Reflections

At a tea session with my good friend Joe the other day, we discussed about studying abroad.

Joe was born exactly a year earlier than me and lived with me in Raub for 9 years of his life. At 17, he was one of the pioneers of the Permata Pintar project in Malaysia to be sent overseas and studied at Brown. Now at age 21, he is now going to study in Stanford for his PHD, while I have just begun my degree at SUTD.

How our lives took a twist of a turn, for two guys with the same birthday.

He said that overseas universities are probably comparable to universities anywhere, but the only thing different is the experience and exposure of studying abroad. How would you adapt, fit in and get exposed to the bright lights and beautiful sights. I sighed. I probably only get to see that in my exchange to UCB next year.

Of his admission to Brown, he simply commented that he was very lucky. I was intrigued by his analogy of saying that admissions to top universities in the US is akin to throwing all the forms in a box and picking the admits by lottery. I couldn't agree more - with top universities admission statistics at single digits nowadays, how do you discern who deserves to go there?

That is also his reason for not providing a motivational story whenever anyone asks him about it. "What can I say beyond I'm lucky?". I immediately withheld from him the fact that I wanted to ask him to write a "Project Insights" blog post for me. I could detect his reverence to Lady Luck in his tone. "I think that if you don't do anything stupid, you should have a shot of studying in the top university and the rest depends on luck." I disagreed, what happens to those who were never exposed to the overseas universities application system, those who were doomed to never have that rich experience?

"Well, you could certainly help them up to a certain level, but beyond that is luck."

I sort of get what he meant now, due to his triple pronouncement of "luck" like some ominous warning. Luck sort of meant opportunities, which are now non-existent since JPA (Public Service Department) pulled the plug on sponsoring the bursary students overseas. With the old JPA scholarship scrapped and the new scholarship deal changed to a local loan, one could only fight for the smallest chance of sponsorship by the corporate world. No more sponsoring of students abroad en masse.

With the lack of scholarship, if one could not secure the necessary finances to study overseas, what is the point of one trying to apply to universities abroad nowadays? The pain felt was most acute as the offer letters from top universities abroad became spectres that haunt and taunt me. Never have I felt that achievements could bring about such despairs. Even I who is so well-versed in the world of higher education only managed to land myself in a not-so-famous university in Singapore called SUTD. So why do I still continue my blog, when obviously we wouldn't have any great opportunities?

It is precisely because of the lack of opportunities that you must try.

When you don't have the money or when you come from a rural background, your stakes are higher. The magnitudes of you changing your families' life for the better is higher than the privileged. The privileged would just be investing their wealth to accumulate more privileges while you would be trying for a better future. Despite the claims of hard luck and tough applications the chances still sometimes fall in your favour. The only way to have no luck is to never try.

I suggest a double whammy to trying. Even in the process that you failed, you will still gain considerable knowledge of the competition worldwide. Every test taken, every essay written, every interview spoken makes you realize the sheer number of people who are in the same boat as you, and who are trying very hard to gain admissions. Then you would be able to better gauge what a good education is and know what you want out of uni life. Those people who merely followed their parents' decisions can't know this more than the person who tried to get into the best university in the world. Never mind the actual fact that the person did not succeed.

In the end, most people in Malaysia are not aware of the tough competition to top schools. Like Joe said - those who went there had a life changing experience and I believed in this as well. But to get there you must first try. I am not painting an idealized picture of  the road ahead: it is definitely fraught with many difficulties and heartbreaks. Nevertheless, Audentas fortuna luvat - fortune only favours the brave.

University of California

Hello everyone, today I'm going to talk about the University of California (UC) application system.

As you all might know, the UCs uses a different system than Commonapp, that is their own UC application system. There are nine UCs in total, but only one UC portal to rule them all (reminiscent of LOTR ehh?).

 The University of California application system is definitely more "mafan"(troublesome) than the Commonapp system, although there are considerable overlaps in filling up the forms. Firstly, you would have to state your family's income to an approximation. Secondly, you also have to fill in your grades from Grade 7 (Form 1) up to Grade 12 (A-Levels) of all the subjects you took. That's right, they do not only need your SPM and A-Levels results, but all the other subjects you took in school such as civic studies, P.E etc. You would also need to explain the grading system in your school which varies from school to school even here in Malaysia.

