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Which one is more important - transcript or predicted grades + SAT?


norsul

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Hi guys,

I've just found out that American Universities require you to submit a transcript (i.e. the grades you received while studying before the finals) and that this is a rather important document. I thought that only things like the predicted grades and SAT's are the big deal (and of course extracurriculars, but I'm talking about academic achievement right now). The problem with this is that I'm applying to ivies and they probably have applicants with excellent transcripts, but my average results from the first year were little above mediocre:

English A: Lang & Lit SL - 6

Finnish B HL - 7 (Finnish B is a really easy subject, so I'm not sure if it even counts)

Psychology HL - 6

Physics SL - 6 (I did physics anticipated, and should receive my finals grade on the sixth of July this year, which should be a 7)

Chemistry HL - 5 (I'm good at chemistry, it's just that once I received a bad grade which dropped my average from 6 to 5)

Mathematics HL - 6

So I thought that by being active and hard-working, I could receive decent predicted grades (i.e. mostly 7s) and SAT scores (i.e. 750+) (and of course do some nice extracurriculars), but now that I found out that they require the transcript and that it is a big deal, I'm beginning to doubt myself. Of course I can improve my transcript with the second year grades, but I will only be able to receive two more intermediate grades for my subjects (in here, a school year is divided into five periods, and you get a grade for each period, there will be two periods before the deadlines), and even if they are all sevens, they won't really help me, because I assume that most of the applicants had perfect grades from the start.

So guys, the question that I am asking here is which one is more important - the transcript OR predicted grades + SAT?

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All are relatively important actually. Your transcript is used to determine how well you've done in your classes in the past few years (they only look at high school grades only, or whatever the equivalent of high school is in Finland in your case) to see what kind of academic history you've had. Same with predicted scores. Your SAT is very important too, so do well on it.

The bit about perfect grades isn't necessarily true. While some applicants will have perfect grades and a perfect GPA, many others will have an occasional B or so. So you don't have to be perfect to get into an Ivy League school.

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Thanks for the answer :). I guess I'll have to focus on the other important things like the SAT's.

By the way, do American universities even care about final exam results?

Haha I'm still wondering the same thing to be honest. I got accepted into my universities without a relatively high predicted because I wasn't sure if they would give me a conditional offer or something (never have heard of the US doing this but wasn't sure) so I didn't know if I could handle the pressure. Now I realize I'll easily get the predicted grades I submitted to my universities but I'm not sure they are going to care at all.

Look SATs still remain REALLY important. It is not going to make or break you, but trust me. I got rejected by two really really good universities and I can almost gurantee you it is because I did HORRIBLY on my SAT 2 in Math. I did best on my Math SAT section but on my SAT 2 on Math level 2 I did really really bad compared to how students usually fair. The reason being because I really didn't know I would have to take my sat 2's until I realized these two particular schools required it. I couldn't study much for my Sat 2 because it was December and I had school exams as well and was going out of town in the middle of everything. Needless to say, my SAT 2 performance was not up to par, and I didn't get in only to the school's that required those grades. My normal SAT was quite good and I did get in everywhere with honestly very average school grades. My school transcripts were a little different though because in India they only really consider any board exam results to count as a transcript, school's here have no real authority over grades. So my 10th grade IGCSE results were good. My 11th grade school finals also pretty okay. My mid-term was good but lower in 2 subjects than I would have liked... still didn't seem to hurt me? My extra corriculars are really good and my essays... so Trust me nail your SAT and your essays and try to show off if you can. The school transcripts really can't hurt you THAT much they just want to know that you can manage in an academic environment. Oh and as for predicted grades they say with your acceptance they expect you to 'maintain' your academic record but honestly you just have to graduate. I only worked my ass off for my final IB exams because I applied in Asia as well and all they care about is the IB soo... yeah. :)

