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Making sure you stand out from the crowd
By Becky Wong |
June 27, 2012, Wednesday
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I am one of the students graduating from Shanghai United International School. I applied to universities in Hong Kong, the US and the UK. Applying to universities in other countries and regions has been a challenging process.
High academic attainment and achievement are certainly important for all university applications because good grades prove one's academic potential performance in the future.
Hence, I tried my very best to obtain high levels in all my subjects for IB throughout the entire course. However, good grades alone are not necessarily enough to persuade the professors and university counsellors to accept an applicant.
What I have learned throughout my "uni" application process, which includes attending conferences and reading numerous books on the subject, is that most of the time universities - particularly in the US - are more interested in the personality and psychological development of the candidates.
For example, they want to know whether the candidate is a responsible member of the society to which they belong and a caring friend to others. I believe that out of the places I have applied to, the US values this factor the most.
The applications I made to US universities were not as successful as to further educational institutions elsewhere because I think that I did not stand out from the candidate pool.
Especially for the prestigious universities in the US, being special - if not unique - is very important. In other words, your application has to capture the attention of the university admissions officers. It is important for universities in other countries as well because these are often the factors that get a candidate a scholarship.
Being special might mean that a candidate has the predicted grade of 45 points for his or her IB diploma, yet most of the time it is not related to academic performance but other achievements outside the school. "Quality is more important than quantity" is a catchphrase I remember from the university guidance conferences I attended. Participating in numerous charity organizations for a short duration of time does not benefit the candidate more than participating in a select number for several years.
Universities want to see a focused and responsible member of the community, who will undoubtedly contribute much to university life.
And this is exactly what I will be working on in the future. A friend of mine who had just entered an American university at the time I was thinking about such an important step in life told me to begin my preparation for university applications early.
So I started straightaway, giving myself plenty of time to do research on different universities from diverse parts of the world. This allowed me to have a better understanding of which ones I would want to apply to. Choosing which universities to apply to took me a lot of time a great deal of consideration. I realized that I would have to spend the next few years at that university, I said to myself I should ensure that I would truly enjoy the learning and social environment there.
After several months of preparing and actually applying to universities, I reached the stage of waiting for decisions. I still remember how nervous and how eager I was to receive emails from the universities. Eventually, I received all the decisions made by the universities I had applied to.
The offer I accepted in the end was from the business school of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
I believe I will enjoy the cultural and learning environment there and I very much look forward to contributing to the school during my tenure in every possible way.
High academic attainment and achievement are certainly important for all university applications because good grades prove one's academic potential performance in the future.
Hence, I tried my very best to obtain high levels in all my subjects for IB throughout the entire course. However, good grades alone are not necessarily enough to persuade the professors and university counsellors to accept an applicant.
What I have learned throughout my "uni" application process, which includes attending conferences and reading numerous books on the subject, is that most of the time universities - particularly in the US - are more interested in the personality and psychological development of the candidates.
For example, they want to know whether the candidate is a responsible member of the society to which they belong and a caring friend to others. I believe that out of the places I have applied to, the US values this factor the most.
The applications I made to US universities were not as successful as to further educational institutions elsewhere because I think that I did not stand out from the candidate pool.
Especially for the prestigious universities in the US, being special - if not unique - is very important. In other words, your application has to capture the attention of the university admissions officers. It is important for universities in other countries as well because these are often the factors that get a candidate a scholarship.
Being special might mean that a candidate has the predicted grade of 45 points for his or her IB diploma, yet most of the time it is not related to academic performance but other achievements outside the school. "Quality is more important than quantity" is a catchphrase I remember from the university guidance conferences I attended. Participating in numerous charity organizations for a short duration of time does not benefit the candidate more than participating in a select number for several years.
Universities want to see a focused and responsible member of the community, who will undoubtedly contribute much to university life.
And this is exactly what I will be working on in the future. A friend of mine who had just entered an American university at the time I was thinking about such an important step in life told me to begin my preparation for university applications early.
So I started straightaway, giving myself plenty of time to do research on different universities from diverse parts of the world. This allowed me to have a better understanding of which ones I would want to apply to. Choosing which universities to apply to took me a lot of time a great deal of consideration. I realized that I would have to spend the next few years at that university, I said to myself I should ensure that I would truly enjoy the learning and social environment there.
After several months of preparing and actually applying to universities, I reached the stage of waiting for decisions. I still remember how nervous and how eager I was to receive emails from the universities. Eventually, I received all the decisions made by the universities I had applied to.
The offer I accepted in the end was from the business school of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
I believe I will enjoy the cultural and learning environment there and I very much look forward to contributing to the school during my tenure in every possible way.
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