And there's where the problem lies. As Malaysians we certainly do not study the same topics as the Californians yet we were asked to fill in our subjects in the Californian system. For example, in California the students have to study Maths as separate subjects of Trigonometry, Geometry and Pre-calculus whereas we don't. So how does one rightly interprets the subject in the UC education system. One rule of thumb is to indicate as accurately as possible based on your own interpretations.

Luckily for my year there was a senior who painstakingly compiled all the application info and submitted it to Sunway's International Office of University Placement (IOUP). So those who are studying in Sunway are lucky to have the guide on filling up the UC system there. Anyways if you don;t have it, don't fret. Just translate to the best of your knowledge. There is no definitive right or wrong.

I advise people who wants to apply to the UCs hurry, for application usually closes at 31 November each year. They don't ask for recommendations (except for UC Bekerley which you may submit one)
but you would still have to answer their prompts - yes, I've let the cat out of the bag - more essays!

UC Essays

Prompt 1: Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.
Prompt 2: Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?

The two essays for Freshman are compulsory to be written, and must be within 1000 words for both combined. At first glance, the two seems similar but one is actually more on you while the other is about the world around you.

These topics are good for they are wide enough for people to talk about whatever you feel like while not too wide for you to don't know what to write. And this is the time when I introduced my special companion for writing essay - Essayhell! I stumbled across this essay coaching website while writing my UC essay and it definitely helped a lot.

Ok, that was my take on the UC Application system. For myself, I applied to two UCs, namely UCLA and UCB and got accepted by UCLA while rejected by the other. Although in the end I chose SUTD, it was still nice to know that I was selected out of the largest application pool there - or more than 97,000 people. I have a fascinating story on the essay that I chose to wrote, which you can see here.

Acceptance letter by the Bruins

However, next year I have an exchange program to UCB which means that I have a chance to go one of the UCs at last! And I'll celebrate that with a homemade meme.

That's all folks

PI: Facing the MIT Interview

Chill man! Every question is not a test. In this post we have Anzo who was accepted into MIT class of 20 who will debunk the MIT interview myth. (He wrote a very nice post on rejecting the offer though) Unlike the Cambridge interview where they will literally drill you on academic questions, MIT interview is on a more casual format. In this second issue of Project Insight, Anzo will seek to shed light on the MIT interview. 

Facing the MIT Interview

by Anzo Teh

Background

First, please read this link:

http://mitadmissions.org/apply/freshman/interview

MIT does conduct interview to understand applicants better, but there’s no guarantee that you will get one. For me, my interview as shown in MyMIT was waived until Professor Ewe Hong Tat (head of Malaysian MIT club) contacted me via email that he would be conducting an interview for me. Even though you don’t get one, don’t worry: there had been people admitted without going through an interview.

Pre-interview preparation                             

I got the interview email on 31 January and was given the options of 2, 3 or 5 February, with the same venue: Starbucks Coffee at IOI Mall.

Only a day of two to prepare, so I looked up on special things about MIT like its hacking culture, and practiced in front of my father.

The interview

I picked 2^nd Feb, 7:30pm. We arrived IOI mall quite early (5:30 pm if I recalled correctly), and thankfully we did that because it took me a while to look for Starbucks (even with signboard!) A quick dinner, not too heavy before I waited outside the building a 7:20, and Prof. Ewe arrived shortly after that. He recognized me as I waved my hand to him, and we quickly settled down after ordering drinks.

His first question: “Why must MIT take you?” A loaded question, but luckily I had a powerful weapon: my experience in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), for four years. I thought it was right to just say about how I stumbled upon the IMO, how I rose from the second IMO onwards, how I met the bottleneck, and how I finally won a gold medal in IMO 2014. I even went on to tell about some cool things I had done, like training the IMO juniors, composing my high school graduation song and graduation performance in Sunway. Alas, guess he wasn’t particularly impressed when he knew that I didn’t take courses outside my IMO scope (like the edX) and we got into Q&A session quite fast.

