British Expats - High School Transition

Quote:

Originally Posted by markcst (Post 11663460)

Hi sorry to hijack. In similar situation but Son wants to study in US, and perhaps Texas Uni.

Trying to summarise this thread...

1) He will have (fingers crossed) at least 5 GCSE's, probably 8 or 9. Most will be B and above (he's predicted to get a few A*). That therefore means, subject to a lack of US history, he has enough for his High School Diploma? (one GSCE will be Spanish).

Has this been confirmed by the school counsellors? My daughter had to Health as well.

2) He will then have two years to do APs which are A/S equivalents? And he will have to do 4 per year to get into a good position for a Uni? (as well as catch up on US History).

Speak to the school counsellors or get a private college counsellor to advise. We hired one here in Austin who was invaluable.

3) We need to find out how our IS district converts his GCSEs? Already been told this can be a nightmare in Texas and have emailed the local ISD (no response as of yet).
Yep. They don't like having to deal with out of state education. Chip on shoulder methinks considering the national ranking of texas education. As one of my kids teachers here says "thank god for mississippi" (keeps texas off the bottom of the rankings. This is why it is so important to find a good HS in Texas,

4) He's doing NCS, not in this thread, but I understand it looks good to US universities that you've done voluntary stuff.

Yes. Musical instrument and sportsmanship too.

I guess the only specific question I have, and its Texas based, is the whole "Texas residency qualification" thing. Its confusing. Its said to be three years, but when you read it it could be two... then there is the fact after three years of residency, one year in uni, will he then qualify? (BTW getting my head round the driving licence rules for him was just as bad...)

Depends on your visa status. UT info here
Establishing Residency | Be a Longhorn

He's planning on doing Astro-Physics and Texas has some excellent Uni's. Its part of the attraction of taking the job (company transfer) in Dallas for me.

Don't forget that in Texas, UT is obliged to take 75% of it's students from in-state. Sooo, they do this by taking the top ?6% from each high school as judged by GPA/Rank in class. This is why it is important to get the weighted GPA for your son's previous studies, without it, he won't get into the top 6% of his high school. He would need to apply as "non-traditional" student and be assessed separately. They are good at this at UT. We didn't weighted GPA for my daughter but she has been accepted at UT for Comp Sci as a Turing scholar with tuition paid as merit scholarship. She turned down some excellent schools purely because of the Turing honors program.

I mentioned that we had a private college counsellor, this is not unusual. The school college counsellors pretty much leave it to the parents and kids to sort out and have no idea once it gets to international kids. PM me if you want help finding a private counsellor and I'll ask my guy if he knows anyone good in Dallas.

Bear in mind that almost all scholarships will require LPR status. you probably won't qualify for financial aid based on income. So, maybe that's something you need to think about and negotiate with your company if you really want your son to study at uni here.

sorry screwed up on the editing so there is quite a bit of information in the "quote" above....