weasleyisourking

haha i get that condescension sometimes too. people make fun of Brown for having a funny name, for being named after a colour. and the usual opinion that i study overseas cos i can't get into local unis.

captain backfire

hi everyone,

i'm in the process of applying to a few colleges in the states and have a few questions about teachers' recommendations.

1) is it possible to get recommendations from secondary school teachers, not jc teachers?

there isn't a lot of info on this on the uni websites because they don't follow the sec school / jc system. high school for them would be tantamount to sec 3-4, plus j1-2. technically, i should be able to use my sec 3-4 teachers, shouldn't i?


2) what sort of documents do you need to present teachers with when asking for a recommendation?

i presume everyone's going to have different answers for this, so i'd just like to hear everyone's opinions on this to get a comprehensive feel for things.

weasleyisourking

hi captain backfire

1) yes it's possible, but I guess in most cases it doesn't reflect too well on the applicant. Because the admission officers will wonder why the student can't find a teacher in his last 2 years of high school to write for him. I did ask one of my sec 3/4 teacher to write for me, but only because i knew it was a risk worth taking. I knew that the testimonial would be a million times better than any testimonial my JC teachers would write for me. and in my case, my sec 3/4 teacher had already left the school and went on to China to teach in international schools there, but it seemed that the admission officers didn't mind? If you need a frame of reference: Vassar, Tufts, Brown, NYU and Boston U didn't mind. That being said, my high school counsellor's recommendation was the faculty head in JC, and my other teacher's recommendation was by my form teacher in JC. So the majority of my recommendations were from JC teachers. So I guess 1 secondary school teacher recommendation alone may not be too good on its own.

2) I gave my teachers my personal statement, so that they will understand how I am presenting myself in the application, and won't write something completely different about me. I also gave my teachers my Curriculum Vitae so that they have stuff to refer to, and to remind them of what I did in school. And of course all the forms they had to fill up, I passed it to them, labeled with deadlines and with their own self stamped envelopes.

vitalism

does anyone have a breakdown of how many Singaporeans were enrolled into the various top colleges last year?

Thanks!

frankchn

http://www.rjc.edu.sg/USapps/Colleges/rjcrecord.asp

Probably twice the number listed in the above website.

vitalism

why twice the number?

Thanks!

Nadash

Wow, no one got into Amherst..heh.

jhl

Was albert87 really outstanding at RJC? Did being a bruneian help him to get into Princeton? I'm a bruneian too (in brunei) btw

frankchn

RJ students traditionally apply and get accepted to more US schools than HC students (seems to be the reverse for Oxbridge and other UK schools). So its just a rough "guesstimate" - under the assumption that US schools accept half from RJ and half from everyone else (HC, VJ, NJ, TJ). Maybe a little more.

bigfish

okay prelims just ended its about time i get started on my applications SIGH

just a few questions:

1) 2 'routes' i'm considering: one, apply to top universities, fully paid on my own. or two, apply to LACs requesting for financial aid and hoping to get a full ride. only that LAC's don't offer engineering except lafeyette and harvey mudd, and those more generous with aid are probably less well known, though i wouldnt mind.

maybe you're wondering why i should even bother trying for financial aid when i can pay for it, but i really dont want to increase my family's burden. we're average, not filthy rich.

2) is it more advisable to send in applications before a levels? there're some universities with deadlines in feb so i would think.. there's still time after a levels?

captain backfire

weasley,
thanks for the response. i'm probably going to ask a sec school teacher for a reference for precisely the same reason you did.

big fish,
have you considered merit scholarships? need-blind scholarships are given by some of the top schools. i hear it's hard for international students to get full scholarships, but half-scholarships are not unheard of.

boeing767

Hello. I'm from RJC, J2 this year and I had all As in my prelims. Do I stand a fair chance for Yale?

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/....php?p=4698742

goingforcolumbia

@boeing767: yale is a reach for everyone but that having been said, skimming through your chances thread, it seems you're on the right track.

serf-

not very helpful for boeing, considering yale SCEA is over and done with :P

cuRRent

boeing got deferred.