<p>exactly. prelims are so in the way.</p>
<p>and i suppose the batch of freshmen for this year is leaving around this time too.</p>
<p>Yep. I'm in Cali right now, waiting for school to start =)</p>
<p>ok, I decided to not be a lazy bum and read the previous page of posts. </p>
<p>So, heya bigfish!</p>
<p>About where I'm heading to real soon, Pomona College</p>
<ul>
<li><p>It is part of the Claremont Consortium, with Harvey Mudd (top engineering school, ranked no.1 in US News for undergrad engineering), Claremont McKenna, a great place for producing future business and political leaders, Pitzer, great place for environmental science, and Scripps, a women's college. You can cross register for classes between these other 4 colleges, and social scene wise it's great coz all 5 colleges make for about 5000+ population, so it doesn't feel too small and claustrophobic.</p></li>
<li><p>Academics: Have heard nothing but amazing things about the professors. Popular departments include Econ, English, Chem, and Pomona has pretty strong programs at any department, generally speaking. Study abroad options are good, you can take a semester off at Swarthmore, or Cambridge/Oxford, and other places. Some sort of senior project (like a thesis) is a must. Summer research and internships are readily available.</p></li>
<li><p>Reputation: Pomona is known by the people who matter (employers/professors at grad school - apparently, Harvard profs like us :)). IB and many other companies recruit on campus, and many go on to business jobs, law school, and grad school. However, it does not compare favourably to the East Coast when it comes to IBD and consulting recruitment coz' the Ivys pretty much rule over there.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Students: friendly, supposedly laid back and don't take themselves too seriously. Dress casually, not a "preppy" sort.</p>
<p>Social scene: Free beer - so lots of parties. Hardly any frats - only like 8 percent of males go to frats and no sororities.</p>
<p>Other great things about Pomona: snacking - give you free biscuits/chocolates to eat while studying at night, Death by Chocolate party, Ski-Beach day, etc etc, and it's in Clalifornia!!!</p>
<p>A side-note: I was meeting up with my class in July and my ex-form teacher, who works in MOE now, came by. He told me he was visiting Pomona in Spetember together with a few MOE officials to conduct feasibility studies on establishing an LAC in Singapore. My point? The LACs are rising in recognition, even in ivy-crazed Singapore. I think the Straits Times reported of A Star scholars going to Carleton and Bryn Mawr - an indication that the LACs are not "artsy-fartsy", they hold their own in the sciences too.</p>
<p>Alright, here are a few helpful links:</p>
<p>To a "Why Pomona thread" in CC: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=175120%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=175120</a></p>
<p>Pomona's official website: <a href="http://www.pomona.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.pomona.edu/</a></p>
<p>If you need any more info, let me know. I'm not actually in school yet, but I'll do my best.</p>
<p>Pomona is really good. What are your stats D.T? Just really curious.....</p>
<p>Raoul: Good employers WILL KNOW which are good universities and which are the Mickey Mouse institutions. I go to Tufts, which is a GREAT school, but if I go for a job interview and the HR manager says "Hah? What Tuff one?", then you really do NOT want to work in that company!</p>
<p>LOL! I'm just wondering how you guys feel when HR manager/interview dismisses your university and give you that condescending look like you CANNOT get into local university? </p>
<p>I go to McGill and one of my recent interviews for an internship in Singapore went.....</p>
<p>Interviewer: So tell me about your yourself...
Me: standard crap....
Interviewer: So I see you are studying in McGill [Condescending look]
Me: Yea. I'm double majoring in Finance & Economics.
....
.....
Interviewer: You know I only hired top notch students, 2 of my analyst are from NUS FASS. One is an english literature grad and the other is a sociology grad. </p>
<p>Me: But NUS FASS is a dumping ground... Besides why you hire Arts graduate to do Math?
Interviewer: NUS is prestigious. & they do some writing as well.
Me: I got into NUS, SMU and NTU. [straight face] </p>
<p>Interviewer: Oh? [SHOCK] [awkward] So..... I see that you are pretty active in school.....
