Rosewood24

Anyone else have experience with what transcripts to send?

@lonelyheartsclub I don't know if having to send all the stuff is a blessing or curse lol.

My S1-S4 was consistently good(Everything A1s) but it's my JC results that are gonna kill me lol.

Had a 6 month asthma attack during mid-J1 where I skipped school for that entire period. Couldn't really catch up by that point. I managed to get past promos but my grades from J1 to J2 were mostly(Not kidding) U and S with some D/E sprinkled around which was why I managed to pass my promo. J2 year dropped H2 econs to H1 and continued to struggle; UDE/DU for Term and UDU/AS for Prelims. But for A Levels through sheer work somehow managed to get BBC/BE. (E was for econs because I hated it so bad I didn't even study for it but still managed to get an E lol). Definitely not what I would call sustained academic progress!

If colleges saw this trend would they be impressed with the crazy improvement(imo) of my A Level grades?


Same thing for my SGC. Stellar for Secondary School but Asthma killed my SGC for JC(Not that bad though)

My SATs are decent though : 2280

lonelyheartsclub

I think you'll have to include all those grades, however bad they seem, for completion's sake; I can't speak for sure but colleges may find the omission suspicious. There's a section in the CommonApp that allows for you to state any mitigating circumstances for periods of erratic performance, so you may want to have something written there for the record. Don't sound too maudlin though; a college wouldn't want defeatists rationalizing away painful pasts, they want upbeat individuals who can rise above it all.

As to whether they'd be impressed: it's hard to say. As much as college admissions is holistic, it is, at its cold-centered heart, a numbers game. A sprinkling of speculation here: my personal experience is that promos/prelims matter a lot - more than A levels, far more than SATs. Why? Because they show class ranking, they are proof as to your standing amongst the school, they display the hard numbers that'd hidden behind A level's middling alphabets.

Anyhow, your grades are in the past now; just focus on writing a kickass essay that lets your personality shine through and I'm sure you'll do just fine!

kennzt

@Rosewood24

My JC encouraged otherwise - send your promos/midyears/prelim results only if you think they do you justice. It would be counter-intuitive to send things that don't really help you boost your admission chances. Most of the colleges in US are familiar with Singapore students applying with O and A levels so it should be sufficient as educational transcripts (and with it, they are familiar with students getting straight S and Es for internal exams) . And woah, good job on SAT!

Rosewood24

@lonelyheartsclub : Yea what's done is done. Best I can do now is focus on what I have control in - The essays

Rosewood24

Double post -

@kennzt : Thanks. I plan to send only my A and O Level scores together with the SATs.

Apparently none of my desired schools use the common app, which could be a good thing.

agnstalodz

@Rosewood

Sorry, was at Singapore Day and didn't check the boards. Haha

Anyway, yeah the hanging around with Singaporeans thing is pretty much a personal 'habit' I guess. I was a transfer student and didn't manage to attend any of the orientation sessions, so I didn't make many friends. The international students I met at the orientation session of the school before I transferred were all kind of weird. Haha. But I do think both the normal and the international orientation sessions at any university would help you make some friends! For me I guess I found it difficult entering half way when everyone had already made their friends, so approaching/socialising with Singaporeans is a less scary option. If there's no level ground to meet people (like an orientation where both of you don't know anybody), it's pretty difficult to get past the hi-bye stage unless you 1. work with them 2. see them regularly or 3. really make an effort to do #2. I do socialise with Americans, but I don't think I'd consider any of them my best friends.

OH! Any by no means did I mean to imply that Americans are racist or judge you based on your race! I know that the onus is totally on me to be friendly and stuff. In a school with a student body as diverse as UW's, xenophobia doesn't last long. I'm just not one to really approach people I guess.

About the partying, much of it would depend on where you are. At UW, there is a moderate Greek culture and I have Singaporean friends who go out partying with their American friends EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK. Maybe it's a bit of the fact that most of your peers would be below the drinking age, and it's about doing something the law says you're not old enough to do. But yeah la everything is subjective to your own personal experiences. I'm quite a mellow person I guess. I'd rather play mahjong than get drunk and impair my hearing.

About campus jobs, international students are allowed to be employed by the school. So you would be eligible for any kind of jobs on campus. We have an online portal called HuskyJobs that lets you search and apply for campus jobs. My job is kind of like a preemptive, modified, Faitmah where I sell parking permits to motorists for special events on campus. Damn boring but I get paid $10/hr and I get to chat with my co-worker for about 4 hours. The fun part is the chatting and getting to know more about them and their schoolwork/family/life philosophy. Lol. But if I didn't have this job that made me interact with fellow students, I probably wouldn't have gotten to know others at that same level.

Anyway, I'm sure many of you have experiences that differ greatly from mine, so I just want to say that this is just my view! I'm not trying to pass any sweeping or generalising statements about Americans or anything, so forgive me if I come across that way. (But just for good measure, my friend and all her ang mo friends regularly watch the Kardashians and other similar shows [I don't even know what they're called haha] and discuss them with great enthusiasm and detail. not really my cuppa tea)

agnstalodz

@Archer7319

Haha the OTHER UW.. Actually, UWashington has the beach AND the snow AND lots of lakes. Just food for thought. And I think we have a good molecular biology department too! (Oh I guess UW-M, UW-S and UCSD are tied for the same spot here Best Biological Science Programs | Top Science Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools)

Sounds like UW Madison is a nice school though, but two points in favour for UCSD: 1. IN-N-OUT and 2. the quarter system isn't that bad la. Though, I'd choose snowboarding > in-n-out.. or wait maybe not. Hm.

@littus and @tofeho

Congrats on Northeastern and UMich! I've a friend on NTU exchange in Northeastern now, and my brother went to UMich! Both good schools.

@tofeho

UMich is THE most expensive public school in the US. It's definitely worth it.. good school, good reputation, really nice and quaint town. But NUS is a highly-ranked school too. No real need for you to transfer schools and have to suffer student loans after you graduate just for the branding of UMich. But if you have a means to pay for it, you should go for it! If not, maybe you could do a 6 month or 1 year exchange for the overseas experience. NUS has some pretty good ties to overseas universities!

Oh and @Rosewood again

Not asking you to have everything ride on this, but I believe the essay prompts ask if you have been through any life-altering experiences and/or whether they affected your grades. You can sort of 'account' for your A level results, but don't make it sound like you're blaming everything on your health! Instead, focus on how you overcame it and still managed to get a good score. Honestly, I think you'll definitely get into the UW. Your A level grades really aren't that bad and your SAT scores are better than probably 70% of the students at the UW!

Ok I'm typing too much again. I will go away and keep quiet for now.

trufflepuff

@writtenonthebody

Hi, fellow JW fan

I'm going to West Virginia University for grad school. Yesss a Singaporean in West Virginia. This will be fun

Leon1987

Hi I am an international student also , I just want to share some contact for "affordable" business school with you .

I applied at UC Riverside but the total cost of tuitions was more than $90 000.

I could not afford that instead after hours spent on internet I found a list of school with MBA program under $30 000 for non-resident with the same accreditation AACSB as UC Riverside . Of course it is not located in California but with 60000 dollars in savings you can book several trips to California !

The school are :

Eastern Washington University

University of South Dakota

University of North Texas

University of North Alabama

I just wanted to share that with you because I know that lots of US school are taken advantage of foreign student about the tuitions.