Singaporean connection

International Students
1721

<p>here is my “stats” as posted on another board… : I converted my O lvls to GPA somehow, but it may not accurately reflect it lol</p>

<p>GPA: 3.0 (was bad )</p>

<p>HS lessons: All taken for 4 years or more
English
English literature elective
Mathematics
Science (phys,chem)
History , social studies
Art elective
Chinese language</p>

<p>Activities:
2 Internships at advertising firms, and one international advertising agency
Few Published work in newspaper ( copywriting)
Wrote for school paper
Art work exhibited in public
4 years radio broadcasting producer (school radio)
1 year drama club
Award winning documentary (kids witness news competition)
Pitch competition (script/ idea pitching competition)
Winner of essay writing competition
2 broadcasting competitions
3 government scholarships won (given to top 5%)
Annual Academic awards
4 years class president
…
And community service: old folks homes/cleaning parks…ect (i’ll spare you!)</p>

<p>Plus i have Excellent teacher recommendations. </p>

<p>Ranking: Not ranked but definitely top half</p>

<p>so where do you think i can get into, bearing in mind my GPA is NOT my strong point, and that Im very confident my SATS and SATS 2s will be better. </p>

<p>what schools do you think i can make it to, keep in mind my list of activities may grow in the next months</p>

1722

<p>Hi another Singaporean here</p>

<p>I was wondering for what is the chances for a typical (?) Singaporean student like myself, slacking during normal school years and gunning in years with major exams. My O level score is 10. Predicted A level score is ABB. But my cumulative GPA is horrid (think average of less than C)</p>

<p>For subjects like econs, I have gotten 42/100 and ranked in the top 30% of my school…I am in the top 25% in my school at least that’s something.</p>

<p>I am looking for LACs to study in, and even if I do well, I probably won’t go to a local uni. It’s a little dumb but I dumped science to study the humanities in JC, but now I want to study science again since I think its so interesting. This has 0% of happening in sgp so I need to come to the US to do so. So I’ll be paying 45k a year for the privilege to study science :confused: oh joy…</p>

1723

<p>hello, i can so agree with the slack off the most of the year thing…
…well i slacked more than that… lol</p>

<p>mmm i have no clue, i want to goto the USEIC to ask them these things…</p>

<p>well maybe also make sue you have good ccas/activities. </p>

<p>i have really no idea… sigh</p>

1724

<p>

Eh lol I didn’t know that USNWR ranks colleges outside of the US? Where do I look for those rankings?</p>

1725

<p>

</p>

<p>Hee hee hee. Aren’t we all up late…</p>

<p>Hah I don’t want to know what my cumulative GPA is! I can tell you I barely passed History in JC three times before I finally failed - Es for mid year J1, promos, march J2, and an S in june. Hauled it up to a 59% for prelims, I think my teachers were so relieved they just knocked it up to 60% and gave me a C (my record actually says something like 31 + 28 = 60, I don’t know how they got away with it in the system). Got an A in History at the A Levels (I actually expected it! Only in Singapore can you get such a grade jump in eight weeks).</p>

<p>^ slacking for 18 months… chiong six months. I don’t recommend it at all, but at some schools, it works. (O Levels was kind of like that as well… refer to my Sec 4 academic path higher up the page)</p>

<p>nelle: Your predicted ABB is going to be in the humanities. Of course it will cost $$, but think about it - how many people who can get ABB at the A Levels for humanities can actually handle college-level science? (Remember, ABB would get you 24 credits in the humanities at most schools - nothing to be laughed at.) I think many LACs would jump at a student like that, especially if you’ve got a good essay.</p>

<p>I’ve got the benefit of applying with my actual A Level results though, so I don’t know how much your prelim/previous grades will hurt.</p>

1726

<p>i only have 5 o level passes!!! :frowning:
Ok 6 if you count b syllabus chinese a subject!! WAHhhhhh
is there still hope for me or not. Im getting depressed!!</p>

1727

<p>

</p>

<p>I think they steal it from THES.</p>

<p>[World’s</a> Best Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/sections/education/worlds-best-colleges/index.html]World’s”>http://www.usnews.com/sections/education/worlds-best-colleges/index.html)</p>

1728

<p>STRESSED!!! i cant even go to sleep!!!</p>

<p>WHY did i slack off>!>!> i wanna kill myself :(</p>

1729

<p>:( everyone went to sleep??? :frowning: :(</p>

<p>sigh</p>

1730

<p>Hmm not sure if I’m quoting this or not…</p>

<p>Prelims is like BCU. The U is for econs. Argh! Econs average in my school is U/S, but when it comes to the A levels, the average becomes A/B! Oh the horrors… </p>

<p>The 24 credits is nice, but I do not plan to take geography. Ever again. However, my safety safety school is U Kansas, which is supposedly one of the best/the best in US for geography…</p>

<p>Btw have anyone done the financial proof thing? Do I just go down to the bank and ask them for a statement of my parents account? Do my parents have to come? What if my parents have money across all the banks?!</p>

<p>Added info:
Sat 1: 750 CR 650 Math 590 Writing
SAT 2: 720 Lit 620 Math II :(</p>

<p>Eh petrina, have you contemplated transferring? I’ve been thinking about it :(</p>

1731

<p>Gosh, that USNEWS ranking for global universities is even more stupid than the local version. How on earth can this be:</p>

<p>30)NUS
46)Boston University (the school that is not even ranked in top 50 locally)
54)Dartmouth College
66)LSE
99)Purdue (the school that accepts O level or maybe N level)
110)Georgetown </p>

<p>I’m not saying that NUS is a bad school. But I just don’t think it is THAT good. We have the best of the best from Singapore getting president scholarships to study at LSE.<br>
USNEWS has just crossed the line of being totally useless and unreliable.</p>

