To apply to UK, you need to have a UCAS online account, as well as your school’s buzz-pass, which the college counselor will provide. For every other school in UK (I think), all you need to do is to fill up the UCAS form, choose the school, and click submit.
Except, of course, for Oxbridge. Personally, I applied to Cambridge, so I will do a write-up later on applying there. As you should know by now if you are applying this year, you may only apply to either Oxford or Cambridge to do an undergraduate degree, not both. Oxford and Cambridge are traditionally the most sought after schools in the UK, so you can imagine why they have this policy, especially considering that they have a more detailed selection process for candidates.
The UCAS form has several sections. The “Personal details’ one is quite self explanatory, except for the “Date of first entry to UK”. If you have been to UK before, write… the date which you entered it. Otherwise, put the approximate date of entry into the UK if you were to matriculate into the college of your choice which has the earliest starting date (you may choose five colleges to apply to).
For the Residential category, put ‘other’ if you are a non EU member like me. And before I forget, in the section where you register your name, there’s this drop down list where you can choose your title. There’s a huge selection of titles to choose from, including titles such as ‘Lord’, ‘Lady’, ‘Prince’, ‘Your Royal Highness’, ‘Admiral’, etc. As the college counselor told us at the briefing last year, choose ‘Mr’ if you are male, ‘Ms’ or ‘Miss’ if you are female (I assume you are unmarried here), or good luck with trying to get in!
For the ‘Student Support’ category, choose ’09 Overseas Agency; if you are planning to pay your way through college by getting a scholarship from some Singapore government agency like me, or the title which best describes your financial plans.
“Nominated access”: This is what you put in case UCAS has urgent need to contact you but is unable to for some reason. Your nominee will receive the information on your behalf and pass it to you, so put a family member or school staff member you know will be willing to do this for you.
For “My choices”, I choose:
1. University of Bristol; Mathematics with Physics
2. University of Cambridge, Churchill College, Mathematics
3. Imperial College London; Physics with Theoretical Physics
4. University College London (University of London); Mathematics with Mathematical Physics
5. The University of Warwick; Mathematics with Physics.
For “courses”, you can choose up to five different courses, but do not choose courses which are too radically different from each other as you cannot modify your application to suit each college on UCAS. For US applications, however, this is possible. My courses, while different, allowed me to talk about why I wanted to study Mathematics and/ or Physics, which are quite closely interlinked anyway. What I am saying is do not ask to apply for PPE in Oxford but Chemical Engineering in Imperial College, or you will have to sacrifice something when writing your UCAS essay – to write about why you want to do PPE or why you wish to study Chemical Engineering?
In all choices, I said I did not want to live at home (impossible for me when my permanent address is in Singapore) and did not wish to defer entry. Guys should list differently from me on whether they wish to defer entry or not. Even if you are only interested in applying to say, Oxford, I’ll advice selecting four more colleges to apply to anyway, since you are going to pay the same amount for the application even if you only applied to Oxford alone. It’s always advisable to apply to more than fewer schools due to the uncertainty inherent in college applications in any case.
Education: List everything that gives you bragging rights here. If it’s not listed in the drop down list of qualifications, put if under “Other (International Non-EU Qualifications)”. If you are unsure which school to list them under, put it under NUS High, or the school you were studying in when you earned that qualification. For example, if I got Silver in the Singapore Chemistry Olympiad in 2008, the drop down list does not have such a qualification. So what I did was list in under “National University of Singapore”, under “Other (International Non-EU Qualifications)”, and type the name of the competition and the results I obtained there.
When you want to list you NUS High Results, list the average CAPs you have attained so far. When you apply to UCAS, you likely have not got your NUS High Diploma yet.
“Employment” If you have not held a paid job before, check the box but leave the section blank. Most Singaporeans are not employed at this time in their lives, so don’t worry too much about leaving the section blank. If you are already in NS by the time you apply, presumably you can list this fact down here.
