<p>Okay I have no idea what works for the humanities students, but for science people, olympiads and research are pretty useful. Especially if you represent Singapore in international olympiads or get selected for RSI (I'm not sure how many Singapore sends a year. It's that overseas research attachment thing in J1). These things will really help since they are recognised competitions that kind of prove to the schools that you are competent. BUT please don't join all these because it helps with college admissions. I assure you if you don't like biology at all, mugging for the olympiad will be painful, not to mention that these things take up a lot of time. If you like science, then go for it. Won't kill to have some nice awards and be accepted to a great school!</p>
<p>ahluwalia: nope, i'm rj'04. you? i applied to schs n got into most of them in my j2 year but din manage to get a scholarship. so i'm relinquishing my place dis yr and reapplying to other places for finaid. on hindsight, i'm quite glad i din get a scholarship (or chose not to, i withdrawn from a prospective one in the final round) coz none of the scholarships really suits my interest and career path...</p>
<p>council pres of my year... haha i think he's a little unfortunate. most people expected him to get in... but i guess Harvard is just too unpredictable. doesn't really matter i guess, he's at Oxford now.</p>
<p>hm, any people here from the graduating class of 03? Probably only guys though.</p>
<p>hi woebe,
I'm applying this year, just finished j2. are u in NS now, or did you just take a year off?</p>
<p>rayy -i don't think olympiads are THAT hepful. to some extent yes, but if one comes across as a nerdy mugger with no 'normal' interests, and if you couple that with lousy essays, it doesn't mean much. A normal student, with rjc's rep, doing well in school, and who writes decent essays, will do well.</p>
<p>Well I don't really know, since most science people who did get into HYP had a bunch of olympiads... I assume that everyone who wants to get into HYP will take it seriously and spend time on the essays etc, so olympiads will help to make you stand out. But of course they won't get you in if you are a terrible mugger who is socially inept (which will probably show in the interview). I made that comment because there are so many things you can do in JC, so you may want to be a little more selective (:</p>
<p>I'm in NS, 307days to ORD...</p>
<p>Hmm, yeah most people with olympiads are quite serious about college apps so I guess they won't screw up their essays... </p>
<p>rayyy, are you from rj too? and which batch?</p>
<p>whoa- RJ04... that means you're my PSL batch :)</p>
<p>Entering RJ this year, although i'm considering HCJC since i'm in humanities... any ex HCJCians or RJCians to comment on the humans program?</p>
<p>According to what I've heard, HC humans is wonderful for students interested in humanities since you have amazing artsy people as classmates. The tutors are great, but they are kind of eccentric and you need to be an independent learner because there will be little hand-holding. If you are serious about humanities, you'll definitely like HC humans. (Then again, this is based on heresay... The humans programme is kind of elitist though, and the rest of the sch may not like you much. Personally I know quite a few people in humans and like them fine so I have nothing against them at all.) Oh and there are tons of GEPpers, if that matters to you in any way. </p>
<p>And, obviously, I'm from HC!</p>
<p>Just attended first day of RJ orientation... ppl had to come in with 3 pts or less. Lotsa complaints on blogs- only people who passed higher chinese AND had good CCA records got in. So if you didn't take higher chinese/mother tongue, you couldn't get to RJC. Ouch!</p>
<p>lol ok, sorry for making the wrong assumption :p </p>
<p>erm yeah HC humans has the reputation for being elitist... and the teachers are actually the ones encouraging that kind of elitism. at least relative to the rest of the arts population, the treatment they get from teachers are really different. well, at least that's wad i heard from the HC friends. </p>
<p>RJ... there's definitely less distinction between humans classes and non-humans classes. in fact it took me some time to realize whether one particular class was a humans class. if i din remember wrongly, it turned out to be half-half. it seems like RJ humanities scholars fit better into the school than do their HC counterparts... </p>
<p>well i guess HC does have a stronger reputation for humanities, and it due largely in part to the tutors. at least in terms of econs notes, they beat RJ hands-down, in the sense that they are much more structured and easier to understand and digest for an average econs student like me. but if u r going for sophistication n in-depth learning, which i think u r, since u r going for humanities, i thought RJ notes were more useful. of coz this is just econs notes, and i shdn't extrapolate too much from there. i don't know whether the humanities students at HC go through more thorough lessons than the basic, fulfill-the-syllabus-will-do notes will suggest. i guess they probably do haha.</p>
<p>3 pts?! how did they manage that considering they increased the intake to 1200? or did they not?</p>
<p>rj hc all the same la</p>
<p>They did... 450 RGs and 450 RIs, but it really didn't seem like 300 new students from elsewhere. My orientation group has 1 SCGS, 1 cedar, 1 nanyang, 1 dunman and that was kinda about it. Makes you wonder whether they really increased the intake...</p>
<p>ok... hmm i miss my orientation days...</p>
<p>Woah IP really makes life tough for the other students... Sigh which means I will have to prepare myself for a sea of Chinese High boys when I go back to HC to teach. Though theoretically we are all one big family called the Hwa Chong Institution now. How thrilling.</p>
<p>Yeah... a grand total of 3 RI boys left the batch this year. Compared to only 70% of the batch making it over to RJC in previous years (under O levels)...</p>
<p>yeah they increased intake, but remember about those darned IP kids who got in by doing well in their PSLEs.... </p>
<p>and not true about how rj teachers dont know much. i guess you guys got the wrong teachers? either way, among your bevy of teachers you'll get one or two foreign-educated ones, and they prove to be very knowledgable. you just gotta ask. if all things fail, go look for the US counsellour - she was yale-educated. or the UK one if ure looking for oxbridge. i think it's purvis or sth. i can't really rmb. </p>
<p>and yes the humans people are quite elitist, they have their separate blocks and classrooms and lecture theatres. rj loves the whole hierachy thing, yeah? a tiered system even within the so-called elites. lovely. btw, not everyone in the humans programme is a humans scholar. they just so happen to be in that class for the first 3 mths and didnt get kicked out thereafter despite lacklustre grades. distinction, baby. distinction.</p>
<p>and wow, kenyon_10. ure gonna be the minority! kenyon is a terribly unusual choice for a singaporean! were they extremely generous with finaid?</p>
<p>scandal, on the whole rj teachers do not know much. A lot cannot teach, end of story. The good teachers are definitely in the minority. </p>
<p>As for rj's guidance wrt unis, I think they start really late -i would advise students to start thinking abt this in june holidays, rather than when rj does it -coupla weeks before prelims..</p>
<p>yale-educated woman will claim she is too busy to help. purvis is quite helpful, and can answer properly any qns u may have. this is from friends and personal experience.</p>
<p>Hey- how much does it cost to take SATs as a private candidate or something? How do you go about doing it?</p>
<p>Just register for it on <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegeboard.com</a>.</p>
<p>I think most people do it as a private candidate anyways.</p>