I swear I'm not applying to HYPS...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello!</p>

<p>I would really appreciate it if you all could chance me. Do note, however, that I'm an international student from Singapore.</p>

<p>From my last chance thread, some new things have been added.</p>

<p>Academics:
I come from a junior college (I guess US residents would call it high school?) that ranks either first or second in the whole nation, depending on who you ask.</p>

<p>I take Physics, Chemistry, Math and Economics (not the most rigorous course load, unfortunately, but still pretty much up there), and my predicted grades for the UK Cambridge GCE A-level examinations are straight As.</p>

<p>If it helps, I'm consistently ranked among the top 5 amongst a pool of 1000+ students for writing class (we call it General Paper)</p>

<p>SATs:
SAT1: CR 800 + Math 710 + WR 630 - intending to retake, I'm confident I can get my Math score up to 750 and WR to at least >700 - I fell asleep during the essay component
SAT2: Math II 800 + Physics 770 + Chemistry 760</p>

<p>ECs:
Shooting - still my passion after 6 years. I emailed MIT's pistol coach a while back, he was encouraging. I'm a very prominent member of the club (as it's secretary) and handle most day-to-day affairs of the club. The captain handles the long-term planning
Work experience - I've been working in my parent's company after school for around 5 years now as IT support
Business - I've also ran my own network consultancy and set up networks for SMEs
Research attachment - 9 months at the Institute for High Performance Computing, working on a video encoding project
Further research - 3 month attachment with a government defence science organization, working on wireless communications. Did my own research on the same topics but at a different angle
Piano - ABRSM Grade 7, aiming to complete Grade 8 by fall 2009
Others - Member of the local Linux support group. Hospital nightsitting - only done this twice (just started), so I don't know how it will affect my app.</p>

<p>Recs:
I know my teachers will give me excellent recs, especially my shooting teacher-in-charge, who has a very high opinion of me.</p>

<p>Schools:
Like I said, I'm not aiming for HYPS.</p>

<p>I'm aiming for MIT, which really is my dream school, as it has a pistol team.</p>

<p>But realistically, I want to go to:
UC Berkeley
Carnegie Mellon U
UT Austin
UI Urbana-Champaign
Caltech
(I want to take Computer Science or Information Systems, whichever is available)</p>

<p>Your help is greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>hey you have great stats there... do pull your writing score up - i'm sure you can do better given your GP imbaness</p>

<p>that said, MIT's a superb place to be at :D</p>

3

<p>oh btw, mind sharing more about your network consultancy? sounds interesting to me</p>

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<p>Hi, thanks for replying!</p>

<p>Yeah I definitely intend to pull up that writing score. But do colleges take the scores from one sitting only, or do they take the part scores that are the best?</p>

<p>ie, If I score 700 for CR next round, will they take my original CR 800 or will they take the latest one, assuming that the score for writing for the next round is better than the old one?</p>

<p>The network consultancy is mainly something I do for small companies, referred to me by various means, usually through referrals from friends. I set up their networks and optimize the usage of the internet connection wherever possible...</p>

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<p>Well, their official policy (which i've heard most admission officers mention) is that they will take your highest score from each section, regardless of multiple sittings... so you are safe for your CR 800.</p>

<p>hmm.... so how does your network consultancy work? do you work with partners, or just a solo project? how do you market or expand your work, given that you are a full time student in JC. I think it's a great piece of EC that MIT would be interested in, since i see that they really like students who are interested in science-related stuff beyond the textbooks :D</p>

6

<p>Good to know about the SAT! I shall really work hard on math and writing haha.</p>

<p>I work solo, because usually all I do is set up servers and workstations. I don't have to do cabling, which would require more manpower. Servers are fairly ok to handle by myself. I go around by word of mouth, mostly.</p>

<p>But keep the replies rolling in, people! :D</p>

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<p>Bump! :D :D</p>

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<p>So. RJC/Hwa Chong? Lol :D</p>

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<p>Wow, was it that obvious :D</p>

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<p>Uh... If it's not obvious then what would be obvious??? Lol.. I'll help you, IF you are my junior. If you're not, then you're our rival, so too bad... No help. Hahahaha. Just kidding obviously. :P </p>

<p>Ok, so I got in to Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, and UIUC with much worse stats than you, but I think I have a very strong essay which helped me greatly. So ASSUMING you also have good essay, I think you would have no prob at those unis, and also UT-Austin which is below Carnegie and Berkeley. I'm not sure about Caltech and MIT, but I think you have a chance.</p>

<p>Hmmm... You sound like a HC student... Lol.</p>

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<p>lisieux: so what does HC students sound like? just curious...</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I come from a junior college (I guess US residents would call it high school?) that ranks either first or second in the whole nation, depending on who you ask.<a href="own%20emphasis">/quote</a></p>

<p>Haha a blind guess based on that. Not gonna explain anything till he says where he's from. Lol.</p>

13

<p>Hm interesting, I didn't know HC students have their own "sound". Or RJC for that matter :D</p>

<p>The part about "depending on who you ask" is because my sibling and I come from different schools - one from RJ and one from HC. So we're always arguing about whose school is on top. Haven't come to a conclusion yet :D</p>

<p>Oh lisieux, thanks for chancing me! Greatly appreciated, of course.</p>

<p>By the way, which courses did you apply for?
And you're from RJ, right? :D</p>

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<p>Well well well... Now I see why you wrote that line haha. Hm must be a very smart family. :D</p>

<p>I applied to College of Letters and Science in Berkeley (in)
Tepper School of Business as well as Engineering in Carnegie Mellon (both in)
Civil Engineering in UIUC (#1 in the US) (in)
Just FYI, Cornell Engineering (rejected) and UMich Engineering (waitlisted)</p>

<p>I'm going to none of the schools listed above btw. :P And hmmmm you must have stalked my other posts! Lol.</p>