I want to apply to NZ universities for scholarships; how many excellence credits should I be aiming for? I know I need 50 to pass with Excellence but a lot of people do this - how do I make myself stand out? 80? 90? 100+? How many credits do I realistically need?
How many NZQA excellence credits do I need before they stop caring (eg for scholarship applications)
Having more credits is definitely going to make you look better as an applicant, but also consider the % of your credits that are with Excellence. Gaining 85-90%+ of your credits with Excellence looks really good, and then without needing 100 Excellence credits you can still stand a good shot for scholarships at NZ universities. Of course it’s nice to have as many Excellence credits as you can, but in general once you hit 100, then any more are just a personal achievement, one that is worth aiming for.
A bit of a note about scholarships at NZ universities - some of them are based on academic results but a lot of them also take into account how all-rounded you are as a person; leadership experiences, extracurricular activities, sports etc. While you want to be aiming for a good number of Excellence credits (80-100), you should also make sure that you have some strong extracurriculars to stand a good chance of gaining a scholarship, particularly for scholarships at UoA and Otago.