I’ll be immigrating to the US on the third week of January. I’m a 12th grader here and I was planning to do 12th grade there from September. It would be better if I could enroll into a school on February and take the remaining 11th grade classes. Are there schools that will allow that? I go to a very competitive school and our scores are seriously deflated. I’m barely in the top 25%. Will this be an issue for getting into a good school? I want to go to a competitive school with a lot of AP courses offered because I’ve already tackled AP level material here.
Also, what academic documents should I bring? Will a testimonial stating the difficulty be helpful?
I would not recommend consulting a college forum for an issue like transferring schools. I would definitely ask your parents (or you can) to contact a professional to help guide you through the process.
Where you live in Queens will impact which public schools you can attend. Students typically attend the school closest to their home. Every neighborhood is part of a “school district” which tells you which public school you can attend. You can start your local public school in the middle of the school year, and there are no admission requirements other than living in the school district. Many public schools are competitive and offer lots of AP courses. It really depends on where in Queens you live. If you want to apply to special public schools such a magnet schools, you would likely need to apply soon to start there in the fall. Magnet schools often focus on a special curriculum, such as International Baccalaureate (IB), or performing and visual arts, or science and math. Public schools are typically free. If you want to attend a private school, that can cost $20,000 to $40,000 or more a year, and you would have to apply and qualify to attend. You would probably also need to start in the fall. You should bring your high school transcript, which is a document showing what classes you have taken and the grades you received.
Since you’ve come here in the 12th grade, you aren’t able to transfer into the SHSAT schools (Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, etc.) and Townsend Harris so you’re pretty much out of luck for a true competitive high school.