<p>2000’s still a pretty large number, and cliques will always happen anyway. but it’s definitely easier to run into or meet people than on a huge campus. and with 500 people in your freshman batch… yeah definitely feels more like a community, and you’ll more likely run into the same people again and again throughout the 4 years, whether through class, activity, or just general hanging out space.</p>
<p>hm if i were you, the only reason i’d hesitate about carleton is the name recognition issue in singapore. but i’d always get a masters anyway, and i would get one from a well-known school just in case. for every other aspect of consideration, carleton wins easily for me.</p>
<p>do compare the curriculum and academic requirements. carleton is a LAC after all, and you might not like the distribution requirements.</p>
<p>any suggestions on how to beef up SAT’s? got less than 28 days to go until the exams and all im managing after 2 trials is a miserable 2050 now…writing just kills since grammar is almost non-existent in my head anymore!</p>
<p>Pyrobunny, I’d choose Carleton over BU anyday, no thinking. And I actually did get into Carleton! But I’ll be going to an even lesser and lower ranked LAC cos the latter, which is very progressive and well respected by graduate schools, seems a much better suit overall for me. Good luck!</p>
<p>^Hermann: The blue book has a summary of the classic writing mistakes that you’re supposed to spot: parallelism, subject-verb agreement, tense etc. It is like a syllabus guide - I’ve never actually noticed a writing error outside of the ones listed on it. It helps to read through that a couple of times at least, if you aren’t relying on any other guides (I, myself, didn’t). Besides that, the trick is really to practise. The SAT is more like an awareness/alertness test, and that can be trained. </p>
<p>Score 11 or 12 on your essay. Sadly, the easiest way to do this is to spam almost every line they give you, even if you aren’t convinced by your own writing. You don’t even have to exploit vocabulary… I used pretty simple English. Add a semicolon; throw in a hyphen - you’ll reap results without memory work for vocabulary. There are some omnipotent quotes which you can use, e.g. “No statement is immune to revision.” (Quine) Off my head, other writers with very down-to-earth, exploitable quotes… John Stuart Mill, Anatole France… Very easy to exploit for writing a paragraph with a balanced conclusion/counterargument. These are pretty useful for filling space without much thinking; I use about 2 in an essay.</p>
<p>On the bus ride to the test venue, I’d craft something like a structure for the conclusion of my essay. The essays tend to have a societal and/or ethical slant. It’s easy to string an all-purpose paragraph about “volition”, “candor”, “equanimity” (I remember Einstein made a pretty omnipotent statement with this that can also be quoted here) etc. and whatever negative influences you can identify the root of the problem to originate from. Ka-ching, vocabulary points.</p>
<p>Yay! congrats you guys, on getting to the schools in US you applied to! My cousins both got accepted to Berkeley too!</p>
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<p>Thanks for those suggestions, those honestly hadn’t crossed my mind yet, so thank you for that!!! :D</p>
<p>I’m currently “J3” - middle of nowhere right now. Screwed up my A levels really bad (like B’s, C’s and D’s) but unfortunately, grades weren’t “bad” enough to warrant a place to repeat back in my school (so I could get prelim results to apply for Class of 2015.) Also, had H1N1 during my prelims, so couldn’t take the tests, and the teachers never wrote my grades on the result slip - crap, i know. :(</p>
<p>I was asked to tutor a secondary school kid for Math, but think i’ll only do that next year (doing A levels as a private candidate this year, etc., so it’s going to be a little crazy!)</p>
<p>Proposing an economic solution to the government sounds fun!</p>
<p>Sorry, by “seminars” do you mean like economic forums etc?</p>
<p>Basically, i have a year and a half to get an amazo cert so that i can get FinAid (parents have suffered quite a bit from the Econ. downturn) , so really, anything that improves my chances would be great right now.</p>
<p>Anyway, would you be so kind as to share here, what school you got into (if you’re not comfortable with it, that’s fine! )</p>
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<p>Ha, i was just messing! It was to highlight how little i have to offer to the schools right now… :/</p>
<p>Muchas gracias!
Shannon</p>
<p>P.S.
