<p>Stoned to death on a regular basis.</p>
<p>hmmmmmmmm? :confused: what do you mean by that poubelle?</p>
<p>NoFX- Then go ahead and get rid of her! Purge your enemies "academically" by getting better grades than them! (Ew, that sounded extremely dorky, nerdy, yucky, hehe I can go on forever!)</p>
<p>rayyy- I think it depends on the country. For example Japan has virtually no opputunities for students to engage in ECs, and has like 10 competitions (ok a little exaggerating). Nonetheless, people from my former school with Ecs half as impressive of insane CCers that got rejected by HYP, were actually admitted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, etc despite their burden of being applying as international. However no MIT though ever. MIT is different- I think you have to emit an 'I love science aura' to be admitted. This is shown by winning contests etc as you mentioned.</p>
<p>yeah it's almost impossible for singaporeans to have amazing ECs like US students. there's just not enough time. i just hope those US unis at least make an effort to find out more about the situation in different countries. an A in my sch definitely doesnt mean the same thing as an A in an average US high school. we have, on the average, 5% of total student population getting an A in any subject. biology is by far the worst, one A out of 360+ students. this is as bad as grade deflation can get and our transcripts look totally horrifying. -grimace-</p>
<p>lol rexer - there's no way to beat her!! she's won all sorts of trips.. to egypt with the prime minister, gallipolli with the government, number 1 in country in all sorts of drama and speech compitiions!!
The only way to get rid of her is by killing her.. or something of that sort.</p>
<p>rayyy</p>
<ul>
<li>1 A of 360 students is awful!! It sucks doesnt it? Our exams are compared to every student in the whole country. 0.9% Excellence (equivalent to an A) in biology out of the whole country.</li>
</ul>
<p>My transcript looks terrible!! But our curriculum is new so the adcoms won't really have an idea how this curriculum is like.
Atleast for your school, the adcoms are familiar with it.</p>
<p>They will definetly notice that your grades look funny because you're from Singapore. Don't worry man</p>
<p>hey guys...
i'm heading to NYU's Stern School of Business this fall and i've been thru the whole application process so i thought I might give you guys some insight abt admissions for international students.</p>
<p>I was born in Germany, my mom's citizenship is Indonesian while my dad's one is german. i'm holding a german passport and i've been studying in Singapore for the past few years, in fact i finished my A levels at JC last year. </p>
<p>Basically, most admissions officers told me i'd be pooled with Singaporeans in the evaluation process. As an international student, ur citzenship doesn't matter as much as where u completed ur high school education. this is because many international applicants who apply for US universities have lived in a different country from their citizenship. Unless your holding a US citizenship, this policy usually applies to all.</p>
<p>However, some universities evaluate applications case by case, and do not pool applicants into different pools, and NYU is one of them. I'm not too sure about other schools though.. u could call or ask the universities to check.</p>
<p>Rexer, regarding whether ur "multi-national" background will help you, the onus is on you to do so. Elaborate on your special experiences and how they have made you different compared to your peers. you have an advantage in the sense that you can present yourself as unique. it definitely helped in my case.</p>
<p>rayy, some universities are familiar with our system so there should be some leniency with them. our A levels are the equivalent of their APs. Usually, 2As and 2Bs at the A levels are considered very decent (of course all ur SATs must be above 700 as well). However, let me put grades in perspective for you. My guy friend, Y, had 3A1B and got into Stanford. His girlfriend had 4As but was rejected at my school (NYU Stern). I din do to well for my As but i got in. Basically once u have decent grades they look at other areas such as your personality and ECs.</p>
<p>also rayy, about ECs. Juz coz most of the US students have like a dozen ECs doesn't mean we are disadvantaged. Sometimes Unis want to look at commitment. my friend Y and I were both former national champions in our sport, and that definitely helped a lot. another girl i know got into Upenn's Wharton (which is arguably the best business school for bachelor degrees) was from the national netball team. all of us had only 1 CCA and hardly did community service. so it's quality and not quantity sometimes.</p>
<p>anyway i wish you guys all the best with your applications! feel free to ask me any questions.</p>
<p>thanks for the info :)</p>
<p>it does seem that schools are looking for passion displayed through commitment, but i don't know if only CCAs count as EC. i'm involved in community service andi really like the organisation i'm with. have been with them for close to two years. but this is the only CCA i have since i spent a lot of time taking an extra subject and training for olympiads and doing my research project, but they aren't CCAs. i don't think they count as ECs in singapore's context, but i'm not sure about US.
i'm not really worried about my grades, because frankly they're quite okay even by my sch's standard. if everything goes well my teachers may even give me a projected grade that can potentially top singapore so that's one thing i'm quite happy with.
right now my real drawback is my EC :( sigh. no leadership positions cos i had only one day/week to commit to CCA and felt i shouldn't take up things i can't spend time on. wonder how much that will hurt my chances...</p>
<p>I have 2 jobs, both for paying my chinese education on saturday, next to my regular dutch education. How do I have time to get EC's???