The middle of the Q&A session saw a pivotal change, as Professor advised “explore deep into what you really like, don’t do math just because of studies or competition.” He further encouraged creating math problems on my own, which I grabbed the opportunity to tell about Junior Olympiad of Mathematics (JOM), a project initiated by Justin and me, inspired by the Experimental Lincoln Mathematical Olympiad. A lot to say, but I knew I was on the right track when he said “now things are getting more interesting.” He allowed me to say another interesting, which I said about the presentation I had made in Economics classes under my teacher’s supervision. To answer the “interesting” element, I commented on the knowledge beyond textbook gained, the escaping of the cocoon of studying only for exam, and the freedom of speech witnessed in class (that could hardly be seen in high school).

The interview ended with not-so-critical topics like Chinese New Year, financial aids, and JPA’s slashing of scholarship. Professor asked for my resume through email before ‘rushing’ me off (at 8:40pm) as there was another candidate after me.

Tips

1. FIX A DATE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! Although it sounded like all dates are possible but some other candidates may fill the date faster than you do. Luckily Prof. Ewe could slot in two candidates in a day during my time, but that’s not a guarantee in general.
2. Unlike interviews by Cambridge or Oxford, interviews by MIT (or by most other US universities) are a bit casual in settings. In particular, mine is in Starbucks so suit-and-tie attire is not needed (I wore a black collared T-shirt and slack pants and court shoes).
3. Another important thing: practice before the interview! Do think of current issues, especially those that impacted you the most (for me, it was the slashing of JPA’s sponsorship to overseas universities). Anticipate more questions like “why must MIT admit you”, “why are you the top 8% of the applicants” (admission rate nowadays had been hovering around his figure), “why do you like MIT”, etc.
4. Referring to (3), there’s no right or wrong answer but please make sure that the answers are sensible. For example, answering “I applied MIT out of random choices” to “why did you apply to MIT” will never please your interviewer, while answering “I had 2400 on SAT, straight 100’s in my A-Level, perfect 45 on IB” to “why should MIT take you” will make you sound as if you didn’t understand what does MIT look for.
5. Prepare some questions on your own, too, so that your interviewer knows that you are interested in (no, you must be passionate about) MIT. Avoid asking questions that are available on the official website (like when to submit February Updates and Notes) : I made that mistake by asking if I need to take Biology classes while this question has been answered in General Institute Requirement webpage. You can, however, ask your interviewer’s opinion on hacking culture, for example.
6. Be punctual to your interview. Show your interviewer that you care about being admitted into MIT and hence care about the interview. Excuses like traffic jam or overslept are just too contrived.
7. Get to know your interviewer beforehand (especially his/her appearance) so that you will not be in the awkward position of not knowing with whom should you sit.
8. Courtesy alert: show your interviewer that you are willing to pay for your food/drink (you can ask “how much should I pay”). Chances are, he/she will pay for you but it’s always good to leave a good impression. That said, don’t go overboard by relentlessly insisting on paying (like how your parents and their close friends behave while having meals together). Just reply with a “thank you” after your interviewer agreed to pay for you.
9. If your interview is a lunch/dinner, it’s advisable to order only snacks since you want to focus your attention in speaking, not eating.
10. Be yourself. Talk about things that you are truly passionate about, not things that you think that will impress your interviewer. If you talk about things that you don’t really know about or things that you lack passion in, the interviewer can sense it with years of experiences in interviewing.
11. That said, be sure to grab the opportunity to talk about something your interviewer is waiting for if there is something in your mind, even though you can sense that the interview is about to end (if the time constraint is tight then that’s different story). I would have screwed my interview and admission if I stay silent and not talk about JOM during the Q&A session.
12. Control your adrenaline in your head! We tend to speak fast when we talk about something we are passionate about, but that’s the time we lost our words too. I remembered my piano teacher advising me not to have my mouth faster than brain during oral test, because we might lost track on what we are about to say (which may show signs of nervousness). In any case, this is not the only way to show passion: you can always slow down and accentuate words or phrases when necessary.
13. Courtesy alert 2.0: don’t wait for waiters to remove paper cups or plates for you; do it yourself. For me, I forgot about this until Prof. Ewe hinted me that I could take away my cup as I wish. If I didn’t, the cup may remain until the second interviewee came in and things might go very awkward.
14. Courtesy alert 3.0: be sure to thank your interviewer on email! Do submit your form (like resume for my case) ASAP too.

Any questions? Please leave a comment below. The post by Celine Wan on MIT admissions is also fascinating to read.

