If you want to study engineering and start in the 12th grade (rather than the 11th, as you should), you’ll start at a significant disadvantage because
1° your teachers will not know you, so your recommendation letters will have to be generic. Unless you only apply to less selective schools that do not require recommendations, that can be a problem. At highly selective colleges, one generic recommendation may get a pass, but not both letters, not to mention the SSR by your future GC.
2° colleges often base their decisions on your 11th grade results, as well as tests taken in the 11th grade. O’Levels will NOT make up for those. You can scramble and take the ACT in September + subject tests in October, then keep November/December for retakes and hope for the best, but nothing will make up for the fact that for state universities that don’t take into account your 12th grade (beside course selection), you will not have an 11th grade transcript.
3° Right now, you’re not very competitive for Engineering. You’d need to take precalculus, AP Calculus, AP Physics (preferably1 along precalc, and C along calc), plus either AP Chem or AP Bio, plus just for graduation US&Va history (an 11th grade course), World history OR geography, and Government. Finding a school that has Project Lead the Way would be good for a future engineering student.
4° Note that meeting HS graduation requirements is NOT sufficient to get into a college.
5° You won’t be able to apply ED anywhere, because there’s no way everything can be done right by the end of October. So, “skipping” to the 12th grade effectively makes you lose a significant advantage.
6° “Application season” goes from roughly July before senior year to December of senior year. This is the period when you’d be moving to the US, getting used to the culture, figuring out the social codes at your school, etc. It’s already extremely hard to handle school and applications for seniors who’ve been used to their school and know the town, the courses, the codes, etc, so I can’t imagine how someone who’d just arrived could pull it off.
In short, by trying to skip a year, you’ll create significant obstacles for yourself that may well make your getting into college extremely difficult.
MYO S1634 ill be 17 by the time i come to the US. ( O-levels are completed at age 16 so id be taking a step back if i got into 11th) Also, i’ll get a letter of recommendation from my school in Bangladesh. Also FP math is a bit more than precalc. Why haven’t you taken MY O-levels into account, like they have no value. O-levels are in between regular and AP courses. And if they dont have any value pls tell me why ? the subjects i have take are: eng. math B, pure math, phy, chem, bio, economics and computer studies. Thanks for all the time and effort you have put in
It’s not 17= automatic entrance into the 12th grade, it’s completed 11th grade= 12th grade (although if the student comes from another education system, the 11th grade can be repeated to give the student time to get used to the system etc.)
If you’re 17 when you get to the US, but only have O’Levels, you need to enter 11th grade (but could possibly start in the 10th since you weren’t educated in an American curriculum).
There are plenty of 17 year olds in the 11th grade.
I take your O’Levels into account and I tell you that for the purpose of college applications, IF you’re aiming at selective colleges, they’ll be regarded as the equivalent of 10th grade. A STRONG 10th grade for sure (you’d get the “most challenging” mark for curriculum rigor for sure), but 10th grade nevertheless.
There are kids who take AP European History and AP Calculus in the 10th grade. It doesn’t make them 12th graders - just advanced 10th graders who can hope to get into top colleges. Besides, it’s much better than being an “ordinary” 12th grader.
Does that match what you’ve studied?
=> find @UCBAlumnus (on this website) and ask him what course this would correspond to in the US, in terms of regular/Honors and Algebra2, Precalculus, calculus, AP Stats…
The ideal for you then would be to do Calc AB or BC in the 11th grade, and further math in the 12th.
@naveed99, I’m guessing that you go to a very elite school in Bangladesh. It can be hard when your school (and environment) tells you how great you/your education are to have outsiders seem to discount it (it happens to people who go to similar schools in the US as well).
17 is a very normal age for grade 11, and you would be 2 school years away from finishing secondary school in Bangladesh or the UK, so going in to grade 11 would not be taking a step back.
A lot of posters on College Confidential are looking to go to the more competitive colleges, so some of the responders here are presuming that is what you are interested in doing. MYOS1634 is a well informed and helpful poster, with good familiarity of the UK & US systems. You may not like his views, but he is likely to be on the right track.
