<p>About the cookies: i'm so darn serious! LOL :D
I'm going to put up my full stats in this thread once i'm ready. For now i'm seriously in need of some advices regarding the following:
Do keep in mind: a) I'm a Vietnamese b)I'm studying in Singapore under the GCE A Levels program & c) applying SCEA to Yale (other schools include: Brown Dartmouth Columbia WashU Reed Amherst. Safeties: Lewis and Clark, Seattle, Fordham, American U. Comments and/or suggestions for schools more than welcome :D</p>
<p>1) SAT II: Does it matter that all my SAT IIs are Math/Sciences when I intend to major in POlitical Science/International Relations? I took Math II & Chem (both 780) and Physics (dismal result of 640 since didn't study and half of the content had yet to be taught in school when i took the test - retaking in November). Should i take a humanities subject to show "versatility"? Deciding between Math I (which i can get 800 or close), or Lit (which i can get 740-760 if i try really hard - but one never know..)</p>
<p>2) ECA: I have a bunch of stuff which can be divided into 3 categories: Science, History and Student govt. Is it weird that I have a tons of national science awards (competition, fair, olympiad), hold a president post in the science council (a huge science club with over 100 members) & organize some major international & national science events when i'm definitely never EVER going to do science after high school? (the whole affair with science started because teachers thought i was good and sent me for stuff, and i didn't protest)
The Award list looks similar, with another category for Random Stuff, which, although are really random and unrelated, ranging from Odyssey of the mind to international essay prize, are all top 3 prizes and i feel compelled to include them as part of my top 7 awards. I fear that my award list will be, well, RANDOM! and random is not good right? </p>
<p>Basic stats:
SAT I: 2200 (1st time with barely any prep CR720/WR730 -E11/M750, retaking in Oct because i can get 800 for math and hopefully higher for the rest <em>cross fingers</em>)
A Level predicted grades: Perfect grades with a Distinction (as in A grade) for an advanced history module.
Class rank: consistently in top 2% - School is one of nation's top 5 - meaning everybody is hyper smart and will go to 4 year colleges.
Counsellor recomm: "one of the best and most talented i've seen in my career"</p>
<p>I would personally recommend you take a humanities subject to show other intellectual passions. I’m not trying to be sterotypical, international students that are asian typicaly excell in these subjects anyways. In order to really pull yourself throughout and become a standout applicant, try to portray yourself in a more well rounded manner. Taking an additional subject test in a different area other than math/science shows versatility, and your not just another int asian who well…quite frankly…it only good at science and math lol.</p>
<p>That is, score a respectable score FIRST, then decide whether or not to send it in, because it shows no versatility at all if you try and fail at what your doing.</p>
<p>I believe that since you have such a wide range of different awards, pick several that you hold dear and while in a short personal statement probably describe these awards more indepth. I don’t know, thats how I would approach it. </p>
<p>Its interesting how you excel in science so much while you don’t want to continue it in college. Check out Johns Hopkins, UChicago, Claremont Mckenna, for political science and IR.</p>
<p>i think you’ll get into a lot of top schools. your intellectual passions are so impressively well-rounded. i mean for someone to be recognized nationally in science but then do his A levels in history…that’s really, really awesome.</p>
<p>i mean, obviously your test scores could use some work, but they’re certainly respectable. and if your school is as good as you say it is (which i don’t doubt at all) and youre ranked that close to the top, then you stand a much higher than average chance of being admitted to yale scea.</p>
<p>i think you’re a solid candidate for the selective schools in your list, and pretty much a sure bet in your safeties. good luck vnese, and i hope you get into your dream school. Now, where’s my cookies? :)</p>
<p>Haha IF i get into any of my top 4 schools (namely all the 4 ivies above) i’m sure as hell gonna send cookies to everybody who’s posted in here lol i’m pretty well known for my generosity <em>grins sheepishly</em></p>
<p>@Phead128: Wow you can choose which SAT II scores to send? Really? I thought once collegeboard sends your official SAT scores to all the schools they show every score you’ve ever gotten? If i can really choose i’m so not going to retake physics. Totally loath the subject ): </p>
<p>@Phead128 & heyyou: yup a lot of people found it strange that i’m doing double History (one normal and one advanced) for A Levels. Everybody expects me to do science (partially because i was the top Science student -all kinds of sciences combined - and partially because of the stereotype that asian scholars are sciency people - which i don’t deny). To be honest i’ve never really liked it. I just did a lot of science stuff because my teacher asked me too and i like him.. and call me a crazy perfectionist but i always have this instinctive drive to be the best at everything that i do, regardless whether i actually like the activity itself or not. Hence all the science awards. Plus, the teachers were nice. Many times my motivation to do stuff comes from the teachers - i just don’t want to let them down. No passion whatsoever involved here. Although of course i won’t say it in my application/ interview :P</p>
<p>Yep my school is very good and very competitive. Being in the top 5 schools in Singapore is no joke. For instance, 98% of the school JC2 (final year) cohort score A for Mathematics in the GCE A Level exam. over 60% A for Chemistry, nearly 80% for Physics. </p>
<p>My 750 for SAT I Math puts me in the 50th percentile in my school LOL (98th percentile nationally). But other components i’m in the 98th percentile. What do you know, another evidence to back that whole “asians are only good at math and sciences” theory :D</p>
<p>For advices like “you’re a solid candidate”, i’m gonna send you cookies made by me Eat at your own perils :D</p>
<p>Anyway anybody knows how hard is US History? Is it possible to cram everything (and i mean EVERYTHING. i’ve never learned it before) in one week or less and score decently? say 750-ish? I’m most definitely doing one humanities subject test.</p>
<p>Oh yes another question! I now have 3 choices for a supplementary writing sample:
a 15-page (or is it twenty? not very sure but it’s LONG) paper on Philosophy, topic: is traditional chinese medicine science. It got 97/100, highest in the level. i was quite proud of it really but its like 3 years ago. Plus, totally unrelated to the rest of my application.
