<p>I’ve been wondering this for a while now; why is the American college application system so different to other countries. To my knowledge, it is the only country that takes ECs to account, one of the last to take GPA seriously, the most flawed and brief tests, and probably the most racist. So why is it this way? When did colleges start looking at extra curricular activities? Why does America still look at GPA, and why aren’t they making strides towards a more “in-context” approach? Sure there are some systems in place that are strides better than other countries (class flexibility, availability, and second chances in the form of community colleges).</p>
<p>First of all, EC’s are pretty irrelevant to the majority of colleges–don’t confuse the CC universe with the real world. Second, how would you like students evaluated, if not on their past performance in class (GPA) and by objective comparison to their peers (standardized test scores)? Are you aware that an applicant’s high school GPA is the best predictor of college success? Are you also aware that in many countries, entry to college is determined by what track you were placed in as a child or what governmental official you are related to or pay off?</p>
<p>In most other countries, only a select few students attend college. </p>
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<p>America is unique in the popularity of college </p>
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<p>First of all, I’d like to note that gpa is not that closely linked with success in college. If you go to an easy high school and difficult college your gpas could be very far apart. Or if you slacked in hs/had a bad year that affected your gpa, you college gpa could be way higher. Personally, my hs gpa around .3 below my college’s admitted average yet I currently have one of the highest gpas in my college year. </p>
<p>To answer your question, op, my guess would be that colleges work in a very different way in the US. Most European countries have “paths” you take, sort of like majors but you decide earlier. The first choice, which happens in high school, is whether you want a math/science or humanities course of study. From there you pick a few specific subjects to learn and at some countries you end up dropping one before you graduate. College in some European countries is including in the taxes you pay (eg Sweden) so college is “free”. This path you have decided to take has a lot to do with what school you go to. And while you still apply, it’s a very different process highly dependent on your success in that field of study. There are still private schools but the school system sets you up on a path through college that all tax payers fund. </p>
<p>The US, on the other hand, does not have public schooling through college and schools can offer monetary incentives to both professors and students (gov covers the paycheck at these European and other universities). Some schools can afford the better professors, making them more desirable and results in people willing to pay a higher cost for a better education. But professors can’t just teach anybody and the school needs good statistics to keep as many people interested in attending so it has to use a wide selection process that can cover different bases and make the school look “better” or “smarter”. Colleges use gpas and test scores because they are two forms of supposedly measuring intelligence (although if you go to a testing heavy school and tests are your weakness you could easily be a lot smarter than your gpa and test scores show). Extra curriculars (and to some point the racism you mentioned) add to the diversity of a school. </p>
<p>Does that make sense? This is just what I’ve observed/heard from my European friends.</p>
<p>American colleges don’t want people who study all day and do nothing else. They value academics and GPA very highly. The academic standards are very high when you look at the top college’s GPA and test averages.</p>
<p>They want to see well rounded students who will actually do something in their society. The goal is not to “study to get in college”, but “get in a college so I can do something with the future.”</p>
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<p>A higher proportion of Canadians than Americans have degrees, and their application process is more like Europe than the US, with statistics like test scores and grades carrying all the weight.</p>
<p>I dont get the importance of GPA…
- Varies completely from school to school, For example it is a joke to get a 4.3 in my HS (competitive public), while in the private school I used to attend 1 person in the last 10 year had a 4.0UW.
- Gives each class equal weight; for example if you are on track to be an engineering major shouldnt math & science classes be given more weight than english or foreign language
- Penalizes progression. I personally raised my W GPA by more than a point from my freshman& sophomore year in my JR year. So although I had a great Jr. year my cumulative is still in the dumps
- System is gamed, our schools current #1 student is famous for gaming the system. Takes the “easy” APs and takes the hard ones online, misses the days of tests & big assignments, coppies HW, and flat out cheats on tests. Yet this person in #1, but looking at his/her SAT (1900) scores shows that they are not as capable as the grades may suggest.</p>
<p>But grades in other countries are often calculated differently. If you look at both Canadian and UK universities, they are very specific about what grades they want, e.g. not just "gpa of . . . " but “score of at least X in physics and math”. </p>
<p>In addition, in England at least, nationwide tests play a much bigger role in grades, so things are more standardized.</p>
<p>The American higher education system is a lot different. Instead of picking a major at the beginning (or long before ever getting to college) and basically having a set course of study, most American programs take a broader approach. There’s much more of a focus on creativity, critical thinking, and doing something other than just studying than there is in many other countries.</p>
<p>There’s a reason people come to the U.S. from all over the world for higher education. America excels at higher education but still needs a lot of improvement with everything before that point (that said, there’s more to measuring educational performance than tests–rote memorization doesn’t result in creativity, innovation, and ingenuity).</p>
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<p>You’re right. GPA alone is meaningless. Different schools calculate it differently and have different grading systems. GPA is useful in the context of the student’s transcript and high school.</p>
