<p>I'm a Singaporean and I've heard great things about UCLA and LA. However, I wasn't doing great in school and don't know whether it's worth trying such a selective school like UCLA.</p>
<p>Intended Major: Computer Science at SEAS</p>
<p>Academics:</p>
<p>ACT: 34 (E32 M35 R34 S34 W?) - First and only sitting
SAT II: 800 Physics 800 Chemistry 800 Math 2 - First and only sitting</p>
<p>School GPA: Should be constantly below 3.0 if converted. Was failing some subjects in Grade 11-12. School curriculum is hard though, I was in the top school in Singapore.</p>
<p>A levels:
H2 Physics A Chemistry A Math A
h1 Chinese A Project Work A Economics B General Paper C</p>
<p>Extracurricular:</p>
<p>-National Judo Athlete( Once time national runner-up, round of 16 in International tournament).
-Web developing (Set up Briolife Singapore Website, was paid)
-IOS game making (made one so far, not in App Store yet)
-Production assistant at a local studio
-Conscripted soldier for 2 years
-Founder of a non-profit design group that offers free services for charitable NPOs.</p>
<p>**
Family Background:**</p>
<p>First-gen Chinese immigrant in Singapore. Pretty High Income. Male.</p>
<p>Oh and I have another question. Is UCLA's SEAS more general selective than College L&S?</p>
<p>You have a slightly below average chance, mainly your GPA as UCLA tend to like high 4.00+ GPA(s). Your extracurricular seems pretty decent, family background not really an anchor for you as numerous people from Singapore who tend to apply to UCLA have about the same description as you (based on my encounter with numerous overseas students from Singapore; rich country indeed, highest ratio of millionaires in the world). SAT II and ACT is awesome, so you still have a chance if your essays are mind-blowing.
*It is assumed and is probably true that UCLA and its engineering department is more selective as numerous people apply for an engineering major. But even if you do get in as a L&S major and intend to change, it’ll be quite hard due to how impacted the engineering majors are. My friend declined UCLA because he didn’t get Computer Science for his major rather got undeclared I would believe, didn’t want to risk it and just chose UCSD.</p>
<p>In UC application, there is a self-comments or note section as I recalled, you should mention that your strong SAT 2 scores (any stronger AP scores?) can validate your knowledges or something like. And, let admissions know your high school does not give high grades.</p>
<p>Lol I would say you have an strong chance at UCLA and not a slightly below average chance. No offence hakuex but you’re probably not that familiar with the A-Level system. His grades would be considered close to a 4.0 unweighted GPA. And you do not have to enter your internal exam grades. O-levels and A-Levels are enough. Of course you have to make sure your essays are great. I know a couple of ppl with 4 H2 As but were rejected by UCLA. Speaking as a singaporean attending UCLA this fall.</p>
<p>heh sfsy12, i am from sg too! “School curriculum is hard though” i TOTALLY AGREE with this! so RJ or HCI? haha. your ec is good (much better than mine,) and i dont think that a/o will review your family background. your act and sat2 are good enough. though your school grades arent impressive, trust me, mine sux too! and i got many friends with numerous s or u still got into ucla. but application is getting harder, esp since many sg top students want to go overseas. so make sure you produce GOOD essays! and btw, dont write about cca/ns, that will only make us look more boring, and finally GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>Oh hey Ky btw, they do require your school grades, apparently it’s more important cause they look at it even BEFORE you’re ACTs and they look at the ACTs BEFORE A level results. For US colleges, A level is just for extra credit to skip some classes</p>
<p>Hmm in my case I didn’t list down my school grades at all. I only listed my O and A level grades. I also only sent UCLA my O and A level transcripts and they had no problems with that. But in my case I applied to UCLA after receiving my A-Level results. We Singapore boys have the luxury of doing that becos of mandatory 2 years NS. I guess if you are applying using predicted A level grades they would definitely consider your internal school results. However if you have completed A levels I’m sure they would place more emphasis on A level grades. They did state on the provisional admissions contract that external exams supercede internal ones.</p>
<p>Hi, I know this thread has been posted awhile back but I only just chanced across it today, and I don’t know any Singaporeans personally who are trying to applying to schools in the US so I was hoping to get some advice.</p>
<p>How many schools did you guys apply to and how did you narrow down your choices? I have quite a long list and they all seem to be Reach schools for me. It’s also relatively difficult to find the relevant reviews or advice for a Singapore student so I was wondering if any of you would be able to help out. </p>
<p>Any kind of advice or suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch!</p>