<p>Hi,
I was wondering if my chances at Princeton would improve significantly if I repeated Yr 12 for an year. This year I was unable to attend school for a few months due to illness, so I missed out on large amounts of school work, and was forced to drop a few subjects, so my school marks are very bad.
This year:
Although my school, in Australia, is extremely competitive and consistently comes 1st in the state and is regarded as being academically the best over Australia, my rank in my year is very, very poor - about 80th in 200 people. ‘Guidance counselor’ had to say this in her form - will it completely ruin my chances of getting in?
I haven’t done my SATs yet, but I expect to get a score of ~2300 in my SAT subject Tests.
My ECs range from playing tennis and swimming on a weekly basis, playing guitar, teaching Maths Olympiad classes to younger students, being VP of the school philosophy club, being involved in Math Olympiad activities, participating in a Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme (involves a range of activities, and a hike), Streamwatch (school activity), and Young Achievement Australia (running a virtual business on the internet for a few months).
My main academic honors is doing very well in a variety of Maths Olympiad competitions, and going overseas to represent my country in the International Maths Olympiad, a very prestigious competitions, in 2005 and 2006 - getting a Bronze Medal both times.
If I repeat school one more year:
I expect my rank will improve from 80th to 20th.
If I’m lucky, I might be able to raise a potential SATs of 2300 to 2350.
I’ll be able to do some APs for Maths, Physics, Chemistry.
I’ll be able to do a couple more ECs.
I’ll be able to get a few more academic honors: most important of which, is hopefully, a Silver Medal in the International Maths Olympiad in addition to the Bronze’s I’ve got previously. </p>
<p>Will these additions improve my chances at Princeton somewhat? Or is it worthless to repeat Year 12, hoping that my chances for Princeton would Improve?</p>
<p>The main question is-how will your school treat your repeating the 12th grade? Will they report all 5 years? Will they let you wipe this bad year off the record? What does you counselor advise? At some of the best boarding schools in the US, many students repeat their freshman year, in order to have more advanced classes show up on their transcript [the first freshman year is not shown on the transcript]. And has your school allowed other students to repeat years in order to improve their record?</p>
<p>I’m sure my school will let me repeat, and wipe this bad year off my record, seeing as I missed several months of schoolwork. My counselor advises me to not repeat, and go to an Australian uni, seeing as repeating would be thoroughly boring. My school has allowed previous students to repeat. As far as I know though, my years 7-11 do not have to be filled in within any form that is part of the application, they only want information on my last year of high school.
So will my chances improve?</p>
<p>“they only want information on my last year of high school.” Who is they?Princeton? Princeton requires your complete high school transcript, not just your last year. And I would verify and get it in writing that your current year would in fact be stricken from the record a year from now if you were to repeat a year. But regardless, your chances at Princeton are going to be no better than any other highly qualified international student- approx. 1 in 10, so have some other safety colleges on your list as well.</p>
<p>“Princeton requires your complete high school transcript, not just your last year”. </p>
<p>Really? How so? In which form do they require my complete high school transcript? I don’t think the International Secondary Schools Report required the counselor to attach my complete transcript, though there were some questions about my rank in yr 12; so which form requires my whole transcript?</p>
<p>I’ve already applied to a few safety colleges in my country.</p>
<p>A Secondary School Report (SSR) and transcript. Please ask your high school counselor or other school official to complete and submit an SSR form along with an official transcript by January 1. This form is available as part of the complete paper Admission Application or separately as a downloadable PDF.</p>
<p>All colleges I know of require a complete transcript.</p>
<p>Thanks greenblue. All colleges in the US require a complete [4 years] HS transcript. That was why I was asking if/ how your school would make this year “disappear” on your transcript.</p>
<p>because of your medals from IMO, I think you have a very good chance at Princeton this year, too. But repeating a year will put a big question mark on your application, no matter the reason.</p>
<p>I think your chances are quite good (despite being 80/200) but only because of your IMO medals. I feel like they would much prefer you taking a gap year and doing something interesting rather than doing a year of high school. And I think you should prefer a gap year doing something interesting over redoing a year of hs.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who replied for their help.
About the idea of taking a gap year, I think there still is the problem of my rank being 80th, since the guidance counselor would have to fill in my rank for my last year of high school, so I think that would still carry the same bad impression. I’m also not too enthusiastic about the idea of taking a gap year, since I would probably find it boring and would rather go to an Australian university next year. </p>
<p>So if I was able to wipe this bad year from my transcript (I’m not sure if it’s possible, but if it is), would it be worthwhile repeating in the hope that my chances would improve, given my rank improved? Would the fact that I repeated yr 12 give an overly bad impression? </p>
<p>To 1of42: what do you suggest I write in the ‘Additional Information’ section?</p>
<p>“Would the fact that I repeated yr 12 give an overly bad impression?”</p>
<p>Yes, I think this would actually hurt you quite a bit. A post-graduate year is one thing, repeating a year just to raise your gpa and actually redoing the same courses is another.</p>