PI: Reflection & Life—If, if, if…

Here is an opinion piece on the US admission by an anonymous writer, who likes to remind everyone to pray for the best and prepare for the worst. 

Reflection & Life—If, if, if…

TL;DR: Start early, as early as you are one; pray hard for inspiration and luck, as hard as it will make you win the lottery.  

If I could start my U.S. universities’ application all over again, I would choose to prepare since I was seven years old.

Yes, seven.

At that age, unfortunately, I never thought going to the U.S. was possible given the expensive tuition fees, which cost approximately 1 mil MYR. But when I started to think about applying to the U.S., everything was too late.

Holistic admission

During Form 5, a friend of mine, who was a U.S. graduate gave a few of my friends some insights into the U.S. application. How intimidating! My first impression was the tough application and admission game. One needs exceptional grades, exceptional extracurricular activities, exceptional SAT scores, exceptional teacher’s recommendation letters. I thought had none of the aforementioned criterion. Soon, I gave up.

If I ever start to prepare for the SAT and involve in research or any international extracurricular activity.

Two years before application cycle

I told another friend who is studying in U.S. about my intention in applying to U.S. top universities. He said it is too late now. Everything was almost in place already. The only thing that could change my fate was the essay. I thought about it, why not just settle for U.K.? I had never been a terrific writer too. Again, I gave up.

If I ever read more during my childhood and practise more on writing.

The silver lining

The clarion call was “Oh see! JPA scholarship allows you to pursue your dream. (Not the case anymore.)”

Of all the research I have done, I realised there is only one point that would highly increase one’s chance to gain admission—his or her passion. And this attribute could shine through by crafting a killer essay. Essays were said to weigh the heaviest in assessing a candidate’s success in gaining admission. Admission officers (AOs) may agree, but some may not, claiming that they look a candidate’s overall statistics. Essays matter. But I guess you still need to have exceptional results before AOs bother to see your essays. The easiest way out is to be an Olympic athlete. Recruited athletes generally have average statistics and mediocre essays. Unfair as it may seem but they have a special ability (or superpower to the university) to offer, do you?

If at the age of seven, I started training competitively for any sport, be it badminton, running, tennis etc.

A year before application cycle

I then became serious about applying to the U.S.. This was the time when I started to prepare for the application.

Grades aside, it was time to be the next Charles Dickens.

I bought books related to university application essay writing and sample essays from people who were accepted to Harvard. If you do so, get ready to be disappointed. The essays did not offer me much insight. They were mediocre. But let me assure you those people could probably have astronomical achievements. Apart from having perfect CGPA and SAT scores, he ran marathons in Olympic; he built a billion-dollar company; he played in Carnegie Hall; he built a nuclear reactor; he built houses for Africans; he won the champion for Google Science fair; he is fluent in German, Russian, French, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese and English. What is scarier than all the he’s I mentioned were the same guy—the guy who saved the world, Superman.

Don’t be shocked. He was groomed this way since he was three, or was it two years old?

Ponder over the head-start he had over you, how can you compete with him?

Survivorship bias

Be warned: do not fool yourself into believing stories telling you how lucky someone who managed to gain admission into MIT despite having average grades. Think rationally. Let’s assume MIT’s admission rate is 5%. Among the 1,700 students who were admitted, 10% are international students, which is 170 students. If MIT receives approximately 10,000 international applications.

What is the admission rate?

1.7%.

How can you stand out among the 10,000 applicants?

“My story is unique”, “I might be lucky”, “I heard that Lin Zhi Ping got in with an SAT of 2100, my score is 2390, I should stand a chance”.

The Harry Potter series has always been a best seller. J.K. Rowling is a marvellous author! But in truth, for every J.K. Rowling, there are 100 writers who never had their books on the best seller list. And for every of the 100 writers, there are 1,000 writers who never had their books published. And for every of the 1,000 writers, there are 10,000 writers who are dreading to complete their masterpiece. And for every of the 10,000 writers, there are 100,000 writers who are thinking of writing a book.

You only hear of J.K. Rowling. It’s entirely not your fault: the society made us perceive it this way, whereby you only heard of success stories, but never heard of people who tried so hard yet failed. These people do exist. They do.

Of course, you should not be penalized for thinking so. In fact, for every student who scored 2100, there may be 10 students who scored 2400 who were rejected, and the list goes on and on…

Everything boils down to luck. We never know what the AOs are looking for, but I am inclined to think that they are trying to build a diverse class of people. Keep this in mind.

And he cuts short at here abruptly, probably more to come. 

((Secretly I think he wishes everyone the best in their applications!