<p>I wish I had done IB now. Haha. Good scholarships at HKUST.</p>
<p>@Sarthak: I think IB students can apply for Swire scholarships because they’ve mentioned that if somebody qualifies for Swire scholarships, the award of HKD 120,000 will supersede all other scholarship awards offered to the candidate.</p>
<p>@Rebecca: I haven’t sent an application for the Swire thing. I think you should e-mail 'em atleast once. Because it’s been a long time since you got over with your interview. Why don’t you contact your personal HKUST counselor?</p>
<p>Is it really so abnormal to have to wait so long? Like in Canada, I don’t think admission decisions usually come out as soon as January anyways.</p>
<p>I have a query. I want to change my course preference from BBA to GB. I had my telephone interview 4-5 days ago and expect to hear the results at the end of month. If i change my course preference from BBA to GB do I again have to appear for telephone interview and would it take more time for for my results to be released. Is it advise able to do so:
Please suggest:</p>
<p>I applied for the following courses:
1: BBA
2: GB
3: ECONOMICS/ACCOUNTS</p>
<p>@aman-.
Bear In mind that the GB program is undoubtedly their best program and gets the highest number of applications
its better to get in touch in with them directly…call them or something cause emailing them takes long…
I hear its pretty easy to change course once you are in(i guess after first sem & you need good results)…
this is for engineering but it should apply to all courses…</p>
<p>@rebecca-since you have a HKUST counsellor,why dont you send her an email asking why decision is taking so long ?..it does no harm whatsoever…</p>
<p>So should i remain with BBA as my first choice and once I get in i can change my course.</p>
<p>The scholarships for which we are automatically are for one year or the entire course.</p>
<p>oh wow to the 71% male thing. good for us girls (:</p>
<p>I’m kinda new to this thread; I applied last year and got in with some scholarship (not full) but wasn’t able to go due to family and financial stuff. But I was recommended to apply again and already had my phone interview with HKUST on Feb 5. Still haven’t heard a sure reply but my interviewer said she was admitting me to Year 1 if I got in and she’s writing a recommendation for the tuition scholarship. So I want to add some other stuff I learned about HKUST for the record :)</p>
<p>*For anyone applying for Chem/Bioproduct Engineering major (which is my 1st choice), the department is small and homely. And international students numbers to about 10% of the CBE department.
*Even international students do exchange programs (which is totally cool!) sometimes with Saudi Arabia, U.K., etc. Still the exchange out is less than 10%.
*there are a lot of undergraduate research opportunities via a matching process. Not necessarily competitive, but for students who suit the interests of the research project and professor. Over the summer, you get paid a stipend, usually enough to cover room and board. And during the year, it’s for course credit.
*On campus, you will find a pretty good diversity. Not likely to be as diverse as, say, the melting pot United States but faculty members are 1/3 from hong kong, 1/3 from mainland china, and 1/3 international.
