Chances for Top Schools! Thanks you!!!

<p>bump?
thanks</p>

<p>Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, Duke
Harvard: High Reach
Princeton: High Reach
Yale: High Reach
Stanford: High Reach
Columbia: Slight Reach
UPenn: Slight Reach
Duke: Reach</p>

<p>I know it seems harsh. But all your schools are reach schools for almost anybody. You have the best shot at Duke, UPenn, Columbia. I think you'd get into one of those schools. But, the other ones, you're going to have to get lucky or show them something they need.</p>

<p>ur stuff looks pretty good, since those collegs looove Intel poeple, and if you're one of the top ppl in math or sci or whatever, you're almost guaranteed to get into any school. Such as USAMO finalist got into a lot of schools, etc.</p>

<p>i think you'd definitely get into most of the UK unis you'll be applying for, although you can't say anything for sure about oxbridge. but if you rock your interview, then you have a very good chance.</p>

<p>NUS med? highly possible. again, ace your interview, and you are pretty likely to get in.</p>

<p>as for the US colleges.. echo what everyone has said. HYPS will be high reaches. columbia and penn, slightly less so, and duke slightly less than the ivies i guess. it would help if you don't ask for aid at stanford/columbia/penn/duke. </p>

<p>if you're dead set on going to the US, you have to apply to a range of schools (include matches and safeties) that you know you'd be happy to attend every single one. but if you have the option of going to excellent UK unis (and are also concerned about prestige and stuff), then i guess there's no harm with shooting for the moon. besides, you get to have about two more chances while serving NS.</p>

<p>so yeah, i wish i could tell you something you don't already know, right? you're definitely academically qualified, as would most of your fellow applicants be, so do your best in essays (no GP style please.. unless you take KI haha) and recommendations. like.. what's so special about you that sets you apart from the rest? it's pretty hard for singaporeans, cause everyone seems to be doing the same thing, but don't worry too much.. you've got a few more months to figure it out.</p>

<p>protege: i understand the difficulties of getting admitted to those schools. Thanks for your advice. I will try my best! :)
Good luck to you too!!</p>

<p>wildchartermage: icic... I will try to win a few more sci accolades then :)
Thanks for your advice!</p>

<p>limitedvocab: Thanks so much for your advice!! You seem very knowledgeable about the local education system, do you happen to be from the same school as me? (you can always pm me the anser=) )</p>

<p>I heard we can't defer for UK universities and can only apply 2 years later... is that true? If so i won't be looking at any UK universities this year. </p>

<p>I really hope to go to Stanford, so I won't be asking for aid from them (my family can't afford it, but i hope to secure a local scholarship for Stanford...) What are some of your recommended safeties/matches? Thanks!</p>

<p>you should apply to MIT since you got into RSI</p>

<p>lol. good idea eeeric. ur welcome, 123d</p>

<p>bump? thanks</p>

<p>Nope, I'm not from your school :)</p>

<p>And I'm a girl, so I don't know too much about that deferring stuff. Ask your seniors, or uni counsellor?</p>

<p>As for matches/safeties.. well, it depends. What type of school would you like to go to, actually? Urban/rural? Large/small student body? Political leaning: liberal/conservative/moderate? Greek scene or no? Et al.</p>

<p>And would you much rather apply for fin aid at each school, or go on a government scholarship?</p>

<p>Limitedvocab: icic... yeah I will probably ask the admission officers. My school's counsellor seems to be non-existent haha</p>

<p>Probably urban, large.... what does political leaning and greek scene mean anyway?</p>

<p>I will probably try to secure a government scholarship :)</p>

<p>You can also try to ask at the Singaporean thread re: deferring due to NS.</p>

<p>Political leaning. Well.. a lot of colleges in the US have (largely) liberal student bodies. That might mean politically liberal (i.e. Democrat), or culturally /"socially" liberal. There's some overlap between both, but it doesn't necessarily mean that one = other. I hope that's not too confusing. Off the top of my head, Wesleyan, Oberlin, Brown, UC Berkeley seem to be among the more liberal schools.</p>

<p>There are a large number of slightly more "conservative" colleges though. William & Mary, Washington & Lee (quite a number of these schools are located in the South, actually) come to mind.</p>

<p>Greek scene: frats. If it doesn't matter to you, then it's okay, but you should take note that the Greek scene may have larger influence over campus life in some schools compared to others. I think Dartmouth and Washington & Lee have pretty active Greek scenes.</p>

<p>If you're going for a scholarship, then I probably can't recommend the smaller liberal arts colleges to you, because I don't think the scholarship boards let kids go to small, relatively "unknown" (in Singapore anyway) LACs, except maybe for Williams/Amherst/the top few schools. Many LACs are pretty good with giving out financial aid though, provided you get in.</p>

<p>I'd suggest Georgetown, Tufts, NYU, Fordham, USC, one of the other UCs (maybe UCSD), UT Austin, Boston U as possible matches/safeties. Maybe UWisc Madison, UMich Ann Arbor, UIUC, they're quite popular with Singaporean applicants also.</p>

<p>Actually, maybe you could post a thread at the College Search & Selection board, include the characteristics you'd like in a college (size and location, for starters), what you want to study, brief summary of your profile, if you need aid or not. A lot of people would be happy to help you out. :)</p>

<p>bump? thanks</p>

<p>bump bump bump??</p>

<p>Stop bumping your damn thread and start working on the college apps. With your grades, you have a higher chance of getting than the rest of America, but, with the colleges you're planning to apply to, there is no certainty. You might as well get a head start on your personal statements and ask around for teachers who could write you recs. And figure out the commonapp.org system because it was a ***** when I had to apply through that this year. It's more than just one personal statement -- in total, my college applications put together came out to be about 11 pages single spaced (without overlapping recycled essays), and I had put a lot of effort into every single one. (And I still got rejected from Princeton, Cornell, and Stanford, but Harvard, UPenn, and Yale loved me. :))</p>

<p>Here's a word of advice: Don't apply to 17 schools like I did. It's a ***** to keep track of. Choose 10 tops. 4 reach, 4 match, 2 safeties is the best bet, I think.</p>

<p>Puddly: Alright, I will work on my apps... thanks for your advice though :)</p>

<p>Puddly: By the way, what do you think set you apart from the 20,000+ applicants H/UPenn/Yale applicants? Thanks</p>

<p>I did only things that I like and not things that I thought they would want me to like. So, in the end, I didn't have to force a tone of eagerness in my essay, and it came out naturally. I guess it reflected in my tone, and the colleges picked it up.</p>

<p>I think you stand a great chance getting into the ivies! Gd luck! :)</p>