“Personal Statement”: I’ve already uploaded the personal statement I wrote when I applied, as did Ying Zhen, so go have a look if you want examples on how to craft it. UCAS gives guidelines on how to write a personal statement here: http://www.ucas.ac.uk/students/applying/howtoapply/personalstatement/ Please type your personal statement separately and review it before uploading to UCAS, since the system has a timer which will log you out if you are inactive on a UCAS page for too long. The UCAS website also states “You can enter up to 4000 characters (this includes spaces) or 47 lines of text (this includes blank lines), whichever comes first.” So mind you be careful of how much you write as you go along, or you’ll have to do some serious editing when you try to upload your essay. The system will warn you if your essay is over the character limit when you upload your essay.
After everything is done and you are happy, click “submit”. If you truly made a horrible mistake in your application, you can ask the college counselor to “return application to applicant” on his side, but please try not to do that too often as it will inconvenience the counselors.
Referees: You must ask one referee (likely your school teacher) to submit a writeup about you, also not more than 4000 characters with spaces or 47 lines of text long. You can send the application online to your referee. The referee can submit their portion online or ask the college counselor to input it for them.
After you “submit”, you have to pay a fee. See this page for the details. http://www.ucas.ac.uk/students/applying/howtoapply/cost It’s not very expensive, certainly less than the cost of applying to Oxbridge or the US.
I sent in my application in early September due to the early Cambridge deadline for international students. UCL was the first college to accept me, one month later.
When a college makes a decision about you, UCAS will automatically send you an email to inform you of the status change. To see what has happened, follow the instructions given in the email to login to UCAS Track to check your status. I got an unconditional offer from UCL. If you have been offered a place, usually the college will send you a package containing information on them and the course you choose.
Bristol was the next college to accept me. It was a conditional offer. I was asked to get CAP > 4.00, which I fulfilled, and also a score of > 6.5 for all components in the IETLS, which I eventually decided not to fulfill. The IETLS is like the UK version of the TOEFL.
In around November I was called for interviews and test for my Cambridge application, which I will write about separately. Sometime after that, I was given a letter from Cambridge asking me to sign a release form for my application to be sent to all Cambridge colleges for review in the event I was pooled. (I guess I should have figured out I had been pooled then.)
In the second week of January, the Western world reopened after the Christmas break. I got an email saying I had been pooled into Newnham College. The formal letter took a couple more weeks to come, and I realized I gotten a conditional offer: I had to achieve grade I or higher for STEP II and III, and score > 7.0 or above for all components of the IETLS.
Imperial College gave me an unconditional offer in around February or March. Warwick I think was the last to reach a decision. I got an unconditional offer from both schools. Once all my colleges had reached a decision, I was told to reply to my offers no later the 7 June, 2010.
Showing posts with label ucl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ucl. Show all posts
Friday, May 7, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
UK unis for Class of 09
I will be relying on Zhongming to edit this post because although I know some statistics, I definitely don't know the full picture.
Imperial & UCL: If you applied for a science course and your subject and overall CAPs > 4, you probably received an unconditional offer.
Oxford: I know one person has gotten an offer for physics. I don't know if it has conditions though (or which college it's from).
Cambridge: Summarised in table form below; all offers are unconditional, which was surprising considering the Class of '08 received conditional offers.
Cambridge statistics for Class of 2009
4 offers, 2 unknowns, 3 unsuccessful.
If you have any updates, keep me posted. Thanks!
Imperial & UCL: If you applied for a science course and your subject and overall CAPs > 4, you probably received an unconditional offer.
Oxford: I know one person has gotten an offer for physics. I don't know if it has conditions though (or which college it's from).
Cambridge: Summarised in table form below; all offers are unconditional, which was surprising considering the Class of '08 received conditional offers.
Cambridge statistics for Class of 2009
4 offers, 2 unknowns, 3 unsuccessful.
If you have any updates, keep me posted. Thanks!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
UCL Chemistry
If you are applying to a course in UCL's chemistry department, be prepared for a long, drawn-out email interview, where the admissions tutor asks you a lot of chemistry questions and continues asking about every detail in your answers, and you end up exchanging a flurry of emails :D
Not that it's particularly dreadful - it's fine, really, but I haven't touched physical chemistry in a long while. I daresay this is more stressful than my Cambridge interview.
