<p>Hi. I'm dual US citizen living in Poland. I attend High School here. Our High School lasts 3 years. Can I send a transcript of grades from my 9th year (last year of middle school) along with the transcript of grades from HS? That would really help me since my grades in the last year of middle school were much better than they're right now. I'm also wondering how will any university evaluate my transcript - there is plenty of High Schools in Poland where you can be a straight A student, but my high school is ranked in the first 15 in country so it's more difficult to get good grades. What do you suggest my counsellor include in school profile? Can she write ranking of that High School on that paper? Almost all the schools I've already contacted require me to send them the most recent grades from my 3rd year of HS. Is that OK to apply to school this week and send them grades I already got only in this 1,5 month?</p>
<p>Not only you can, but you MUST, and if you took “high school level” classes in 8th grade (algebra, geometry, Foreign language 1 or 2…) you need to send a record of this, too. If you had national examinations at the end of 9th grade you need to include that too.
Your counselor or head teacher will need to describe what percentage of students in the district are allowed to enter this school, what it’s known for and how it’s earned its distinction, for how many years, etc. Then your counselor will need to indicate if a 3 at your school correlates to a 3 at national exam time, or to a 2 on national exam (1 being the highest, ie, your school has a super competitive student body so that even students who are not ranked in the top 30% rank in the top 10% nationally… this is only an example of what you can say. You can also point out that students get grades 1 to 6, but since 100% get their National Exam, it means even the bottom 20% are actually at level 4, and thus a 6 at your school is like a 4 in “regular” schools.) In short, provide comparison grids so that they know what your grades are worth and actual proofs of how highly ranked your school is.</p>
<p>If you apply Early Action, yes you should have your counselor send your grades for the first half of the term, although your counselor could wait till term grades are in depending on deadlines (I assume that would be mid November?) Then your counselor will have to send a Mid Term report in February, to confirm that you have maintained your grades, and a final report (where they can rescind you after admission if you got D’s and F’s on classes where up to then you were getting As and Bs.)
- Don’t apply early decision, unless you’re not applying for financial aid *</p>