The information in this section is due to Bogdan State, Amherst College, MA, class 2009

The U.S. secondary education system (grades 9-12), to which U.S. college admission officers are naturally best accustomed, is very different from Romanian high school education. By-and-large American high schools can be divided into public and private ones. Of private high school education, boarding schools are the most prominent (i.e. Phillips-Exeter Academy, Deerfield Academy, Groton Academy, etc.). Located in scenic rural areas, with their own endowments and alumni networks, these schools look like smaller-scale copies of U.S. liberal arts colleges. They have very rigorous programs and are oftentimes feeders to top U.S. colleges and universities, meaning that a significant number of their graduates continue their education in highly-ranked colleges and universities.

Public high schools are very diverse as well. Schools are typically financed from the property taxes paid by the residents of a school district (usually encompassing a neighborhood or a city), a policy which leads to tremendous differences in school funding. As only students residing within the borders of the school district can attend the local high school, the property value of houses in a neighborhood is oftentimes in direct correlation with the quality of its schools; because of this funding policy, the Hollywood-cliché American high-school beset by violence and drugs is a real case, albeit an extreme one. More similar to Romanian public high schools are so-called “magnet schools,” which accept students based on an application process or an admission exam (i.e. Hunter College or Stuyvesant High School in New York City).

Unlike in Romanian high-schools, American students have a lot of choices in regards to their education. Depending on the school, during a semester students can choose whether to take regular, honors, Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes. Honors classes are more in-depth than regular ones, and they represent a near-requisite in gaining admission to a good college or university. AP classes prepare the student for the AP test in the respective subject. Because there are no national exams for students leaving high school (like the Romanian Bacalaureat, German Abitur or British A-levels), AP classes provide an useful tool for college admissions officers evaluating American students. In terms of their difficulty, AP classes oftentimes match or even surpass advanced classes in Romanian high schools.

During a school-day, students in a public high school go from one classroom to another, while teachers do not normally change places. Students earn grades from A to F, with D the lowest passing grade (there is normally no E). To make supplemental distinctions, teachers add pluses and minuses on the grades. U.S. GPAs – where GPA stands for Grade Point Average - are calculated on a 0 to 4 scale, where A or A+ is a 4.0, and each lower mark subtracts .33 from the grade: A- is a 3.67, B+ a 3.33, B a 3.0 etc. In order to account for the difficulty of upper-level classes, many high-schools choose to “weigh” their GPA, using a scale where an A in an honors class is the equivalent of a 5.0 in the final GPA, for instance. Also, in some schools, community service hours and extracurricular activities are weighed into the final GPA. GPAs are very important in the admissions process, as they can demonstrate a student’s academic potential. Likewise important is what is commonly referred to as the student’s class rank: being in the top 5-10% is usually a requirement for gaining admission to a top institution. The titles of valedictorian (sef de promotie) and salutatorian (second or third rank to the valedictorian) are very coveted by American high school students.

The high school counselor helps U.S. students in their application process. In many schools the counselor is a full-time position filled by a professional who provides guidance to applicants, similar to what the FEAC provides for Romanian applicants. The counselor usually works with students starting their freshman year and should be capable of providing a thorough evaluation of the applicant by their senior year, when applications are normally submitted. Writing recommendations is a usual affair for American teachers and is practically part of their job description.

Besides academic activities, students in many schools have plenty of extracurricular activities available to them: i.e., yearbook, debate, volunteering, marching band, journalism etc. Also, classical music and jazz ensembles and even rock bands are oftentimes part of a school’s life, and membership in them can also influence a student’s academic prospects. Similarly, competitive athletics contribute to the school spirit. Colleges and universities recruit the outstanding student-athletes for their athletic programs. Fairs and contests in the natural sciences and mathematics represent an important co-curricular activity available to American students; these events are somehow similar to Romanian olimpiade. Romanian applicants should be advised that, although distinctions won in such contests can make an applicant stand out, they represent just one of the many possible activities that American college admissions officers take into account when evaluating an applicant.

Besides APs, U.S. students need to take the SAT or ACT tests in order to apply to college; these tests are usually taken during junior and senior year. SAT test-prep programs abound and many students prepare intensely for the tests on their own. American high-school students oftentimes take the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) in their freshman or sophomore year; this test puts those with the best results on the track to being recruited by colleges and universities.