As far as I know, other science departments at UCL (math, physics, biology) do not interview, so if you're headed that way, good for you!
Not that it's particularly dreadful - it's fine, really, but I haven't touched physical chemistry in a long while. I daresay this is more stressful than my Cambridge interview.
As far as I know, other science departments at UCL (math, physics, biology) do not interview, so if you're headed that way, good for you!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
SMU open house and UCL.
A few things coming up:
There will be an exhibition with Imperial, King's College London, LSE and UCL on 7th and 8th March, 11am - 5pm at Conrad Centennial Singapore. Refer below for further info.
Well I know that UCL and Imperial are going to our school on Wednesday (which is tomorrow), but still if you are extremely interested in UCL you can let me know, this is because UCL will be giving all admits a talk on Thursday and we are allowed to bring guests, so if you are interested let me know and I will bring you along this Thursday. Drop me a mail (angyingzhen@gmail.com) or sms me.
This was the email I received, if you are wondering:
---
Dear Prospective Students,
UCL Reception – Thursday 05 March 2009
Congratulations! According to our records you have received an offer to study at UCL. We are now writing to let you know that, continuing UCL’s strong links with Singapore, we will once again be holding an independent education exhibition with our London colleagues (Imperial College London, Kings College London and London School of Economics) under the “World Class Study in London” banner. The exhibition will be held at the Conrad Centennial Singapore between 11am and 5pm on 07 and 08 March 2009. Further details about the exhibition can be found in the attached flyer.
The UCL representatives at the exhibition will be Mrs Olga Thomas, Faculty and Departmental Tutor, Faculty of Laws, and Miss Penny Zorbas from the UCL International Office. We would be delighted to meet you and answer any queries that you may have about UCL and the degree programme for which you have applied.
Prior to the exhibition we shall be hosting a reception for UCL offer holders for this academic year, 2009/10. The reception, to which you and a guest are cordially invited, will be from 8pm on Thursday 05 March 2008 at The Arts House at the Old Parliament. The reception shall be hosted by Professor Derek Tocher, Pro Provost for East and South East Asia. The occasion will provide an opportunity for you to meet the parents of current UCL students, other prospective students, as well as representatives from UCL. We hope that some UCL alumni will also be able to attend. Directions to the The Arts House are included with this letter and parking is possible at The Parliament House for $2.06 after 5pm.
If you would like to attend the reception please complete the form and respond to this email by 25 February 2009. Also please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about the offer you are holding from UCL.
I hope I have the opportunity to meet with you at the exhibition and/or the reception next month.
---
This was the flyer they attached.
In addition there is an SMU open house as well on 7th and 8th March, from 10am - 6pm. You can go to this website for more info: http://www.smu.edu.sg/openhouse/2009/index.html.
There will be an exhibition with Imperial, King's College London, LSE and UCL on 7th and 8th March, 11am - 5pm at Conrad Centennial Singapore. Refer below for further info.
Well I know that UCL and Imperial are going to our school on Wednesday (which is tomorrow), but still if you are extremely interested in UCL you can let me know, this is because UCL will be giving all admits a talk on Thursday and we are allowed to bring guests, so if you are interested let me know and I will bring you along this Thursday. Drop me a mail (angyingzhen@gmail.com) or sms me.
This was the email I received, if you are wondering:
---
Dear Prospective Students,
UCL Reception – Thursday 05 March 2009
Congratulations! According to our records you have received an offer to study at UCL. We are now writing to let you know that, continuing UCL’s strong links with Singapore, we will once again be holding an independent education exhibition with our London colleagues (Imperial College London, Kings College London and London School of Economics) under the “World Class Study in London” banner. The exhibition will be held at the Conrad Centennial Singapore between 11am and 5pm on 07 and 08 March 2009. Further details about the exhibition can be found in the attached flyer.
