<p>Gabrielle: Thanks for d advice XD Yeah I thought flying to India was a little over the top..</p>
<p>txj: Thanks for the link! Found it really helpful..</p>
<p>Well, hopefully more M'sians can get admitted.. I'm sure you all heard about the sole Malaysian who went for Harvard's undergrad studies this year. I cant believe JPA turned him down for a scholarship.. He's good enough for 4 Ivies but not JPA??! Geez..</p>
<p>Royal</a> Thai Scholar 48 Official Website:: College Result</p>
<p>Fascinating stuff... Hahaha.. Its basically a list of Thai students and their SAT scores and which Uni they got applied/accepted/waitlisted/rejected outright... Gives you an idea of your competition ;P </p>
<p>The red rejection signs are cringe-worthy.. You feel bad for them especially those who had more rejections than acceptions... Ouch</p>
<p>Steph: That is a very interesting fact to look at.</p>
<p>They seem to have relatively different scores for CR and WR compared with Maths and most of them got almost prefect scores for the SAT subjects. Anyway, we're not able to see the different aspects of their apps like personal essay, recommendations, etc :)</p>
<p>gab: haha.. cheers to the oldies! By the way, I'm trying to get together some people for a series of US application seminars to be started in HELP. Are you interested in helping out?</p>
<p>stephanie: Thanks for the link to the thai site! Have been looking for that! </p>
<p>Mimanchi: There is another site- my chances.net where applicants post their scores and their admission results. However, I'm not sure to what extent it is true and how accurate the calculations are. Most of the applicants are really high achievers and they may skew the graph.</p>
<p>Stephanie93: He's far from the first. :)</p>
<p>Xian Jin: I can jelp out during the weekends. Does Help encourage applications to the US? Taylor's was very UK-centric.</p>
<p>Welcome ;D
Mimanchi: Yeah I agree that would make a big difference but at least you can see how well you fare against the test results itself. Somehow I dont think they would want to post their application essays on the net, especially the succesful ones. There may be a lot of plagiarists out there.. Oh, and their friends may come across it and give them hell about the overexaggerations of their achievements XD
And yes, they make getting perfect scores on SAT II seem so easy..</p>
<p>Oh, there is a site where you can actually enter your SAT scores and see how you stack against the current batch of undergrads at the school of your choice. I cant recall it now but I'll try to search it up again..</p>
<p>txj: Are the seminars for like college ppl only? Cuz last year, HELP held a lot of seminars that secondary students can join, eg: debating and a law olympiad. Or I may have mixed the colleges up but, I dont think so.. You should def. get secondary schools to join in IF possible.. I can get my previous school involved no problem.. I'll pester my english teacher to get the F4/5s to join XD</p>
<p>What colleges are you all in?? Assuming you all are in colleges or uni... Or are some of you still in secondary schools? Maybe? Hopefully? Comon!</p>
<p>The Ivies don't accept A levels right? Does that mean I have to sit for both? Cuz my dad was like 'If you take SATS, you might not be eligible for other uni/colleges in other parts of the world..'</p>
<p>:-0</p>
<p>^The SAT is specifically for US colleges/universities entrance. A-Level is accepted worldwide. SAT tests your basic skills but A-Levels is more subject based and you can get credits if enrolled in US coll/uni. Infact the Ivies value A-Level more than SPM because it is more standardized. </p>
<p>You need to study for one year or one and a half years for A-Levels while for the SAT, you can take it whenever you want to :). There's a big difference...</p>
<p>Malaysian in the US! I know how hellish it can get applying to US colleges LOL. I'll try to be of as much help as I can.</p>
<p>The SATs cannot be compared with A-Level because both are so different. You cannot take the SATs in place of A-Level. It's not an "either-or" situation, you generally have to send in both (and by both I mean you have to send in your SATs as well as your high school/pre-university results), with the exception being if you're applying to SAT-optional colleges. </p>
<p>A Level/SAM/SPM/STPM is the equivalent of the American high school, you're sending those results in as your "high school transcripts", and you usually have to send in your SAT results in addition to those.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone waiting for the decisions!</p>
