High School Curricula

The ABCs of Secondary School Curricula: International Baccalaureate (IB) Program

Read our overview of the IB program, which can help navigate its complexities and explore its potential benefits. Find out how you can use IB exam scores to distinguish yourself from other applicants, for advanced placement (skipping over entry-level courses), or for college credit. Also, how does an IB program compare to AP courses?

The ABCs of Secondary School Curricula: Advanced Placement (AP)

Read our overview of the AP program, which can help navigate its complexities and explore its potential benefits. Find out how you can use AP scores to distinguish yourself from other applicants, for advanced placement (skipping over entry-level courses), for college credit, for the satisfaction of distribution requirements, and/or for early graduation, depending on the school.

What is a High School Profile and What Role Does it Play in College Admissions?

When your college application is considered, your transcript is evaluated side-by-side with your high school profile. This blog post will discuss the information included in the profiles, including GPA, grade and test score distribution, rigor of curriculum, and special programs. To illustrate how this information is shared, we will draw from the examples of five school profiles at public and private secondary schools.

Sequential Electives in High School

Plan your high school curriculum to make the most of the courses offered and research whether your school has sequential course pathways in research, business, technology, the arts, or politics and global studies. Learn more about the sequential electives private and public high schools have to offer!

The Role of Grades in College Admissions

Your grades throughout high school remain the most important factor in college admissions.  While colleges also look carefully at your standardized test scores, essays, recommendations, and other personal factors, they view your academic performance in high school as the strongest predictor of your academic success in college. Covid-19 has changed ...

The Role of Grades in College Admissions

Your grades throughout high school remain the most important factor in college admissions.  While colleges also look carefully at your standardized test scores, essays, recommendations, and other personal factors, they view your grades as the strongest predictor of your academic success in college. This blog explains how colleges view your ...

The ABCs of Secondary School Curricula: Advanced Placement (AP)

 Why are so many students participating in Advanced Placement (AP) programs in the U.S.? In addition to enabling students to explore subject matter in greater depth, these courses and exams have become a gateway into prestigious and highly selective schools. Due to the important role that this program now plays ...

The ABCs of Secondary School Curricula: International Baccalaureate (IB) Program

Colleges evaluate applicants’ academics within the context of the curricula offered at their secondary school. In the United States, many high schools offer an AP (Advanced Placement) curriculum and the IB (International Baccalaureate) program, and abroad many English-speaking countries provide yet another curriculum, the A-levels. Our series – The ABC’s ...

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