<p>Hi guys! Just noticed this thread while searching around the internet for people attending HKUST. I am Filipino although I have been doing the IB Diploma here in Singapore (though leaving back for home in a few days). I have been conditionally accepted to HKUST (30 IB points) with a 120k scholarship (thank you very much Swire Group!). I am going to take mechanical engineering over there in HK. So yeh, just stumbled over here to be able to get more info about HKUST and how its like and also to say hi to those going to HKUST (and also to those who are not) and hopefully we could have an awesome time come September!</p>
<p>Right sorry!</p>
<p>Thailand
Singapore
USA
Hong Kong
Cameroon
Pakistan
Malaysia
Philippines</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>@Fridayevening: I see. Just nice timing. Did you try applying to NUS? From what I heard, polytechnique graduates can transfer their credits of studies and proceed to the third year of NUS. You seem to have good GPAs to be able to apply to universities.</p>
<p>@Quincykid: It is dual citizenship which can be applied but one must eventually decide on one to carry with him when one is 21 yearsold.</p>
<p>That is how diverse as it gets. Hopefully, there would be more!</p>
<p>@Flibb, add Sri Lanka to that list, Flibb ur from Pakistan i guess?</p>
<p>I want to hear some answers to Flibb’s question…</p>
<p>"so how cut throat is the competition at UST/HKU for engineering itself? I mean, aren’t we up against like the biggest nerds from all of HK, Mainland China and perhaps Taiwan? Wonder what we’ll have to do to stick out academically…and how that will affect grad school admissions… "</p>
<p>Definitely not as cut throat as Medicine, Law related & Actuarial Science in HKU. In fact, HKU issues a class rank EVERY semester which one is required to show during job applications. <em>shrugs</em></p>
<p>I think the competitiveness really depends on the specific course that one is doing - I guess its nice to think that you have smart people in your school/course, but this situation (imho) exists almost in all institutions. I personally - is motivated when all the people around me are hardworking.</p>
<p>I applied through Non-jupas scheme. I didnot get any news from HKU till now. My1st choice is Bachelor Of Architecture. Also, I heard that it is one of the best in the world and I applied international undergraduate scholarships using my alevels results.</p>
<p>Haha yeah, I’m from Pakistan!
My mind has drifted away from HKU and on towards UST. UST are so efficient with all their processes and keep everything up to date and remain in line with the rest of the progressing world. I actually felt very warmly welcomed after reading their admission letter and the way they reply to email is soo prompt and soo nice! Plus their campus is much of a resort, only that it has shared washrooms 
anyone feels the same way as me b/w HKU and UST?</p>
<p>And…HKU having the lions share when it comes to attracting local students from public exams is actually more of a deterrence than something attractive</p>
<p>So here is the line up, we need one more to go before we can make it to double digits!</p>
<p>Thailand
Singapore
USA
Hong Kong
Cameroon
Pakistan
Malaysia
Philippines
Sri Lanka</p>
<p>Hi everybody…I will be in hkust next year in the bba preparatory year.Does anyone know if you can still go in bba gbus after preparatory yer for bba or do they have they own preparation…
By the way I am french, is there anyone from Europe going to hkust next year?</p>
<p>hey flibb i just remembered we’ve got a swede on this thread too, so on top of france you can add sweden to the list =) </p>
<p>so yeah jolypaps, im sure youll be able to find a small handful of europeans going to UST. we have one user, ericedholm, from europe and i believe he’ll be attending UST.</p>
<p>hey thanks michelle, almost forgot Eric :D</p>
<p>Thailand
Singapore
USA
Hong Kong
Cameroon
Pakistan
Malaysia
Philippines
Sri Lanka
Sweden
France</p>
<p>I say, diversity wise, HK unis aren’t bad at all!</p>
<p>@ericedholm: Hej! Trevligt att tr</p>
<p>Is it a must tht we do a Foreign Language. Im not soo good at languages :(, other than English, I tried French n ive forgotten most of it by now.</p>
<p>If I get the opportunity I’d love to study French or German. Anyone can attend the language center? The UST Interviewer, after telling me about the myriads of activities available, sort of scared me off due to the study pressures :)</p>
<p>Hi everybody!</p>
<p>Do any of you know HKU’s stance on deferrals? Should I even bother asking them to defer my offer?? </p>