The UCL representatives at the exhibition will be Mrs Olga Thomas, Faculty and Departmental Tutor, Faculty of Laws, and Miss Penny Zorbas from the UCL International Office. We would be delighted to meet you and answer any queries that you may have about UCL and the degree programme for which you have applied.
Prior to the exhibition we shall be hosting a reception for UCL offer holders for this academic year, 2009/10. The reception, to which you and a guest are cordially invited, will be from 8pm on Thursday 05 March 2008 at The Arts House at the Old Parliament. The reception shall be hosted by Professor Derek Tocher, Pro Provost for East and South East Asia. The occasion will provide an opportunity for you to meet the parents of current UCL students, other prospective students, as well as representatives from UCL. We hope that some UCL alumni will also be able to attend. Directions to the The Arts House are included with this letter and parking is possible at The Parliament House for $2.06 after 5pm.
If you would like to attend the reception please complete the form and respond to this email by 25 February 2009. Also please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about the offer you are holding from UCL.
I hope I have the opportunity to meet with you at the exhibition and/or the reception next month.
---
This was the flyer they attached.
In addition there is an SMU open house as well on 7th and 8th March, from 10am - 6pm. You can go to this website for more info: http://www.smu.edu.sg/openhouse/2009/index.html.
Friday, January 23, 2009
UK Admissions.
Today's post will be about choice of schools. Many people often ask how do you choose your school? My answer is that first, decide on your country of study, then choose your school based on course and culture.
I am not too sure about Australia other than that their school term starts in February and that UniMel and Murdoch are good for vet science, but I will talk about US and UK and what made me decide to go to US.
US:
- Broad based education (allows you to take a double degree)
- Flexibility in choice (dabble in anything you want)
- More holistic education
- Good in psych!
UK:
- Focused education (meaning if you know for e.g. you want to do only 1 degree and nothing else UK would be good)
- More academic oriented - evident from their admission process
- The UK culture has a certain allure to it, for me anyway but of course you have your opinions about it
The reason why it is easy for Singapore students to get into UK universities is because the norm for UK students is to take 3 A levels (and for the good ones get 3 As) but in Singapore it's 4 As for the good ones. However, for our school I guess the requirements are slightly different.
I will first talk about the admission process for UK and US unis before going to why choose 1 uni over others etc.
For UK unis, submission of any application is done through this portal, called UCAS. You can access it at www.ucas.com. Other than your particulars, you are also required to fill in your subject CAPs and any other relevant qualification. That would mean any APs, SAT scores if you want, even your HCl O levels would be helpful. Any employment history can be recorded as well, and then the personal statement and a referee's statement (which you will need - go find a teacher to write this for you). SATs should be filled in as much as possible because a good CR score (> 650) would exempt you from taking the TOEFL / IELTS which some schools require. Yes, you would notice you dont need to include your CCAs.
Of course, you choose the schools you want as well - under 2 schemes. The first scheme is that you only pick one school (and 1 course as well) and you pay less, the 2nd scheme is that you pick 5 schools (and 5 courses as well) and you pay slightly more. So it's either 1 or multiple (max 5). Regardless of which one you choose, only 1 of your choices can contain Cambridge/Oxford. Big universities like Cambridge/Oxford would require you to choose your college as well within the uni.
So my choices were something like this:
1. Cambridge, Natural Sciences, Homerton College
2. Imperial College, Chemistry
3. UCL, Chemistry
4. London School of Economics, Govt and Politics
5. UCL, Natural Sciences (this choice was added really late because I didnt know what I should put to use up my last choice)
Well I only needed 3 choices but since I was paying for 5 I thought I'd try my luck at LSE. If you dont know how to use up your choices yet, you can just fill a few first and fill up the rest of the choices later.
The moment you hit the send button on the UCAS form, the whole application goes to all of your choices simultaneously. Hence there is no way of modifying your personal statement to make it specific to each university you are applying to.
Your personal statement normally contains information about yourself, any achievements you want to highlight, why you want to study in the UK, and (very importantly) why that course. My personal statement was about why I liked chemistry, so little wonder I got rejected from LSE in the end - the 1st university that replied me. :P
Cambridge and Oxford have a supplement that is specific to them. I am not sure about Oxford - I am sure you can check it out - but for Cambridge, the supplement doesnt require any additional information you haven't already filled up other than your SAT score (if you didnt put it in UCAS) and a short essay on Why Cambridge.
