woebegone

I'm in NS, 307days to ORD...

Hmm, yeah most people with olympiads are quite serious about college apps so I guess they won't screw up their essays...

rayyy, are you from rj too? and which batch?

danieleio

whoa- RJ04... that means you're my PSL batch

Entering RJ this year, although i'm considering HCJC since i'm in humanities... any ex HCJCians or RJCians to comment on the humans program?

rayyy

According to what I've heard, HC humans is wonderful for students interested in humanities since you have amazing artsy people as classmates. The tutors are great, but they are kind of eccentric and you need to be an independent learner because there will be little hand-holding. If you are serious about humanities, you'll definitely like HC humans. (Then again, this is based on heresay... The humans programme is kind of elitist though, and the rest of the sch may not like you much. Personally I know quite a few people in humans and like them fine so I have nothing against them at all.) Oh and there are tons of GEPpers, if that matters to you in any way.

And, obviously, I'm from HC!

danieleio

Just attended first day of RJ orientation... ppl had to come in with 3 pts or less. Lotsa complaints on blogs- only people who passed higher chinese AND had good CCA records got in. So if you didn't take higher chinese/mother tongue, you couldn't get to RJC. Ouch!

woebegone

lol ok, sorry for making the wrong assumption

erm yeah HC humans has the reputation for being elitist... and the teachers are actually the ones encouraging that kind of elitism. at least relative to the rest of the arts population, the treatment they get from teachers are really different. well, at least that's wad i heard from the HC friends.

RJ... there's definitely less distinction between humans classes and non-humans classes. in fact it took me some time to realize whether one particular class was a humans class. if i din remember wrongly, it turned out to be half-half. it seems like RJ humanities scholars fit better into the school than do their HC counterparts...

well i guess HC does have a stronger reputation for humanities, and it due largely in part to the tutors. at least in terms of econs notes, they beat RJ hands-down, in the sense that they are much more structured and easier to understand and digest for an average econs student like me. but if u r going for sophistication n in-depth learning, which i think u r, since u r going for humanities, i thought RJ notes were more useful. of coz this is just econs notes, and i shdn't extrapolate too much from there. i don't know whether the humanities students at HC go through more thorough lessons than the basic, fulfill-the-syllabus-will-do notes will suggest. i guess they probably do haha.

woebegone

3 pts?! how did they manage that considering they increased the intake to 1200? or did they not?

yesh

rj hc all the same la

danieleio

They did... 450 RGs and 450 RIs, but it really didn't seem like 300 new students from elsewhere. My orientation group has 1 SCGS, 1 cedar, 1 nanyang, 1 dunman and that was kinda about it. Makes you wonder whether they really increased the intake...

woebegone

ok... hmm i miss my orientation days...

rayyy

Woah IP really makes life tough for the other students... Sigh which means I will have to prepare myself for a sea of Chinese High boys when I go back to HC to teach. Though theoretically we are all one big family called the Hwa Chong Institution now. How thrilling.

danieleio

Yeah... a grand total of 3 RI boys left the batch this year. Compared to only 70% of the batch making it over to RJC in previous years (under O levels)...

scandal-less

yeah they increased intake, but remember about those darned IP kids who got in by doing well in their PSLEs....

and not true about how rj teachers dont know much. i guess you guys got the wrong teachers? either way, among your bevy of teachers you'll get one or two foreign-educated ones, and they prove to be very knowledgable. you just gotta ask. if all things fail, go look for the US counsellour - she was yale-educated. or the UK one if ure looking for oxbridge. i think it's purvis or sth. i can't really rmb.

and yes the humans people are quite elitist, they have their separate blocks and classrooms and lecture theatres. rj loves the whole hierachy thing, yeah? a tiered system even within the so-called elites. lovely. btw, not everyone in the humans programme is a humans scholar. they just so happen to be in that class for the first 3 mths and didnt get kicked out thereafter despite lacklustre grades. distinction, baby. distinction.

and wow, kenyon_10. ure gonna be the minority! kenyon is a terribly unusual choice for a singaporean! were they extremely generous with finaid?

ahluwalia

scandal, on the whole rj teachers do not know much. A lot cannot teach, end of story. The good teachers are definitely in the minority.

As for rj's guidance wrt unis, I think they start really late -i would advise students to start thinking abt this in june holidays, rather than when rj does it -coupla weeks before prelims..

yale-educated woman will claim she is too busy to help. purvis is quite helpful, and can answer properly any qns u may have. this is from friends and personal experience.

danieleio

Hey- how much does it cost to take SATs as a private candidate or something? How do you go about doing it?

Kjoodles

Just register for it on www.collegeboard.com.

I think most people do it as a private candidate anyways.