<p>hope one of you can help as soon as possible!! thanks guys…</p>
<p>HEY GUYS!!!</p>
<p>You all have another HKUST’er. </p>
<p>I’ve been accepted into the BEng Mechanical Eng program.</p>
<p>From Bangladesh…so you can add that to the diversity list. </p>
<p>Cant wait to get to HK!!!</p>
<p>@Flibb: Do we have to pay extra to attend the language centre?</p>
<p>Zax: In regard to monthly expenses, you have to take into consideration
- the cost of public transport
To get to the nearest MTR station from campus, you have to take a minibus, which will only be around $5. Then the MTR to where ever you wish to go will range from around… $6 - 15. And of course, you have to get back to campus later on (most of the time, anyway) which will be another $20. And unless you’re a social hermit, or choose to hang out on campus at all times, let’s say you go out to town… hmm at least 3 times a week. That’s already $120 on public transport per week, and almost $500 a month. Let’s not forget you might need to take a cab or another bus/MTR once you’re in town…
So we’ll say you need about $600 for transport each month. (Obviously if you’re a partier and are going to frequent the bars/clubs in Lankwai or TST, you’ll be taking more cabs as the last train for the MTR is around half twelve as it is for most buses.)
- food
Again, unless you’re anorexic, you’ll have to pay for a few meals a day. There’s a supermarket on campus (called Park’nShop) and I think Oliver’s Sandwiches and some other fast food joints selling local chinese food. I honestly have no idea how much food will cost on campus, although I’m sure it’s fairly cheap. The supermarket is pretty well stocked as well, in terms of… actually, I only really remember that they had almost every brand of chocolate and alcohol ever manufactured. But I remember there being other bits and bobs of food (including fresh fruit and vegetables), just not the specifics. So if you only ate on campus, you would need to spend around… $50 a day… at the very least. Probably a bit more than that. I’m not sure.
Whereas if you chose to dine outside in the city… hahah that’s a completely different story. If you’re going to live on McDonald’s - which I don’t recommend for obvious reasons - then I guess you would only be spending only a couple of dollars more… but if you were to eat and drink properly, then you should be looking to spend at least $100 a meal, which is quite cheap by Hong Kong standards. AGAIN, let’s just say that you ate out about twice a week… that would get the total up to… hmm… $500 a week… at least. (The alternative is to starve, but hey, who doesn’t when living alone?)
That brings it up to around $2000 a month for food.
**- Shopping ** ?
Not sure if shopping will be much of a problem for you… if you know you have a slight problem with shopping (as I do… hahah) you might want to set yourself a budget. I dunno, maybe a couple hundred a month… Your choice really. You could choose to wear and use the same things for the whole three years and there wouldn’t be a problem, I’m sure. </p>
<p>I can’t really think of anything else… but there should be a “Miscellaneous” section for other bits and bobs. Maybe you need to buy a couple of books that month. Or pay for the air conditioning (don’t even think about going without during the summer months… and it’s almost permanently summer here). Or may you want to catch a movie or two. Or go out drinking (most open bar parties cost around $200 - 300, whereas a single alcoholic beverage might cost… $70 at average). OH, and let’s not forget toiletries!</p>
<p>I feel like I’ve missed out something extremely important here… but regarding the basics such as food and transport, you’ll be looking to spend about $2700, give or take a hundred or two.</p>
<p>$2700 really isn’t much… I’m thinking you might need a bit more than that, unless you live at the barest minimum of all necessities.</p>
<p>Hope that helped c:</p>
<p>Btw, I’m Korean. I’ve just lived here for too long, hahah.</p>
<p>Hahah, I’m such a fail at languages as well. During the course of secondary school I’ve been through French, Mandarin, and Spanish.</p>
<p>Err, utter fail.</p>
<p>Might just continue with Spanish, and I thought everyone taking business was required to take a course in Mandarin called something along the lines of “business mandarin”… :S</p>
<p>Jolypaps: Care to explain what the preparatory year is? I know the name’s self-explanatory… 
but what exactly is it for?</p>
<p>spillcanvas, that was really helpful! you broke everything down, thanks much! =)</p>