Will a bad transcript hurt me?

<p>I am an international and I completed the IGCSE program (British system). </p>

<p>The school curriculum was really on geared towards the final exams. </p>

<p>I took 9 subjects and made 5 A stars and 4 As </p>

<p>But my transcript from year 9 till year 11 has a lot of Bs, Cs, and Ds. </p>

<p>Do American Universities understand that the IGCSE exam is all that matters? My school is not even accustomed to making transcripts as UK universities only use the final exam results. </p>

<p>My Transcript grades are clearly a bad representation of what I can really do seeing as I got straight A's in the real thing. </p>

<p>Will this affect me? I am from Nigeria by the way. Should I email my colleges?</p>

<p>It may affect you- but not severely. Do not email the colleges- then it looks like an excuse</p>

<p>Applicants are viewed in context, but it might hurt you. But if I may ask, what is the reason for such bad grades? It might raise some alarms, sometimes when an applicant has amazing test scores but bad grades, admission officers get the impression that the student’s got potential, but is being lazy. I don’t know if the same would happen to your app, since it’s a completely different system.</p>

<p>What would help is to know the context of your grades better. What is the average GPA? Are there straight-A students? If your school ranks, what’s your rank?</p>

<p>How hard is your school? If you go to some fancy prep school those grades make sense. I’m no expert, just an average high school kid, but 5 A*'s?!?!??!?! Even I know that is DAMN good. I suppose if I was in your shoes I would apply widely to both Brit and american schools. I would assume though that American counselors are familiar enough with the Brit system to know you did AWESOME. </p>

<p>The grades will affect you but being an international student should help you get in. Sometimes admissions are more understanding of international kids because the grading systems around the world are all different and there is usually less grade inflation than what we have here in the US.</p>

<p>You should be fine getting in to most schools.</p>

<p>@lilly96</p>

<p>I sent an additional email explaining that the IGCSE exam is where all the focus is, but I also said that I sent my reports from year 9 because they contain comments from my teachers and I feel that the admissions officers can use them to get a better idea of my character (I can’t interview due to my location). Was this a bad idea?</p>

<p>@guitar500
The grading was very inconsistent. Sometimes the teacher would walk in and give us a test on something we havent done before (this happened in math). Everyone would fail it and that would be our grade for the term. The teachers were not concerned with termly grades because we were being prepped for the final exam.
We didnt have gpa or class rank. But out of my entire set only 4 or 5 people did as good or better than me. So I would say I’m in the top 10%.</p>

<p>@lalala</p>

<p>Haha thanks. Yes I hope so, I know the international pool is competitive because of financial aid but I am not applying for FA. I hope that plus being from Nigeria will work in my favour.
I am applying to top 25 schools by the way.</p>

<p>Ah, if you’re top 10%, I think you’ll be fine as long all of that is explained in your app (by your counselor). And being a URM (under represented minority) will help you, especially because you’re not applying for aid. Good luck!</p>

<p>I don’t know if he explained that, I didn’t see the letter.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Bump10char</p>

<p>Stop worrying, if your rank was included, I don’t think it’ll hurt you. Since you’re international, your grades are viewed in context. And anyway, you’ve already applied, so there’s nothing you can really do to change it. You’ll be fine.</p>