1732

<p>Well they cribbed it directly from THES-QS so they didn’t exactly rank it themselves (and probably the reason why they didn’t give the rankings as much prominence as they did for their own).</p>

<p>Schools such as LSE were also penalized as they are very concentrated in a few subject areas instead of having a wide variety of departments.</p>

1733

<p>Yes, exactly. And if you look at the individual rankings by subject area… it’s quite funny. NUS 30th in the world for arts and humanities puts them above the likes of UPenn, 18th for social sciences puts them above UPenn, NYU, UCL and Georgetown, and even the 11th in engineering (which NUS is very strong in) puts them above UCLA, UIUC, Cornell and UMich…</p>

<p>“Subject area rankings are solely based on the results from an academic peer review survey.” - there.</p>

<p>NUS got 100 for academic peer review. So did HYPSM, Oxbridge, Caltech, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, ANU, UTokyo, McGill, UCLA, UBC, UC-B, UniMelb, U of Toronto and Beida. Seems to me that there isn’t any room for meaningful differentiation at the top of the scale - there are at least two groups of universities here. Maybe NUS has an academic reputation alongside the likes of ANU and UBC, but HYPSM and Oxbridge at least are in another league. This is 40% of the final weighted result.</p>

<p>NUS also got 100 on international students and international faculty. IIRC they have 40% international faculty and about 33% international students when you include graduate students. Compare Yale, which got 71 for international students: <10% international enrollment. This is 10%, combined.</p>

<p>They got 98 for employer review. Note that the employer review is evenly divided between US, Europe/Mideast/Africa, and Asia - each region is weighted 1/3. This makes it seem like an NUS grad is as equally employable as someone from UPenn or Princeton. Problem is, while it’s true that NUS has a strong reputation among employers in Asia, I think it is not so much the case in the US, and I also think there are more NUS grads (at least Singaporean NUS grads) seeking work in US and Europe than in Asia (besides Singapore). <- major major presumption. On the other hand, a Princeton grad is much more employable where it matters to him (US and Europe). This is 10%.</p>

<p>Citations per faculty, on the other hand, which NUS is infamously weak in, is just 20% - equal to the above three factors where NUS scored nearly 100.</p>

1734

<p>BIG QUESTION!</p>

<p>to go now or later?</p>

<p>ok im very keen on going to NYU,but they dont accept just o levels!
Im thinking maybe i should just do my 3 year diploma in lasalle then after that go to the US.</p>

<p>OR should i just go there with my o level results to other schools?</p>

1735

<p>frankly i feel not going to JC is hurting me.</p>

<p>So which will be less of a disadvantage for me? applying with a diploma,or applying with o levels?</p>

1736

<p>Just dropping in quickly - I’m at work.</p>

<p>To answer your question, petrina: definitely applying with a diploma is less disadvantageous. It’s a matter of how long you’re willing to wait to go to university. Since you just finished O Levels, it’s not very much different (time-wise) from having gone to JC and taking a year off, and you’ll still be a year ahead of the guys in your batch - at “worst” you’ll matriculate at the same time as the guys if you wait to complete your diploma before applying (as opposed to applying one sem before you will finish your diploma). Without a doubt, your freshman application will be much, much stronger if you go this route, no matter which school you apply to.</p>

<p>The other option, if you’re confident of getting into FIT/Syracuse, is to go to there then transfer after one or two years. This keeps you “on track” but you should check the respective curricula for the majors you intend to do, because for something like comm/advertising/design the major requirements are often stricter than for liberal arts, so you may find that if you start with core classes at one school and transfer to NYU (I’m assuming Steinhardt?) the core classes may not match up, or if you start with distribution requirements and transfer to NYU you may be lacking core/major classes, etc. </p>

<p>There is also the issue of how much more the NYU degree is worth in the comm field that you would transfer from another school reputable in communications (while talking to UT admissions, one trying-to-be-helpful admissions staff member - who knew my intended major was Radio-Television-Film - suggested that I go to my “other schools” and transfer in after two years, not knowing that my “other schools” were NYU and USC, which are pretty much #1 and #2 in undergrad film).</p>

<p>HTH.</p>

1737

<p>Frankly, Petrina, I don’t want to be mean but your grades aren’t good. No matter what, academics are the first priority when universities admit students–institutes of higher learning, not institutes for successful extracurriculars. Your L1R5 won’t get you into even the top 5 JCs, whose students after A levels will undoubtedly be much better prepared for university. </p>

<p>Scant academic preparation and, in that context, bad grades, aren’t impressive at all. Though you may’ve been sick and missed many classes, those reasons won’t show that you <em>can</em> excel.</p>

<p>So I do recommend, like phantompong, that you go to NAFA or Lasalle and <em>excel</em> and show you can perform before considering the US ;)</p>

1738

<p>ok i totally understand. no you are not being mean lol. </p>

<p>Thats why i was thinking of just doing the diploma! then after that apply to the US.</p>

1739

<p>^ Concur with fiona_. I think you should do well in the diploma programme first before applying. It would definitely look a lot better.</p>

<p>On an unrelated note, I am so <em>glad</em> to have applied last year. The numbers this year are even more daunting:</p>

<p>Harvard - 29,000+ (5.6% increase)
Yale - ~26,000 (14% increase)
Princeton - 21,869 (2% increase)
Stanford - 30,348 (20% increase)
MIT - 15,600+ (17% increase)</p>

1740

<p>lol it seems to be that every year it just gets more daunting… </p>

<p>ok so what i plan to do is take the SATs in may this year, just to see how i do. Then if im pleased enough with them , i may just apply to some colleges to just try my luck.
If i do get into the places i want, then great.
If not, then i’ll just finish the 3 year diploma and try again.</p>