Writing the US application essay - Commonapp

Every year, at the start of summer, students and parents alike in the US will start to plan for the upcoming application cycle, and the first hurdle to admissions is the Commonapp essay, the compulsory, 650 words essay that you must write if you are trying to apply to any Commonapp universities.

Now let us examine the prompts.

Prompt 1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. I believe the keyword here is meaningful. If your story is interesting and special enough without being meaningful, then it fails the prompt. This type of essay then is called a gimmick. A gimmick is fine and might even be clever to most people, but your audience being admission officers might be swift to throw your essay into the reject pile. You must answer how your talent, background etc. add meaning to your life? Does it give you purpose? Does it make you proud? How is it meaningful is essentially the main question to this prompt, if your essay answers that, then it can fall into this category already. This is a very wide scope topic that most of your essays can fall into.

Prompt 2. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? Basically, the idea here is to demonstrate how you fell to the bottomless pit and how you rise up again. Do you have that fighting spirit? Do you still continue after numerous failures and oppositions? Note that failures are not lack of opportunities, so the stories that you succeeded after given a rare opportunity does not fall into this category at all. This mistake is common to all the cliched sports essay where you won the game after being given a chance to leave the bench. Hence, you can only write about the times when you fail, and the time when you try again and succeeded. What is the connection between your earlier failure and your later success? How did the earlier failure affected you is also the key as you must show that your failure really lead to your success.

Prompt 3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? The overarching concept in this essay prompt is you having to challenge a belief or idea on some grounds. Is it because they were false? Or simply wrong on moral grounds? Anyways, you have to showcase how you fought against the belief and your reason for doing so. I believe that this essay is the hardest to write, would you challenge my belief? Being controversial here is not a good strategy unless you make sense. You shouldn't have to invoke LGBT topics or condemn some religions to write this essay. Remember, the admission officer have their own beliefs as well as you do.

Prompt 4. Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. Now let us examine what is the problem here. The theme in this prompt is problems, be it a theoretical one, a personal one or a global one and how would you like to solve it. Of course, the problem must be a good one that deserves a story. This is more of a situational prompt and not one that you can easily relate to. However, in tackling the problem you must show optimism despite your failures or theoretical obstacles. Writing a pity essay is never suggested and will immediately be discarded by any competent admission officer.

Prompt 5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family. Ahhhhh... transition from childhood to adulthood, AKA growth. And you will also need to discuss the catalyst for this growth, i.e. the event. How does this event makes you grow? In what ways are you older/better than before? And the term adulthood here probably means maturity so you will have to imply that in your essay as well. Also, death of a loved one, as impactful as it seems, is one of most cliched topics around, so do avoid on writing that one.

Basically these are my two cents on analyzing the Commonapp prompts. Of course, a good strategy is to just write the essay and see which prompt it fits but sometimes it does not fit any prompt at all, contrary to the belief that you can write anything for the Commonapp essay. With that in mind, I hope that the aspiring writer can hopefully generate some ideas for their own essays while avoiding the topics that are italicized above.

Writing the US application essay

Imagine this, it is pass 2 a.m., but you are not yet asleep. You wanted to put your struggles in the basketball competition as your essay topic, but after three sentences, the essay won't materialize. Suddenly sour grapes theory kicks in, the harsh training during last summer felt mediocre to the grandiose vision in your head. The sweat, the tears, the days where you had to argue with your mother to let you continue training seems mundane and insignificant now. If it was really that life-changing, why couldn't you squeeze a word out of that topic? That, you decided, cannot be suitable material for your golden ticket into the US universities. No, it wouldn't do. Silently, you lament on an hour lost in unproductive labour as you try another approach to craft your literary masterpiece. 

Welcome to US admission essays 101.

I have to contend that the hardest part of the US application is not getting high enough SAT scores or all the other technical stuff, but rather the admission essay. Crafting the perfect admission essay is like climbing Mount Everest while holding your breath - needless to say, it is very hard. But before we start, we need to first define what is the perfect essay. Is it the essay that says your life story? Or is it the essay that the admission officers would like to see? But how do you know whether your life story is impressive enough. And how do you  know they will buy it. There is only one way to find out - but by your submission it would be too late.

However, we can also make smart guesses, by looking at essay samples of successful admits into top universities to sort of find a hidden pattern. One thing becomes apparent - they are impressive! Just a first hand look at some of the essays do either one of the two things - it either scares you away from applying to US universities at all or it gives you a glimpse of what you're aiming for. As much of these great essays are out there, there were also essays which were completely normal and perfectly within writable range but still get the writer into top universities, such as in the case of Kwasi Enin.