Me:... yeah. </p>
<p>Raoul: Tufts is a great school btw!</p>
<p>haha i get that condescension sometimes too. people make fun of Brown for having a funny name, for being named after a colour. and the usual opinion that i study overseas cos i can't get into local unis.</p>
<p>hi everyone,</p>
<p>i'm in the process of applying to a few colleges in the states and have a few questions about teachers' recommendations.</p>
<p>1) is it possible to get recommendations from secondary school teachers, not jc teachers? </p>
<p>there isn't a lot of info on this on the uni websites because they don't follow the sec school / jc system. high school for them would be tantamount to sec 3-4, plus j1-2. technically, i should be able to use my sec 3-4 teachers, shouldn't i?</p>
<p>2) what sort of documents do you need to present teachers with when asking for a recommendation?</p>
<p>i presume everyone's going to have different answers for this, so i'd just like to hear everyone's opinions on this to get a comprehensive feel for things.</p>
<p>hi captain backfire</p>
<p>1) yes it's possible, but I guess in most cases it doesn't reflect too well on the applicant. Because the admission officers will wonder why the student can't find a teacher in his last 2 years of high school to write for him. I did ask one of my sec 3/4 teacher to write for me, but only because i knew it was a risk worth taking. I knew that the testimonial would be a million times better than any testimonial my JC teachers would write for me. and in my case, my sec 3/4 teacher had already left the school and went on to China to teach in international schools there, but it seemed that the admission officers didn't mind? If you need a frame of reference: Vassar, Tufts, Brown, NYU and Boston U didn't mind. That being said, my high school counsellor's recommendation was the faculty head in JC, and my other teacher's recommendation was by my form teacher in JC. So the majority of my recommendations were from JC teachers. So I guess 1 secondary school teacher recommendation alone may not be too good on its own.</p>
<p>2) I gave my teachers my personal statement, so that they will understand how I am presenting myself in the application, and won't write something completely different about me. I also gave my teachers my Curriculum Vitae so that they have stuff to refer to, and to remind them of what I did in school. And of course all the forms they had to fill up, I passed it to them, labeled with deadlines and with their own self stamped envelopes.</p>
<p>does anyone have a breakdown of how many Singaporeans were enrolled into the various top colleges last year?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Probably twice the number listed in the above website.</p>
<p>why twice the number?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Wow, no one got into Amherst..heh.</p>
<p>Was albert87 really outstanding at RJC? Did being a bruneian help him to get into Princeton? I'm a bruneian too (in brunei) btw</p>
<p>
[quote]
why twice the number?</p>
<p>Thanks!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>RJ students traditionally apply and get accepted to more US schools than HC students (seems to be the reverse for Oxbridge and other UK schools). So its just a rough "guesstimate" - under the assumption that US schools accept half from RJ and half from everyone else (HC, VJ, NJ, TJ). Maybe a little more.</p>
<p>okay prelims just ended its about time i get started on my applications SIGH</p>
<p>just a few questions:</p>
<p>1) 2 'routes' i'm considering: one, apply to top universities, fully paid on my own. or two, apply to LACs requesting for financial aid and hoping to get a full ride. only that LAC's don't offer engineering except lafeyette and harvey mudd, and those more generous with aid are probably less well known, though i wouldnt mind.</p>
<p>maybe you're wondering why i should even bother trying for financial aid when i can pay for it, but i really dont want to increase my family's burden. we're average, not filthy rich. </p>
<p>2) is it more advisable to send in applications before a levels? there're some universities with deadlines in feb so i would think.. there's still time after a levels?</p>
<p>weasley,
thanks for the response. i'm probably going to ask a sec school teacher for a reference for precisely the same reason you did.</p>
<p>big fish,
have you considered merit scholarships? need-blind scholarships are given by some of the top schools. i hear it's hard for international students to get full scholarships, but half-scholarships are not unheard of.</p>
<p>Hello. I'm from RJC, J2 this year and I had all As in my prelims. Do I stand a fair chance for Yale?</p>
<p>@boeing767: yale is a reach for everyone but that having been said, skimming through your chances thread, it seems you're on the right track.</p>
<p>not very helpful for boeing, considering yale SCEA is over and done with :P</p>
<p>boeing got deferred.</p>