<p>Everyone knows the routine with college admissions in the US. GPA, SATs, class rank, teachers applications, early decision, most of us have heard these before. </p>
<p>But I’m curious to know how it is like in other countries, like Japan or England or China. Anybody know?</p>
<p>In China, at the end of the year all the high school seniors take the same National Exam in all subject areas - language, classics, math, physics, chem, political science (aka memorizing CCP propaganda), etc. And that score = your fate. Colleges each year would take a look at the overall score pool and draw their lines, so if you have a score above that line, you’re in at the school you apply.</p>
<p>Also, students don’t apply to a dozen schools like they do here. Basically you send your score report to your First Choice school first, and if you don’t get in, the score then get passed onto your Second Choice, and then trickles down to Third Choice, etc. The hook is, however, that if you aimed at a really good school for your First Choice and didn’t get in, then the chances of you getting into a good school for Second Choice is low, as they tend to fill their classes with people who picked them as a first choice. And the same thing might happen to your Third Choice school, and Fourth Choice, etc… So basically if you don’t set a realistic first choice school, you’re screwed. The good thing is that you’ll know your score before you apply, and that a good score meant guaranteed entrance. The bad thing is that you don’t know where the line for the scores is being drawn this year.</p>
<p>New Zealand
High school transcript. That’s it.</p>
<p>If looking for a scholarship, leadership and awards and volunteering. But no one really cares about scholarships because you can easily get a loan from the bank and i think there’s is very very very very little to none interest. Plus, it’s really cheap. Couple of thousands.
There’s even a university here that’s zero fees.
No one really does ECs here because it’s not needed for uni. The average student would probably play a sport for the school, or an inactive memeber of some random club.</p>
<p>Korea
All your school life, you basically prep yourself for the national exam. If you’re score’s good enough, you are in your university. If you’re score’s really really bad, tough titties, goodbye school.</p>
<p>wow!</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing guys. Very insightful.</p>
<p>Japan:
Take one nationally standardized exam with three core (Mathematics I/II/III, English, and Japanese (called national language)) and four optional (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, World History, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, among other topics which I can’t recall); recieve averaged score. Based on predetermined cutoffs published in papers like Mainichi Shimbun, apply to a specific major at college. If one is determined good enough, an exam ticket will be sent to you detailing the place of the specific exam for the major and university. Take the second exam; if one meets whatever criteria the major sets down (only top 700 applicants, or whatever) then one gains admission. If one fails, one must wait another year and do it all over again. Such students are called ronin.</p>
<p>China is similar, but I believe they have to take three core (Chinese, Math, English) and select two from the remaining 12 subjects-and then each score, based on a 200-900 scale, is averaged to get an index that is matched with cutoff.
However, I am not privy to rest of the process. The information I do know was garnered from observing the process during my exchange with a HS Senior II.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s really hit or miss in Japan and China.</p>
<p>^ I think that’s why Asian parents focus so much on studies and the SAT of their kids - the importance of standardized tests invokes memories of their old days.</p>
<p>Canada</p>
<p>As in New Zealand, all you need is a high school transcript. And you can finish most of your applications in 5 minute online - you just order your transcript to be sent to this and that university. For some programs, you’ll have to write an easy or some shorter questions; however those are still not too onorous and applying is still a breeze compared to American universities.</p>
<p>Hong Kong
(British system Warning)</p>
<p>Hong Kong uses British system exams (bound to change from 2012) and the HK A-Level exam is nearly the sole determinator of admission decisions, although interviews is needed and being counted for some majors.</p>
<p>Hong Kong, like China, also uses a joint admission system (one application to all programmes called JUPAS), but, unlike the trickling method used in China, where colleges decide the absolute score line for admission, Hong Kong, as a city of merchants, based the totally computer-based system on a demand-and-supply model.</p>
<p>First, we fill in an online form with 30 ordered choices in December, and give a short essay. After A-Level results are out in early July, we have a chance to change the priorities. Then there comes the most difficult part: “calculating” which program (Note: Students chose individual programmes not school) each student would go.</p>
<p>To simplifiy: We first order the student applied for the programme by results. Suppose the program has x places, then we first draw a provisional line after the xth students who have the first choice. Then by a process that I have yet understand, students above that line are allocated according to merit and priority. The output is merely: a student number and a programme code. Those having no offers at all wouldn’t even be listed.</p>
<p>For your viewing pleasure, the Flash .exe prepared from the JUPAS office showing the process of this computation: <a href=“http://www.jupas.edu.hk/jupas/download/iteration_english.exe[/url]”>http://www.jupas.edu.hk/jupas/download/iteration_english.exe</a></p>