<p>Princeton is the kind of place where if you get in and can’t afford it, you’re gonna be given full or partial scholarship with no bonds attached. Same goes for some other need-blind schools like Yale, Harvard or MIT. They’re need-based, not merit-based scholarships because supposedly everyone who got into these places are the best of their high school cohort, so the amount of scholarship you receive is wholly dependent on your family’s financial situation.</p>
<p>I’d suggest you do your own research. RJ publishes the number of its students getting into US universities every year on its website.</p>
<p>AJC is ranked like 6th or something? Definitely not a neighbourhood JC, and please once you get into a JC you’re in the top 20% of Singaporean students your age. I doubt the concept “neighbourhood JC” even exists. Don’t believe every other “rumour” you hear. There’s a reason why they’re called as such.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about this. If you look at the stats provided by the schools, you’ll find a very simple reason why the students who go to the top US schools are overwhelmingly from the top JCs. For the batch who took their As in 2007, approximately 70% of RJ and HC students had 3H2 distinctions. At VJ, the figure is 54.5% (400+ students), at NJ around 50%, and at TJ 35% or so (the only number they give is 108 students with 5 distinctions and above).</p>
<p>AJ had 194 students with 3H2 As, ACJC had 133, and MJ had 126. So to answer your question, no, AJ is not a “neighbourhood” JC, it’s very respectable. Rather let’s say that RJ and HC are… way off the charts when it comes to sending students to top unis.</p>
<p>You can see that the reason RJ and HC send more students to top unis abroad is simply - yes, as someone mentioned earlier, they have more students who are Ivy-calibre. But if you can match the strength of their application, being from AJ won’t count against you.</p>
<p>in fact if you’re ‘Ivy-calibre’ and studying in AJC, then odds are your class rank will be better than those in HC/RJ who have tons more ‘Ivy-caliber’ kids to compete with. so if your stats are good enough to get you into an Ivy, being from AJC might actually help rather than hinder.</p>
<ol>
<li>will taking AP tests/courses in </li>
<li>subjects taken at a level</li>
<li><p>subjects not taken at a level
help in college admissions? </p></li>
<li><p>i should be going to hwa chong next year. do they offer AP courses or smth? </p></li>
<li><p>how about homeschooling urself for two years, studying then taking the AP tests? with that, apply to top colleges with a good resume in hand… is that feasible?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Interesting plan, but I don’t think APs make that much of a difference to the strength of your application. Look up the amount of credit Penn and the other schools you plan on applying to will give for A Levels/APs. BU, for instance, gives 8 credits for a C and above at A Levels, and 8 credits for a 5 on the AP. They give 4 credits for C and above on an AS/H1? and 4 credits for 4 on the AP. So if you already have good A Levels, I doubt APs will boost your application much. Much better to spend the time on CCA and CIP or even on working part-time.</p>
<p>@Pennaspirant: no formal AP lessons are available. I was from HCI, graduated this Nov. Don’t bother to spend so much time studying AP, I self-studies from scratch during the June holidays and scored 5 for 3 subjects.</p>
<p>Random question: I read earlier in the thread (what, 20 pages back) columbia will schedule an interview if they are considering a candidate? Approximately how long after submission would this be?</p>
<p>For ED, quite fast. For RD, don’t hold your breath since there’re so many applicants. But i think all interviews will be held in January or st. </p>
<p>Anybody knows about Harvard? Are we supposed to schedule our own interview or wait for them to contact us? /: My application is still not complete (recommendation letters, both of them, which i sent exactly a month ago T__T) so maybe i have to wait til everything’s received first?</p>
<p>No matter what, try to request for an interview, if they have forms/procedures for you to request, and the interview request isn’t automatic after submitting application.</p>
<p>It is very helpful for me, when I interviewed with Wellesley and Reed alums yesterday. It also shows interest in the school <em>g</em></p>
<p>^ confused_vnese - In my experience they will contact you around 2-3 weeks after you submit Part 1 of your application. I think they do try to interview everyone.</p>
<p>Yupps, thats the one im referring to, except im talking more about the scholarship that sends people over to foreign countries to complete their JC education…Wondering whether there is anyone here who can provide some solid information about it, and not the basic facts…</p>
<p>UWC grads seem to get into top colleges even with low SATs (~2000 kind). Might not be a fair observation though… Basically my friend was saying that you should be prepared to spend two (?) years of your life in the middle of nowhere eating crap food but after that the Ivy gates are wide open! She got into Brown btw.</p>
<p>Okay i’m so giving up on Harvard. i sent my app in during the last week of November! (and now it’s still not complete cos i didn’t have enough money to send anything by speedpost)</p>
the wellesley alarm, was it hillary clinton? :)</p>