<p>gab: thanks! it's more of something my friends and i plan to do on the large scale in the long term future and we're using Help as a testing ground (sort of) to kick it off. Yea.. I'd have to say that Help is pretty UK-centric as well as the staff do not know much about US apps. (That's where we can help.) </p>
<p>stephanie: It should be open to all but there will be limited space I guess. I would post a notification here as soon as the dates and speakers are confirmed. In the long run we plan to hold larger seminars open to the general public so I'm sure you would be able to attend one of them.</p>
<p>Some colleges specifically state that O-Levels is not accepted in lieu of A-Levels so you would have to check with the respective colleges you are planing to apply to. SATs is more of just a test than a course. Some people don't bother doing any preparation for it at all and take the test cold though it's not advisable. In fact, none of the Malaysian students I know take any classes for the SAT.</p>
<p>p.s.: Many people do post their actual essays online for proofing and you could read them. Just google the essay prompts.</p>
<p>Oh, you can compare your scores on collegeboard.com... You just type in whichever college you want to get into and there's a 'How do I stack up?' button at the bottom..</p>
<p>Okay I'll keep those in mind.. That means I should sit for both right? To keep other options open.. XD</p>
<p>gabriellechong:
I'm taking the NSW High School Cert, but would that even help in my application? I've already chosen the colleges to send those scores, but seriously, I think I really screwed the SATs. Especially the CR and writing sections. </p>
<p>If I don't get in this Fall, I'll try again next Fall. I'd like to go into a reputable college =), any suggestions what I should do? I'd like to study medicine, so, any related co-curricular etc.? </p>
<p>Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>fellow malaysian here! '91'er.
not looking at ivy's, cause my scores are not that awesome and i don't get the appeal of the ivy schools other than Columbia.</p>
<p>I applied to 5 schools for RD, rejected from my ED school (NYU).</p>
<p>sarah, you should realise that medical studies in the united states are really expensive and longgggggg (4 years of med school, 6 years of low-paying residency years and maybe 2-3 years of fellowships for specialties like neurosurgery/cardiothoracic surgery) before you decide that you want to do medicine in the US. I had thought of medical school and decided that I'll take the pre-requisite courses and see where things go from there.</p>
<p>scholarships are not available to intl students and some med schools don't even take in intl students...e.g. if an intl student is admitted into Johns Hopkins, he would need to deposit 4 years' worth of tuition into an escrow account.</p>
<p>I had a family friend help me pick out colleges that are good in terms of research, that are not too big, good areas and reputation among the locals. CC's definition of reputable colleges is a bit...skewed, I think. depends on where you'd wanna go too. the list that she gave me were all california schools.</p>
<p>sarah: The NSW competitions will not make or break your application, but National and International awards in Maths or Science Olympiads will bear great weight in your application in terms of awards. Your co-curricular activities need not be related to your expected major but you are expected to show depth and passion in whatever you do, be it volunteering at a hospital or painting murals. SAT scores aren't everything and you can still be admitted to a top-tier school (although in special circumstances) with lower than average scores.</p>
<p>anyone from malaysia planning to apply to Parsons NY ?</p>
<p>Hello malaysia!</p>
<p>Okay, Im not a malaysian, but neither am I a stalker!</p>
<p>I just dropped by to ask if anyone has info on the Nottingham uni Malaysia campus...seems attractive, but when to apply? And is it easy to get in for internationals?</p>
<p>xfiona:
If you don't mind me asking, what were the colleges? I don't have a specific state in mind, but generally a safe area with not too harsh weather would be great. Equipped with basic facilities. If possible, a college with some ECs other than greek life and athletics, like music, film etc. =) Thanks!</p>
<p>txj:
Thanks! The NSW HSC is sort of a one year foundation course, i't's mainly for aussie, but i don't know if the US recognizes it. Well, now, i can't apply to all those top-tier colleges cause their deadlines have already expired. But I think i'll give it a try next fall. In the meantime, would volunteering at a hospital help? In my college, they're giving us free training for the Maths Olympiad, but, I don't know if I can make the cut.</p>
