<p>Oh i see thanks! btw im also looking at other alternatives. :)</p>
<p>just realised UK unis just want the grades.. is it true? :o</p>
<p>yeah, predicted + actual A Level grades, and if you're applying to Oxbridge: interview. (i know other uk unis have interviews too but i'm not sure if they matter as much as the interviews do for Oxbridge.) there's also the bmat(?) if you're doing medicine, and lnat for law.</p>
<p>maybe other achievements / CCA or outside school commitments if they're related to your course. e.g. olympiads, book prizes, etc.</p>
<p>the others can probably answer your question better than i can haha. do a search too, i think it's been discussed quite a bit on these forums. you can also go to <a href="http://www">www</a>. the student room. co. uk (remove spaces), it's like CC for the uk unis.</p>
<p>yay, more non-rafflesians! </p>
<p><em>ducks</em></p>
<p>:D</p>
<p>haha, screwitlah, as usual, me=optimist, you=pessimist. We'll see.</p>
<p>If my prediction come through, good for me. If yours come true, I will just have to sell my college. If a liberal arts education can't teach you that, then it's not worth the fireworks.</p>
<p>btw, anyone know what's the success rate to top US schs like for sporeans this year? thanks! :)</p>
<p>nadash i'm from AC as well!</p>
<p>anyone knows when application forms will be out for those who start in fall 2009?</p>
<p>they'll be out very soon in fact - CommonApp starts 1 July. But you can start now :P essay questions are usually kept the same for CommonApp, though i've heard that they're making changes this year.</p>
<p>Hi Xing! I'm from the class of 2006, 2SB3. Good times, good times.</p>
<p>Too many rich/privileged folk here. :p I love 100% Tuna's situation where he doesn't care at all about financial aid ....</p>
<p>How many Singaporeans here on this forum are the type who went to neighbourhood primary schools, type who lives in 4-room HDB flat and whose parents aren't in the 10k / month income bracket?</p>
<p>Mr</a> Wang Bakes Good Karma: WHY IT WORKED THEN, & WHY IT FAILS NOW</p>
<p>explains why most who are here are from affluent families aiming for top US colleges..</p>
<p>Ah, one of my favourite blogs.</p>
<p>And how many here would vote Opposition?</p>
<p>That is, if you could vote at all and your constituency is not a walkover hahahahahaha.</p>
<p>any 17 yr olds here? seems like alot of peeps here are in uni already :o</p>
<p>Well, I'm nearing 20 and still rotting in green. Goddamnit. Grrrr.....</p>
<p>valour! SEVENTEEN! yub! i'm there! haha! unlike the rest of the oldies... hehe... jk...
galoisien: i'm a scholar...k? lol... am SUPPOSED to be poor... hehe! just that i heard from like EVERYWHERE that applying for financial aid largely kills thy chances! :)
yub... back to mugging chem... from borrowed notes... after SIA's himalayan blunder with my baggage! lol!</p>
<p>me. ever heard of Da Qiao primary? i studied there</p>
<p>anyway currently in J2, planning to apply for UCB (ED), Cornell, U Washington, CMU, UIUC. Thinking of going without scholarship, don't know if life will be tough (my parents are not rich btw)</p>
<p>neighborhood primary tick
4 room flat nah
<10k tick</p>
<p>Eh Galoisien, why do you group income, house size and primary school together? Going to "good" school doesn't mean the person's rich -.- Have you heard of meritocracy / fairness? Like, balloting or GEP? I just find it incongruous.</p>
<p>I went to a Newtown primary then to ACS (P). Guess why; not telling.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Have you heard of meritocracy
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Because we all know how well that worked out in ancient China, don't we? :)</p>
<p>The Singapore government I think is the only government that uses the term non-ironically.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Eh Galoisien, why do you group income, house size and primary school together? Going to "good" school doesn't mean the person's rich -.-
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well no, I just wanted to find other Singaporeans who weren't factory-made students, who don't happen to be part of 'la machine'.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Going to "good" school doesn't mean the person's rich
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I realise this. I went to ACSI for two years (before I went back to the US).</p>
<p>Marvelous institution -- if you also realise what an amazingly sheltered environment the school was. But you can tell a lot of people are there only because their families are obscenely rich, and they liked to throw their weight around. School was fine if you learnt to stay away from them. Same type of people who disliked anyone who was intellectually curious enough to ask questions outside the syllabus, and were hostile to anyone to anyone who didn't 'act their race'. ('Cos any non-Caucasian Singaporean who speaks with an AmE accent is obviously doing it on purpose to annoy people, and are intentionally being race-traitor bananas, amirite??? God forbid dialect immersion!)</p>
<p>One of my closest friends there (that I've kept over the years) was in the former GEP -- also happens that he is of a low-income background. But his type tends to be the exception, I think. The funny thing is though, that many of the GEP are amazingly hostile to anyone outside their group. Non-GEP are beneath them! And then you question them and you realise some aren't even that intellectually curious.</p>
<p>But no, my intention was to look for "non-machine" students, who have transcended the path laid out for them by the dictates of society; who marches to the beat of "a different drummer," as Thoreau would say.</p>
<p>Ahh...ACS(I). Live in boarding, that's the solution. Scholars kick ass. Rather a lot of idiots in school though; I found JC much more enjoyable.</p>
<p>What I meant by meritocracy is that your attendance at a good school isn't contingent on income. Anyway India, South Korea, and China also have university entrance exams so how can you say Singapore is the only one?</p>
<p>While I wouldn't completely disagree with your second point, you characterise people from rich environment as manufactured - slightly insulting? If you can describe Singaporeans as such, the elite prep school students from Choate or SPS could as well. I do agree it's not the most ideal case, but it's prevalent almost everywhere - rich kids go to good schools, do ECs, blabla, get into the best schools. The Singapore system on the whole isn't all too bad - for example, scholarships are common so most independent school students don't need to pay restrictively high fees.</p>
<p>Hm I can't really characterise GEP on a whole but I do acknowledge that elitism is a problem. Perhaps my experience is slightly different from yours because I studied at Nanyang not ACSi. ACSi is acknowledged as the rich kid school while NYGH's profile is more Chinese?</p>
<p>Personally I don't really qualify for your ideal of 'march to the beat to a different drummer', no one really fits exactly in the mould or totally incompatible. I speak English at home, live in landed, but my family income is <10k and I speak Hokkien. Do I count as someone you'd like to meet?</p>