*Mathematics at hkust are expected to be very difficult, no matter how excellent you were in your home country (this part scares me). </p>
<p>Last year when they offered scholarship it was for 80,000 HKD good only for the major/department I was in (School of Engineering) and I was required to maintain a B+ average. And it was renewable for the period of 3 years.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure I’ll be going if I get admitted with the same tuition offer. I already feel stupid for letting it slip by last year. Like I totally wasted a year… but I’m older, and I worked quite a bit during the year so there ya go.</p>
<p>Haven’t seen any other Chem Engineering majors on this thread :(… anyone out there???</p>
<p>@phoenix_ice- hey
i have been offered a place for chem engineering …i haven’t replied yet but glad to see there are others applying too…
where are you from??and is chem eng your first choice?did you have an interview??(i didnt)
I did not get offered any sort of financial aid though…</p>
<p>@aman-its totally upto you mate…I suggest you give them a call…
you don’t want to regret your choice later…</p>
<p>@ anand78 - Cool!! I’m from the U.S. (California). Chem/Bioproduct Eng was my first choice. Was it yours?</p>
<p>I did have a phone interview with the department. I didn’t have all my supporting documents sent in until the second week of January and I got an email to schedule a phone interview the first week of February. So I’m not sure what’s going on there. What’s your feeling about HK right now? I mean, seriously, the two weeks reply is just too crazy!!!</p>
<p>@ amanagarwal - I don’t know if you can keep the aid if you change out of your major. Agreed with anand78 about giving them a call…</p>
<p>Rebecca: I’m thankful I chose to do IB ! I guess its pretty normal to wait for the decisions for this long, but not when you have been contacted by the Uni through interviews st cetera… So I guess you should just check atleast once to make sure they dont want anything else from you …</p>
<p>System Failure: Its cool, I dont wanna apply cause that is too much extra work then! I’ll just stick with my IB scholarship for the time being …</p>
<p>Aman: If you are certain you wanna do that and would not go for BBA even if offered then inform them now with reasons for doing so… Dont go exactly by what I say cause I could be wrong, but you could even change your preferences after you are given an admission decision, but in that case you have to decline the BBA admission offered! And as Anand correctly pointed out it is their best course so might be a bi difficult…</p>
<p>Pheonix_ice: You can think of that year as a fruitful gap year considering you did a lot of work as you say! Did you actually go to the Uni and study in there for sometime ??</p>
<p>@ sarthak - I studied at a community college. so if I don’t go to HKUST, i’ll be going to a university of california. I’m just kinda scared because I’m used to being lazy here xD… my high school was tough but didn’t have IB then it felt like I downgraded in terms of workload when I went to community college, although the actual material was more advanced.</p>
<p>So have you decided about going yet?</p>
<p>@phoneix-ice-My first choice was Chemical engineering…infact my second choice was Chem&bioproduct…
I second your opinion about the workload and stuff.I come from a very chilled out educational background in England…I hear competition is pretty stiff so a bit tensed about that…yh,Replying with a set amount within two weeks or so is pretty harsh…I might ask them to push the deadline but the maximum is a week so it makes no sense…
Reasons i applied-
1)well respected engineering schools
2)good connection with top US universities for exchange/post grad
3)and most importantly its pretty CHEAP compared to US/UK unis
and the fact that CBME department takes only about 18-20 students per course appealed to me but now i am kinda confused because No of international students will be pretty low then …maybe 1-2 per course…what do you think?</p>
<p>phoenix_ice: You are talking my language now, I’m used to being lazy too
IB, however, didn’t let me be myself at all, i.e. lazy…!</p>
<p>@sarthak - hahaha I took a bunch of AP classes but I went to a locally renowned “smart” high school which sort of had the opposite effect of what you would think… all of us became hardcore procrastinators and lazy to the core! Sound like your avenue?</p>
<p>@ anand - Hmm… well, my interviewer said yes the department is pretty small. Meaning students get to know everyone else in the department really well… and the support from everyone is pretty good. I don’t recall if she meant the major or the department, but she was saying how there was about roughly 60-70 admitted per class, with 10% being international. Last year, there was an unusually high number of applicants and they admitted 80 students with 10 international students (over 10%). Then they get like 1 or 2 exchanges from the U.S. or other places each year. Not sure if that answered your question, but that’s the info my interviewer gave me ^_^.</p>
<p>I would go to HKUST primarily because of the experience and it sets me apart from other grad school applicants in the US :D. BUT… it IS intimidating to think about how I would fare in the competitive arena vs Hong Kong locals and the best of mainland China. HAH… that would most certainly scare me off…</p>
<p>For me, going to Hong Kong and going to, say, UCLA with resident tuition are pretty much the same without any financial aid (hong kong may even a bit less). And I’m thinking… hey, it’s just undergrad! In this day and age, it’s all about the postgrad (;</p>
<p>@phoenix-60-70 students for the whole department sounds about right…
i remember the old website had something on it which said that they plan to take about 18-20 per course(2010)…But i would imagine the classes for the entire department will be the same except for maybe the last two semesters…
From what i know education system in the US is pretty similar to the one in the UK…
Pretty chilled out to say the least…yup,its pretty daunting to think how i would fare against the locals and the Mainlanders.
