<p>@AnnieBeats I don’t understand why are you so intend to say I’m at the bottom of my class and wants to correct every single typos I made. I would like to clarify that my school is competitive, and I’m in the middle or top 40% of my class. I have good public exam results, but bad school grades IN the eyes of a US student, not as an international student, because I’m pretty sure that international students have an entirely different criterium. </p>
<p>@Anniebeats: because OP is an international whose school does NOT calculate GPA the way we do. In addition, it’s a British-patterned school and OP got <em>the highest possible scores</em> on national exams that correspond to US high school curriculum (top rigor, top program, evaluation over 2 years in 8 subjects including the equivalent of 5 years of foreign language, 2 years each of biology, chemistry, and physics, plus the usual core subjects.)</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 @alafae
This is my last post in either one of your threads. OP, if YOU evaluated yourself as being near the bottom of your class, that gives us a pretty good idea of how much you actually worked during high school. You don’t just jump 40 percentiles out of the blue. That doesn’t happen. Now, if schools will only be seeing test scores, that’s one thing. But if they will see everything, the OP isn’t getting into any top American school. She knows the work she put in and if she initially thought her American equivalent GPA was a 2.0, that let’s you know what we’re dealing with.</p>
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<p>If you want meaningful help, your information has to be accurate. You’re either at the bottom of your class or you’re not. Does your school list class ranks on your transcript? If so (and yours is low), you may need to explain why. High school kids in the US sometimes have high test scores and low GPAs. Colleges can be reluctant to take a chance on them because there are minimum GPAs required to remain enrolled. Admission for internationals is tough. Even if you’re full pay, you’re competing for an extremely limited amount of spots against kids with both stellar test scores AND high GPAs/class ranks. You need to know what your transcripts will say and what each college requires for admission. Good luck.</p>
<p>^And I’ll repeat that OP scored at the highest possible level on national board exams (not to be confused with “test results” - those essentially constitute what in the US we call GPA if GPA were based on projects and 6 final exams but no points for participation, extra credit, or homework).
I’m used to international completely mistating and mistranslating their records, which is why I asked for the IGCSE and AS results. OP replied and I stated it again for other posters: the highest possible - A<em>A</em>A<em>A</em>A<em>A</em>AA, which translates as a 4.0 (unweighted, and something stratospheric if weighted.)
And, BTW, yes, NYU WILL admit students on IGCSE and GCE results only (even SATs would not be required.)
Whatever her school calls her GPA doesn’t matter. (and/or OP clearly has no clue what a 2.0 means in the US.) Numbers have different meanings depending on the educational system. There are countries where a 70% average means you’re a national-level scholar and 75-80% means you’re a candidate for Oxford or equivalent (Brazil or France, for instance). Even Canadian averages, which “look” like American averages, don’t mean the same thing. 80-85% would mean you can aim for McGill.
In addition, OP goes to a selective school - you can rank at the middle level of a school that only admits the top 2% scorers in the country, that just means you’re in the top 1% nationally.
In American terms, this is a kid who got 6 AP5’s as a sophomore.
This is not a lazy kid or a kid who’s not ready for college.
The thread title is misleading and due to a translation problem + cultural misunderstanding.</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 Quoted directly from the OP.</p>
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That’s a universal statement.</p>
<p>Now, I’m officially done. </p>
<p>If a 16 year old told you “I’m at the bottom of my class and I got 6 AP scores of 5”, what would you think?
If you happened to know that the kid attends Harvard Westlake or Deerfield, what would you conclude?</p>
<p>I agree with you though… we need to close this thread.</p>
<p>I am going to close this thread because it doesn’t appear anything else useful can come from it. I will point out, however, that anytime one is dealing with international students it should be considered that their phrasing of certain statements might be either a mistake in their English, a difference in how things are phrased culturally, or some combination of those two things. Read the whole thread, and/or ask for clarifications when things look out of whack, like @MYOS1634 did. It is fairly ridiculous to “beat up” on an international teenager for misstating something, especially since they clarified it later. I do agree that a new thread that starts with more accurate and clearly stated information would be more productive. - FC</p>