Following that, the school may conduct interviews with you to determine your eligibility for them. They will make references to your personal statement and ask you questions about it. At this point I think I will post my profile for UCAS before I talk about my interview:
Qualification 1
Qualification type
SIPHSMSD (Singapore Integrated Programme High School Math and Science Diploma)
Date taken
01-Sep-2008
Examining body
NUS
Subject
Singapore-Integrated Programme-Nat Uni Singap
Module details
Date: 01/09/08 Title: English Grade: 4.34
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Higher Chinese Grade: 4.23
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major in Biology Grade: 4.18
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major in Chemistry Grade: 4.5
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major in Physics Grade: 3.47
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major in Mathematics Grade: 4.54
Date: 01/09/08 Title: History Grade: 4.17
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Literature Grade: 4.25
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major with Honors in Chemistry
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major with Honors in Mathematics Grade: 4.5
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major with Honors in Biology Grade: 4.5
SAT I: CR 740, M 800, W 720
SAT II: Math Level 2 790, Chemistry 800
APs:
AP Biology, Stats, Calculus BC, Calculus AB, Chemistry, Physics B: 5
O Levels: Higher Chinese A
Personal statement: (I took out some parts that were sensitive and not meant for the public to see)
“I can never stand still. I must explore and experiment. I am never satisfied with my work. I resent the limitations of my own imagination.”–W. Disney. I can perfectly understand how he feels as I am also a person who simply cannot stand still.
I walk with that distinct bounce along the classroom corridors, a goofy smile constantly on my face. I jump, I skip, if I could I would fly to my destination, as time is always of the essence. Have an assignment for me? Don’t rush me, give me a deadline, give me the freedom to do what I want to do, don’t come at my ear giving me constant reminders, and I will give you your product coupled with a touch of my perfectionist streak.
Most of my academic achievements lie in research. I have worked on 2 projects in the field of spiders. The 1st project was a finalist at the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF) 2007 and was presented at the International Students Science Fair 2006 and the London International Youth Science Forum 2007. The 2nd project won a silver award in SSEF 2008 and was presented at the Ritsumeikan Students Science Fair 2007. In addition, both projects were presented at the 12th International Society for Behavioral Ecology Congress in Cornell University.
My strongest subject is Chemistry, where I represented the school in the Singapore Chemistry Olympiad and won silver, and was selected for phase I of the national team training. I find chemistry an interesting subject as it is the foundation of all science; everything in the world can thought of as simple compounds, molecules and atoms. It amazes me that these atoms are the building blocks of life, bonded with other blocks in different combinations and concentrations to create different materials that can be used in so many different ways. Given my active nature, together with my friends, we set up a Chemistry Interest Group in our school, aimed at introducing the wonders of chemistry to our juniors through fun experiments such as creating ‘dye’ (which are actually acid-base indicators or complex ion mixtures).
I love organizing camps and teaching kids values such as leadership and teamwork. I have organized camps for organizations such as the Children’s Kidney Centre and other primary schools. My experiences in the school debating team, model UN conferences and leadership positions in school were certainly helpful in my work.
Student leadership is something that I am very passionate about. I have taken up various leadership positions, such as Vice Captain of Canoe Polo, President of Student Council and Vice House Captain, among others. In addition, I was also one of the authors for the book “50 Math and Science Games for Leadership”. Out of school, I am the Head of Volunteer Management and Development in ECO Singapore, an environmental organization that promotes environmental friendliness through youth-initiated projects.
Being the eldest child and the first college entree of my family meant that I am often forced to find my own solutions to any problems that I may encounter in my life. I find this a blessing in disguise as I have the freedom to solve problems in any way I can. This meant lots of surprising discoveries along the way (it is possible to walk on a mixture of cornstarch and water), lots of learning (you can’t trisect an angle with just a compass), and of course, lots of accidents as well (pouring phenolphthalein on my shirt and it turning blue when placed in the wash), but it really isn’t a bad thing, is it?