</p>
<p>I was in SMUN '08 Which group of MUN were you in, and if applicable, which country? (just out of curiosity haha)</p>
<p>Big problem: I got accepted into Berkeley, but under the conditions of admissions it states that I am supposed to maintain a B average, with no grade falling lower than a C. </p>
<p>…the thing is, I kinda screwed up Economics REALLY BADLY. I’ve already emailed my admissions officer about it this morning ): but I’m terribly worried about them rescinding my place because I RLLY WANT TO GO TO BERKELEY ARGHHHHH ): </p>
<p>Anyone knows of anyone who has had their places rescinded or anything? ):</p>
<p>Well, how low did your Economics grade fall? I don’t think they would rescind your admissions that easily. Maybe they will ask for more information and you will have to explain what happened - that’s all.</p>
<p>I got an E ): ): ): Which is terrible. And honestly I don’t know if they’d understand if it’s a one time screw up? Cos they don’t know my grades, and Berkeley was the only application that didn’t require a teacher’s reference and all…</p>
<p>But anyway I’m waiting for my admissions officer to reply me to see what she says. I don’t really know what to do now except to wait. </p>
<p>I guess if all else fails I’d go to Bristol in the UK. ):</p>
<p>yourxlover, just out of curiosity, did you resit your SAT? what score did you get for your 2 SATII subjects? Seems like berkeley is pretty generous with offers this time.</p>
<p>@melsonchun I got a real mediocre score of 2080. And berkeley makes you send all your SAT scores… which sucks cos I did 3 SAT IIs and did real badly for Bio. I got 590/650/700 (yes i know who gets 500+ in Singapore right!? epic). Meh but I do know of people who have done way better than me in the SATs but were not offered admission by UCB. And we didn’t even need to ask our teachers to write our references? I suppose the essays are the defining parts of the apps then.</p>
<p>gah but doesn’t rlly matter anyway what i got. I doubt I’ll get to go eventually.</p>
<p>Don’t worry yourxlover, I don’t think they’ll revoke the offer just for 1 subject.</p>
<p>"^ I am not surprised - they need the fees OOS and international students pay in the face of those budget cuts. "</p>
<p>Darn I should have applied to Berkeley, then at least I can give govt scholarships a shot. Sg stat boards seem to think Berkeley is a credible place to be. With my little-known LACs I’m accepted into and love, no Sg govt board is gonna give me a look.</p>
<p>So once more, how are all you guys funded? I neeed money, from alternate sources.</p>
<p>yourxlover, how did you do for the A Levels btw? and your ECs?</p>
<p>Cause going by the things you showed here, I might be tempted to apply for UCB the next cycle. Finishing NS in Nov, so I wont have to defer anymore, in tandem with the non-deferment policy of berkeley.</p>
<p>Hi guys, I just received my ‘A’ Level results and they are average (Bs) but not outstanding enough. My ECs are also not that good. I was thinking of taking a gap year after NS to pursue my ECs.</p>
<p>Also, should I retake my A Levels or take APs or other stuff instead? </p>
<p>The most important thing is that, I require FA. Should I fail to get sufficient FA into US unis, NUS/NTU/SMU will be my safety. </p>
<p>Would appreciate it if you could advise me on what to do next.</p>
<p>Don’t count on it. US colleges are notoriously stingy when it comes to giving international students FinAid. The main reason that they take in so many internationals these days is probably that we are their cash cows, so they will try to milk us as much as they can.</p>
<p>Having said that, however, there are certain colleges that are more generous than others when it comes to international student FinAid. Can’t be too sure which ones are the best in this respect, but it also depends on what you wish to study. NYU, for one, is known for being expensive and extremely stingy. HTH :)</p>
<p>Hi there, my most likely major would be in International Relations/Political Science. I was wondering if it was worth it to take a gap year after NS and give it a shot. Or should I stay local? Because I only know that these universities are need-blind:
MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Massachusetts
Harvard University in Massachusetts
Princeton University in New Jersey
Yale University in Connecticut
Williams College in Massachusetts
Middlebury College in Vermont
Dartmouth College in New Hampshire
Amherst College in Massachusetts</p>
<p>How about schools like Duke, Tufts, Georgetown etc.? Do non need-blind schools give out FA as well?</p>
<p>Are you open to attending either a research university of a LAC? Half of those need-blind universities you named are LACs, where the style and instruction are quite different from what you would find at mainstream universities that Singaporeans are more attuned to.</p>
<p>If I were you, and I really wanted to go to college in the US, yet whether I took that route hinged on the FinAid the university offers, I would first enroll in a local uni (SMU/NUS/NTU or even that new one that just opened back home) as I take on additional ECs and volunteer work to boost my qualifications. Don’t bother with A Levels unless you did so glaringly bad that it makes you look like a poor candidate, cause the US is obsessed with SAT scores so make sure you have a solid score there. In the meantime, apply to the US using your new and improved academic and extracurricular qualifications. Then, even if you don’t get your desired aid package, you’re still relatively better off having already done a year in a local uni, and knowing that you didn’t waste that year (which us Singaporean males are likely to take seriously given that we spent two years serving Singapura). If you do, then its all good.</p>
<p>Besides the ones you listed above, many unis also offer international students scholarships, which aren’t quite the same thing as FinAid, but what the heck as long as its $ who cares right! As an example, I’m at USC with a half-tuition scholarship and I know of several intl’s who have gotten the full ride for all four years. One thing to note, if in the process of application you come across a question asking if your attendance at the college is contingent on whether you receive aid, then be prepared to assess your options, as you are more likely to be accepted w/o applying for aid than you are having asked for some kind of financial assistance.</p>
<p>@Superscale: Williams ended need blind admission for internationals in February. Non-need blind schools DO give out FA but the competition is really intense. Some schools “guarantee to meet full demonstrated need” (Harvey Mudd, Reed, Middlebury etc) meaning if they admit you, they’ll make sure you can attend (Read: if your need is too high and you’re not good enough, they can’t admit you). You can find the number of admitted intels with FA in FA section of schools’ websites.</p>
<p>So in summary:
Need-blind = don’t care for your ability to pay. Full stop! Case in point: Cornell is need blind to intels but you need lots of money to attend!
Guarantees to meet full need = will give whatever FA to make your attendance possible. Full stop! Usually your admission is a balance between your ability/hook/appeal and your financial need. If they REALLY want you, they’ll give you whatever you need!
Very few schools are rich enough to go with both and competition to these places are stiff.</p>
i’ll put in the deposit and see what happens :)</p>
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Which group of MUN were you in, and if applicable, which country? (just out of curiosity haha)</p>