Whats the point of high school courses then? Does your grade average in high school matter when applying to university?

I never really thought about it, but there's a reason so many foreigners come here for college. I visited NC A&T last year (the largest HBCU) and there were a few European students, for engineering iirc. I forgot what country they said they were from but I remember it was Europe lol

I remember some guy on Twitter attended Harvard and he was from Jamaica. He said he and his Jamaican friends couldn't afford plane tickets to go home during covid. (The got the funds a few days later). The US is one powerhouse of a country.

Yes. The most important things when applying to college are gpa (grades), test score, and extra curriculars (sports, community service, summer camps, etc). That's at least what they tell us

Yeah I went to what most lists consider a top 20 university in the world for my undergrad and it was pretty eye opening to see the students from other countries. Like I was meeting people who never stepped foot in the US until then and their parents were apparently like royalty or people making hundreds of millions even billions in their respective countries. And some of these people were the types who never went to a single class, showed up to take the exam and got a 100%. Definitely made me feel a lot more dumb when I studied there

That’s so weird lol. In Canada, your grade 12 average is the only thing that matters when applying to university. There’s no standardized test and extracurricular activities are only considered in extremely rare cases.

Maybe for middle tier students but those tests are the easiest way to weed out the high achievers. Someone getting 99% of questions right on the act and not going to 10 key club meeting or being in the band obviously has more real world potential than someone who scores 70th percentile and is in a bunch of clubs. Standardized test are even more relevant for graduate programs, particularly in law and medicine there is a base ability that you need to even enter the field and those tests are an excellent threshold

Sure but just because you’re really smart and not in any clubs can also mean you may not have any real world passions or you’re just lazy but smart. Being in extra curricular clubs and even excelling at them or doing something extra or outside school and doing it really well signifies you’re a motivated individual and when you’re in the work environment, I guarantee you people care a lot more about that rather than just how smart you are and can do on standardized tests.

Law and Medicine are fields though where what you are saying does apply though.

I agree somewhat but most clubs are BS. Particularly impressive extra curricular experience should make someone competitive anywhere but as a whole most kids are in clubs cuz their parents make them do it to boost their resume. That was my high school experience anyway. And they are certainly a good indicator of social skills and ability to fit into a work environment. Also everything I say is inherently biased to the extremely competitive fields that are much more performance driven than relationship driven (to an extent, relationships are important in every field)

I think in most cases, it is (or should be) a mixture of both. This is what they encourage at my school. Have good grades and a good test score, but don't forget about the extracurriculars cuz all of that together shows a well rounded student.

Got a 57 on my SAT and a 26 on my ACT.

I never studied or anything though.