As a Swedish international student can someone please explain how GPA points works? I don’t understand because when I’m applying for university 2017 I haven’t finished high school yet which means I still have lots of points to collect from classes and it won’t be on my GPA that I send to the universities I’m applying to.
How does this work? Will they get my other half of points when I’ve already made it to the university?
Schools might ask for mid-year grades or end-of-year grades even after you’ve submitted the application. Usually it won’t matter, but some schools can rescind acceptances if your grades drop drastically during your last year.
I think I kinda get what you are asking. Colleges generally ask for applications half a year before your graduation date.
Your school or your counselor, whoever does this, will generally give the colleges your current grades (like whatever the college wants because some will ask for freshman grades and sophomore grades or weighted and unweighted grades). They will also give them your ‘predicted grades’ for your final year. Based on your current performance in school. I think this is what you were talking about.
But if you have a significant drop in academic record, as MITer94 has mentioned above, colleges that have accepted you based on your grades and predicted grades may rescind acceptance. This is generally the reason why most of the seniors in my school are working their ass off right now and are waiting desperately for their honeymoon which is soon to come. (After getting accepted into college)
I hope I answered what you asked for… I’m answering everything based on what my counselor has told me before and this may not apply to your case. But I am confident that it is similar to what may happen. (Personally, I would not rely on my analysis as I am still a sophomore and quite unsure of the admissions process myself. But I have a pretty good idea since I snoop around my school’s office a lot aka admissions territory)
Cheers.
Maybe you could clarify your question…
You refer to " having points", but a GPA is your “Grade Point Average”. It’s not the accumulation of points, but rather the average of your grades. A typical scenario is 4 points for an A, 3 points for a B, 2 points for C and 1 point for a D. If you only took two classes and got an A in one and a B in the other your GPA would be 3.5. (3 + 4 = 7 , 7/2 = 3.5).
So at any given time you do have a GPA and this is what the colleges look at (or more specifically, they look at your transcript and the actual grades you got). Now, it is true, that when you apply to schools you have not completed all your classes (there just wouldn’t be enough time for the admissions process otherwise!). Colleges will look at the grades you have (including your first semester of senior year which is part of your "mid-year report) and the classes you are currently enrolled in to determine whether to admit you. As the others mentioned, colleges can rescind an acceptance if you do poorly after an offer of admission has been made. The college you decide to attend will require that you send a final transcript when you finish school.
By the way – GPAs are crazy things and can have different meanings at different schools. Some schools give values to -/+ grades, some schools have a scaling of 5, some schools weight AP classes and even how they weight them varies by school. So when you see a number from a student, you can’t be sure exactly what that means—especially a “weighted” GPA.
You send a calculated average of your CURRENT grades when you apply. Since there is only a half a year left, that average shouldn’t change very much by the time you graduate.
Also, keep in mind, that big American universities used to international applicants are familiar with different school systems, including Sweden’s. They can assess your academic performance within the appropriate Swedish context.
Thank you all very much! Now I understand much better Applying as an international student is such a difficult process!