<p>Yeah, perhaps not the comic riots but the fact that the police crack down on the display of white elephants and those RGS girls... makes Singapore a laughing stock.</p>
<p>hey any singaporeans got accepted into UIUC for Fall 2006?if yes what major?Thanks!</p>
<p>Me..Majoring in Physics..
Approximately 171 days left to flying off :)
<a href="mailto:mynick@hotmail.com">mynick@hotmail.com</a> if u want to stay contacted :)</p>
<p>Argh....I'm running into major problems writing my application essays. Somehow every piece has managed to devolve into rants against the Singaporean education system. Tips anyone? </p>
<p>Or perhaps could I trouble you guys for some of the stuff you guys wrote?</p>
<p>Incidentally do any of you know a place with wireless access, quiet surroundings and powerpoints? All the renovation being carried around my place is driving me absolutely stark raving mad.</p>
<p>dtwn... head Down ToWN to the library.. quiet, with computer access and an intellectual, thinking environment that you need. I myself am grappling with essays (though not for college apps, thats next year!) good luck!</p>
<p>I tried that actually, unfortunately I couldn't find a powerpoint available. Or at least you're discouraged from using the powerpoints available. I ended up in the kids floor to avoid getting bummed around by librarians....</p>
<p>Try not to think that the Singaporean education is as oppressive as many make it out to be, because we are actually better off than our counterparts in many other countries. In fact, it is already changing for the better. I personally would not advise an essay on the education system unless you feel especially passionate about it (and not in a negative way, I do not think the adcoms want an essay of complaints).</p>
<p>You could also choose a topic completely different, such as "the person who has the greatest influence over me". </p>
<p>Good luck with your essays! :)</p>
<p>I think it's definitely easier to write about yourself rather than the education system (as much as I don't think very highly of it). It's hard to write something about a certain current affairs topic if it doesn't help to reflect your personality.</p>
<p>Just a question, are you applying for the class of 2010?</p>
<p>Hey, any victorians on this thread?! :p</p>
<p>Oddly enough, why 2010? Am I that young? I'm applying for 2006 Fall and 2007 Spring. Admittedly it's rather late, so I'm starting to panic.</p>
<p>Well, I should have made myself clear, I'm not writing a current affairs essay, I'm writing about myself. I'm applying for adoloscence education programs as I feel extremely strongly about the education system. As a result, it tends to stray into rants against the system. </p>
<p>This is the milder draft I came up with. </p>
<p>Title: Your interest in an MSU education and how you intend to use it to make a difference in society</p>
<p>Eric Hoffer once stated, The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.</p>
<p>Ive always wanted to make a difference in the world we live in. As a child, my dream was to become rich through means unknown and adopt as many orphans as I could, raising them as my own. My childhood dream ran aground upon the reef of reality when I was eleven. I realised that I would essentially be opening an orphanage and the state allowed only married couples to adopt. I turned my sights on science, my head filled with visions of improving the world through some unspecified miraculous breakthrough in science. I strived towards this goal, winning the science quiz consecutively in my first two years in secondary school. In my third year in secondary school, I was streamed into an arts stream class. My dreams slowly eroded, buried in the depths of my mind. I graduated with average O level results and chose to further in the field of accounting and finance. I hated it. I sloughed my way through each year, grasping that this was hardly the field I wanted to pursue. As graduation beckoned, I began seeking alternative opportunities. I wanted to work in a field where job satisfaction was key. I searched my soul and realised that teaching was the answer. I had been tutoring since I was fifteen and I found it immensely rewarding. During my period of conscription with the Singapore Armed Forces, I had the opportunity to work in Thailand for over a year. Over there, I participated in our community outreach project, volunteering as the sole English teacher for underprivileged Thai schoolchildren. It was unquestionably one of the most edifying and gratifying responsibilities I had ever undertaken. I still regret that I never had the opportunity to spend more time working with them.<br>
The Singaporean education system has generally been a coddling, spoon-feeding structure. Students were told to follow dogma and creativity was suppressed. Thankfully, some progress has been made in recent years. Students are now given much greater leeway in methods of practice and study. However, I feel these improvements are still insufficient as a whole. Students are still prohibited from choosing their course of study in most secondary schools and junior colleges. While encouraged to think creatively, students lack the proper support to do so. Most teachers pay only lip service as they have been indoctrinated in the former system. Students end up being encouraged to think outside the box on one hand and suppressed when they do so on the other.
