or is it
5 igcse’s is the minimum requirement number, many applicants will have more. It may seem good, or normal, at your school, so context will be important, but just be aware it’ll look minimal comared to students with 8-10, which is very common for students who apply to US universities.
UC’s don’t distinguish between A and A* for GPA conversion AND admission (two different things).
For instance, they clearly state they just want “A grades” for everything, no distinction between A and A*, but do not consider igcse’s sufficient, so ask them whether igcse’s + 1 year of APs is sufficient (unless you have 2years, because they want to see 2 years after igcse’s).
“Students who have completed the IGCSE or O-level exams have not yet met the requirements for admission evaluation at UC Berkeley. The university requires further study, either completion of the 2-year A-level program with a minimum of 3 academic exams, the IB diploma program, or another similar academic curriculum. (Most A-Level students who apply to UC Berkeley anticipate receiving A marks on their exams.)”
http://admissions.berkeley.edu/internationalrequirements
or
Students who have attended school under the British system must present five GCSE/Ordinary-Level examinations and at least three Advanced-Level examinations with superior grades. Results of Advanced-Subsidiary or Higher-Level exams should also be submitted.
https://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/intl.htm
However you also listed Princeton, MIT, etc… and those do like to see AAA or AA*A at A Level (as in “nudge”, not “hook”) for admission purpose.
Malcolmx99 refers to “Option2”, which is specific to MIT.
http://mitadmissions.org/apply/international/intltests
@MYOS1634 so i dont need sat to apply to mit toefl is enough i got 119 in toefl without studying
so i take 2 sat subjects and im in
haha it cant be thatt easy
You’re right, it’s not that easy. It’s the minimum to be * considered *… not admitted.
MIT will admit the 150most exceptional international applicants out of about 4,000. All 4,000meet the minimum requirements then have done something exceptional. They may be a fencing champion, or a recorded soloist, or that kid who built the pancreatic cancer detection tool, or the international Google fair winner…
@MYOS1634 Are there any other universities that dont need sat and are in top 50 or in california
@MYOS1634 I strongly disagree with you on GCSE’s simply because it is only 6 core subjects that actually matter(English lang., English lit., Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Physics). I don’t think your at a major disadvantage even when compared to someone with 8-10 GCSEs because most of the time you just take the GCSEs your school/sixth form college offer and a lot of colleges only offer courses for 6-7 GCSEs. I think A levels matter the most and If you are a student predicted 4-6 A* on your A levels I doubt MIT could care less about your GCSEs in addition to this you could ace the SAT/ACT test and take additional sat subject tests. The point is a lot of student have As on GCSEs but a much lower percentile have A on A levels. Actually only 2.2% of student taking 3 A levels get 3 A*s according to a recent report by Cambridge assessment of 82% of all A level students. Therefore if your in the top percentile for A levels you shouldn’t care about the number of GCSEs that you have (as long as you have 6 GCSEs at least).
@Ali1302 is 5 enough
^ a typical way is indeed to weigh the 3 A Levels more than the IGCSE’s. Furthermore in your example you have the rather extreme case of someone have 4-6 A’s at A-Level, when most students will have 4 AS and 3 A2, although clearly for top schools you see 4-6 AS and 4 A2. However, OP doesn’t have A-Levels so the point is moot.
5 igcse is the minimum. In other words, no, it’s probably not enough, unless the student has other exceptional qualities. But if that student shows s/he can handle a full A-Level program and get A’s or the equivalent in Ap’s and get 5’s ( 7-8 APs over 2 years - typically, 1 A level = 2 APs, 1 AS = 1 AP) then it wouldn’t matter much whether that student has 5 or 8, especially is the SSR explains that taking the minimal 5 is school policy.
This sentence should be qualified with “for students who wish to study STEM in the UK”.
If your goal is to study American Studies, or Law, or PPE, then the above igcse’s are not “core”.
For the US, core subjects are: English, Maths, Foreign Language, Science, Social Science/History; an art (music, orchestra, photography…) class is considered good and can be a requirement for some universities too.
