The Importance of FINAL IB Marks to American Universities

[Marker]

If I have already applied to and been accepted into an American University with my IB marks early on in the year (around a 30) before the real IB exams, is it required for me to send the final IB marks from the IBO to the university afterwords?

How important is it  and if I applied and got accepted with a 30 and my final marks were 28, how much would it impact anything if at all?

 

Thanks for your help.

Edited July 6, 2014 by Marker

[entrails]

It varies from school to school, so you should look up conditions of admission for the particular universities you're interested in to see. I don't know how different it is for international students, but for students in the US, your IB scores don't typically impact your admission as long as you still have a high school diploma or equivalent. So as you said, if you get a 28 instead of your predicted 30, it probably doesn't affect your admission at all - just make sure you get your IB diploma and/or a high school diploma. But again, look up freshman conditions of admission for the schools you are looking at.

 

But many American universities give you some university credit for your IB marks, so just search for IB on the university websites and you'll see what credits they give for which scores in which classes. So I would definitely recommend for you to send your official IB marks to the university, and depending on how you did, you can get some credits waived and they act as sort of a placement test for entry-level university classes. And it shouldn't affect your admission as long as you got the diploma, so it can't hurt.

 

Hope this makes sense!

[Marker]

It varies from school to school, so you should look up conditions of admission for the particular universities you're interested in to see. I don't know how different it is for international students, but for students in the US, your IB scores don't typically impact your admission as long as you still have a high school diploma or equivalent. So as you said, if you get a 28 instead of your predicted 30, it probably doesn't affect your admission at all - just make sure you get your IB diploma and/or a high school diploma. But again, look up freshman conditions of admission for the schools you are looking at.

 

But many American universities give you some university credit for your IB marks, so just search for IB on the university websites and you'll see what credits they give for which scores in which classes. So I would definitely recommend for you to send your official IB marks to the university, and depending on how you did, you can get some credits waived and they act as sort of a placement test for entry-level university classes. And it shouldn't affect your admission as long as you got the diploma, so it can't hurt.

 

Hope this makes sense!

Thanks for the reply. One more thing if I applied to University with a 5 in Maths SL but I ended up with a 3 would it hurt my enrollment? My university uses a separate math placement test anyways. (Also accepted as a US citizen so I don't count as international admissions if that affects anything).

[entrails]

It almost certainly wouldn't hurt your enrollment, just as long as you still have the IB diploma or some kind of secondary school diploma. I would still say, go ahead and send your scores because American universities usually don't revoke admission for having low IB/AP scores as long as you still have a diploma. Also, it depends on the school, but some schools give you extra credit hours just for having an IB diploma. You should still look up the conditions of admission on your university's website because it varies from place to place, but yeah, most likely it doesn't hurt your admission! Once you're accepted to American universities, they usually just care that you keep up your school grades (generally - so your 3 probably doesn't make a difference) and that you graduate from high school. You have to majorly mess up to have your admission revoked.

Edited July 6, 2014 by trangrams

[John Hoose]

So failing the IB Diploma could actually see your offer from a US University rescinded? 

 

As far as I was aware, international students or students who have final exams after the admissions process receive placements and not offers.

[entrails]

So failing the IB Diploma could actually see your offer from a US University rescinded? 

 

As far as I was aware, international students or students who have final exams after the admissions process receive placements and not offers.

Okay, maybe I was wrong - I think it depends on the university and your individual situation. But universities want you to get a secondary school diploma for sure - and if the IB diploma is all that you have, and you don't get it, then your offer could be rescinded. But say that you graduated from secondary school and have a diploma from your school, but you fail the IB diploma, then in that case your offer would probably not be rescinded.

 

For the most part, yes, US universities give placements for all of their students and rarely do they give conditional offers; but you get the placement with the expectation that you will keep up good grades for the final semester of school, AND graduate from high school. Otherwise your admission will be rescinded.

 

Forgive me if I have any misinformation - this is just my understanding from having gone through this process as a US citizen, and I'm assuming the process is similar for international students. But as long as you have a diploma of some kind, I'm pretty sure your US offers won't get rescinded. Again, just look up the freshman conditions of admission for whichever universities you're interested in and they'll probably be much more clear than I've been!

[by.andrew]

I'm not entirely sure about IB marks, but the offer that I got from a US uni said that I had to report to them if I got 2 or more Cs (and lower) or 1 D (and lower) during my senior year (studying in Canada right now). It's irrelevant to IB grades, but I would contact the school just in case. 

[IEAFBC812]

I think by.andrew is right. You schould really contact your School on what not obtaining the ib score that's necessary for your offer means for you getting the place. As far as I know it all depends a lot the University you got your offer from, so contacting them will be the best way to find out about it.