----------
As you can see I didnt really talk about why I want to study in the UK, but I had a significant amount of my essay dedicated to my achievements and extracurriculars. I am not too sure if my extracurriculars were taken into consideration, because there was no mention of them during my interview at all.
Cambridge and Oxford require your app to be submitted by September, while the rest by January. It is then redirected to the college and faculty and they will contact you with regards to an offer / interview / whatever else. Offers normally come in 3 forms: Unconditional (you get a place regardless), conditional (fulfil XXX conditions or you arent coming, or rejected (sorry no go).
Imperial was the 1st successful one to respond for mine - sometime in October. It was an unconditional offer.
Then I received an invitation for an interview for Cambridge (most colleges have 1), which was to be held in RI, and the time to take the TSA, which was held on a Saturday at HCJC. Most colleges for Cambridge and Oxford require you to take a Thinking Skills Assessment test. You can try 10 questions of it here: http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/tsacambridge
During my Cambridge interview, I was asked about topics related to my course of study - natural sciences. I was first asked to describe my IR - which I did, both projects - and then told that they want to know if I am able to handle the coursework at Cambridge. So I was given some paper, and asked a few questions - I will quote from 1 of my previous posts about the details:
"After that she got me to estimate how many cells were in a person's body, I didnt really know the answer so she asked me how big was a cell. I didnt know either and she told me 10 microns long. So I said something to the effect of assuming it's a sphere, calculate volume of person via mass/density (assume density is equivalent to water) and divide accordingly.
After that she gave me a few math questions. First was to differentiate x^3 sin x. So I did that with a bit of ease though I was kind of caught unaware. Then it was to integrate x ln x, which I could do as well. And then she got me to graph y = xe^(-x), and I got stuck halfway because I could do y = e^(-x) but I wasnt too sure about y = xe^(-x) but I got the graph half-right so that's better than nothing.
Next she asked me about cornstarch and water and what happens when I mix them together. So we spoke a little about the structure of cornstarch (which I didnt know again but I knew the structure of carbohydrates) and how it changes as you add water. Then spoke about coloured compounds - why do they have colours? So I said conjugation, excitation of electrons make them jump up the orbitals - sigma, pi, n, pi star and sigma star and as they fall back down they release energy that corresponds to a frequency in the visible spectrum. She seemed really impressed at this juncture and asked did you learn this in school and I said yes. So she asked why doesnt everything produce colours then and I thought it was simple, because they might fall along other areas of the EM spectrum? And she seemed very happy after that.
Following that she kind of ran out of time on me but since I was the last person it wasnt so bad. She chatted with me about how she thinks Cambridge is a good fit for me and etc. "
------------
As you can see it is very academic/subject-oriented, I didnt expect that, but now you can expect that.
A few days after that I received a few emails from UCL with regards to their courses, etc but I think what's exciting you more is the following email:
"I hope this email finds you well. Thank you for your application through UCAS to study Chemistry at University College London.
My apologies for the slight delay in responding to you, as I been finalising our process for overseas applicant to ensure fairness.
As I am sure you are aware, it is our normal policy to interview all candidates. As we cannot do this face-to-face, the "interview" will
be conducted by email and followed-up by telephone if necessary.
On Monday I will be sending you some further information on the course at UCL and more general information, the
same information I give UK-based students on their visit.
I will shortly afterwards send a series of questions for you to respond to. I wish you to do this as if we were having a conversation - I do not
need essays, I need conversational responses (of course if you wish to attached drawn structures as scanned images then feel free).
You should not need to refer to notes or other sources. The aim is to allow us to judge if you are able to think about chemistry in such a
way to allow you realise your full potential here at UCL.
You should be able to complete the questions 20 minutes at most. I may then follow-up with further questions.
Please respond within 7 days of receipt of the email.
Once this process is complete, I will confirm if we will be recommending an offer and the Faculty Admissions Tutor should make an
offer within 5 working days of receipt of my recommendation.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or call me (I will call you back)."
