Hi there guys, this is a more serious thread than we usually see here, but it's a theme that i'm becoming very interested lately.

So, my question is, in your country, what are the rules to access a higher education? For example, here in Portugal, in the end of high-school (12th grade), there is a series of final exams which have a role (usually 30 to 50 percent) of your average high-school grades. Thing is, there are (usually private) institutions that accept students with negative ingress score, or close to, for courses with absolutely no chance of getting a job in the area they are applying for. This means a higher cost to the state, which as you might know, it's not in a good economical situation at the moment, and leads many people away of structural activities of a country, with the illusion that, with a college degree, they will get highly paid jobs.

i'd like to hear about systems in other countries, so we can discuss the pros and cons of each one.
Thanks a lot in advance

In the US, you got to pass your SAT or ACT.

AND Colleges here look at your whole high school career too.

believe me, they'll get the job

public colleges do the same here, but there are private colleges wich allow students to enter with a score of 10(9,5). Being the grades given from 0 to 20, so 9,5 wich rounded is 10 is the limiar of a positive mark

not everyone has the "c factor" unfortunately there are always some that get through.
thanks to you and chef211 for the replies

by " c factor" you mean cunha?

yup, era um pouco óbvio mas isso é uma minoria.
mas irritam-me mais gajo(a)s que vão para cursos que não lembram à santa nos sítios mais rasca possível e depois vêm todos feitos virgens ofendidas queixarem-se do desemprego e que não arranjam trabalho nas suas áreas. pudera!

back to engrish

In Australia the conventional way of getting into a tertiary institution (like a University) is by completing your Year 12 studies and gaining a ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank) in which you're given a score out of 100 (so for example, if I got an ATAR of 90 I performed better than 90% of the Year 12 cohort that year.) Because the education system in Australia is not uniform throughout the 6 states in the country, each state has a different system of gaining an ATAR. Where I'm from (Western Australia), you gain an ATAR by completing Stage 2 or Stage 3 courses throughout Year 11 and 12. 50% of the ATAR is based on how you performed at school in these courses in Year 12 and the other 50% is based on your performance in the final exam which is taken by all students that have completed that course in a given state. I've just completed my final Year 12 exams and am currently awaiting my results.

The University I attend and course I take will be dependent upon my ATAR. For example, the University of Western Australia is quite well renowned for it's Engineering degrees and so the ATAR cut-off for a direct entry into Engineering is 88. Compare this with another University in the state and it might be 78 for the same course. I'm actually thinking of doing my University course at the University of Melbourne, and there the ATAR cut-off will be closer to 92 as it is much more competitive to gain entry to that University.

We're lucky in Australia, because we have closer ties to the Asian region which are currently undergoing far more rapid economic growth than the Euro-zone. Because Australia is such a resource rich country this means high demand for our primary resources like steel, coal, etc. For this reason, if I were to undertake a degree in Mining Engineering I'd be guaranteed to get a job straight out of University.

I hope this explains a bit about the Australian education system to you.

Thanks a lot klaus, it seems that the system is very similar to the one here in portugal. We also have the final exams and the average score determines which college you enter.
The reason for this whole talk is that i just can't understand people entering the worst schools in the country with poor grades and not only asking, but demanding things that are totally impossible for our country to support and not even the top colleges and top students have access to, like studying for free. I don't want to sound like an a**e, but it just doesn't make any sense to me

i think a lot of people give to many attention to university, and the actual 12th year diploma,
for example, all my mates from my design class went on uni, and theyre jobless for 4 years, i didnt even finished the 12 year propperly, and ive allways had job in my design area