<p>frankchn > Ah, I sent it. Sorry I was going to send it last night but I fell asleep from watching my folding@home work unit near completion… -_-;</p>
<p>screwitlah > Hmm I predict 1 more month to the mass influx of post-A levels, though.</p>
<p>Anyone up to the challenge, take 13AUs as well. =)</p>
<p>hey guys!</p>
<p>I was just wondering. when writing achievements/participations for university admissions, do all external activities you took part in have to be official (approved by school, black and white etc.) before you can put them down as something you took part in?</p>
<p>I have been volunteering externally without going through any procedures with my school. I didn’t want the CIP points hence I didn’t tell them. But coming university applications, I would need to write down those stuff I did I guess, especially when I hope to go to an overseas university. Will this be a problem? </p>
<p>Thanks! :)</p>
<p>^ Nope, it won’t be a problem.</p>
<p>but how are they gonna verify what you did and didn’t do ?</p>
<p>i did abit, but not everything has the related paperwork</p>
<p>well they trust that u don’t lie, so obviously don’t exaggerate stuff…</p>
<p>thanks guys for clearing my doubts! I was a bit worried about that…</p>
<p>Since everyone should be Singaporeans and mostly in the workplace (I think), does Singapore have a big workfield for people interested in animals? Or even a medium one?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
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<p>The logic goes that if you did anything significant enough - you/your teachers would be talking about it in your essays/their recommendations or somewhere else. If not, they would be suspicious and may want some proof or call/email your teacher up to ask.</p>
<p>If you didn’t do anything significant (i.e. lie about the small things) - they won’t notice but then those things are enough to get you in anyway.</p>
<p>so i should leave out external activities ?? i did abit of helping at an old folks’ home and the Y. only the Y actually gave me a cert of participation</p>
<p>thing is, that’s all i’ve got. coz compared to you guys who went to sec sch and stuff, i don’t have much since i’ve been in a private sch all along :(</p>
<p>^ no, you can write about anything (sch based, external) you’ve done. Of course please don’t lie in your app.</p>
<p>hey, just wondering…for those people who got in to the ‘top’ univs, what were your CCAs/activities in jc?</p>
<p>^ Well, here are some chance me threads back when we were applying for universities:</p>
<p>Myself - Stanford Class of '14 - <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/409766-international-chances-penn-ed-stanford-columbia-cornell-nyu.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/409766-international-chances-penn-ed-stanford-columbia-cornell-nyu.html</a> </p>
<p>1234d - Yale Class of '15 - <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/485345-chances-top-schools-thanks-you.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/485345-chances-top-schools-thanks-you.html</a></p>
<p>Now I feel like I’m not going to get into any good unis. Thanks to Frankchn’s application. :D</p>
<p>Stanford 2015
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061706762-post601.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061706762-post601.html</a></p>
<p>I didn’t really participate in any CCA activities in JC although I was nominally in the excos of Computer Science and Photography. (Haha.)</p>
<p>I have never taken part in an international competition before.</p>
<p>I did not participate in any sports, musical or uniform CCA in secondary school.</p>
<p>I basically mentioned nothing about my CCA and school activities in my application essays.</p>
<p>It’s still possible to get into a good school without outstanding CCAs. :)</p>
<p>That said, it’s not like I don’t have anything to offer. I write very well and have never scored anything but A for GP throughout my 2 years of JC. I read a lot of non-fiction books on politics and history and took SAT II US History out of personal interest. I traveled overseas a few times on my own and met interesting people. I have strong views on politics and social issues. I often imagine what the future will look like and write about it. I’ve been maintaining my own website and domain since I was 10 and I love to design websites. I also speak Japanese and took it as my contrasting subject.</p>
<p>And more conventionally, I have excellent A-Level (4 H2 As and Distinction) and SAT results (2310 in one attempt) because I am exam smart, even though I can’t recall the first thing about calculus by now. Although the idealist part of me likes to believe that the other factors were what got me into Stanford. ;)</p>
<p>I guess my point is: don’t give up. Before my A-Levels, I went to my math tutor for uni-app advice and she told me that I had zero chance at Stanford due to my lack of CCA achievements… I’m glad I decided to give it a shot anyway. You just have to sell yourself well and stand out. CCA achievements are just one of the possible ways to do it.</p>
<p>Of course I’m not arguing that everyone can get into a top school if he/she tries hard enough. I’m just saying that having a poor CCA record is not a deal-breaker. Having no passion in life is. Of course, I speak only for Stanford. Cornell rejected me. Heh.</p>
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<p>That’s why people told me too. “Your results aren’t good enough - you aren’t even in the top 15% of the school, how can you expect to get in to Stanford or any of the Ivies?”</p>
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<p>Waitlisted there. </p>
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<p>Very true. The worst thing that could happen is that you don’t get in.</p>
<p>I feel all warm and fuzzy because of the above 2 posts. =)</p>
<p>all you A level dudes start off in sophmore year in college right ??</p>
<p>^ Nope. But we do get some exemptions and advanced placement credits for certain classes - similar to the Americans if they took APs.</p>
<p>^ Yeah, plus being kiasu Singaporeans (and other cost/scholarship factors), alot of us must die die finish a degree in 3 years. haha :D</p>
<p>drifter19_8: If you really want to get into a certain school, the least you can do is to apply. If you submit an application, you have a chance of getting in; if you don’t, you chance of admission is zero. </p>
<p>Honestly, the beauty of the US college application process is that as an applicant, you are not purely judged on the basis of your academic prowess or CCA involvement. There’s incredible room for flexibility in crafting your own application, and this I believe engenders a much more holistic selection process. </p>
<p>Go forth and be enterprising (disclaimer: remember to be realistic too) in your application. And trust me, in the process of marketing yourself to the schools, you’ll really learn to see yourself beyond grades and scores.</p>
<p>P.S. Even my counselor was quite skeptical about my chances at the good schools. Luckily I had more faith in myself :P</p>