Your Guide to UC Schools Admissions: How To Get Accepted
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As a city in a country with more than 200 nationalities, Dubai has a unique need to provide education to people of a multitude of different backgrounds and cultures. As a direct result of this, schools in the region provide a large variety of choices for curriculum to attract prospective students. With college admissions getting more competitive every year, prospective high school students stand at a significant crossroad regarding which curriculum they will choose to study in their last 2 to 4 years of conventional schooling. Knowing this choice can be a daunting one, we have prepared this guide to give you the factors and figures to help navigate your final decision.
Out of the more than 220 schools in Dubai and their 17 curricula, the most popular by far are the IB, A Levels, and the American System (AP). Focusing on these three, we aim to give you an idea of what you can expect, and what these curriculums are best suited for.
Before diving deeper into what each curriculum has to offer, the most important factor to consider is how well one fits into each curriculum. Additionally, you would want to consider your end goal for what skills you want to leave your high school life with, whether they be academic or more general.
The IB: The International Baccalaureate system, abbreviated as the IB, is a type of holistic schooling curriculum that is very popular among private schools in the region. Students studying the “Diploma Program” are required to take 6 subjects with 3 at a higher level and the other 3 at standard level. In addition to this, students are responsible for completing the IB’s “core components”. This includes a community service component named CAS, a 4000-word “extended essay” research paper, and a philosophical component that explores the origin and interpretation of information called the Theory of Knowledge. Students should consider the following when considering the IB as their future curriculum:
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A Levels: Originally the official high school curriculum for the UK, the “Advanced Level” qualifications present a popular alternative in the region. Unlike the IB, the A levels don’t prescribe compulsory subjects. Instead, students typically pick 3 subjects of their choice. While students sometimes get assessed by their coursework, a majority of their attainment stems from their performance in their final examinations. The A Levels have a strong reputation for their academic focus and rigor. An important point to mention is that, unlike the IB and AP, A Level’s students can get their qualifications from more than one exam board. The most popular choices among international schools in the region are Edexcel and CIA (Cambridge International Assessment).
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Advanced Placement (AP): Usually characterized in the region as the “American System”, the AP qualifications present a certain selection of courses that are at the undergraduate university level. Offered by the College Board (the same institution that administers the widely known SAT exam), AP courses don’t have a specific number requirement. With that being said, students who have a higher number of AP courses that they have achieved high scores in stand a greater chance of showcasing prospective universities how they have challenged themselves academically. Typically for the most competitive universities, 6-8 APs is a strong number. Unlike the previously mentioned curricula, the APs span across the typical US high school timeline of the last four years of conventional education (the IB and A levels cater to the last two years).
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