I am also a fervent tennisplayer. I play everyday, when I dont have to work, so no time left</p>
<p>rayy,
basically almost anythin (except studying) outside of class can be considered as an EC. so, yes, CCAs count as ECs. basically there's no fixed rule about wat counts as an EC, it is how u present it in your application and your essay.
it is your duty to show how you have spent your time effectively and in a meaningful and productive way.</p>
<p>trinya,
u too can use your situation to your advantage. highlight your 2 jobs and the purpose that you put your pay too, im sure it will put you in a good light to the admissions officer. as for your tennis, i encourage you to take part in competitions. basicallly you have to show some results for the time you have spent. for me, i only took part in my sport and didn't have any other ECs in or outside of school. the medals i won made up for the lack of breadth in my EC record.</p>
<p>I won several national tournaments and had become several time second and third. But how must those unversities know how strong those tournaments were???</p>
<p>supposing that it's a national competition and winning it would qualify you as national champion, i guess the results will speak for themselves.</p>
<p>if there are ambiguities, there are 2 ways to go about it
1) elaborate on the quality and standard of the competitors as well as how prestigous the competition is in your essay or on an additional sheet attached to your extra-curricular record
2) get your coach to write a recomendation. he could elaborate more on the competitions, but remember that such a recomendation would have to focus not only on your achievements, but on your personal strenghts (eg determination, discipline, strong desire to excel) as well.</p>
<p>I've got pretty much the opposite dilemma of the person who started this thread. My situation is this: I want to be a doctor. If I study in the US, not only will the schooling take 10 to 12 years, but I won't necessarily be ensured a spot in any medical school here (since the acceptance rate at top institutes is very low.) If I were to go to a foreign country and study at a very renowned institution in say India, would it better... In short, does any one here know if I would be better off studying in another country? Thanks!!</p>
<p>Oh, and can anyone tell me how to start a new thread? Appreciate it.</p>
<p>Hey rexer, okay, this sounds very odd and is a little off topic, but you sound awfully familiar from the background you posted..
Are you a girl, and did you go to an all-girls catholic international school in Japan?
Sorry if I'm thinking of the wrong person;)</p>
<p>By the way, yes, I think you get a lot of boost if you're an international.
However, I guess it's also tough in terms of financial aid if you're not an US citizen..</p>
<p>monopsony</p>
<p>first, to start a new thread, you look at the top of the page, next to the moderators' names. it says: new thread. You click on that and then do your jiggy.</p>
<p>And I'm in the exact same situation as you. In u.s it's hard to get into medical school. And that's for u.s citizens. We are intels so there's a very very slim chance that we'll get into med school.</p>
<p>On the top side, if you study in a prestigious u.s uni, you'd get the name recognition and I guess the whole u.s college experience. </p>
<p>But the down side is that you have to work extra extra hard.. harder than the hard working u.s citizen students - to get IN to med school.</p>
<p>For me, the upside of going to a uni in korea, I will get a guaranteed acceptance to med school because you practically start med school in your first year. And I wouldn't have to study my butt off like I would in u.s.</p>
<p>The downside is that I wouln't get that world-wide name recognition
But the upside is that I would get that National name recognition lol.
The question is - where do you want to practise after uni??</p>
<p>So right now, I'm studying for the SATs as well as the Korean university entrance tests. And also juggling my time with co-curriculars.
Maybe you should make your options available by getting accepted to your country's top school like.. IIT? lol i just heard that it is realy hard to get into. And at the same time, get accepted to Harvard. Then you'd have the joy to pick and choose.</p>
<p>Plus, if I choose to attend a (prestigious) U.S institute, I can always transfer easily into any korean university. But it would be very hard to go the other way (korea --> U.s)</p>
<p>If you are a hard worker and think you can do great and think you can get into med school easily (beause you're fantastic), go to the U.S :) If you arn't a hard worker, think very very carefully.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think you get a lot of boost if you're an international
[/quote]
........................you don't get any boost even if you don't need finaid..........................</p>
<p>just curious- do med schools give any finaid? to citizens or internationals?</p>
<p>I had a question.. Im an Indian passport holder ( 100% indian :)) but have been born and brought up in Dubai, U.A.E.. I was moved to the US last year ( my sophomore year ) on a student visa and plan to complete my high school education here in the US.... so do i fall in the U.A.E quota or Indian quota? I'm thinking Indian quota since I do not have UAE citizenship ( i only have a residence visa )</p>
<p>Wha? Malaysians are...over-represented at top unis? Oh...God. :( Are you guys sure? Singapore, of course. India and China? These two countries are a third of the world's population, it's to be expected. But Malaysia? I seriously can't fathom our country being over-represented. That's not possible. Our English is abysmal, and we like only get one guy into Harvard per (good) year.</p>
<p>well i don't know about malaysia, but over-represented can just mean few places for an overwhelming number of applications. i think the top us universities easily receive more than 100 applications from singapore every year, but in the end there are only a couple of students accepted, so the competition is tough and we are considered over-represented.</p>
<p>I'd say that they'd easily get 350 students a year from singapore.
At the testing centre here, I estimated the amount of testtakers in May and I saw about 70. And this is new zealand. The tiny country. And there's 5 test centres in the country.
So I'd say that,Malaysia, 200 will be the minimum amount of appliers.</p>
<p>I estimated about 100 test-takers at my test centre in June, but it was the only one in the whole country (so our proctor said).</p>
<p>Seeing as this is the general intl. student thread...</p>
<p>Are Israeli students generally looked upon unfavorably (by adcoms, of course), both for political and quota-related reasons? Judging by the number of Israelis posting in study-abroad forums, I think it's safe to assume that there is an overabundance of applications from this region. As for the extensive resume.. no ECs (basketball team shut down one year into my secondary schooling.. and that was it), extreme grade deflation (due to the quick succession of resident pedagogical revolutionaries), and a couple of years of [insert denigratory adjective here] IDF service.</p>
<p>I just can't imagine anything positive coming out of all this.</p>