The truth is, the admission process is not that simple. Guided by their principle of "Holistic", the admission officers hope to build a balanced incoming class. They would be searching to fill their golden ratio of geeks to athletes, of guys to girls, of Hispanics to Caucasians, all in the best interest of the school. Take my school SUTD for example. As a tech school, we are already oversaturated with guys but surprisingly we still have a healthy 60:40 guys to girls ratio and everybody is happy. We think this is due to the administration's policy but we are not complaining. Put yourself in the admission officer's shoes, if all your top applicants are geeks, wouldn't you cut off a few to add a few non-science people? It is but a small sacrifice to diversity. 

Besides ethnicity, gender, the school also considers other things in their application pool. For example, if you are a star athlete in touch rugby and their rugby team has been rusting for all these years, you might be recruited to revive the team. Similarly, if your parents are alumni or made big donations to the university, you might also receive a small boost in your admission chances. This is what we term as legacy. All these hidden factors are also taken into account when the admission officers make their minds.

So the Chinese saying goes "知己知彼，百战不殆；不知彼而知己，一胜一负"  meaning that when we don't know a thing about our opponent yet having perfect knowledge of ourselves, we have at most a 50% of winning. And that exactly sums the whole essay writing process - we must do our best in our essays - the thing that we can control and hope for the best outcome. The things we can't control - like the competition or the officer's preference all boils down to luck. So to answer the question posted earlier, we must write the best essay that is impressive and never, ever write to please the admission officer. As much as you like to bend over backwards for them you must see that there is no way you can know what makes them tick. 

So how to write the perfect essay? It is certainly attainable, despite all your doubts and failures. The only constraint being time. If given enough time to write, rewrite and navel gaze, I am sure that you can write your essay. Every little failure builds towards the perfect final form. It is not back to square one every time but instead you would have taken an invisible leap forward. I used to quip to my friend that "in writing the essay, we are making progress by doing nothing." Every word deleted slowly builds up to that pinnacle, so don't give up. Do start early though, this time, procrastination is your biggest enemy. If you do not start early enough, you might not reach the state of enlightenment needed for the best essay in time. And in place of your masterpiece, you might be forced to submit something subpar, which you would not want to live with this uncertainty the rest of your life. (I didn't get into X University because of my crap essay...

I hope this post will shed some light on US College Essays. Start writing, boys and girls, everyone has to start somewhere.

SAT: Reasoning Test

If you must have known everything there is about SAT, think again. What does SAT stands for?

Well SAT does not stand for anything. It used to be Scholastic Aptitude Test before becoming Scholastic Asessment Test before representing nothing. Just like KFC. Anywayyyyyyysss, the SAT is an admission test that people must take in order to enter US universities as freshmen (Transfer students uses credit transfer systems which is another story). It is offered 7 times a year and is administered by Collegeboard. Today we will be talking about the SAT 1, or the SAT reasoning test. There were 3 parts to it - the maths section, the writing section and the critical reading section. There was a penalty of .25 for every answer that was wrong and they were scored upon 2400 (800 per section) . I used all these "were" and "was" because there is a new SAT coming right up.

Most of the universities accept either SAT or ACT, its rival. In March 2016, SAT Reasoning Test changed into a different format, which will be explained below:

Old SAT Structure

Writing (800)

25 minutes essay question

35 minutes multiple choice section

Questions:

25 Improving Sentences questions

18 Identifying Sentence Error questions

6 Improving Paragraphs questions

Math (800)

3 sections of 80 minutes in total

Questions:

44 multiple choice questions and 

10 student-produced response questions (no penalty)

Critical Reading (800)

3 sections of 80 minutes in total

Questions:

25 Improving Sentences questions

18 Identifying Sentence Error questions

6 Improving Paragraphs questions

New SAT Structure

Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (800)

65-minute Reading section

35-minute Writing and Language section

Questions: 

52 Questions (Reading)

44 Questions (Writing and Language)

Math (800)

25-minute No Calculator section

55-minute Calculator section

Questions:

20 Questions (No Calculator)

38 Questions (Calculator)

The SAT has always been a pain in the ass due to its nature. Personally I think that there is a certain limit to the scores you are able to obtain there even if you study very hard. This is because SAT has been designed to test your English skills - something that you can't study or comprehend overnight. The ability to discern between good and bad English as well as the wide range of vocab one needs to ace the SAT needs months to be honed. To be honest, when I study for the SAT I took 3 whole months to do the 10 practice tests in the blue book. After all, the SAT used to be called the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Aptitude - a natural ability to do something.

