but find out there’s no repeating involved because the curriculum and expectations are so different. The first, public school 9th grade doesn’t “count”. I don’t know how they’d look at your record if you had your Kazakh records for 2 years - in addition, I believe that the last two years of Kazakh high school are considered equivalent to grade 10-11 in the US.
I am not going to study in the USA since I do not know how to do it. I applied for a school in Slovakia which has an AP system of education. So still it is not a gap year if I attend the school?
No, you’d send your transcripts for grade 9,10, and 11 in Kazakhstan (your last three years) then your transcripts for grade 11and 12 in the new school that has an AP curriculum. It’s common to take the same year again in the new school system.
I would try to find an IB school and get a IB diploma from there. Then colleges will understand what you can do.
Do realize that there are 3000 colleges in the USA…don’t be limited to the top 7.
My school in Kazakhstan has 12th grade too. So I would have to send the grades for the last 6 years? (9,10,11,12,11,12)
Are you sure? Isn’t it built in the Russian model where the last year of high school is 10 or 11, age 16, although it may be called 12 due to early education counting.
Because if it has a real 12th grade then you’re stuck. You can only do one year called a PG year. That’s it.
Contact the Education USA resource in your country to ask questions
https://educationusa.state.gov/
for Kazakhstan
https://educationusa.state.gov/find-advising-center?field_region_target_id=&field_country_target_id=307&field_center_level_value=All
Thanks!!!