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2. Gives each class equal weight; for example if you are on track to be an engineering major shouldnt math & science classes be given more weight than english or foreign language
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<p>Colleges don’t really want you to only be good at one thing. A broad range of knowledge is useful.</p>
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<p>No. Your grades improved, so your GPA improved as well. Your grades are overall still worse than someone who did not improve because he/she already had the highest grades on the scale; your GPA appropriately reflects that.</p>
<p>Further, admissions committees like to see upward trends and will generally count that in your favor. They don’t just look at the GPA; they look at the transcript as a whole to put the GPA in context.</p>
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<p>This is true at some schools. It is not true at others. And colleges, unlike formulas, can see through someone doing this. They can see the test scores and the transcript, and guess what–students like these are often rejected in favor of lower-ranked students from the same high school. It sometimes works in high school; it doesn’t work in admissions.</p>
<p>Also, just because some students manage to game the system doesn’t mean the system doesn’t do its job in general.</p>
<p>The big reason why ECs and such have importance at the most selective colleges in the US is that large numbers of applicants to the most selective colleges present near-maximum academic credentials. This is not as much of an issue at less selective colleges, which consider ECs and such less or not at all.</p>
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<p>High school GPA, as mediocre a predictor of college success as it is (due to such things as inconsistency in rigor and grading standards at different high schools), is generally better than other things like standardized test scores and non-academic criteria.</p>
<p>Well, to my knowledge Ireland is simply submitting your leaving cert scores (3 week long version of the sat subject tests) along with your top three desired majors to colleges without even your name. Would three weeks of standardized test as opposed to three hours not be more accurate? In India they have a similar approach but the test is taken earlier. At least to my knowledge. And if it is going to be something to decide the rest of our lives wouldnt it be better if it were completely accurate? </p>
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<p>“And if it is going to be something to decide the rest of our lives wouldnt it be better if it were completely accurate?”</p>
<p>There is no such thing as a “completely accurate” assessment. There just are a whole bunch of different assessment methodologies that reveal some fraction of your ability to do X or Y. The better assessments rely on actual performance of the behavior under assessment in a practical, true life situation that elicits that behavior - for example, those large scale disaster re-creations where all of the emergency personnel in a given city spend a day acting as though the disaster under study has actually occurred. One morning (or three days) of formal pencil and paper (or online) tests is a very weak imitation of the real-life college experience that includes (among others) lab work, quizzes, exams, oral presentations, long papers, short papers, theatrical performances, physical education activities, field work, etc.</p>
<p>The single best indicator for all measures of college success (first year GPA, final GPA, first year completion, graduation in four years, etc.) is the high school transcript. That is to say the courses a student has taken in high school and the grades earned in those courses. That is why colleges and universities in the US put primary emphasis on your high school work. Collectively, these institutions have thousands (yes you read that right, thousands) of years of experience in evaluating high school transcripts and choosing the most promising students for admission. The SAT and ACT add very little to the equation. Some would argue that they add nothing at all. For fun reading on that topic, see [The</a> National Center for Fair & Open Testing | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org%5DThe”>http://www.fairtest.org)</p>
<p>Look, I dont know where you get thousands and think oh, thays a big #. America has only been around for a few hundred years. There are literally rugs in Ireland older than this country still completely intact and useable. There are millions of other great unstitutions of hogher leatning outside the us which individually have been around for thousands of years! Trinity college of Dublin, Cambridge, Oxford, etc. </p>
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<p>And if it is like that than should it at least not be standardized? I go to a school where you can succeed only if you are interested in the humanities, as that is all we really learn. And yet, I plan on majoring in mathematics. Dont get me wrong I have a 4.7 but still!</p>
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<p>On the other hand, eliminating standardized tests (which do appear to have some predictive power on college performance, but less than high school grades) would likely lead to even more watering down of high school courses and more high school grade inflation.</p>
<p>Other countries can avoid needing standardized tests because high school courses are more standardized. For example, a given grade in a specific math course at one high school means the same as the same grade in the same math course at another high school.</p>
<p>What country are you talking about? </p>
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<p>Even if you dislike the American university system, it’s indubitable fact that we have the most highly regarded tertiary institutions in the world, even according to studies conducted by other countries. Obviously, our colleges have been doing something right this past century.</p>
<p>ECs are heavily weighted because they can demonstrate impetus, determination, or talents that can’t be quantified in a standardized test. </p>
<p>GPA is not always a reliable indicator of academic merit, mostly because of private schools and the wide discrepancy between public schools. Anything lower than a 4.0 will hurt your chances of admission to a top college, however.</p>
<p>You think our standardized test are unfair? In China and Australia, you only get ONE chance to take your college entrance examination. I think that I’d much rather choose the American system.</p>