Its a question has been grinding my mind since the freshmen year
These two programs -IB and AP- maybe expanded worldwide and become standarts that defines the secondary education but still in my country these two only offered in private HSs
there are little number of HSs offereing AP most of them American DOD schools they have no place for outsiders and rest are overpriced little amount of scholarships
Speaking of IB I had much chances to pursue but still no hope most of private HSs had ditched the IB bunch of public schools offers 3-4 subjects per year not a full ride experience in IB and bunch of remaining IB offering private HS can be found also overprices narrow scholarship chances
Im in my junior year in a country’s top 30 public school due to last years of social transmutation to more religious practises over the country we -as students- face oppression and demoralising facts everyday this forced many kids to turn homeschool
I target majoring at either BA or Econ in USA
In a situation like this what will you do? is it so obvious for us to take IB or AP will this make tremendous differences on applications? or prompting this programs unavailability to admissions team and pitching the essays based on that belief will help?
You don’t need an AP or IB curriculum to attend an American college. Many international students attended a public high school that followed the foreign national curriculum.
But what if we elevate the schools tier? Oregon is an outstanding research campus however when we speak of USNews top 50-100 schools can we say the same conditions will apply?
Yes. I picked Oregon State solely because they name the actual credential for many countries. Most universities don’t. They’ll simply say something along the lines of, “We expect you to have a credential that would allow you to enter a university in your own country.”
For example, from the [University of Pennsylvania:](Preparing For Admission | Penn Admissions) *Prior to the expected date of entrance at Penn, an international applicant should have completed a program of secondary education that would enable the student to enter a university in his or her own country (e.g., A-levels, Abitur). *
New York University also spells out the name of the credential for many countries if you’d like a reference from a more selective university, though many smaller countries are missing from that list: http://cas.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/cas/academic-programs/bulletin/policies/admission.html (Scroll down to the sentence, “The following country-specific examinations are all accepted as admission credentials”)
Many other factors will far outweigh the marginal benefit of having a high school credential that Americans know well. In particular, money. Requiring financial assistance is the largest handicap you could possibly have.
If you aspire to attend a particularly selective university, extracurricular activities become very important. Harvard once said that 90% of their applicants are qualified to attend. That means they have to use criteria other than school grades and SAT scores to pick their students.