anyway i am happy i found another international who applied to the CBME dept…
my deadline is fast approaching…arghhh</p>
<p>@sarthak-did u send the money via wire transfer? if so,then you don’t need to send the acceptance form by post too,right?(i need more time,thats why):)</p>
<p>phoenix_ice: haha… If there is one phrase I have come to agree with, it is “Deadlines are closer then they appear!” And god I hate that!! Speaking of which I have an English essay, Chem Internal Assessment report, Maths past paper, Mandarin dictation, and Physics worksheet ALL due in for tomorrow !!! Soo mark my words: “IB is way too serious and demanding to be a high school course!” Its like IB = No Social Life = No Life!
And I cannot agree any less with you on that it is Undergrad and the brand name matters only at Postgrad level… I think of it this way, Undergrad is like the middle school no one cares what school you did it from or what course till you successfully completed it, but it determines how string your base in education is, and Postgrad is like IB or AP, where people actually care about your course and how well you did and which school ! PhD is like work experience/summer job to go with your high school degree :)</p>
<p>At one point of time it was either U of California-Berkeley, or Cooper Union for me, till I heard from HKUST and then I actually thought seriously about it and figured it was the “perfect” fit for me!! I wanna do my postgrad from UCB though, in ergonomics…</p>
<p>I just called the people @ HKU’s Admissions office to check whether all of my documents have been received. They told me that it’s not reflected in the computer system yet (i.e. they don’t know). </p>
<p>It’s been over 1.5 weeks since I sent the materials. Is this normal?</p>
<p>@x.wondergirl: It is abnormal if they haven’t received the documents yet 'cause 1.5 weeks is a lot [atleast for a good courier service] and it is normal if they haven’t updated your online application. LoL.</p>
<p>Anyway, call up the courier office and enquire the details. If they say your documents have reached then all is okay. :)</p>
<p>I should study for my midtermmmms! Aahhh!!</p>
<p>@ sarthak - What’s the education system like in Shanghai (inferring from your location)? Yeah, the UC system takes FOREVER to let you know their decisions… granted they get thousands of applicants. But you apply all the way back in November and then get your decisions in March/April… >.> compared to how quickly HKUST moves to secure its students, HKUST is pretty strategic if you ask me… but not too strategic in our favor! I’m fairly certain it’s a good decision, though. UCB brings out the strange in you, I hear. (; For postgrad, though, you can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>@ anand - yes! I know! I’m happy to know of another international applicant to the department. Doesn’t settle my fears though. Still, some kind of relief ensues :P. I hate the international reputation of US high school education… we’re naive and globally ignorant, stereotypically. But I can’t deny there’s truth to it. heh… I haven’t heard much about education in England, but perhaps we shall try to not underestimate ourselves :)?
p.s. - what’s holding you back on deciding? bleh… nerveracking when I try to put myself in your position.</p>
<p>@anand - oh yeah, and reading from previous responses, did you already try emailing the CBME department? I do agree HKUST is pretty fixated on IB qualifications (I mean, cmon, automatic scholarship offers depending on your IB score…???) but last year during their 2009-10 application filing period, I emailed them and told them about my financial sitch. I didn’t do IB either because it wasn’t available at my high school. I did AP, got decent scores, and even though I wasn’t in the highest percentile of my high school, they still considered and offered the aid I described. After I emailed them, they also extended the deadline for my decision by a little less than a week. Still, it IS an extension.</p>
<p>Then again, it could be because I’m from the U.S. and they don’t get that many U.S. applicants… not sure, but from my impression, they like internationalization more than they like IB.</p>