<p>sarahcsm:
Sarah, I'm not trying to shatter your hopes of gaining admission into a good US school, but I hope you took my advice of applying for undergrad with pre-u qualification. As for SATs, bear in mind that it is not individual aspects of your application that counts, but your "overall package". Someone who won a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games but had mediocre SAT and pre-u results would appear more credible than a typical straight-A student. But if you want a general comment on SAT results per se, then my opinion is that scores of 700 and above for each section are decent enough. If you scored, say, 710-760-720 or 780-660-780, then there's no need to retake. As for medicine, YOU CANNOT STUDY MEDICINE AS AN UNDERGRAD IN THE US (upper case because I've told this to Malaysian applicants soooooo many times). You can only study medicine in the States as a POST-GRAD. As regards NSW HSC, you can inquire the inividual schools to see if they recognise this pre-u qualification, though obviously, A Levels, International Baccalaureate and STPM would be more widely recognised. If you're going ahead with NSW HSC, then make sure you include, in your future application, a letter explaining the academic rigour of your course. Hope this helps. </p>
<p>Flibb: The official website for Nottingham Malaysia campus is University</a> of Nottingham - Malaysia Campus. Not sure about its international student ration, but my guess is that most private, commercial colleges (of which Nottingham Malaysia is one of them) do have a sizeable portion of international students.</p>
<p>flibb: Based on the second-hand information i have, Notts in Malaysia is not very difficult to get in for internationals. However, difficult can be relative and you could check out the lowyat forums as there is some information there although you would have to sieve it out.</p>
<p>sarah: Haha.. Didn't realize that as i didn't know about the NSW HSC. I'd guess that most institutions in the US would recognize it as an extra year of high school but the top tier institutions are really a stickler for a respectable pre-U course like A-levels or IB (as Gabrille advised). Volunteering a a hospital would probably help, but only very little. It will not stand out but do it because you're genuinely concerned for the people you're helping out, not because you intend to pad your resume with more activities. Participating in activities will not stand out unless you show true passion and depth. Such involvement will demonstrate your maturity and capacity to show passion in other areas. In all, ECAs are as well just but one component of your application package, and you will have to demonstrate your passion in the other areas of your application. i.e. If your passion was painting then what awards did you get? what did you do with your painting that gained international recognition? how did your paintings impact your recommenders?</p>
<p>gabrielle:
Yes, =) I know we can't study medicine in the USas an undergraduate, =) I've participated in some national level competitins, but they're more of presentations, projects and music composition. Not really science/maths related. Would that help? As txj was saying, would they accept a student who plans to study the sciences even if he/she shows much passion/interest in the arts? As for the common application site, they ask us to enter our ECs, but it's only one box. HOw do we exactly fill this up? </p>
<p>Thanks so much!</p>
<p>sarahcsm:
Why not? In fact I'd say your interest in the arts plus your vocation in the sciences will strike you out as a well-rounded individual. But, as txj said, no matter what or how many activities you participate in, it's whether you can show true passion and depth that matters. Let's say you've given music lessons at an orphanage. What drove you to take up the stint? How did you work with the people at the orphanage? As opposed to the number of hours you spent there, the changes you have made to the orphanage and to the lives of the children would be more crucial matters.
As for the EC margins at the commonapp site, I'd say they're pretty redundant. Almost all applicants will attached a separate resume under the 'additional information' slot at the bottom of the 'essays' section. But fill up the EC margins (you can add up to 7 activities) with your most impressive activities anyway for the sake of emphasising your most important achievements.</p>