Admission Policy and Procedures

 Thank you for your interest in our program!  It’s great to see so many interested students who want to get a International Baccalaureate Diploma and understand the unique character of Hvitfeldtska. We are one of the oldest IBDP programs in Sweden and have consistently gotten results that are better than the world average. We are very proud of the work we do and we are very happy to share our passion for knowledge,  learning, and being Internationally-Minded with students and families who share the same values.  An IB student here is supported to develop the 10 learner profile attributes that we in the program strive to embody:  https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/publications/recognition/learnerprofile-en.pdf [ibo.org]

When we develop these attributes in ourselves, we become lifelong learners who understand that others, with their differences, can also be right.  We are working to make the world a better place through education, are you still interested to join us?

Hvitfeldtska is a public high school located in the center of the City of Gothenburg, Sweden. The school has approximately 2000 students, of which about 240 are enrolled in the International Baccalaureate Programme designed to address and provide growth for their unique learning profile. 

The program is made up of 3, or sometimes 2, school years. 

• Pre-DP/Grade 10:  consists of approximately 64 students that have chosen the school after completing grade 9 of the Swedish educational system or from another school system abroad. The subjects taken are the same as those in a typical Swedish National Program in year 1, though they are taught in English and sometimes adapted more towards preparation towards the Diploma Program. 

• Grade 11/IB Diploma Program (first of 2 final years). Consists of a mixture of students who have completed PreDP or Grade 10 with us or elsewhere. The numbers can vary from year to year. This school year 22/23, we will have approximately 95 students in the class. Students in Sweden or abroad who have completed 10 years of schooling are eligible to apply.

• Grade 12/IB Diploma Program (the last of 2 final years).  You are eligible to apply if you are currently in a Grade 11 year and you must move to Sweden.  A transfer cannot be guaranteed but we will look at your application individually to determine if a transfer is possible. 

 Since applying to PreDP/Grade 10 is basically applying to all three years of the program, it's important to also read up about the IB Diploma Program and how it is organised and what subjects we offer. You can do that here: https://sites.google.com/educ.goteborg.se/ib-hvitfeldtska/subject-selection-for-diploma-program 

Yes, you can apply and be considered no matter what type of school you have previously attended. You must be in at least your 9th grade school year however, and on track to finish successfully, to apply for Grade 10.  You must be in at least your 10th grade school year, and on track to finish successfully, to apply for Grade 11 (IB Diploma Program).  Usually students are about 16 years old when they apply for 10th grade, however, that can vary depending on the individual and their education circumstances.

Yes, you can even apply as a student planning to live here on your own but there are more considerations which I will outline further down.

Feburary 1st is the deadline to apply for the following school year which starts in August.   This is the latest you can applyif you are applying from outside of the EU and your stay in Sweden is contingent upon you getting a place in the program.

If you live in the EU or already have your journey to Sweden booked for arrival by August, you can apply later than this, however, your chances of being able to be fully considered diminish more and more the later you apply. 

June 1 is the absolute latest you can apply, if you live inside the EU, so that you can still take part in placement testing.  You will not be considered for a place if you have not completed placement testing. 

What you must do:

1) Complete the online application.  It is best if you can do this before February 1st.

2) Send your latest complete grade report sent to krista.baker@educ.goteborg.se 

Grade reports allow us to verify your identify and your eligibility to apply for the program.  

The grade report should be on school letterhead (i.e. includes School Name, logo, address, telephone, website, etc), signed by a teacher, mentor, coordinator, or principal. A report in the original language is required as well as a translation of the report to English, if needed.   The translation should not be done by the student or parent, but from someone at the school and should also be signed by the person who translated it, as well as their role at the school.  

You scan and send this (these) reports as a PDF to the Principal by email as soon as it is available.

3) Complete and send the paper application to the city of Gothenburg. This step is for Grade 10 applicants only.

Your application to Grade 10 cannot be considered without doing this extra step as admission to Grade 10 involves the city of Gothenburg admissions department for high schools. This form is linked in the Apply Section.

As part of this process you will get a log into the online system INDRA.  It is through INDRA that you get to know if you are accepted or placed on a reserve list.

4) Partake in Placement/Entrance Testing.

See the Placement Testing section for more details. There is information there also about what will happen after placement testing.

Special Considerations and tips for students who plan to come to Gothenburg alone, or those who are coming from outside of the EU.

Engaging in this application process from abroad requires a clear and transparent communication, and it requires that the student applicant and their family acts with academic integrity.  