A few days later, I received an email again from UCL:
"Thank you for your application to study with us in the Chemistry department at UCL.
I hope you found the mailing last week useful - do not hesitate to call or email me if you have any questions. I now wish you to provide answers to the following as part of our admissions process.
Could you write me some brief notes on the topics below. I would appreciate a reply within 7 days if possible.
I have two beakers of water, one at room temperature, the other at 50oC. Do you expect their pH to be the same or different? Why?
What property of constarch an water makes it possible to walk on? How is this possible?
Why did you shirt go blue?"
As you can see - once again, very subject-based. This was my reply:
"With regards to your first question about the pH of water being
similar or different at room temperature and 50 degrees C.
I would definitely expect it to be different. pH = - log [H+] and [H+]
is dependent on the K value of water, typically 1 x 10 ^ (-14).
Since 2 H2O <=> H3O+ and OH-, Kc value of H2O = [H3O+] [OH-]
However, K value is affected by the temperature of the surroundings
because of thermodynamic properties. deltaG of a reaction = deltaH - T
deltaS = - RT ln K. The temperature affects the direction which the
reaction would be more likely to proceed.
Offhand I dont exactly know the deltaH value for this reaction, but
given that temperature affects K -- which in turn affects the amount
of ions dissociated -- thereby affecting the concentration of H+ ions,
the pH of water in different temperatures will obviously differ -
although in this instance it wouldnt differ by a large amount due to
the small difference in temperature.
With regards to the 2nd question: It is interesting that you ask this
question too because it is a question that I get asked a lot many
times (in interviews, demonstrations, etc). A mixture of cornstarch
and water yields oobleck, a non-newtonian fluid which behaves like a
solid when pressure is applied to it and behaves like a liquid when
allowed to flow freely. Other non-newtonian fluids include quicksand
and ketchup whereby they don't follow typical 'newtonian laws'.
Honestly I have wondered about this question many times myself but
despite checks from other reference sources in the past I never really
got an answer to it. My guess is that given that cornstarch is a
polymer in itself, its addition to water actually disrupts the VDW
forces between the water molecules and causes the area within the
water to be 'more crowded' in a particulate sense. It is in the state
of balance between a solid and liquid (i.e. its particles are not
clumped together enough to be considered a solid, yet its particles
are also not spaced out enough to be considered a liquid - in
accordance with the Brownian motion). Hence when pressure is applied
to it, it causes the particles to now be clumped up together enough
for us to consider it a solid, but otherwise it would flow like a
liquid - not as quickly as a typical liquid like water would, but
still behaving like a viscous liquid (I did notice that adding a
cornstarch and water mixture to my vegetables while cooking actually
made the gravy more viscous as well!).
My shirt turning blue - I assume you are asking about the statement in
my UCAS personal statement? Well perhaps blue isnt that accurate, it
actually turned purple. It is again based on equilibrium.
Phenolphthalein is an acid base indicator which is colourless at a
normal pH but turns purple when exposed to an alkali solution.
Phenolphthalein itself is a diprotic acid - let's call it H2In. This
compound is colourless but when exposed to alkali solutions (which
gives off OH- ions that react with this acid), it gives us In2- ions,
which are purple. Hence, the more alkali the solution is, the more
purple my shirt would become.
In this scenario, the alkali solution is really the ammonia from my
detergent. Ammonia, NH3, is a basic solution that goes by the equation
NH3 + H2O <=> NH4+ + OH-, and is the prime reason for causing my shirt
to turn blue."
We exchanged another 2 more emails about the details of certain things, and he replied:
"Excellent responses - precisely why we interview: I want to know what you can find out, and you have that
ability in abundance. I will process your offer on Monday. Let me know if you have any questions."
It turns out that he was the faculty tutor for Natural Sciences as well, so I got an unconditional to both Natural Sciences and Chemistry.
Cambridge's offer came in January. Most offers come in January so Cambridge wasnt late, it was on time... a conditional offer. My condition was a minimum 4.2 CAP overall, 4.2 for English, 4.2 for Math, and 4.2 for Chem - which I fulfilled.
