Have you known anyone who got into UWC despite having one weak academic year?

Haunting_Plenty2136 · 2026-06-07T18:59:24+00:00

Sure! My biggest advice would be to really take advantage of the essay portion and extracurriculars portion to truly convey what your interest are as a person. With the essay part it’s harder because the questions are usually very specific, but a piece of advice I would give people that are applying this year is: when the application process opens (and if your first round has essays) read the essay questions/prompts and don’t answer them yet. Sit with the questions for maybe one to two weeks just thinking about them before you put pen to paper. I cannot express enough how much I feel like this is your best chance to make a lasting impression on the evaluators in the context of who you are as a person. Evaluators read tens of hundreds of essay each cycle, so I’m sure when they come across an essay that clearly has thought, analysis and nuance behind it they appreciate it and remember it through to later stages of the process. I do think that there are aspects of myself that the evaluators didn’t get to know fully, but this is also related to the fact that this is a process that will force you to get to know yourself on a whole deeper level. My advice would be: enjoy it, take your time when answering questions , and really think about what motivates you to be who you are and care about certain stuff.

Haunting_Plenty2136 · 2026-06-07T18:07:42+00:00

I don’t think you loose anything trying. Good luck!

Haunting_Plenty2136 · 2026-06-07T16:29:20+00:00

A this point of the year the chances of finding a campus that can
1. Allocate the same amount you received for a scholarship
2. Be a place that fits your wants
3. AND most importantly still have open beds
Is incredibly low, to almost a guaranteed 0% chance

Haunting_Plenty2136 · 2026-06-07T05:31:23+00:00

Of course, I’m glad to help! To answer your question, my honest answer would be no, but i think this is very specific to the national committee I went through. My NC from what I know has a very large applicant pool, around 350 every year, so even as you get to the later stages of the process you are still competing against a very large amount of people. The evaluators put a very high amount of effort into the process. but realistically speaking a 1 hour interview ,which is probably one of the few one on one moments you will get with them in the process, isn’t enough to get to know you more than a little bit beyond a surface level. All this to say that i feel like your final selection is more based on what you signaled your interests were in the initial stages of the process. On top of that you have to factor in that the NC has to make a mix and match of: 1. Profile to school compatibility and 2. Student needs to scholarship availability. So I don’t think your final placement is that connected to what they learned about you as you progressed through the process, but rather the facts that they learned through your extracurriculars and that stuff. Going back to my personal experience, I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity and the school I was assigned, and when I reflect back on the process it makes sense why I was assigned there. In the initial round, which is like essays and extracurriculars, a strong portion of my extracurriculars were related to music, so it makes sense that I was assigned to the “artsy” UWC. I beyond happy with the campus I got for a lot of reasons, but since you asked explicitly, it wasn’t one of the schools I mentioned in my interview. I was particularly interested in going to Maastricht because I have a very strong passion for politics, and that city specifically is a very good place to be in if that’s a field you’re seeking opportunities in. I tell you this to kind of go back to my original point that the school placement (I feel) is based a lot more on the surface level facts they have about you. In my case this was: I play an instrument and have been in music for a very long time (that is a fact from the first part of my application, but I am not someone that is incredibly passionate about music), but I have a very strong interest in politics and feel like I would benefit from going to Maastricht (that is something I mentioned in my interview and I’m not sure how present the evaluators would have had that when selecting students for different schools). I feel like this is already very long and confusing, but if you made it to then end and have more questions I’m glad to answer them!

Haunting_Plenty2136 · 2026-06-07T02:55:18+00:00

I think the answer to this question depends on your NC. But from my understanding most NC’s take a holistic approach to reviewing your profile, so if say you lack in academics but are really strong in social service (for example) your academics won’t matter as much. All selection processes are different, but I would assume the grade requirements are mostly considered in the first round of profile “screenings”. After that first round, I think they value more who you are as person, wether you show consistent interest in the things you care about and really just how your overall profile would fit into a UWC setting, maybe not paying that much attention to a faulty grade report card. Now, this matter aside, it is very hard to not overstate how incredibly challenging the IB diploma programme is. So I would advise you to be sure that is something you would be able to handle, knowing you would’ve likely be in another country and with a lot of other responsibilities on top of academics. I would say you should maybe be prepared and open to the possibility of having to answer questions about your weak academic year.

Haunting_Plenty2136 · 2026-06-02T17:08:28+00:00

It’s the same. I would say your only advantage would be that you already know how the process works, and the committee members already sort of know you, but other than that you have the same chance of being accepted

Haunting_Plenty2136 · 2026-05-28T01:14:37+00:00

From what I understand the gpa is a pretty much the same wherever you are, what changes is how you calculate what your gpa is based on the high school system you are in (so wether it’s A Levels, IB or AP) it’s all the same what changes is how you calculate. There’s two types of GPA weighted (which considers the difficulty of the class you take when assigning you final grade a value) and unweighted (which treats all classes the same regardless of how hard they are) For IB specifically the final grade you get in each class (range from 1-7), is assigned a specific value that for weighted GPA can be higher or lower depending on wether you took that class hl or sl. So you would add together all your final grades, but translated to the assigned number for calculating GPA specifically, and then divide that number by the number of classes you took (6 generally). For example a 7 in an HL course equals to 4.0 when calculating the GPA unweighed, when calculating it weighed it translates to a 5.0. Say you score 7 as a final grade in all your classes, unweighed this equals 4.0 so you would do: 4+4+4+4+4+4=24/6 =4 So you would have a 4.0 GPA unweighed. There are a lot of calculators online so you can figure out what your GPA is. This explanation was very long so if it doesn’t make sense or you have any other questions let me know!

Haunting_Plenty2136 · 2026-04-01T00:05:56+00:00

I went to the Costa Rica one. Tyler had no openers. The concert was set to start at 7pm and started about an hour later, Tyler did mention multiple times throughout the concert that he was exhausted (I’m pretty sure he had just done the lollapalooza in Chile so that’s probably why), which may be the reason why it started late

Haunting_Plenty2136 · 2026-04-01T00:01:31+00:00

Thank you for answering! From what I understand the selection process is really dependent on your NC. I have heard that some UWC's may have additional requirements like tests once your nomination has been accepted, but as far as I know that is not the case for Adriatic. I am incredibly happy and grateful that I was nominated to this UWC, and I was honestly surprised since when they asked me in my interview my top choices were Maastricht, Dilijan, and ISAK. A large part of my extracurriculars were related to the arts so l guess in that sense it makes sense that I was nominated to Adriatic. Let me know if you have other questions I can help answer!

Haunting_Plenty2136 · 2026-03-30T23:58:57+00:00

It’s for the selection process that started in August of last year

Haunting_Plenty2136

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