A Plan to Kill High School Transcripts … and Transform College Admissions

exlibris97
Sun, 18 Jun 2017 08:52:38 +0000

@londondad I know that the admissions officers I work with have mentioned the changes in how British exams are being marked. What is also happening is that some schools are now getting much better at providing individual student reports, in many cases providing individual “course” reports that estimate how the student stacks up against their peers (first, top 5% etc). These reports now more closely resemble the “transcripts” issued by American high schools.

As we’ve discussed before, especially with respect to the UK, the days of “feeder” schools are past. Strenuous efforts are being made to recruit students from across the country and that was very apparent this year. At the same time, I do know that most top American universities do recognize that many American children are being educated in the UK. My experience is that the vast majority of highly qualified American students do land places.

One observation: I suspect “top 10 Unis” is a reference to Ivy League colleges and their peers. For UK parents wanting to educate their children in the US, especially those with kids in private schools that send scores of students to Oxbridge, they’d be well advised to think in much broader terms. Most admissions committees won’t feel terribly sorry for a candidate who has to “settle” on Cambridge having been turned down by the Ivy League.