In my time, I only studied from the Blue Book, which teaches you the theory of what the SAT is going to cover. As well as 10 free practice tests! 10 tests of 3 hours and 45 minutes each! Which will be roughly consuming 35 hours of your life. There are many SAT book publishers out there such as Kaplan, Princeton Review and Barron's which I find unnecessary. They are either too hard or too easy as compared to the actual test, and the Blue Book is already more than enough. If you still can't satisfy your lust for practices, you can actually try CrackSAT for 5 more free practices.

As I took the SAT in 2015, most of the tips that I learned from practicing the SAT most probably couldn't be applied now as the format is different, however, I still think some rule of thumb applies: you still have to be careful in Maths.

1. Study consistently. SAT is not something you can ace in a cramfest. You will need to be practicing one test under exam conditions every week at the bare minimum. One test is almost three hours mind you. By studying consistently, not only you can avoid the pressure of the incoming test, but also you will see improvements after your practices which you can measure. You can't really do that if you never practice that way.

2. Learn a new word everyday. In order to study for the SAT, you must equip yourself with the most sequestered and obscure words since antiquity. Whether it is by using flash cards or smartphone apps, learning a new word everyday is the only surefire way to master the SAT vocabulary. I downloaded an app on my phone with a quiz that tested every word that I have learnt for that day + all the words I have learnt before. That was my method in expanding my SAT vocab as well as my SAT scores.

3. Analyse. Each time you do a practice, don't just stop after finishing it. Go back to the questions that you answered wrongly and figure out the reasoning to the right answer. Often enough, you are making the same mistake over and over again. I did not analyze my answers in the writing session at that time and I paid dearly enough for my writing score were the lowest. Do not give up if you often hit a brick wall in your SAT scores. Chances are some mistakes you did in the practices lays undiscovered yet.

Well, that is my own take on acing the SAT test. Learn a new word daily, study consistently and analyse your answers. With all these steps, I still think that there is a physical limit to what a person can achieve on the SAT due to its heavy emphasis on the English Language. People from non-English speaking background are severely disadvantaged, don't you think? But remember in the end of the day, SAT is just a component of your "holistic" application credential, albeit an important part.

P/s: I did not comment on the essay section because there is a huge change in the format.

Project Insights initiated!

Hello dear readers, today I have decided to start a new project titled "Project Insight" - where I ask my peers to write articles on their thoughts and experiences in the college application process. All the while my blog deals with the nitty-gritty bits, the nuts and bolts, the "how" of the application process, Project Insight will be giving you some tips on answering the "why"s. Hopefully you will see their experience as being meaningful and embark on an educational journey of your own.

Many is better than one

Jon Elster (philosopher) once said that desires can be shaped by opportunities and vice versa. I guess my own desires were shaped by the opportunities opened to me when I was studying A-Levels. The sensation of coming from a small town and upgrading my ideals when I enter Sunway and meeting the geniuses was really an "eye-popper". That was my story, but have you heard about theirs? What inspired them to have such goals? I hope that blog will let you see education abroad as a feasible opportunity and therefore spark your desire for it.

Coincidentally the first person who volunteered an article also likes "Pi", he is non other than the genius Anzo Teh (One of the great people I met in Sunway). Receiving offers from MIT, Cambridge and Princeton, he instead chose to forgo all of them in lieu of University of Waterloo.

This is his story

Decisions, decisions, decisions

By Anzo Teh. Reposted with permission

The commitment date to US institutions hovers near, but I made a firm decision a month ago after receiving all decisions from the 15 universities that I’ve applied to (11 acceptances, 4 rejections).

I’m committing to the University of Waterloo.

Below is an excerpt of the whole process, tinged with the substantial pressure before happiness sank in much later.

