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How to organize your child’s labyrinthine curriculum odyssey so that he or she ends up safely at a great university in the end – whether it be in the UK or the US.
IGCSEs, A-levels, IB, ACT, SAT or AP? If you choose one system and change your mind later, is your child doomed? Will he or she end up serving coffee? These are all questions that will be addressed below.
Occasionally schools advise parents that their child must do the IGCSEs/GCE A-levels if he or she wants to go to a UK university, insisting that UK universities want to see British exam results and won’t accept international school assessments (transcripts) or the internal certificates of, say, the IB Middle Years Programme or an American high school. That is not true.
Schools also sometimes suggest that, if you think your child will go on to a US university, it is not necessary to do the IGCSE examinations (even if students have followed a curriculum based on the IGCSE syllabus) as the US colleges/universities only want to see internal grades and high school transcripts from the US system…and won’t accept (or even understand) exam results from another system. Again, this is not true.
However, expatriate parents wishing to send their children to the best schools available locally as they move around the globe might not have perfectly seamless, same-system options wherever they go. They might start out in one system, with their children’s careers mapped out for the next 12 years, and suddenly find they’ve arrived in a city that throws them off plan.
But very few realize that universities in both the UK and US are increasingly knowledgeable about each other’s systems, and are often willing to take students who have bounced through several curricula. In other words, parents might have more options than they are aware of. For example, if you are applying via UCAS to a UK university then you will find that you can upload results from practically any education system in the world and these results will be conveyed to the 5 universities that you have applied to; in contrast, if you are applying to a US university via the Commonapp then you will find again that you can enter practically any internationally recognized qualification.
Generally speaking, the presumption that good universities (especially the really highly ranked) are not up to speed on other curricula and exams, or that they somehow will not find a way to enrol a bright talented student, is absolute baloney, utter balderdash. We at AGF Tutoring can invoke numerous instances of students, indeed some of our tutors, who prepared for both UK and US universities and attained offers from both countries. Case in point: Angelo prepared for the US and UK: he did 4 A-levels at A British school, SAT Reasoning, and 4 SAT Subject Tests. He scored high in all the above and received offers from University of California at Berkeley, a full scholarship (worth circum $200,000) from Northwestern University, another offer and partial scholarship from Dartmouth College, and 5 offers from UK universities, including Oxford University, where Angelo, after struggling with the pleasant dilemma, ended up going to read PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). Another example: John spent all his years at a US-based school, and followed the US curriculum, concentrating on the ACT and SAT Subject Tests, in which he did extremely well (at least 95th percentile in all examinations ACT and 3 SAT Subject Tests). In 11th Grade he also decided to do 2 A-levels (International A-levels) in Mathematics and Physics. He managed to complete both in one year, attaining an A* in Mathematics and A in Physics. John is also a fluent French speaker and attained the HSK1 in Chinese. He applied to both US and UK universities for Theoretical Physics, and managed to secure places at 5 Russell League UK universities as well as 6 top US universities. John was very tempted to go to the UK but eventually plumped for Davidson College, where he was awarded a full scholarship (worth $208,000). In both John’s and Angelo’s case, each maximized his potential to win the very best place at the very best university. Of course, there are some high profile examples such as that of Emma Watson who commenced at Oxford University but then changed to Brown University, from where she graduated with a Bachelors in English Literature, along with another former AGF Tutoring student and current tutor.
Fortunately, therefore, most colleges and universities have been completely comfortable with other systems for quite some time, and have certain benchmarks they look for within those systems to find good applicants, as we at AGF Tutoring know very well, having spoken to numerous admissions officers from both sides of the Atlantic at the very best universities.
The IGCSE (or GCSE) is an important factor for UK universities admission IF the applicants have only done A-Levels, because students traditionally only do 3 or maybe 4 subjects. So, for example, a student applying for medicine might present a string of good Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Math A-Levels, but the admissions staff is able to go back to the earlier GCSE results to ascertain how the student has done in other areas (for example, Does this person know how to write? How did he do in humanities and other areas of knowledge?). The A-Level results naturally represent the student’s strong areas, but the GCSE/IGCSE results help fill in the other blanks and embellish the A-Level portfolio.
Because the International Baccalaureate Diploma presents breadth and depth in a range of subjects over the final two years, the exam scores a student achieved two years previously are not such an important factor…it’s the later IB Diploma results that matter. In fact, American universities know that the IB Diploma scores don’t come out until summer after graduation, so will accept students in the spring based on their existing grades and the school’s IB predictions, conditional upon the student continuing in the same academic programme with grades at the same level.