26:
Yes, Northeastern only requires the TOEFL + national boards (igcse+ ALevel for instance), as do NYU and Elon. All three are excellent universities.
@MYOS1634 You’re assuming that all GCSE courses are accessible to students when at many sixth form colleges or certain schools sometimes only offer 6-8 GCSEs. I don’t think you should worry about GCSEs if you have 3 A* prediction at A level. If it’s that worrying then individual can add a little diversity in their A level subject choice or take additional AS level subjects or sat subject tests.
APs are weaker than A levels. Someone who can get 3 A* to 4 A* in their A levels is within the top 2% of students in the UK. If someone takes 4 A levels and an AS level and gets 4A* and one A in AS then they are in the top 1% of students. that’s the type of student that could be successful applying to MIT or when applying to Ivies.
@Donthatejust There are many top test flexible universities in the us I’m applying to one myself although I would choose to submit my test scores.
Here’s a link showing the complete list of test flexible/optional universities:
http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional
Ali, I agree that 3A* places one in a terrific position that obviates the number of GCSE’s taken.
However, most 3A* students were also star pupils in Year 11 and took more than the 5 basic GCSE’s.
But here, OP DOES NOT have 3A*'s. It looks like he has B’s (based on what he wrote) at school
and is not preparing ALevels.
I don’t know any public comprehensive, free, or independent school that only offers 6-8 gcse subjects although that may very well be the case - except, again, that OP doesn’t attend one of these schools.
OP said he attended a Sabis school and while s/he didn’t provide a link, I looked it up, and these are private/independent schools in many countries, with excellent academic offerings - they even request students take some GCSE’s during Year 10 so that they can focus on more advanced GCSE’s in Year 11.
Directing OP to fairtest is a good idea. Here’s a list of top-tiers that don’t require the SAT (although they may require SAT Subject tests).
@MYOS1634 i am not sending any of my high school transcripts so these is how my appliciation will be
5 igcse all As
6 APs predicted
3 SAT subject test 700+ each
SAT score of about 2100
and of course 10+ activites directed to my major
with a world class essay
^^^ @Ali1302
@MYOS1634 Please duly note that the sabis school only offers 1 or 2 igcse in gr10 and 3 or 4 igcse in gr 11
They also have their own high school diploma which is appreantly recognized enough to replace igcse and aps
Alevels are not an option as i will have to stay until year 13 and i cannot do that i need to graduate this year so dont mind the Bs in year 10 and 11 as they are not going to be considered in application basically im not sending sabis diploma
^ wrong information
@MYOS1634 There are many low ranked public schools/sixth form colleges that only offer 6-8 GCSE’s. Also a lot of GCSEs offered at schools are pretty irrelevant subjects. For instance PE, Art, Religious studies, food and nutrition, some other foreign non european languages(Japanese/chinese). Do these subjects really matter in the real world? Do universities actually care whether or not you took such subjects at school? I doubt it. I personally took ten with unusual subjects like economics, commerce,global citizenship
As I said before if you have at least the 6 main GCSEs (Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, English language and English literature) you’re at no disadvantage. If OP has the equivalent of 3A* on their A levels or at least AAA then this would matter a lot more than mere GCSEs.
@Donthatejust I think you have good stats, I realize that you go to an international school in the UK were I suspect a large percentage apply abroad. Could you list your extracurriculars in detail so I could get an idea of how competitive an applicant you are?
Simply based on academics I would take a few more APs and aim for a higher SAT score( 2250+ for Ivies aswell as Caltech and MIT). You seem like a match at Most UCs assuming you actually get a 2100+ sat score and mostly 5s and nothing below a 4 on your APs. An estimate of your gpa would be good but make sure it’s an unweighted gpa estimate as in you take the grades as they are. If you have a 2100+ sat score and 3.9+ unweighted gpa you have a very good chance of getting into most if not all UCs as well as Michigan and Georgia tech.