1. The application process

Back in the good old days where we were ‘promised’ PSD scholarships by securing admissions into top 20 universities in my field, I joined my A-level comrades to strive hard in every aspect of application evaluation, and to decide between focusing on just a few top picks and trying our luck to more institutions in different corners of the world. My choosing of the latter added to me the toil of facing extra exams (like SAT) and admissions essays, the nervous feelings while sprinting against different sets of deadlines, and the fear upon shortcomings on every single application component and every single exam.

Come semester 3, the workload intensified until it culminated in October: early action for US apps, A2 exams, and Cambridge admission tests and interview. Cramming economics notes and handouts, battling with the clock while writing econs essays, frantically trying to complete my physics past years, chasing myself to fine-tune my college essays, and preparing for the interview at the same time was just too awful to describe here. I vivid remember how I increased my coffee dosage just to cope with all these and how I spent my final October weekend with my mentor to finalize my apps.
This application work subsided shortly then. Remarkably, PSD announced scholarship suspension (then restriction) in January. This prompted me to expedite my scholarship and admission applications to Waterloo. Thankfully, it finally ended on 9th February 2016 when I could officially sit back and wait for decisions.

2. College decisions

The first decision came earlier than expected: a rejection. I spent a few hours in paranoia, thinking of how one possible choice just vanished into thin air and worse still, worrying (mistakenly, though) that it may portend badly about my further applications. Luckily it didn’t last long when some good news appeared in my UCAS Track and in my email, and a month later I secured my first spot on PSD’s top 20 list. Well...gone were the PSD’s scholarships in January, but in February itself the full scholarships from Waterloo and HKUST assured me that everything would be okay.

Back in December, an email from Princeton extricated me from the anxiety of waiting as it instructed me to check my decisions in 5 days time. I woke up at 4am with my parents on the 17th after hours of insomnia, with eyes bleary and mind blurry. I then slumped into disbelief for a whole good week as an orange tiger with “CONGRATULATIONS” appeared on the computer screen, and couldn’t resist myself from sharing this news to my close friends who were with me when I suffered from mind-wreck during the application period. A similar decision got back to me as I accessed decisions.mit.edu on Pi Day 2016, where I suddenly felt the earth moving under my feet and my mind got ecstatic.

My decisions period ended with a few rejections, but I’m thankful for what I had.

3. Making up my mind

Admission talks attended in 2015 helped me to identify several top picks, which are further winnowed by the mixed admission decisions and scholarship packages. Come mid-March, only three are left in my hand:all are attractive in their own ways.

I consequently devoted the final days in March just to evaluate these three universities, weighing not only on what each could offer me, but also on whether the difference in cost of attendance would tip the balance. While I had a preliminary decisions, new opinions everywhere made to re-evaluate my thoughts as the balance went shaky: did I miss out something?

The deadline of reply to Waterloo’s scholarship drew near, and I forced myself to be resolute, being as rational as possible in my evaluation. That’s when the decision on Waterloo was made clear of itself: a not-so-orthodox decision given what I had. Reluctant to say goodbye to the other two, but I felt relieved from this dilemma when I accepted my offer two days before the deadline.

4. Thoughts

The journey of settling myself into a university has been long and tumultuous, and without the people around me I wouldn’t be at where I am right now. Holding acceptances and scholarship letters with me has been a fantasy for me; it’s real now.
I shall therefore express my gratitude to them, including but not limited to: my family members (especially my parents), mentor, teachers, coaches, comrades and friends for their advice, help, recommendations, support and care.

As I kept saying that I’m extremely lucky upon these acceptances, it’s because I’m really lucky to have you all to lend a hand when I need you the most.

On a side note, I understand that my decision on Waterloo may be surprising, but let me assure you that this has been done after conducting thorough analyses. If this sounds surprising (or even disappointing) to you, then I can only promise that I will stay well and thrive there, just like how I should be if I were to accept other offers.

Time to move on, and I’m looking forward to the new journey ahead!


P/s: Anzo blogs too. Follow him if you think he is awesome!

This is the new direction my blog will be taking, a tag team combo of my own technical know how with the stories from my peers. I guess if Anzo could come to such a great decision, none of us can complain if we were not given the best slice of the pie. If you have any suggestions for improvement, please comment below. And if you like this story, please spread the word!