I want to change that. Our education system produces learned students. Local students routinely win international Math and Science Olympiads. Our students profess great expertise in their narrow fields of study but lack general knowledge, producing a population of automatons who follow the system blindly. Throughout my years in the system, I was predominantly treated as a maverick. I hated the idea of conforming blindly and did not hesitate to say so. I was more interested in the how the answers were derived than in the answers themselves. Several of my teachers recommended that I pursue an education overseas as they felt I could not integrate with the local system. Admittedly, the only time when I really exerted myself was with my projects and academic competitions as I felt the system was inadequate. This meant that while I was selected to represent my school in quizzes, my results were among the most abysmal in the class. I want to forestall others like me from going through such a struggle. I hope to see a system where students are allowed to fully maximise their ability without fear of reprisal.
I believe an education with MSU is the key to my dream with its goal of building a community where people of different cultures, intellectual positions and lifestyles can reach their full potential. Exposure to MSUs top-ranking education programs will help make me a more effective and perceptive teacher. With programs like ASSIST to provide beginning teachers support and guidance, I will be well equipped to help those I teach while constantly improving on my professional and inter-personal skills. I want to change the lives of those I teach, and I know that MSU is the place to begin.
Help me achieve my dream of making a difference in the lives of others and make Eric Hoffers statement a reality, that students will never stop being students. </p>
<p>PS: try not to kill me with your critiques.</p>
<p>Sorry, dind't bother reading your essay..Maybe someone else would help you. ^^
When they mean 2010, it means the graduation year..
so not admission in 2010 :P</p>
<p>Anyway those who enter in Fall 06, shouldn't it be Class of 2009? :P</p>
<p>Do the maths- A 4 year degree starting in 2006... thats 2010.</p>
<p>Most Singaporeans with A levels graduate in 3 years..^^</p>
<p>Where are you heading off to ck?</p>
<p>Yes, students with GCE A Levels get a semester or two worth of credits... so they graduate early</p>
<p>
[quote]
Our education system produces learned students. Local students routinely win international Math and Science Olympiads. Our students profess great expertise in their narrow fields of study but lack general knowledge, producing a population of automatons who follow the system blindly.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's a generalization which I think is unfair for you to make. I have classmates that defy what you have just written...</p>
<p>yea and also, try to be more formal-ish. like, mathematics. you can list abit of statistics to back up your claim.. to prove what u mean by arts humanities and creativity are suppressed</p>
<p>
[quote]
Where are you heading off to ck?
[/quote]
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign - Physics</p>
<p>Anyway the essay sounds more like a rant on our education system..Dun see how it really helps ^^</p>
<p>My $0.02</p>
<p>
[quote]
Our education system produces learned students. Local students routinely win international Math and Science Olympiads.
[/quote]
I disagree. I certainly defy that notion. :p </p>
<p>I suppose the essay doesn't really bring out your full personality. I'm not sure about the formal style though - I wrote my essays with a slightly more personal tone.</p>
<p>As a side note, although I think that the humanities in Singapore lack that something at tertiary level, it does better at the lower levels. For secondary school students, CAP is excellent; in JC the Humanities Program caters for many talented students. In general though, we treat literature exactly the way Philip Pullman describes the teaching in the UK.</p>
<p>Exactly, my point, I'm ranting. Not quite exactly what you would look for in an essay. Still many thanks for your suggestions. </p>
<p>It is a generalization, but for most singaporean students it's also true. Take a typical polytechnic student for example. Regardless of what course that individual might be from, toss him in front of the SATs, and he'll most likely smoke the math paper and crash and burn with the verbal and writing sections. Take the typical JC student, repeat the process, the verbal/writing sections would be improved, but unlikely to surpass the math scores. Admittedly, there are those that don't conform. Which was precisely my point. I freely admitted that I'm not one of those lovely individuals, and certainly defy the generalization I set out in the essay. I want to do something those students. Of course there are also students who excel in everything they lay their hands upon, but these are hardly typical examples of Singaporean students. In most schools, the odd birds tend to get left out/behind. I might sound like Bush, but no child should be left behind. Most of the posters probably belong to the higher strata of local education, so your classmates might very well not be the average Singaporean student. That's wholly speculation and I apologise in advance if you feel offended. </p>
<p>I suppose the general gist would be to make my comments more specific and back it up with statistics. I'm hoping to locate old O/A level scores for each subject. Not much success with that so far. Thanks your comments once again. It also appears that most of you guys disagree with that particular line about local students and their proclivity for math and science. That aside, any other issues?</p>
<p>The thing is, I'm not writing a wholly autobiographical essay. I'm writing with regards to the topic of
"Your interest in an MSU education and how you intend to use it to make a difference in society." I felt this topic allowed me to express my interest without writing the typical essay, which however seems to have devolved into a rant. </p>
<p>I deleted the line about Olympiads as I realised it's not particularly relevant to the essay. I was trying to give a sense of being learned, but I think that line didn't cut it. </p>
<p>And I'll be class of 2010 since I'm not an A level student and I won't be studying anything related to my previous choice of study. Thank God for that.</p>