ST Engineering Scholarship

As the name suggests, ST Engineering is mainly about engineering, but they welcome people interested in economics, business, etc, too, subject to approval by the company.

To apply for the ST Engineering Scholarship, you can either download the form from their website, or more advisably go to Brightsparks and submit the form from there.

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PERSONAL PARTICULARS
Self explanatory

GCE ‘O’ LEVEL OR EQUIVALENT
School name: NUS High School of Mathematics and Science
Country: Singapore
Stream: N.A.
Start Date: 01 Jan 2006
Examination date: 31 Dec 2007
Aggregate L1R5/ CAP/ GPA Score: 4.53
Type of School certificate: IP School Examination

Subject Taken
English Language: 4.25
Higher Chinese: 3.75
Higher Chinese O’Level: B3
Chinese O’Level: A1
Mathematics: 5.00
Chemistry: 5.00
Biology: 4.50
Physics: 4.62
Geography: 4.25
Fine Art: 4.00

GCE ‘A’ LEVEL, IB, ACT, DIPLOMA OR EQUIVALENT

School name: NUS High School of Mathematics and Science
Country: Singapore
Start Date: 01 Jan 2008
Examination date: 26 Nov 2009 (Day my batch graduated)
Aggregate L1R5/ CAP/ GPA Score: 4.7
Type of School certificate: NUS High School

Subject Taken
Format: (subject, major CAP, honors CAP)
Mathematics, 5.0, 5.0
Biology, 4.6, 4.7
Chemistry, 4.8, 4.8
Physics 4.8, 5.0
English Language, 4.2
Mother Tongue, 3.8
Mathematics, 5.0
Biology, 4.6
Chemistry, 4.9
Physics, 4.8
Humanities and the Arts, 4.1

EDUCATION RECORDS (TOEFL, SAT 1 & 2, GMAT & GRE)
Leave those you didn’t take blank, system will automatically record as 0.

SAT I
Date of sitting: 10 Oct 2009
Test Centre: St Francis Methodist School
Critical Reading: 670, Percentile 92
Writing, 770, Percentile 99
Mathematics 770, Percentile 98
Total: 2210

SAT II
Date of Sitting: 06 Jan 2009 (If you took the test on two separate dates just put the date of the first time you took them)
Test Centre: St Francis Methodist School
Chemistry: 800, Percentile 93
Physics: 800, Percentile 90
Math Level 2: 800, Percentile 89
Biology (M): 790, Percentile 95
Total: 3190

FAMILY PARTICULARS
Self explanatory

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
(Language, speak proficiency, read proficiency, write proficiency)
English, excellent, excellent, excellent
Chinese, good, good, good

INTENDED ADMISSION/ CURRENT UNIVERSITY INFORMATION
Latest/ Current Academic Level: NUS High School
Future course of study preferences: List five of them
Intended Commencement date: 01 Sep 2010 (just approximate if you are not sure)
Applications made to university: list details on the universities you have applied to.

APPLICATION FOR OTHER SCHOLARSHIPS/ GRANTS
(Scholarship/ Grant, Organization, Course, Outcome, Application date)
Detail everything, including University based scholarships and Singapore government scholarships for overseas studies.
Eg, NUS Undergraduate Scholarship; PSC Scholarship

CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Chinese Orchestra, Research, Music Ambassadors, Physics Interest Group, Community Service

ACHIEVEMENTS/ AWARDS/ PRIZES
List the most significant you can put in.

OTHER QUALIFICATION/ CERTIFICATION
As above.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
I listed unpaid and paid jobs here.
Not sure if tuition teacher, a popular job among fresh A-Level or High School graduates, counts if you solicited on your own without the help of tuition agency. Check it up yourself.

REFEREES
I asked two of my former teachers who taught me in year 5 and 6.

OTHER INFORMATION

About yourself:
I’m a pragmatic person. I know my limits and what I can achieve, but I am also a very determined person who can work with single minded focus to achieve my goals. I’m not afraid to try to achieve more ambitious goals if I think there is a chance of success, and I don’t give up easily. I believe these traits will serve me well if ST Engineering accepts me because engineers often encounter challenging problems which take a lot of time to solve. My first choice of study is Electrical Engineering as electrical engineers are needed in most engineering fields, as well as being a hot spot of research, so I believe this is where I will have the most scope in my work.

Other relevant information:
I wrote about the CREATE2010 Contest and what I did there.

Questions about your health, legal troubles (if any), and whether you have applied for the scholarship before.

ST ENGINEERING ADDITIONAL QUESTION

Your response to these questions below will help us understand your aspirations and motivations. You are requested to attach your completed response to this application form.No more than 200 words for each response.

(a) The goals you have set for yourself and how you plan to achieve them.
I hope to attend a premier US college. US is my dream location for my further studies as it is excellent in science and technology and I believe the exposure to a completely different lifestyle will help stretch my mind and learn how to think differently. Recently, I had an idea on the design of a wheel which could weigh the weight of luggage without an external scale. I entered it into the CREATE2010 Engineering Challenge, and became one of the top five finalists there. Inspiration doesn’t come very often, but I believe with work and knowledge in the Engineering field, I will have more ideas. ST Engineering would be a good option for me as the company works on many different fields of Engineering; I hope to get some exposure in many different fields to see what I truly enjoy. Long term goals for me include eventually leading my own team and leading my own research team to work on projects to benefit humanity.

(b) Your career aspirations and the field of work which interests you.
Academically, I’m interested in studying Engineering or Mathematics at University. Mathematics because I’ve always been interested in the subject since I was in primary school – the logic to it just appeals to me. But Engineering is a very exciting choice – the possibilities to it are infinite, limited only by our imagination, and there is huge scope for potential in this field. Being able to apply what I’ve learnt in class also appeals to me. Currently, I’ve leaning towards Electrical Engineering, the field which I feel makes full use of both the subjects I enjoy., also because it involves Quantum Mechanics, a field which interests me. I want to first work as an engineer or scientist in a major organization to learn from experiences veterans in my field, then work my way up to become a leader in a research team when I'm more confident of my skills and have found projects which I'm passionate about. But I also hope to have a role in the management of the company, as the direction of the company is just as vital to its success as the caliber of their employees.

UPLOADS
1. My C/V
2. A recommendation letter date 2007, which a teacher wrote for me when I applied for the DSTA Junior College Scholarship.
You may upload up to two documents on the website for review.

Comment:
Refresh your memory of what you've written on the application form before your interview because they are bound to pick questions off it about what you wrote there.

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The rest of the photocopies of my school transcripts, NUS High Diploma, CCA Records, Award certificates, ICs, NRIC scans, headshoots, GCE O'Level certs, and records of achievements were stamped "certified true copy" at the school's General Office. They went into a big envelope addressed to ST Engineering's scholarship division. You get to do this process for every single scholarship you apply for, and some universities as well. Pleasant eh?

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I was called for the first interview but didn’t receive the scholarship. Anyway, hope this information about how to fill the form is useful because after you’ve got the interview, general consensus is that you’re on equal footing with other candidates after that.

You might be asked to bring original copies of the certificates you have submitted for review by the scholarship officers, even if you have already submitted certified true copies in the application.

As I recall, the interview room had three people, two were asking questions and the other was the scholarship officer who was taking notes. I was asked questions about NUS High, how I liked it there, etc. I was also asked about my university choices and subject choices. I was given the chance to ask them questions about the company, such as appraisal and training for staff. Overall, the interview took about half an hour and went quite well, but in scholarship and university admissions you can never be sure until the offer or rejection letter is on your table.