<p>@Anand: Swear. All of it is sooo freaking expensive! >.< But I suppose, you should do your undergrad from a good place and make it to a top uni for your Masters because duh shelling out money on postgrad makes more sense!</p>
<p>I’m in New Delhi! I applied in Nov too but guess my documents must have reached them in Dec! :X</p>
<p>Sheeesh I feel like killing you Sarthak! You got an offer of admission ALREADY! And no, I’ve never been to HK but I’m a HARDCORE SHOPAHOLIC and HK is one of the best places on Earth for that! And I swear if I choose to come to HK, I’m gonna party hard so the nightlife better be good! =D</p>
<p>hahaha!! i’ll take that as a compliment Anand78 !! haha!
I’m doing IB (Phy HL, Chem HL, Math HL, ESS SL, Eng A1 SL, Mandarin Ab Initio)
you doing CBSE ?!</p>
<p>Yeah for sure! I’m sure it’ll be amazing if all of us land up in HKUST together cause then the whole “New to University” and “Adjustment” issues will be alien to us!! I’m all set to go, you guys should decide and finalize asap, so that we can start preparing for 1st year of Uni!!! Already excited ! haha</p>
<p>@system failure-oh ya…i have heard its pretty hard there…
HK is definitely one of my top choices…
It would have been really nice if i had an offer though…
well…i guess i just have to wait anxiously!!!</p>
<p>Having IB won’t get you more ahead than the locals because the locals have those insane A-level HK style, which is known to be harder than the A-level in UK. Then you got those mainlanders; I don’t know much about their curriculum but given how they routinely just sweep all those IMOs, IPhOs golds…etc, you kinda get a sense of what kind of animals you will be dealing with. The stereotype is if they are not smarter, they have more stamina (studying for hours without going crazy); they beat you either way. lol</p>
<p>Anand78,
If you are competitive to get into NUS and HKUST, you don’t need to consider CityU. I don’t know much about what it’s like these days but when I was as kid, Hong Kong Polytechnic University was considered #4 outside the “Trinity”. But like I said, things could have changed in the past decade or so. Hong Kong seems to be constantly changing anyway. ;)</p>
<p>Sam Lee: That is true! But having lived in India for 16 years I have seen enough of it to be able to deal with it! well i hope so at least !!
And if there is one thing that I have learned through this LONG and exhausting Uni applications process it is that at the end of the day No rankings matter, all that matters is what suits YOU best personally! And Undergrad from a decent University is good but UNdergrad from an expensive US Uni and then having no money left for postgrad is Stupid!!!
I mean think about it a quarter million dollars for an undergrad degree!! it’ll take you forever to earn that back just after you graduate!!!</p>
<p>@Sarthak: True. Rankings are just for reference. Even though university reputation matters a lot but that’s also to a certain extent. Ultimately, it’s your own hard work that counts which helps you pave your way to success.</p>
<p>Hey “System Failure!” feels funny to call you that now!! lol
Yeah I believe rankings should be referred to once you have made a relatively sure decision, then you can think about the reputation and ask other people online like I did, and see if anything can dissuade you! And if you stand by your decision even after these comments etc, then you will have a FINAL decision that you shall never repent
And yes I believe it is better to be the Best student at an average University, than be an unimportant student at the best Universities!</p>
<p>Anyone wants to see the average admission stats (HKCEE & HKAL) by departments for HKU? HKCEE and HKAL are similar to GCSE and A-Level but give much fewer As and Bs. I will post them later if there’s enough interest. :)</p>
<p>Sam Lee: I think you are the right person to ask this Q to, what are the criteria that a good Uni like Stanford, MIT etc consider for admitting students for postgrad ?!? Does it matter which Uni you did your undergrad from till you get a decent GPA ?!? Do they consider extra-curricular activities etc ?!</p>
<p>You mean engineering? MS is a lot easier than PhDs. For MS, GPA of 3.3 or so combined with good GRE score on quantitative section (>750) may be enough to get you into mechE programs even at MIT/Stanford. For PhD, GPA needs to be at least 3.5 for many programs, let alone Stanford/MIT and research experience is a big deal. School names help and HKUST has a decent reputation.</p>
<p>Yeah I meant MS. Thanks a lot ! I was just a bit skeptical about the getting admitted for MS after a 3 yrs degree from HKUST, as compared to the 4 yrs one in US, but from what I have heard from everyone and everywhere as of now its not an issue at all!!
Cool everything seems to be all set now!</p>
<p>@Sarthak: You have great and valid reasons to go to HKUST, but it’d be pretty hard for me to turn down Rice, Cornell, UMich and UBerkeley. But that’s just me. You clearly have thought through your reasons and obviously what ‘fits’ is most important. And of course, a full scholarship seals the deal.</p>
<p>Haha, i wouldn’t call hk beautiful-- i’ve been there several times and every time we are about to land you can barely see the ground because it is so heavily covered in smog and pollution. It’s a great, hustle and bustle city, though, albeit very cramped, and the food and shopping is hard to beat. It’s very active with many foreigners. I like it most for its energy and internationalism. :)</p>
<p>@ Ruby_x3: Yes a scholarship does seal the deal… But if I were in US the unis would have been cheaper for me and I would have gotten the student aids (FAFSA) etc as well, maybe then I would have thought differently! But for me right now this is the best place to go :)</p>
<p>You are right about Hk, but thats the main area… HLUST is at Clear Water Bay and is the most beautiful place that compliments the huge campus !! Google Earth the place or google it, it looks really calm and spectacular !</p>
<p>If you are from Hong Kong, paying a lot extra to go to those schools may be worth it. IMO, you pay the difference for 2 things: 1) the vastly different experience of studying overseas and 2) the opportunity to get job offers in the US after graduation if US is where you want to live. But #2 can be obained by doing a one-year MS in the US. HKUST uses US textbooks; students are motivated; and professors are mostly US/UK educated. I haven’t seen any evidence that shows engineering education in those schools are superior. It’d be a mistake to think you are paying that much more because of the alleged or perceived difference in the quality of education.</p>
<p>There could be some exception. Certain MS programs can be pretty difficult to get in. I know Stanford’s MS&E is one of them (management sciences and engineering). That’s a very popular program for obvious reason. Also, I think recommendation letters will be an important factor also so try to interact more with the professors.</p>
The stereotype is if they are not smarter, they have more stamina (studying for hours without going crazy); they beat you either way. lol</p>