In USA, there are many examples that students get perfect scores in their college entrance exams and yet are declined by top universities.
Generally speaking, the college entrance exams only weight 1/3 (to less than 1/2) of the decision making whether students will be admitted by top universities. The rest are generally composed as follows:
The average grades of the entire high school study will weight additional 1/3. The high school grades often consist of large portions of essay writing, (science) report writing, experiments, group projects, etc. In other words, the high school curricula are not designed solely for the college entrance exams.
The rest 1/3 mainly consist of the extra curriculum activities such as sports, music and arts, or community service, or special talent in one particular field such as math, biology, etc.
The last two parts contain certain subjectivity (rather than objectivity), which makes them difficult to be implemented in some countries. In USA, transcripts from high schools AND recommendation letters from high school teachers carry the integrity and reputation of the high schools and teachers (and therefore can be trusted). Also, most students admitted by top universities will be interviewed by the personnel from the University admission office and/or the university alumni spread around the country. In other words, each and every freshman student admitted by top universities will generally be carefully examined and weighted from different aspects.
USA high school students are also very busy (they are often the busiest group in a family) except that, perhaps, they are busy in a different style. They usually do not hate their studies and school activities.
(2003.09.20)
posted on 2005-06-28 06:30
coolboy 阅读(1886)
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