Now, admission to a certain field of study (for example medicine, architecture, engineering) can be affected by the courses/exams taken before the IB Diploma programme: if, for example, you want to study medicine, the IB only allows two sciences maximum (the IB allows students to replace the sixth subject with a second of the first five (for example, a third language, a second humanities, a second science, a second math).
BUT, for such a specialist field (medicine), some UK universities would want the applicant to have done biology, chemistry and physics at A-Level, which you can’t do at IB level. Therefore, an IB candidate may be admitted on the basis of having done biology and chemistry at IB level, but may also need to present a physics IGCSE or GCE A-level (some universities specifically specify these entry requirements in their websites). In some cases, IB students interested in studying medicine in Britain may simultaneously take a GCE or IGCSE in physics.
Contrary to popular ignorance, entrance to UK universities is also available to students in American high school programmes, or for that matter any national curriculum. More specifically, UK universities look at SAT Reasoning and SAT IIs (Oxbridge expect 700 or above on each SAT I section and each SAT II subject test), or ACTs (expecting 32 out of 36 points), and expect at least three Advanced Placement courses (with scores of 5 on at least two AP exams and 4 on another) or an IB Diploma (38-40 points, and 6s or 7s in higher subjects). UK universities are less interested in extracurricular activities in contrast with their US counterparts, except perhaps in ways they might contribute to your proposed area of study. For more detailed information, go to the very clear Oxford Entrance Requirements page or Oxford International Students page.
While GCSEs are generally regarded as the equivalent of a US High School diploma (many schools regard it as the rough equivalent to the US 11th grade plus a little more), and many US colleges and universities still do not necessarily require A levels unless they note otherwise, most still like to see them done, and will normally ask why a student did not do them. Before US admissions officials knew the British system so well, they often just figured students had opted not to do their A-levels. Now that the British system is widely understood in the US, it is usually viewed unfavourably for students NOT to complete A-levels. The Fulbright Commission recommends at least GCSEs at grade C or above in academic subjects, and 2 or 3 GCE A-levels. However, unlike the UK university system, acceptance at a US university is not conditional on the A level results – especially since A level exams are not even taken until several months after US letter of acceptance go out. Instead, the US universities will generally ask for GCSE’s and AS level results, along with an indication of academic progress in the final (A2) year.
Additionally, A levels can sometimes count for US university credit: usually one A-level can equal 3 undergraduate credits. Students need to inquire about this when they are in the application process, and should expect to also provide results from the (American) SAT Reasoning test, possibly SAT Subject tests, as well as letters of reference and so on.
Even for American students, an American High School Diploma needs some beefing up to get into competitive US universities; in most schools and states, the basic courses required to achieve a standard diploma are simply not strong enough. So most colleges and universities do prefer more substantial coursework in addition to, or in lieu of, those basic courses, such as IB courses (although students who take the courses but don’t eventually achieve the full IB Diploma will not elicit as much interest) and/or a few Advanced Placement courses (the more competitive the university, the higher the number of AP courses recommended, and of course the higher the scores required on the final AP exams).
The exception would be certain high schools that have neither, but are nationally known to be extremely rigorous. One example is Phillips Exeter Academy (NH) http://www.exeter.edu/, where they feel their own course work is even more difficult than the set AP courses. There are other elite, private high schools in the US where the internal program is so rigorous and so tacitly and ubiquitously recognized that a graduate from such a school will have carte blanche to cherry pick the very best universities and colleges in the US, and even in the UK. The converse is also true to a certain extent: some of the finest public schools in the UK which have outstanding results will be given further credibility by US colleges and universities.
All US universities accept the IB Diploma now, and know all about its requirements and value. Most US universities offer course credit for High Level (HL) IB courses (worth inquiring to be sure), and many will offer college credit for AP courses provided the exam scores are high. As mentioned above, most (including MIT and University of California amongst many others) may also give credit for A-levels. That credit can allow an entering freshmen to skip the basic freshman 500 person survey course taught by a graduate student, or cut expenses by as much a semester (if a student has enough credit to skip 3 or 4 of the totals courses required for a degree).
The message from our years of experience at AGF Tutoring is clear, pellucid: accumulate as many qualifications as you possibly can with the caveat that they must be useful and recognized by the universities to which you will be applying. The fact is that the very best universities in both the UK and the US are looking for the very finest applicants from wherever they may herald, especially in this day and age of globalization, in which there is ever-increasing competition for the same number of places. Make sure that you plan well ahead of time so that you are in the best position at the right time to reap the opportunities.