However, here is a good way to help with placement when you get to the US: sign up for the Math 2, Physics and Chemistry SAT II Subject tests on June 6. They are being offered at the Chittagong Grammar School, the International School (Dhaka), Green Dale International School and Notre Dame College. If you were in 10th or 11th grade in the US (some 9th grade students sit them as well), you would be sitting them as part of the college application process. Students looking at competitive colleges do not consider them difficult, but colleges (including UK universities) see strong scores as a good thing.
You can only take 3 in one sitting (they are 1 hour each, all multiple choice); the ones I suggested are relevant to engineering, and are ones that you are already studying. You can register online, and there are practice tests online as well (not a lot though- and the only practice book I am aware of is big & heavy, b/c includes every subject test). They are very straightforward tests though- no tricky stuff.
I like the suggestion above to take the SAT 2 tests, especially in math as it will expose any gaps in your knowledge. Unfortunately, I do think if you want to get into a competitive college, you will need the 2 years for all the reasons mentioned in this thread:
–making your your math is advanced enough (you probably are a whiz in some advanced things, but may have gaps in areas the US deals with in lower grades)
—US History and/or Govt reqs
—recs from counselors and teachers (yes, you may be able to use one from your current school, but you will still need at least one from your US school, and you need time to make an impression)
My situation is really not a good example for you (now that I really examine it)—I completed 9th and 10th grade in the US, took one year in the UK system, and then when I went BACK to the US system, they weren’t going to make me enter as a junior and just discount what I had done as a 5th year (because I had learned something and taken the O levels to prove it). I didn’t have reqs to fulfill because I had already filled them in my first 2 years US.
And I previously mentioned that it did screw me up as far as math—if I had stayed in the US system, I would have been on track to take calculus senior year. I enrolled in calc, thinking I would be fine, and had NO CLUE what they were talking about the first day. I had to go back to Trig/Analytic Geometry. No big whoop for me, but definitely might have been a problem if I was looking to study engineering as you are.
In short—I think your best bet is to either take the 2 years in Bangladesh for A levels, or be prepared to take 2 years here. This will make you the most competitive candidate in the long run, even if you find it frustrating now.
Updated info: 1. O-level pure math goes through american calculus
2. im studying for the SAT now
3. My school in Bangladesh will give me my 11th grade results + letter of recommendation
I plan to take AP calc phy and chem when i come
SO what do yall think my chances are getting into a college as good as or better than virginia tech
thanks in advance
Still not good if you insist on doing 12th grade only. You give yourself extra hurdles by doing that. It’s got nothing with what level you’ve reached already, but what level you’d reach in the 2 years you’d have. If you already have Calc1, take Calc BC junior year then take differential equations and linear algebra at a nearby college as a 12th grader, and have the strongest possible application. Same thing with Physics. Take AP English Language and work on a foreign language, start French or Spanish or Latin.
O-Level is NOT 11th grade, it’s 10th grade. Advanced but still 10th grade.
By the way, as far as colleges go, it would look MUCH better if it turned out you’d completed calculus in 10th grade than in 11th grade.
You’re playing Russian roulette here, assuming you’ll be able to do in 3 months what takes others a long time, ie., conduct a college search, write college essays, prepare for standardized tests, build ECs and a relationship with teachers (because you WILL have to use your American Guidance Counselor and at least one American teacher for recommendations), all while taking classes in an unfamiliar format and getting As, not to mention that you’d have less time to construct the best academic profile that you possibly can showing the absolute most demanding work you’re capable of handling - on top of that, dealing with culture shock.
If you can handle calculus in 10th grade, then you should be able to handle all-dual-enrollment in the 12th grade if you cover the necessary classes in the 11th grade, and that would look much better. I don’t understand the hurry to skip a grade, considering you could build a much better application AND get college credits for free if you dual enrolled and/or took a bunch of AP classes.
