norsul Posted June 16, 2012 Report Share Posted June 16, 2012 Hi guys! I have currently finished my first year (well, second if you take into account the pre-IB year) of the IB diploma that I'm doing in Finland. I've recently started thinking about applying into some fancy american universities (or colleges, not sure how you call them there), but then I found out that they could care less about my final exam results when admission is concerned (I'm aware that they give you credit if you do well in your HL subjects, but what I meant is that when they are deciding whether to ADMIT you, they don't take into account the finals results, because they admit you before you graduate from the IB). Now this is a problem, because I haven't been THAT active in the first year, and thus my grades aren't very nice (it's above average, but it is far from near-perfect transcripts and GPAs, which most of the applicants have). I could have gotten better grades, but I had little motivation because I thought that only the finals' grades matter. So now my only way out of this is by focusing on other things which universities will consider in my application. I'm pretty sure to get 750+ on all the SATs, and I'm taking Math II, Physics and Chemistry as my SAT subject tests, and I should also get something close to a max mark, since I'm pretty good at those subjects. I'm also sure that I will get good predicted grades, because I will have some time to show my teachers how good I am before the application deadline. And here we come to the issue at hand. I've noticed that in the application, they say that you can send a piece of academic work as supplementary material IF it is of unusually high quality. I am doing my extended essay on math (I'm not applying to study math, but finance or economics or somethings similar), and I am planning to make it really good. Also I am entering a competition organised by the Finnish academy for the best academic work (there is a special section for IB students there), and they don't have the 4000 word limit, so I can make an extended version of my extended essay for them , and this is the version I would like to send as a part of my application in order to show proof of my academic capabilities. By the way I will have no way of telling to the university whether my work received any prizes, as the winner will only be announced in March 2013 So the question is: Is it a good idea to send the version of my extended essay which I sent to the competition as supplementary material for my application, IF I, my supervisor and some other person of authority in the field in which I wrote my essay acknowledge that the work is very good? In case you are interested, here are the averages of my grades for the first year (Here in Finland, the high school year is divided into five periods and the amount of the subject studied in one period is called a course, and we get a grade for each course, that is why I'm showing the average grades. Also during my pre-IB year, I've done a bunch of courses simply because they were compulsory due to some administrative reasons, and I'm not including them here, and in case it matters I've done about 20 DIFFERENT courses (i.e. if I have done 10 courses on math, it still counts as 1 in this case)): 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 once which dropped my average from 6 to 5) Mathematics HL - 6 (Same story as with chemistry) I'm also doing Swedish from the national side curriculum, and my average grade in there is 7 on a scale of 4 to 10 (don't ask me why does the scale starts from 4, I have no clue ), but I will be able to complete the matriculation exam (sort of like the finals) before I send in the application, and the grade should be 9 or 10 on the same scale. By the way, I am aware that extracurricular activities and the essay are really important, but that is a different topic for a different discussion . Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elmar Posted June 19, 2012 Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 (edited) I do not have any experience as an international applicant for U.S. schools (I live in the U.S), so take my advice with that in mind: When I was applying to Vassar College, there was a "Your Space" available on the application - basically, you could put anything in there. I put an excerpt from my Extended Essay. My main reasoning was: No one wanted to read my whole essay (approximately 3 700 words) except my adviser and the IB examiner. And my adviser didn't even read the whole essay, I think. Regardless, there are many, many, many students (both internationally and domestically) that are applying to the same colleges and universities you are. When you think about all the reading they have to do - they even have to read the applicant's basic info, such as name, address, location, etc. - that's a lot of reading! So, I decided I would only send an excerpt to make sure they both read it and were not overwhelmed. It was just a paragraph or two. My logic for even sending it in the first place was because my Extended Essay topic (French Revolution) fit what I want to study in college (French). I was also to demonstrate my passion for academics, especially the one I planned to study at Vassar. I think this is a very important fact to consider. If you're going to study economics, why would you submit a 10-page essay on the Mexican Revolution (unless it had to do with the economic reasons for the Revolution ). I would just keep this in mind when applying to anything where you can send supplementary items. Much like a job, you wouldn't send 4 letters of recommendation if they ask for a resume and a cover letter. Edited June 20, 2012 by elmar Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBCONQUERER Posted June 21, 2012 Report Share Posted June 21, 2012 Yeah the tricky part is you do not want to send them something they won't have time to read. College admissions people struggle with all the essays they have to read, supplements, applicant transcripts, extra-curricular info so sending them your whole essay will surely overwhelm them. It definitely won't harm you, but I can say that it most likely won't make a difference. However I do strongly suggest that in your general essay, or in supplementary essays do include what you did your extended essay in, why you chose to do it and maybe a small part that you thought was significant. For example if you did an extended essay in Biology it would really help ones medical school application because it shows the desire and the will to do research at university and your potential as a doctor. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forester Posted June 27, 2012 Report Share Posted June 27, 2012 I sent in the abstract of my EE. (But I also sent in a **** ton of other stuff too). Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
norsul Posted July 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 (But I also sent in a **** ton of other stuff too).What other things did you send? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
garimaib Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 No, DON'T attach your whole EE, it is highly recommended that you don't show your EE to any official before your IB official scores are released. I was also thinking of doing the same but my teachers told me I COULD attach an excerpt from it. Oh and extracurricular activities count alot for your USA applications so I really recommend you do a lot of them The junior year and the first term of senior year count a lot so if you didn't do so good in your junior year, it might be a little risky. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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