By the way, please note the predicted grades in my signature are NOT what my school gave me. They only predicted me ONE 7 in Theatre (which is funny because I myself don't see that happening) the grades in my signature are my expectations haha. I think on the one's i sent to the US my English was given as a 5? Which is ridiculous but anyway. My coordinator was being mean and completely disregarding how I actually scored during my school exams. But I sent slightly higher grades to my Asian university because I had done really well in my mocks by that point and felt I deserved more. Still not given a 7 in math though I will definitely get one. :P

Edited by ro_1293x
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Thanks for the clarification! I have time to study for the SATs because I'll have them in October, and as subject tests I'm taking Math II, Physics and Chemistry (math and chem are HL subjects of mine, physics is SL because my school didn't provide HL but I'm still really good at it).

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I cannot comment no the SAT, I never had to take it.

the ACT Test (the other test colleges will accept) tends towards data analysis in their science section. Some of it my be apparent in the IB curriculum but no prior knowledge of the topic is required to do that part of the test. Hell, there were questions over earthquakes using terms I've never heard of, but I can read a graph so it wasn't hard :P

As for American Universities, your transcript is what will get you accepted, your IB scores will give you credit upon entering. I've never seen any US university accept anyone based off their IB score out of 45.

I, for example, for into the University of Missouri for scoring well on my ACT and not being an idiot with my grades. I also received ~16 credit hours (about one semester of classes) due to my scores in IB.

I suggest taking the SAT and ACT btw if you are interested in universities in the US.

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  • 4 months later...

The bit about perfect grades isn't necessarily true. While some applicants will have perfect grades and a perfect GPA, many others will have an occasional B or so. So you don't have to be perfect to get into an Ivy League school.

I don't think perfect grades are a 'requirement' of Ivies. From all the information sessions I have been to, they would prefer you to take challenging classes and get a B rather than you take an easy class and get an A+. (Challenging has already been fulfilled since we're talking about IB here.) Also, I think (think being the key word here) they like to see your grades improving over time and not just perfect grades from the start. :)

EDIT: They're all important.

Edited by carpediem
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My school always assumed that the predicted grades are a little more important when applying for universities because you're during that time you're going to show those grades. Those grades predict whether you'll get full acceptance or provisional acceptance. Then comes your final grades. But remember that it all comes down to your final grades that seal your future with that particular university. So, in a way both are important.

Hope I helped.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As the director of an admissions consulting firm, I can tell you for a fact that your GPA (grades on transcript) is the most important.

To get accepted into any Ivy as an international applicant, a minimum of 3.6 is highly recommended. SAT would be a minimum of 2000.

However, a 2300 SAT will not compensate for a 3.2 GPA.

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  • 1 month later...

you have managed to get a decent score.. my friend recently got accepted into one of the ivy leagues and although shed taken A levels and did not get a great predicted score she managed to get in with the amazing sat score of 2300 so im not really sure of either or that. but iv read in many places that SAT and ur predicted score has the same value.. so all the best for ur applications and extra curriculars play an important role too :)

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  • 7 years later...
On 10/28/2012 at 6:51 PM, fяαи said:

My school always assumed that the predicted grades are a little more important when applying for universities because you're during that time you're going to show those grades. Those grades predict whether you'll get full acceptance or provisional acceptance. Then comes your final grades. But remember that it all comes down to your final grades that seal your future with that particular university. So, in a way both are important.

Hope I helped.

Isn’t the predicted grades supposed to be in the transcript but are said that they are the predicted grades then later u have to submit the transcript again with ur final grades?

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On 11/12/2012 at 1:11 PM, Forester said:

As the director of an admissions consulting firm, I can tell you for a fact that your GPA (grades on transcript) is the most important.

To get accepted into any Ivy as an international applicant, a minimum of 3.6 is highly recommended. SAT would be a minimum of 2000.

However, a 2300 SAT will not compensate for a 3.2 GPA.

Do we put the predicted grades on our transcript for the US or does the school supposed to send it separately to the univerisities we want to apply 

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