"SO what do yall think my chances are getting into a college as good as or better than
virginia tech?
NOT good! In fact they are very poor.
OP,
It would be far BETTER for YOU to complete BOTH 11th and 12th grades here in the US for 2 reasons:
Your 11th grade classes and grades are the MOST important ones on your transcript. If you can PROVE you are qualified for college, with great grades and the ALL IMPORTANT letters of recommendations from your 11th grade teachers, it will help to validate your earlier education and transcript from India. An additional year living here in the US will also allow you time to visit colleges here during your Jr year. There are lots of other colleges here that you may like OR have a better chance of acceptance at besides VTech.
THERE is NO benefit to you rushing to get into college and in fact, your haste may very well backfire on you .
“You’re playing Russian roulette here, assuming you’ll be able to do in 3 months what takes others a long time, ie., conduct a college search, write college essays, prepare for standardized tests, build ECs and a relationship with teachers (because you WILL have to use your American Guidance Counselor and at least one American teacher for recommendations), all while taking classes in an unfamiliar format and getting As, not to mention that you’d have less time to construct the best academic profile that you possibly can showing the absolute most demanding work you’re capable of handling - on top of that, dealing with culture shock.”
MYOS1634 is telling you the TRUTH.
Listen to him!!!
Take the SAT 2 s like suggested above in Chem, Physics and Math2 in June. See how you do. You will need them anyway for application to selective colleges. And then you will see how your previous knowledge stacks up.
That just covers science and math.
For a well rounded applicant you also need advanced classes in English, foreign language, social science. And ECs.
Also you need time to catch up with the history requirements and getting to know your teachers before you apply to colleges.
Also the schools you are interested in need to be affordable, many top schools only give need based aid.
So do you guys think i will be OK if I finish studying for the SAT 2s in physics chem and math before i come to the US ?
BTW i want to study engineering
The test is in about a month, so yes you’d have to study before you come to the US. It’d give you an idea of where you stand, prove your strengths to your future HS, and give you a chance to compare American vs. British approaches to these subjects.
However, SAT 2 scores will NOT make up for “skipping” 11th grade.
Why are you in such a rush to finish high school? Is it because you will have to be living with relatives, and just want to get out of that house as quickly as possible?
@Bopper had a great suggestion!
Find an IB school (there are many in VA), taking Math HL, Physics HL, then subjects from Economics, English, a foreign language, and one more, with three of those SL (or, if you really want to push yourself, 2 of those SL and 2 HL), plus TOK, etc. That’d be plenty challenging even with your current schedule and would make you competitive for US colleges.
OP, lots of knowledgeable parents here are giving u the same good advice. For competitive US college admissions, strategically it it is undesirable to start at a new school in the 12th grade. In fact, the top private HS’s in the US will not even admit domestic students for the 12th grade. It is very common for students entering elite college preparatory high schools to REPEAT a year to preposition themselves for the college admissions cycle.
Are you just sticking around on this thread until someone tells u what u WANT to hear?
It is not like you are really repeating anything. You are coming into an US school, a different educational system and in order to graduate here you need to make up some history and maybe English requirements. Also grades from 11 th grade are very important and the transcript from 11th grade is used for college applications. You also need to work on SAT, college applications and get to know the teachers so they can write good recomnendations. This all hapens here in 11th grade. So it’s crucial that you have that.
Ok, I talked to my principal yesterday and asked her what I could do about almost everything you guys said that would not allow me to get into 12th grade.
She told me that:
(i) I will get a letter of recommendation from BD which might say that I am capable of handling AP courses.
(ii)IGCSE courses are = to high school courses( e.g. IGCSE physics = high school physics).
(iii) I can start studying for the SAT subject tests now in Math, Physics and CHEM.
So if the information above is true will it be possible for me to enter 12th grade after completing IGCSEs. I know that I will not be able to take as many APs as my peers in HS but isn’t the university going to consider the fact that I have studied in a small private school in my junior and sophomore year. N.B. I want to get into the Virginia Tech School of Engineering.