We reserve the right to close your application at any point and the ensuing process if at any point we detect there may be a breach in academic integrity.

This could include any of the following, however the list is not exhaustive

• Not following instructions as per this website

• Not accurately representing yourself or your identify

• Not providing enough information about your identify (i.e. writing emails which you do not sign)

• Not following the placement testing instructions 

If we find out about a breach in academic integrity after you have arrived here, we reserve the right to de-register you as a student immediately. 

Other tips for communication with us:

When emailing us, please remember to sign your name.  Try to remember to reply to an email string we've already started, as opposed to starting an entirely new email each time. This makes it difficult to track conversations we had. 

Technical details about planning your arrival, if offered a place

We are not a boarding school and we do not offer assistance in finding a place to stay.

If you are living abroad and your only reason to come to Gothenburg is to be a student -either alone or with your family- you may need to apply for a residence permit and it could be smart to already begin looking into that process as sometimes it can take awhile, anywhere from 3-8 months can be typical.

Here is where you can find all of the information you need.

https://www.migrationsverket.se/Privatpersoner/Studera-i-Sverige/Ovriga-studier.html   (you can choose to translate the page to English or another language)

You cannot complete the process for the residence permit until you know if you have a place at the school, and if you do, we'll provide a letter confirming your acceptance when needed and you can add that later after starting the process.

It can take up to 4 months for your application for a residence permit to be processed. This is why if you apply after mid-February, you may be too late to be part of the coming school year's process for admissions.

Some families ask if their child is able to study here on their own, without their parents' presence. While this is not common, it does happen from time to time if all the criteria are met.  

1. You have been offered a place at the school for full time studies.

2. The parent and student applicant attend an online meeting with the Principal and/or admissions group from the school

3. Your guardians can participate in development talks with the school (online) in English or can provide a translater when needed.

4. The parent gives written consent (this is both a part of the migrationsverket application, and the school also has a document to sign)

5. You are able to complete the residence permit application process successfully. Note there are other criteria you must meet for that which you can read about in the link above. Example: you must provide proof of insurance valid in Sweden and who that the student can economically sustain themselves while here. See the "migrationsverket" link above for all of the details.

6. You can arrange travel and lodging independently.

We are not able to provide more assistance or information regarding this topic. Please turn to the relevent embassy to know more about what documents you need to travel and stay here lawfully. 

Yes, you can apply and be considered no matter what type of school you are currently attending in Sweden. You must be in at least your 9th grade school year however, and on track to finish successfully, to apply for Grade 10.  You must be in at least your 10th grade school year, and on track to finish successfully, to apply for Grade 11 (IB Diploma Program).

Feburary 1st is the deadline to apply for the following school year which starts in August.  You can apply later than this, however, your chances of being able to be fully considered diminish more and more the later you apply. 

June 1 is the absolute latest you can apply so that you can still take part in placement testing.  You will not be considered for a place if you have not completed placement testing. 

If you are applying to Grade 10 only: You apply using INDRA and your local study and work counselor (studie- och yrkesvägledning or SYV) helps you in this process. 

What you must do. Instructions apply to all applicants, unless otherwise noted.

1) Grade 10 applicants only: Apply via INDRA prior by February 1st.     In Swedish schools, the SYV will be helping students get INDRA accounts and understand the process. Contact them for help if you haven't already gotten it. I have a copy of the form in my "Apply here" section of the website too.

If you wish to be seriously considered for admission, you must attend placement testing Feb 21st or in June.

The principal will remind you about placement testing through email. Therefore, be sure to make sure you've entered your correct email, and, that it is an email you check regularly.

2) Apply via my own internal form which you can access here.  We need more data than INDRA provides and use it only internally for the admission and placement consideration process.

3) Partake in Placement/Entrance Testing.  

See Placement Testing section for more information.

4) Send your latest grade report if you go to an IB MYP school or if you have only recently arrived in Sweden (within the last 2 years). In that case, send the latest full grade report you got from your previous school (before you were in Sweden).  Send to krista.baker@educ.goteborg.se 

Grade reports allow us to verify your identify and your eligibility to apply for the program. 

The grade report should be on school letterhead (i.e. includes School Name, logo, address, telephone, website, etc), signed by a teacher, mentor, coordinator, or principal. A report in the original language is required as well as a translation of the report to English, if needed.   The translation should not be done by the student or parent, but from someone at the school and should also be signed by the person who translated it, as well as their role at the school. 

