The student may be a US citizen, but is culturally European through and through, and will apply with international qualifications. They need to understand just how different the expectations are, and they’ll find those explanations on the international forum only.
While citizenship does help their chances of admission, there isn’t anything else they need to know or do about it. Just tick the box.
Exactly. I think this kid is very confused. Maybe justifiably so.
Yes, I am very confused with all the great information but a lot needs to looked at a very small time period. Im going into 11th grade so want to be prepared now before all the exams and prep for SAT/ACT begins. Rather sacrifice my summer then actual school days.
I would rather be a idiot now then for the rest of my life, regretting I did not spend the right time looking at different sources of information and studying. Then I make a list of colleges and prep for college.
So you are a rising 11th grader (or second to last year of high school). Good that you are looking at options now.
I strongly urge you to make a list of the characteristics you want in a college…and find a varying list of schools from very competitive to less so. My opinion, find a couple of colleges you like, that will be affordable, and where you would likely be accepted that meet most of your list of characteristics. Find those sure thing schools first. Then build your list UP from there.
Just to be sure, these points help like a grade. Just more evidence to be accepted. Just for a example I read Yale needed 36, and if I get 36 does that help my case for a smaller acceptance into Yale?
Once its 2025 Ill look at that list, because I have no data from 11th or 12th, Ill look now for what is a reasonable grade and estimate to make a safety school etc.
I mean the good thing coming from a small state and Austria there are not many people, and already in the top 5 ish in my class.
Makes total sense, I only want to aim for the stars so I can still achieve something. All the hard work of the IB and extracurriculars. Its unhealthy to make it a obsession but a good drive to push that extra step that others fall and don’t continue.
Yes, im going into 11th grade normal US system. I still feel like I’m behind even though no one in my class is looking at options or anything.
Intersting I wanted to start from top and go to the bottom, makes more sense like that. I also have not a lot of data to base my chances but ya going off of characteristics is a better idea and the atmosphere.
It’s fine to aim for the stars as your reach schools. But you also need to have some less competitive schools on your application list, in my opinion. And if you continue to be interested in mechanical engineering, there are a lot of schools where you would be a very competitive applicant for admissions.
I don’t agree. It’s way easier to find reach schools than to identify sure things that you really like. So…I suggest starting there.
I think Ill make a list of schools, then really put my mind to the top schools and scare myself of the acceptance rate to push harder. Ill have blanket schools etc.
Ahhh that’s so nice, but its hard world full of tri hards like CC. Gotta become one and put a extra step so I stand out from the rest.
Thats is true, way easier to find top schools cause of them, harder to find good things that have less attention to them.
Thank you for all the help
Again - don’t get stuck on “absolutes”, and unless you found that “36” on the Yale web site, please understand it’s not factual just someone’s best guess. You can’t “stop” at 36, nor can you give up with 35 - you can only do the absolute best you are capable of, taking the most rigorous classes you can manage successfully and healthily.
Many web sites will be eager to “name drop” the Ivy League colleges and are anxious to publish any content/supposition - because it yields them clicks by anxious parents/students.
In reality, there is no hard cut-off. The farer you are away from 100%, the more other aspects of your application have to be extra strong / tell a compelling story.
In fact there comes a point, once applicants are in the “top academic tier” (based on grades, class rank, courses taken, private school attended, SAT/ACT scores, etc.) where the specific number no longer is the deciding factor. Instead admission officers will look for other clues in the application which one of 10 similarly strong applications on their desk looks like a good fit for that year’s class.
Here too - don’t think in absolutes. The Ivy League colleges will not be more (or less) interested in you because you happen to live in comparatively little Austria. Yes, part of the “holistic” review is to consider your unique experiences abroad, but there is no secret country quota (or ambition to have one student from every U.N. country), where coming from Austria has any benefit over any other German speaking country, any other highly developed Western European nation, the E.U. in general - or any other classification one could dream of.
Shouldn’t I build off of that mindset to fulfill the requirements and go further than the rest of the kids in my school and friends etc? Do more things I care about and that colleges love to stand out more.
