I’m currently a junior in India and am studying under a very rigorous Indian curriculum. I’m doing excellent in academics and fared very well in Indian tenth grades board examinations (it’s a big deal here in india). My father is planning to move to USA next year so I’ll have to carry on my high school senior year over there. Now, the problem is how would I explain the same thing in my app. Would I receive high school graduation by doing just one year over there? Do high schools over there have any policies or process of converting my grades to their GPA or my past curriculum to high school courses there? I have taken ACT already and scored 34. I just don’t know enough about high school education or course load over there. When I researched over net, I found nyself even more confused. Someone in the cc community know anything or anyone that could help me? Any advice is appreciated!
Lots of people have been in your situation - so don’t worry!
Find out where in the US you will be moving. Then find the website for the school district in which you will be living (assuming you will be attending a public school.) Often in bigger school districts they will have all the information you need regarding the above issues right on their website. At least you will be able to find an email for the school district and start communicating with them and perhaps even get in touch with a guidance counselor for the high school before your move.
Are you in CBSE?
Yes, you can graduate from HS in the US. They will look at the classes completed and will give you credit towards their requirements. States have different requirements so again you really have to be in touch with the school district ASAP.
@CValle no, I’m studying under ISC curriculum, which is alternate to CBSE curriculum. Both are considered equal in rigor though I’m biased for ISC. Thanks very very much for the response. We are moving to New Jersey but I don’t know the school district yet. Okay, I will look into their sites and contact the counselor once I know which school district I’m moving to. Also, what’s up with private vs public schools in factors like majority, preference, cost, etc? Majority students here attend private schools because of inadequate level of education in public schools. In what type of schools do majority of students go over there?..again thanks
@CValle based on your past answers and threads, I came to know your D is studying in India and you are US citizen. I assumed you were living in usa in my first response. I applied and got into schools with IB curriculum but they wouldn’t allow me to study physics, chemistry, and computer simultaneously in a year. So due to turn of events, I had to stick with ISC curriculum.
The most important thing that you can do is get the best grades possible this year in India as that will be the most important aspect of your application for most colleges that you apply to. Also, try and get any SAT Subject Tests (if any) out of the way this year and you will be way busy with the move and the new curricullum next year. Lastly, don’t worry about the quality of schools in New Jersey. NJ is a relatively wealthy state (2nd to MD in median household income) with high taxes, so the public schools are generally good quality. ( I grew up in NJ) There are also options for private or parochial schools although many do not allow students to transfer in for the last year. If you know what town you are moving to you should be speaking to your parents about school options now. Good luck.
If your father is moving for a job, there may be some support there, too. They often can suggest better public school districts to live in. There are some fine high schools in NJ. But not all.
I agree the schools will have experienced new students. One issue may be qualifying for the level of classes you want, per district policy. The moment you have an idea where (what part of the state) you may live in, you can start looking into individual high schools and contacting them for information. This isn’t much different than when a US student moves to the state.
For college, if needed, you can likely submit transcripts for both your India experience and the final year here. That will depend on how the new hs handles this.
@londondad and @lookingforward
That clears a lot. But what about letter of recommendations? Can I submit the ones from my Indian school teachers?
Yes, check with the colleges, but should be no problem. My daughter used a junior year teacher who had left the school for one of her Common App references.
Agreed. For college, this will be a slightly different circumstance and you can include recs from India. However, still good to have a current US teacher or two, who will know you and your work in our context.
My daughter went to one school for 9th and 10th grades with 0-100 grading. Then she went to another and did an IB Diploma for 11-12th grades which is graded on a scale of 0-7. Never knew what her 4.0 scale GPA was…colleges figure it out. The only time there was an issue was for our State Flagship University which awards scholarships based on GPAs , but a quick email sorted that out when we noticed she didn’t get one. So send your transcript and the college will figure it out.
Ask your first high school to send your transcript and high school profile to your current HS and your guidance counselor at your senior HS will put all the information to gether.
Agree, it happens all the time. Agree with the above comments. When it comes time to send your information to colleges it would be worthwhile talking with your new guidance counselor to be sure the transcript and any teacher recs you get from India get included in the package.
I was exactly in the same situation as you. I am currently finishing my senior year in the US and did my junior year here as well but did my freshman and sophmore years back in India.
You will not be getting a cumulative HS GPA. This is because the grades in the Indian Curriculum cannot be compared to the ones in the US. Therefore, your guidance counselor (in the US) will send in your ISC transcripts as they are and colleges will be able to figure it out.
If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
@Ktgisgreat - yes you are correct about my background.
Unlike in India, public schools in the US are by and large very good schools and a vast majority of families send their children to public schools. Of course, some public schools are better than others. There are a number of websites that rate public schools and you can use those to help you family figure out what school district they should move into. Public schools are free and you are “assigned” to a school depending on the address of your house. That is why, as soon as your family decides where to live, you can figure out what schools to start contacting and find out all the specifics about classes right away.
In my opinion, there is no reason to pay for private school in the US (unless for some reason you live in a very bad school district and cannot relocate.) For the most part, it is only very wealthy families that choose to give up on free public education. Private education in the US can be almost as expensive as college so for most families it is not reasonable to pay that amount for k-12.
New Jersey in particular will be VERY familiar with Indian students and Indian schooling given the large Indian community in that state. You should have no problem finding people to help you.
All the best.