You scan and send this (these) reports as a PDF or image that is easily readable to the Principal by email as soon as it is available.

What's next? To find out what happens after that, see the section What happens after placement testing?

If you have been offered a place in the program, please note: 

We are not able to endlessly hold a place for a student to start. We need assurance that you are indeed coming to Sweden because:

1-one of your guardians has been offered a job 

2-the residence permit process has been started

3-you have other verification of your impending move to Gothenburg

Even with assurances, sometimes there can be delays with Migrationsverket. Or perhaps your parents' job doesn't start until later in the Fall. If you have come to agreement with the Principal that you are permitted to start the school year later, then the rest of this page can help you understand what that might mean for you as the student.

Note that for students who are coming to Gothenburg solely because they've been offered a place in the program, we understand that there can be a delay in gaining permission to come or getting the residence permit. However, if you are not able to arrive here within 4 weeks of the first day of school (or the specified date told to you by the Principal), we will have to de-register you and offer your place to another student in the queue.  Because you may not be able to find out if you are accepted until as late as August/September (if you end up on a reserve list), it could definitely affect your ability to get here on time. Thus, it is best if you have a backup plan for school if you are a student in this situation.  We are not able to hold a place for students in this situation beyond 4 weeks of when school starts.

If for whatever reason, you end up getting here late under permission of the Principal, here is what you should think about:

You will be a bit behind starting late and the ability to get caught up and get grades at the end of the school year can vary from student to student. 

Talk to your teachers to see what you might need to do to get caught up and use some of your breaks (like Winter break coming up) to get caught up on some work. 

Grades from Grade 10/PreDP will have varying degrees of importance to you, our school, or to other schools or Universities.

To you:

• The grades help you understand where your strengths are, and where you need to develop.

• A Modern Foreign Language if taken and passed (at least an E) at Stage 3: Swedish Universities add merit points for this. Note: if you don't take a modern foreign language in PreDP, you have an opportunity to take the equivalent in the DP. It must not be "ab initio" and must not be English or Swedish to get the merit points.  

• Passing grades are necessary to be able to continue on into the final 2 years of the Diploma Program at our school.

As mentioned above, if you come rather late in the school year, you may struggle to get a grade. Not because you struggle to show knowledge and skills in what you've worked with, but simply because of being late and not had the chance to study everything required. In this extenuous circumstance, you may be permitted to continue into the Diploma Program so long as your teachers provide a commentary assessment and inform that you are not struggling with the content you are actually here for and you show readiness to take on the next challenge of going into the Diploma Program.  

If and when you apply to University in Sweden, you apply with the results of your IB Diploma and you are not required to attach PreDP/Grade 10 grades. You are permitted to attach PreDP/Grade 10 grades as a complement to the application voluntarily. 

If and when you apply to Universities in other countries: they may or may not wish to see grades from year 10.  Therefore, if this is something you think might affect you in the future, it's best to do the research and find out, from the University you might apply to later, if they reqiure it or not.  Most Universities will accept the IB Diploma on its own.

It is not permitted to start Grade 11 late.

The IB Diploma Program is stated to be a 2 year education. The teaching and learning portion of the program can essentially be said to last 18 months.  Year 1 starts in August and lasts until June, Year 2 starts in August and essentially lasts until mid-April at which point students begin revising for the final exams which happen in May of the final year.

The syllabus for the course is clear and concise, with precisely measured hours allotted for each topic. The school allots the required minimum hours for each subject, and there is no time to waste. Attendance is thus mandatory from the first day of school. 

Another common question is regarding fees. There are fees in the final year of the program: we charge approximately 750 EURO (for the 24-25 school year) to cover the costs of the IB examinations. Also for some subjects, students must purchase their own books or materials. For example, literature is purchased by the students and some Arts/Design students must purchase their own materials if they wish to work with things the school doesn't have on hand. Students must purchase their own writing utensils, notebooks, etc.

The school is connected to a number of stipendium funds and students can apply for financial support or scholarships if they meet the criteria. You can read more about this on the Hvitfeldtska school webpage, under "Stipendier". 

The school does provide a computer and lunch on school days.

1.  See "Rules for continuation from Pre-Diploma into Diploma Program by results in each subject" in our Assessment Policy. 

2. See even "Registration status in Grades 11-12": Full Diploma or Course Candidate" in the same policy.

3. In cases of Academic Honesty detected during the Admissions Process/Placement Testing, we follow our Academic Honesty Policy, and, the student will not be offered a place in the Diploma Program.