Isn’t that system better (holistic admission) rather than the UK or EU just on grades? Your better be well-rounded, dome some cool projects, etc. It’s pretty messed up that they don’t tell you, but it would be years for them to write back to all. It leaves people with a sense of that if this is for no conclusion of getting declined like a date… True analogy of the, dating = college.
Will do so (about the international forum).
The good thing is we did lab experiments, but I don’t know what counts as a lab experiment. We did more than requires 4 labs test for all years. Also, the other thing is that we did 1/3 of the year’s chemistry and then physics, 1/3 etc. Will that still count?
I’m a native English, and German is foreign to me. But I’m doing B2, if you know what that is, a way of measuring language.
I will switch to history SL, seems more interesting and harder. But my only concern is that my HLs will be a lot and then history. Will be more late-nighters. Ya, I want to have as many options as possible since I’m going into the 11th grade US system.
It is possible to do 4 HL and 2 SLs, but the percentage of people that fail becomes great as HLs increase. If all is easy might change either German or History to HL.
Sadly at my school, you cant add more than 6 subjects. But I was considering taking college credit classes such as chemistry and Biology to fulfill those requirements.
Ya ill ask my school if those 6-10 grade accounts for those US 4 years of subjects.
Ya, Business management looks pre professions and DT. I will prove that DT, will be hard at HL and with lots of cool projects and other things to prove to them. Maybe start a club or become a leader with all the machines and tools we have.
What should my mindset be instead of the 42 > IB points, or my friends should be on the same grindset as me?
Heres the Yale official website,
A. Requirements for the B.A. or B.S. Degree < Yale University.
Section 9, this is for getting a BS degree for undergrad. 36 credit.
I don’t think High school IB is healthy for anyone, my math teacher said there is a minium of 6 hours of hw a day not even accounting the other class. In perspective its only sleep that will hinder my health and street etc.
Management is my best goal to achieve my dreams for getting to the right colleges I want to go to.
Did not think of it like that, yah gotta be more open then absolute.
Thanks for the response
Gosh - that’s completely different!
That page has nothing at all to do with admission, with your IB scores, your high school grades, etc.
Course credit from outside Yale Course credit earned at another university may be applied toward the distributional requirements for the bachelor’s degree and to those for the sophomore and junior years whether or not it is counted toward the 36-course-credit requirement for graduation.
It just means that during your (typically) four years at Yale, you can’t graduate from Yale until you have taken 36 courses (to oversimplify):
To qualify for the award of the bachelor’s degree, a student must successfully complete thirty-six term courses or their equivalent. Yale College does not measure credit by credit hours, but by course credits—normally one credit for each term course.
Yes, my daughter had an extensive AP course load in high school, and she had that “A-Type” personality who wanted to achieve in anything she started. It meant she spent many nights until way after midnight studying, writing papers, writing her own test-preps. It was brutal.
But she balanced that by also setting aside time for before(!)-and-after-school non-academic activities, such as orchestra, theatre - and meeting friends one night on weekends.
Is that “healthy”? In other civilizations older teenagers will spend 12+ hours a day working in different capacity - or even serving in military forces. I guess what is healthy depends on the ability of each person to cope with whatever intensity – or not?
Competitiveness for universities in Austria isn’t at a lower level. It doesn’t exist.
Competitive majors? Medicine, psychology, sure. But not universities as such.
oh, hahaha, i looked up how many point to get into yale with High school credit and it gave me that. That grade i get from IB give me credit though?
Thats funny, ok then ill do some more research.
You should do things you care about and not consider how colleges might “love” or not love them.
As I’ve said repeatedly…if you do or don’t get accepted to Ivy League schools…you will never know why. At all.
Seriously (here’s my minute of parental advice):
set aside ChatGPT, or the auto-generated abstract by whatever search engine.
One talent you do need to have for certain to be remotely considered at any elite college is good information research skills and reading comprehension. So, you need to put your personal effort in and actually OPEN the documents behind the links, READ the paragraphs, UNDERSTAND their meaning - instead of letting technology feed you misinterpretations and assuming you can trust your future to those digests.
It’s not A.I. - these tools are A.D. (all dumbness).
There needs to be a fine balance of both, Ill find something that are more in tandem to what they like and I enjoy.
Yes, only guesses and the CC community
Aaand I’m out.