<p>I’m a 20-year-old female from Belarus.I plan to apply to US colleges this fall so I decided to start preparing early.I have some questions and CC seemed like a good place with friendly users so I decided to join it.Here are my questions.</p>
<p>1)In 2 weeks I’ll graduate from a linguistic college and get my diploma.The thing is that the admininstration refuses to give me any additional transcipt stating that I’ll have an appendix in my diploma where all the courses,grades and hours taken will be written.Will it be okay if I send a photcopy of it (and a translation) with college’s seal as a part of my application?And will the seal be enough or will I have to beg the pricipal to sign it?(I’d rather not ‘cause this woman scares me and she seems hard to convince to do it).I’ll write to colleges’ admission offices later,when I get my diploma,but right now I’d appreciate an opinion of a third party.</p>
<p>2)Lets imagine that the problem with transcript is solved.Is it mandatory that transcript should be sent in an evelope bearing school’s seal?And can final report,counselor’s evaluation and transcipt with its translation be sent in one envelope?</p>
<p>3)The last one is not a question but still.I cannot but think about an essay and what it should be about.I know it should be more about me and who I am as a person than about my achievements.Will it be okay for me to write it on political topic?It’s not a secret that there is an internse political situation in Belarus and I think I can write about some things that I know from the inside.I know an essay should contain something unique that can capture the attention and I think it might be it but I’m not sure if it’s a good idea.Is a political topic good for college essay?Isn’t it a taboo or some undesirable topic?</p>
That worked for me, but do make sure that every translated copy has an original school seal on it.</p>
<p>
Yes, you should have a school seal (for the transcript) or teacher’s signature (for the recommendations) on the back of each envelope. That has two purposes:
Applicants are not supposed to see their letters. Having the teachers seal & sign the envelopes enforces that.
Applicants may not tamper with the sealed documents. Without the signatures, you could open the envelope and put the letter into a different envelope afterwards. </p>
<p>You can collect all of the individual envelopes and mail them in a single big envelope though.</p>
<p>
You can absolutely highlight your achievements, but do it in a narrative that illuminates your strengths and obstacles you have overcome. </p>
<p>
Political topics are generally discouraged because they can be very polarizing and applicants risk upsetting the admissions officer evaluating their application. That being said, it’s not quite as risky for you because most Americans know nothing about Belarus. </p>
<p>Just be careful to focus the essay on yourself, not on your country. You could talk about a personal experience or achievement in political activism, or how you have overcome and grown from an obstacle thrown to you by the political situation in your country.</p>
<p>b@r!um,thank you very much for the answers!They are really helpful.And yes,I thought about emphasizing how political situation influenced me,I’m not going to concentrate on the country in general.But what do you think,is it okay if my essay shows my patriotism towards my country?</p>
<p>Hey again!
I have another problem.In Belarus there’s 10-point system.10 and 9 are like an A,8 and 7 are like a B.My GPA is 8.8.What’s the equivalent of it in 4.0 system?I’m so confused.I don’t know whether my GPA is good and strong for US colleges.Can anybody help me?</p>
<p>Don’t convert your grades, it’s useless. The commonapp for councelors will have space for them to explain the scale anyways.</p>
<p>Also, I’m not sure why would you mail the recommendations. Commonapp allows your teachers and councelor(s) to submit everything online. That way it’s sealed by default - they will use school emails to get into the system in the first place.</p>
<p>I second adversa that you shouldn’t convert your grades on your college applications. Where it asks for your GPA, indicate your GPA as 8.8 on a 10-point scale. (American GPAs aren’t all on a 4.0-scale either. Many high schools weigh grades so that GPAs are actually out of 4.3 or 4.5 or 5.0, and some high schools don’t use letter grades at all. Percentage scales from 100% to 0% are popular too. That’s why there’s always space to explain what scale the GPA is on.)</p>
<p>If you did actually want to compute a GPA on a 4.0 scale for a purpose other than college applications, you would have to convert every grade individually and then average them. For example, a 9.0 GPA on your scale could turn into a 4.0 GPA if all grades were 9s, or a 3.5 GPA if half of the grades were 10s and the other half 8s. </p>
<p>
The absolute value of your grades doesn’t actually matter. What does matter is how you compare to your classmates. If you are at the top of your class, you have nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>(The same happens in American schools too. There are schools where the median GPA is 3.7 and others where the median is 2.8. A student’s GPA of 3.8 would mean different things at those two schools. In one school it would be barely above average, while in the other school it would be really really good. There’s no way of telling what a student’s GPA means without knowing something about the distribution of grades at their high school.)</p>
<p>Hey,CC people again!
I’m already in the process of preparing all documents and now I have one more question.
In CommonApp School Report they ask to list courses that i’m taking this year.But I’ve already graduated so what should I write there?N/A for every semester or just leave it blank?</p>
