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@pablo.ramos
0 answers, 29 votes
 • 4 years ago •
Admissions Advice
[edited]

CollegeVine Admission chancing calculator is not international friendly?
Answered

Calculating my admission chances solicits me the number of AP/IB classes, honors classes, and college courses but in my case, in Mexico, we don't have these course types e.i. AP, IB, honors, etc.

I tried to left it blank unanswered this part of the form but is a required field https://imgur.com/olTmCdY, I improvised by putting zero AP/IB, zero college courses, and zero honors classes but as a result, I get this: https://imgur.com/ccxFqh4, as you can see the chancing calculator is considering my coursework so poorly that is lowering my chances of admissions to my Dream School despite not being applicable to me. The chancing calculator is not taking into account that I'm studying in an overseas High School with a different educational system where does not exist AP, IB, you name it, exists a solution for the problem? Or I suppose the chancing calculator was built in mind for American Highschoolers and not for international fellows and just give up the coursework problem of the chancing calculator.

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Accepted Answer
@CameronBameron
2,265 answers, 8,642 votes
 • 4 years ago

Most of the CV users that use the chancing calculator are Americans because this website was originally built to serve this client base.

I'm sure that CV will sometime in the future create an International chancing calculator but I don't know when that will be.

If you are interested in a set of colleges, it would be wise and best to go to their websites and research what the requirements are for International Students. Also, contact them directly if there are unanswered questions you still have.

By the way, the IB course system is a European system that has been introduced to Mexico since 1980 and there are 119 schools in Mexico that offer IB courses. Perhaps you can take online classes at one of these schools or transfer to one of these schools. Most teach IB coursework in Spanish as well.

https://www.ibo.org/about-the-ib/the-ib-by-country/m/mexico/

https://www.ibo.org/programmes/find-an-ib-school/?SearchFields.Country=MX

I think that would help your course rigor more than trying to take American AP courses from Mexico either online HS or online MOOC like eDx.org. Plus these are only taught in English so unless you are perfectly fluent, they might be challenging to take and get tested in.

Hope that helps.

8
[🎤 AUTHOR]@pablo.ramos3 years ago

Sorry for answering late I was researching a little bit what was AP and IB exactly, it seems that AP is only for Canada and the US, and IB is much internationally diverse with more countries involved, in fact as you said Mexico is one of them, unfortunately, I didn't find my High School at https://www.ibo.org/programmes/find-an-ib-school/?SearchFields.Country=MX when doing the search, yes I could transfer to another High School at Mexico that offers IB but I think is not feasible.

[🎤 AUTHOR]@pablo.ramos3 years ago [edited]

I created a new comment because I can't type anymore, anyways, also is not feasible because I think it costs money to take online classes in an IB High School without transferring and I don't have time for it tbh, my High School was not designed to give students time to take IB and AP jointly with the regular traditional coursework offered at the school, they never had in mind that students will take AP and IB. I can in the summer when I have vacations but again the dates of IB classes I don't

[🎤 AUTHOR]@pablo.ramos3 years ago [edited]

think coincide with the dates of the vacations mostly. I almost finish High School, I'm a senior finishing in months, transferring is not an option that would slow my progress in finishing high school. Despite all these roadblocks, I will ask my school principal if exist a way for taking AP or IB. Also, I contacted the college I'm interested in and they replied by saying that they only look to the courses my school offer if they don't offer AP, IB nor Honors will not affect my chances.

[🎤 AUTHOR]@pablo.ramos3 years ago [edited]

I contacted the IB call center and the only way to take IB tests or classes is to be part of an IB word school so I necessarily need to transfer, the IB is not designed for independent study, the coursework should be taught at an IB School. My best bet will be the AP by a MOOC or by what homeschooling kids do that's self-studying for the AP test without taking the actual AP course and then taking the SAT test perhaps online offered by the most closest local school that administers AP tests.

1
@EliasMiller
expert
144 answers, 156 votes
 • 4 years ago[edited]

@pablo.ramos, my apologies that this aspect of the chancing engine doesn't quite fit your high school experience. My best advice would be to try to fit your courses into these categories based on how rigorous they are. (IE. very challenging classes might be AP-level, medium challenging classes might be honors, non-challenging classes might be regular.) If you go to a school in which all of your classes are predetermined, I might consider listing all of them as honors-level.

1
[🎤 AUTHOR]@pablo.ramos4 years ago [edited]

@ElliasMiller all my classes selected by my highschool are according to the agenda of a govermental organization called in Spanish Dirección General del Bachillerato (DGB), my High School is a technical one, meaning they teach subjects according to the future career selected by the pupils at my school aproximately at the time they are in 11th grade, the DGB selects that subjects that will be taught in the career chosen by the pupils.

[🎤 AUTHOR]@pablo.ramos4 years ago [edited]

Almost all my classes at my school are predetermined by the DGB as you can see, only a few are selected at the will of the High School itself, this means all the classes at my high school are predetermined despite the right the pupils have in 11th grade at selecting their career, right? If this is correct I will go to put as honors level all my classes I have taken in high school in the chancing calculator.

@EliasMiller
expert
3 years ago [edited]

Alternatively you could list your most challenging courses (I’m assuming you’ll take upper level STEM courses in your 11th and 12th grade equivalent years) as APs and most of your other classes as honors? This could make sense as well if you’re just trying to get the most out of the chancing engine.

1
@DebaterMAX
900 answers, 737 votes
 • 4 years ago

So if possible indicate your school doesnt offer AP/IB and then run it bt as cameron said CV is an American focused site. Another alternative to guesstimate your chances is to google insert school common data set and compare your stats with the data in section C primarily GPA. Hope this helps!

1
[🎤 AUTHOR]@pablo.ramos4 years ago

I'm in the correct place? https://imgur.com/3mdWzhX, the photo is from Harvard CDS 2019-2020 (https://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2019-2020.pdf).

@DebaterMAX4 years ago

https://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2019-2020.pdf

@DebaterMAX4 years ago

That’s the link as you’re link didn’t work

[🎤 AUTHOR]@pablo.ramos4 years ago

Okay, got it, thank you! :D

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