Commonapp

Today we will be introduced to the US counterpart to UCAS. Meet Commonapp! (CA)

For those who wants to study in the US, you will have undoubtedly heard of this name. Yes, you will have to spend the few months before the January deadline dating this website. You will upload your documents, enter your details, describe your extracurricular activities, divulge your SAT scores -  basically telling Commonapp everything they are interested in which they will then relay on to the schools. Yes, Commonapp is the eyes and ears of Big Brother and also an extremely useful portal. Basically they streamlined most of the application into a website which is extremely useful. You can apply to as many universities as you want in Commonapp unlike UCAS which only allows 4-5 unis.

Disclaimer: Not every university uses Commonapp. Only more than 600 of the 4000 plus of the US unis are affliated with Commonapp but that is most of the well known ones. The university of California (UC) system employs an application system of their own, so does the University of Illinois and University of Texas - basically most state universities do not use Commonapp. However, sharp-eyed applicants might also notice that MIT also does not use Commonapp. And the reason is, according to some MIT employee: "There is nothing common about MIT."

Ok, not to digress, let me first identify a few common problems Malaysian applicants might face in Commonapp. First, you must have at least 3 teachers who are willing to stand by as your referee and your counselor. The counselor's job is to provide a background or context to your application. Where does the applicant come from? How is he like in person? What are his ideals? These are the gaps that the counselor is supposed to plug in to further the admission officers' imagination. Besides the main counselor recommendation, most schools require extra recommendation from the teachers, which will add value to the application. Like UCAS, your referee will be given links to upload your recommendations but unlike UCAS, they get to answer a few questions about you (Rate your attitude in class as compared to the other students). This questions were previously unknown to me until my teacher told me about it. And probably unknown to you too until you read this out. More about value and context soon.

More mystery than meets the eye

For most Malaysians who applied after their pre-university studies, you have to explain the gap that you took after SPM. Never ever say that you did nothing but "量地" (Measuring the land area) at home. So for SPM leavers, find a job, invest in your hobby, backpack around Malaysia, whatever it is make sure that you did something to keep yourself busy as you will need to talk something about the gap that you had. For me, I was conscripted into the Malaysian National Service and I wrote about the experience in my essay. Also, for those pre-university students, senior secondary leaving examinations means the A-Levels or equivalent exams that you took. If you are applying after SPM, you need not fill in this part (but still remember to find something useful to do during the holidays).

Next, the "honors" system is also something that we need to leave blank as it is only implemented in the US. It is not the "anugerah-anugerah"(awards) that we receive at school. We also need to publish our SAT scores and IELTS here. Note: Colleges will still want you to submit the SAT score electronically. There is no escaping that (I know some of you will want to know this). However, if you think that you are too poor to pay for the college application fees, you can e-mail your college to check your SAT scores for you. Also, you can ask your counselor to apply for a fee waiver, especially when you're applying to a lot of schools. One college application fee costs about $80 and sending one score via collegeboard is about $10 so this fee waiver will actualy help to cut a lot of your costs.

The activities section, begs the question, what are the actions, that gains admissions? 

Well, the truth is, everyone will be talking about the latest solution that they invented, the villages they adopted in Africa as well as the various academic Olympiads they won. We are talking about global competition here. Hence don't bother mentioning an activity unless it adds value to your essay. By this time, you should be able to grasp the abstract notion of a holistic application. All of the parts add together to build a true and concrete picture of yourself. BS too much in one part, and your application won't glue together. Hence, just write the activities that you think will build a good image of whom you want to portray as. Basically, we need to emphasize quality over quantity - even I didn't use all the 10 slots. Be descriptive as you talk about the activities and refrain from weird acronyms

For the essay in Commonapp, I will be talking about it in later posts but you must know that there exists an extra comment essay where you can continue to write about additional information that you feel might not be covered in your application (surprise!). I strongly discourage applicants to use this part as the admission officers reading your application is already bogged down with so much work that they will barely give it a skim-through. Although most of you have already Googled the prompt for the schools, there are actually additional questions in the college section (more surprises!). These questions are usually under 50 words, hence they don't show up as the college's supplementary essay but still they are important. For my Stanford application, I had to spend more time answering 8 of these short questions. That is something new that you need to know.

Still feeling confused about Commonapp? Any questions. If not, as always I will leave you with a few tips.

TIPS:

1. Start early.

2. Apply for fee waiver.
3. Sign into Commonapp to see for yourself

Have a nice day :)