a 3000 word history research paper on Vietnam War. it is still in progress but objectively speaking i think it’s got promises. Got a predicted A for A levels.
<p>Take the Lit. Also take SAT Is again just to make sure… Are you sure you don’t like sciences at all? because then it won’t help you much… if you like it and it’s a passion, then you can write about it and stuff…</p>
<p>why take US history if your from vietnam/singapore… do the world one instead</p>
<p>remember to send one of um cookies to canada I look forward to your cookie.</p>
<p>World History only offered in January (strange!). Even then it’s also totally different from the A levels history syllabus.. so its learning from scratch all the same.</p>
<p>Although a passion for science is rather absent/ flat out non-existential, the science award list looks something like this
Singapore science and engineering fair silver
International conference on catalysis in seoul korea - national representative
singapore chemistry olympiad - hon. mention (kinda like consolation prize but sounds better than that)
best combined sciences student
many other national competitions - all top 3 prizes.
Doesn’t make sense not to include these in the application right? plus otherwise my list will be significantly shorter..</p>
<p>heyy, a fellow student in spore here. you have good chances at those schs, though singaporeans are so competitive it’s like a lottery anyway.</p>
<p>pardon me if my comments are slightly critical
don’t send the 15-page or 3000word essays. admisson officers read thousands of application forms and the last thing you want to do is to **** them off by sending extra documents that are probably well below the writing standard of yale students.
while i really like your intellectual curiosity, i think it helps to be more humble and not constantly remind people of your achievements, which are impressive, but not THAT impressive. for example, i personally know several singaporeans who get gold medals for international physics/chem/bio olympiads or grand awards at isef, so i suspect that the admission officers will not be super impressed</p>
<p>Oh no i’m completely aware of how more impressive other people’s stats are/might be. I know that when i get silvers, there are others who get gold. </p>
<p>Sorry if i appeared boastful. I’m not, really (although from your words i get the feeling that you’ve already formed a bad impression of me). Just somehow sometimes online, under some strange influence of the world wide web i did stuff that gave out that vibe. </p>
<p>On an important note, though, i’m not a singaporean, so most likely (or hopefully) i wont be pitted against singaporeans many of who have insanely competittive stats. </p>
<p>I won’t be mentioning or elaborating on any award in any essay though. My common app essay touches on a particular community service project that i’ve been undertaking for a few years but mostly tells the personal reason why i started doing it. Supplemental essay most likely will be on either my dad, or my emotionally scarring childhood and strained relationship with my mom (which accounts for most of my personality traits, be it bad or good or neither)</p>
<p>I’d love to send it to you guys for proofreading, if you don’t mind :)</p>
<p>You’ve probably got a reasonable chance, but I know many kids with great stats and interesting passions who were deferred EA last year, and then rejected. Now most of them are going to Harvard or Princeton, FWIW. Yale is very tough. I suggest you take a non-math/science SAT subject test. You might want to take the ACT, as your SAT I will seem to Yale like an unremarkable score. </p>
<p>My more important bit of advice is to try to meld your awards and activities in some way around a possible course of study at Yale. The school is big on interdisciplinary programs, so comb through the website and see what you can find that might be a plausible major, and put it on your why Yale essay (very short, unfortunately) and perhaps your supplemental one. For example, what about “history of science” as a major that combines two things you’re good at and could at least pass as passionate about?</p>
lol i’m pretty well known for my generosity <em>grins sheepishly</em></p>
I look forward to your cookie.</p>