<p>actually, many schools evaluate applicants based on their o level results. i found out about this after asking the admissions people of several colleges like yale and mit. Example from mit:</p>
<p>"Hi XXXX,</p>
<p>Per your email message, A-levels are not required for admission to MIT.</p>
<p>However, applicants are required to take the following (Option 1 or Option 2):</p>
<p>Option 1: Domestic students & International</p>
<p>SAT I or ACT</p>
<p>and also three SAT II's</p>
<p>SAT II
i) one math
ii) one science: biology, chemistry, or physics
iii) one humanities: world or american history, writing, or literature"
.... the rest isn't important</p>
<p>that said, of course doing well in jc reflects well on a student because it shows an aptitude for lower level college work. and btw i agree that there are too many students in umich which makes the school a little impersonal (i'm from umich but in ross, which makes it a lot better)</p>
<p>No let me correct that - MIT in particular <em>does</em> care a lot about predicted A-level grades, and prelim results. And A-levels are really important - they can revoke your place there if you get a C or something that wasn't reflected in your predicted grades.</p>
<p>Yale, however, is known to take in applicants with non-so-spectacular prelim grades (note I say prelim grades), especially for humanities students, as getting A's in humans isn't a very predictable thing.</p>
<p>I must add though - essays and teacher rec's are really very important. I think a good essay and teacher rec can really make an AAAB student higher-ranked in the applicant pool than an ordinary AAAA student.</p>
<p>sorry i made a mistake earlier... i still stand by the fact that the a levels are not necessary for admission. however, if you are in a jc and you have spent the time studying for the a-levels, they will be also used to assess you. this is in addition to your o level grades, as the school wants continued excellence on the part of students. if this is the case, i have nothing wrong with the argument that a levels are impt etc. (btw i do hope you get in/got in...i might be applying to grad school there too)</p>
<p>my point here was that if you do not take the a-levels and want to go straight into college, your o levels are sufficient for you to be admitted into mit. (the email msg was copied and pasted directly from something they sent me, I can forward it to you should there be any requests)</p>
<p>admissions standards do differ of course, and i know at michigan they evaluate on the o levels mostly, whether or not you do well for the a's. at mit, with a more selective applicant pool, it's probably more of a consistency thing. and let's face it, anyone who applies and gets in would probably have done well for both the o's and a's, (which makes this a moot point....)</p>
<p>i'm sure you can name a handful of singaporeans who got into HYPSM straight out of Os, but i consider these rather unique and probably due to a fortunate multicausal coincidence of factors. i'm sure you'll find that the majority (if you can call the teeny number of admits a majority in an absolute sense) of which went through the public schools in their entirety. and as a generalization for standards to follow that is more useful than what is possible but marginally so.</p>
<p>i was just responding to your point/complaint that students can get in to college without having completed their a levels and it not being particularly impressive. i'm just saying that it can be done in the top colleges as well, so students who take this route shouldn't be seen as having taken the easy way out.</p>
<p>I'm in at Williams and asked the adcom, so I've got the info.</p>
<p>this year.. williams took 4 ppl (or 5 i can't remember) affiliated to sg.</p>
<p>me, the only singaporean from a singaporean school (so this would probably be the stat you're interested in)
two or three foreign scholars studying in singaporean JCs.
and one singaporean who was from a school abroad.</p>
<p>So..what JC were you in? do you have full financial aid?IF possible,can you post your porfolio so that others can make a comparison before they dare to apply for Williams?:)</p>
<p>i was from vj...... i am currently deciding btw smu n nus.... it ahs been soooooooooo hard for me to decide.....perhaps i can tell u abt it and u can give ur comments cos beign a stranger their might be no bias,,,,, :p</p>
<p>i'm from vj too... i won't post my profile on these boards cos its all pretty distinct stuff. i will, however, reply if you or anyone else chooses to pm me, so do just that... which jc are you from btw?</p>
<p>I'm from ACJC...Hey,what's your CCAs?Your leadership position in CCAs?Anything special?Can email me?:)...haha..perhaps we'll meet each other in one year s' time?:P</p>
<p>Yo guys, I just joined this forum. Have a pretty big problem. Please help me out! tHANX.</p>
<p>I got dumped on the Chicago waitlist in April. A big surprise cuz I figured I'd get admitted. But--no. SAT scores are pretty good---1440 and 2400 repsectively. And the teach recommendations are OK too (i peeked at what my CT wrote). Even the essay, whcih i struggled over cuz of Chicago's weird questions, sounded honest though it did seem to be 'un-creative'. </p>
<p>now i'm waiting for the wait-list news and trying to figure out what to do if it amounts to a Rejection. I want to do Int Relations (or econs, as 2nd choice) before taking M.Arch later on. Which colleges should I apply to? Thinking of JHU, Georgetown and so on. Not the Big names like Stanford. </p>
<p>Another question: do u think i've gt the right stuff to make it to a good US college? My CCA record is nothing spectacular...but I have won quite a few acadmeic prizes. But why I get rejected by Chicago is a Big mystery,</p>
<p>dude, JHU and georgetown arent big names? try georgetown sfs is u think they arent big name enough. my intl relations professor thinks JHU has the best intl relations graduate program. so yeah.
im an intl relations major also.</p>
<p>hm 1440 is pretty bad actually, compared to other singaporeans who'd be applying to top us colleges (i.e. your competition)
u may want to retake it</p>