Singaporean student, what universities would u reccomend?

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>Dear All,</p>

<p>I would appreciate any feedback possible on my admission possibility. I am from Singapore studying in a high school offering the IB Diploma Program. During my Grade 9 and Grade 10 years, my results were not that good and I was constantly getting marks around 50-75 in the Mathematics and Sciences.</p>

<p>However during my Grade 11 and Grade 12, I took the following subjects:</p>

<p>Mathematics HL Chemistry SL
Economics HL Spanish Ab-Initio SL
History HL English SL</p>

<p>I have been constantly getting 80s and high 70s and around 38-45 points which is considered very good by my school and my predicted IB score is 44 points. I realized that enough is enough in slacking and worked hard in these years.</p>

<p>I wish to do something related to Political Science or International Studies in the university and my SAT scores are pretty high (near perfect), 800, 790 and 800 in Math, Critical Reading and Writing.</p>

<p>I am the Secretary-General of my school's Political Science Society and we have participated and organized many Model United Nations conferences and we have even participated in The Harvard Model United Nations.</p>

<p>I love flying a lot and I got selected by the local defense ministry for a pilot's license program. Over the course of 2 years, I have been pushing myself to the limit by flying 3-4 times a week during the academic year and I finally have a Private Pilot's License.</p>

<p>I have also participated in the World Scholar's Cup, a very famous academic decathalon worldwide and we made it past the national round in Singapore to compete internationally in South Korea, coming in top 5 and representing Singapore.</p>

<p>I am also an active member in an organization called the Young PAP, which is the youth branch of the reigning party in Singapore, called the People's Action Party. What we do is basically volunteer ourselves to help those who dont understand politics too much by introducing them to policies and we also have conferences to discuss different issues concerning the country.</p>

<p>I like languages a lot and I can speak fluently English, Tamil (my native language), French (I have the DELF diploma {equivalent to the TOEFL but for French}) and Spanish (since I took spanish ab-initio).</p>

<p>I am also a member of my school's local newslette team for the past 2 years and we publish a record breaking number of copies each season and we write about many issues concerning the school.</p>

<p>I am also an Executive Committee Member of my school's Indian Cultural Society and I have attended many competitions in that area and we also ourselves host many competitions.</p>

<p>I also volunteer majority of the year in helping students from dysfunctional families by tutoring them in Grade 5 and Grade 6 English, Science and Mathematics for free and many of them have done very well under my guidance.</p>

<p>I also play the Sitar, an Indian classical instrument, which I have been learning for the past 2 years. I can play it pretty well and enjoy it.</p>

<p>This is pretty much my portfolio. What are my chances of admission at any college guys? Thank you so much for your help</p>

2

<p>Your chances are as good as most other people's. It really depends on where you apply.</p>

3

<p>Thanks John. I was thinking of John Hopkins or Carnegie-Mellon or Columbia. What do you guys think?</p>

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<p>Carnegie Mellon is sucky if you need aid, IIRC. If you have a scholarship from Singapore you stand a decent chance. No idea re Johns Hopkins's aid/admissions policies. I know Columbia is not need-blind, but it should be able to give you aid if you need it and it decides to admit you.</p>

<p>It's difficult to talk about actual chances at this level, as I said. The only school we can perhaps hazard a decent guess at is Carnegie Mellon, and even then, for internationals, it's a much more gigantic crapshoot than it is for US students.</p>

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<p>have you considered HYP? your portfolio is certainly very competitive so maybe u can give it a shot? they are need blind for international students if fin aid is a concern..</p>

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<p>I dont really need financial aid and I was actually considering Carnegie-Mellon because the admission chances are higher. HYP I have considered but admission rates are low and plus as I mentioned above, my Grade 9 and 10 marks suck (if that is taken into account). So I have only confidence for CM, JH or Cornell. </p>

<p>Your opinion?</p>

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<p>JH and Cornell arent going to forgive your 9 and 10th grades as far as I know. I have no idea about CMU.</p>

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<p>Well actually a lot of my seniors have gotten into HYP and other top colleges with low 9th and 10th grade marks but higher 11th and 12th grade marks.</p>

<p>It's a pretty common occurence in Singapore.</p>

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<p>You are too excellent. You could apply for universities like Yale , Harvard.</p>

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<p>Thanks a lot. If I had maintained my 11th and 12th grade stats in 9th and 10th grade I would have been a bit more confident to apply to apply for HYP. But do you think I really have a shot at HYP?</p>

<p>I had that doubt, that's why I wanted to apply for Cornell ED, which accepts a huge percentage of Singaporean students.</p>

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<p>Cornell ED would be a big mistake. For some reason, Cornell gives no advantage whatsoever to ED applicants over RD applicants. In fact, looking at statistics, one might even say that RD applicants have a higher chance of getting in than RD applicants, at least for Singaporean kids (or more specifically RJ kids). Maybe it's because the RD applicant pool is stronger on average than ED applicant pool (which is possible for Cornell because every single damn kid applies there RD even if he knows he's going to HYP), but I do know of one guy who should have gotten in if he had applied RD but he got deferred ED. So yeah, Cornell doesn't really favor ED applicants from Singapore. </p>

<p>On the other extreme, UPenn ADORES ED applicants. It dramatically improves your chances of getting in. I know of at least three guys who either probably wouldn't have gotten in unless they applied RD or as a matter of fact applied RD in one year and got rejected but ED the next year and got in. So all you want is to get into any ivy ED, UPenn is the way to go.</p>

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<p>Thanks a lot woebegone. I will keep UPenn in mind. My uncle was a mathematics professor there. </p>

<p>Does HYP favour ED applicants in Singapore?</p>

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<p>Harvard and Princeton dont offer ED anymore. Yale offers SCEA, and that doesn't favor anyone unless they're athletes/legacy/heavy donors to Yale.</p>

14

<p>ah ok. that's good news. percentage wise, what do you think my chances are for HYP? (BTW, I have already applied to HYP ^_^)</p>