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<p>In response</p>
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<p>My comments:</p>
<p>Though it’s not necessarily fair or logical, colleges that have a history of previous admissions from a certain JC would be more inclined to continue to admit students from<br>
that JC, as this is the only way in which they can built confidence in dealing with a foreign school unfamiliar to them.</p>
<p>^ That, and also the fact that teacher/counselor recs become more important the longer the history your school has with admissions.</p>
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<p>So those schools “groom” their students to be leaders, to participate in Olympaids, etc.? Will I get similar opportunities if I study at other JCs?</p>
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<p>Not really. I don’t really see Hwa Chong grooming us to go to overseas universities. Perhaps it is just that more people take advantage of the opportunities offered? You can participate in Olympiads, SSEF and the like even if you are not in HC or RJ - but it just seems as though people are more enthusiastic in the top JCs.</p>
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<p>Well, since you can roughly gauge a student’s standards across the entirety of Singaporean applicants since everyone in Singapore participates in similar activities and take similar exams so I don’t think the effect will be as pronounced as that in the US or other countries.</p>
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<p>I guess my “source” is unreliable then :)</p>
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<p>You mean since Singapore is so small, the standard is roughly the same as the curriculum is similar?</p>
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<p>What I meant was that you scoring 8 As in A-levels for YJC is as good as you scoring 8 As in A-levels at Raffles, for instance. Getting a gold in SYF or SSEF or the Olympiads means that you have attained a certain standard - again it doesn’t matter which JC you come from.</p>
<p>a guy in CJC just got into Cornell</p>
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<p>You’re thinking in terms of what’s logical, but I’m saying that the admission process is not all about quantifiable statistics. Maybe I’m just more familiar with the graduate admission process, but from what I can see, when admission officers have to go through crushing stacks of applications from international students all over the world (I can fathom how the numbers may even exceed local applications) to pick students for a very limited quota for each region (i.e. planned diversity), what do you think they do?</p>
<p>They take holistic admission very seriously (that’s where the personal statements comes in), and one aspect of being “holistic” is trying to determine if a certain student has been inculcated with the aptitude and values that the school is looking for, regardless of the grades and awards the students have won (aka if the student’s previous school has been known to produce students of a certain calibre).</p>
<p>Having said that, of course a CJC applicant with 8As and 3 H3 Distinction is never going to be beaten out by a RJC 7As student. The question is, given that most applicants are self-selective (pple with less than 4As don’t usually apply), when it comes down to the line, what is the crucial determining factor? That’s why statistically you’ll see more students from top JCs in top U.S. colleges, it’s quite a self-sustaining cycle.</p>
<p>Also at RJ/HC u get more opportunities, for example HC spoon feed their students with bio/chem olympiad notes that’s y they always win much more than RJ, where as some schools like ahem VJ… don’t even provide any materials for bio oylmpiad… HAha biased here but just an example…</p>
<p>And of course there is much more pressure in RJ/HC to go to ivies and stuff, I don’t even know ppl from my sch applying for what schools and stuff la, there isn’t really a US uni counsellor that I can really talk to unlike RJ, u can check out the blog milkoracle for a lot of tips and stuff… RJ/HC are private schools so teachers really put in the effort into these us uni apps stuff whereas other government schools, teachers are less likely to put in more effort to helping students go overseas since it’s not their main job…</p>
<p>So the moral of the story is it helps to go RJ/HC but you have to make full use of their resources and it would be easier… But if you don’t go to RJ/HC, then you have to source for your own resources for those science competitions, applications stuff, sats etc…</p>
<p>kthanksbye: hearty congrats to you! that’s really amazing :D</p>
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<p>There was some pressure in trying make us take a scholarship, but no pressure in getting us to apply for overseas universities.</p>
<p>hows the cjc guy like?</p>
<p>What you said makes sense too… it all boils down to how lucky you are and what the admissions department is looking for.</p>
<p>release of ED result status so far: Columbia/Dartmouth/Duke/Cornell/Upenn/Stanford so far.</p>
<p>p.s. OMG fiona is back.</p>
<p>so who are the successful early admits from singapore? :P</p>
<p>the CJC guy is a Vietnamese scholar
he is smart, his SAT was ok, i think >2100
but heard that his essay was excellent</p>
<p>heard that 1 girl in RIJC got into stanford ED. She won a stanford book prize before so i guess this helps?</p>
<p>Hi XX. </p>
<ol>
<li>Other’s black.</li>
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<p>Stanford SCEA actually.</p>
<p>oops sry. 10char
@below: dun be so serious, thats my attempt to bring some lame joke here (failed tho)</p>