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Do universities look only at grades for admission?

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 5:37 pm
by jtoh
What criteria do universities look at aside from grades? Do they consider CCA, social work, other experiences? Is there a difference between local unis and overseas unis?

Thanks for any info from experienced parents/students.

Re: Do universities look only at grades for admission?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:53 am
by 365psych
Depends on the ranking and history of the uni. Many in USA and UK will welcome you if you can pay the tuition fee. Tread well.

Re: Do universities look only at grades for admission?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:26 pm
by Song22
A friend of mine's DD studied in Singapore int'l school in Shanghai, received provisional offer to University of British Columbia. My friend told me they used GPA score to apply, she said this tier of university don’t really look at CCA and CAS a lot. She commented high ranking universities like Stanford, Ivies etc will required those like CCA, CAS etc, prefers more all rounded students. This young lady is also taking SAT test just in case she has other plan. The family went to to shanghai in P5, hence, no PSLE, no O level, no A level – enjoying the int’l school and both the girl and the parents are happy with the outcome.

My DS’s weiqi teacher has 2 Taiwanese students from Shanghai American School, one of them got to Stanford and the other one Yale. Accordingly to the teacher, the kids are strong in Weiqi, actively took part in competition, Dan test; the boys also the have junior “judge” certificate for weiqi issued by the weiqi association. These 2 boys used their GPA / SAT result, backed by their strong CCA performance.

Some popular high schools like American schools etc has establish strong relationshp with the high ranking universites, hence, their matriculation can be quite impression.

Re: Do universities look only at grades for admission?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 2:32 pm
by dragonflysg
I think this article is very good. Please note that it belongs to the Singapore American School, so please do ask for permission if you wish to reproduce any part of it. I am not affiliated to the school in any way, I just stumbled onto it while googling for some answers myself.

http://www.sas.edu.sg/uploaded/SAS/Lear ... eGuide.pdf

Re: Do universities look only at grades for admission?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 3:33 pm
by jtoh
Thanks for your responses.