So how do you choose which UK school to go? I say it's easy because if you are only putting 1 choice chances are you already know what you want (typical choices are Cambridge, Oxford, LSE), and if you are putting 5 choices, you pretty much know what school you are willing to fund yourself to and what you arent. Here are the university rankings, according to Times: http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_gug/gooduniversityguide.php.
Between Cambridge and Oxford: Cambridge is better in the sciences, but Oxford better in the Humanities. As a sidenote, if you are keen in going into humanities, consider the course PPE (1 of the hardest course to get in) in Oxford, which stands for Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In terms of culture, Cambridge and Oxford are like little towns of their own and has this old but traditional kind of feel - you really feel like you are surrounded with tradition there. I have been to Oxford before and it's a beautiful place, an open campus within that little town and you can see the Great Hall in Harry Potter there (you got to pay I think, my friend paid and this is what he taped).
I have never been to LSE before, but I have been to Imperial and UCL before. Imperial is in the middle of a busy road and looks a little old (I personally didnt like the vibes that I got from Imperial but you may like it). UCL, wow I love the place. I stayed at Ramsay Hall, which was near Warren Street (the Tube). It's in the middle of the tube line, but it's not too noisy. Imagine the kind of quietness you get from staying at a bungalow in 1 of those private housing areas in Singapore, but yet the NTUC-equivalent (called Sainsbury), food stores, coffee places, etc are just along the streets, opposite you, next to your hostel, everything. Very convenient, and the Tube is just a 5 minute walk. It's an open campus as well, and it's near King Cross Station - you can see platform 9 3/4 there! Let me post a picture of what it looks like:
Most dorms at UCL are singles - you get your own room. My room looked like that, with my own sink.
Not too bad, I felt. The conclusion is that I prefer UCL to Imperial, but it's your choice. Some people also include King's College London in their list of choices, but I didnt feel like including it.
Okay since it's time for dinner I wont continue this post anymore (this is a realllllly long post), but the next time I post I will write about the US admission side.
I am not too sure about Australia other than that their school term starts in February and that UniMel and Murdoch are good for vet science, but I will talk about US and UK and what made me decide to go to US.
US:
- Broad based education (allows you to take a double degree)
- Flexibility in choice (dabble in anything you want)
- More holistic education
- Good in psych!
UK:
- Focused education (meaning if you know for e.g. you want to do only 1 degree and nothing else UK would be good)
- More academic oriented - evident from their admission process
- The UK culture has a certain allure to it, for me anyway but of course you have your opinions about it
The reason why it is easy for Singapore students to get into UK universities is because the norm for UK students is to take 3 A levels (and for the good ones get 3 As) but in Singapore it's 4 As for the good ones. However, for our school I guess the requirements are slightly different.
I will first talk about the admission process for UK and US unis before going to why choose 1 uni over others etc.
For UK unis, submission of any application is done through this portal, called UCAS. You can access it at www.ucas.com. Other than your particulars, you are also required to fill in your subject CAPs and any other relevant qualification. That would mean any APs, SAT scores if you want, even your HCl O levels would be helpful. Any employment history can be recorded as well, and then the personal statement and a referee's statement (which you will need - go find a teacher to write this for you). SATs should be filled in as much as possible because a good CR score (> 650) would exempt you from taking the TOEFL / IELTS which some schools require. Yes, you would notice you dont need to include your CCAs.
Of course, you choose the schools you want as well - under 2 schemes. The first scheme is that you only pick one school (and 1 course as well) and you pay less, the 2nd scheme is that you pick 5 schools (and 5 courses as well) and you pay slightly more. So it's either 1 or multiple (max 5). Regardless of which one you choose, only 1 of your choices can contain Cambridge/Oxford. Big universities like Cambridge/Oxford would require you to choose your college as well within the uni.
So my choices were something like this:
1. Cambridge, Natural Sciences, Homerton College
2. Imperial College, Chemistry
3. UCL, Chemistry
4. London School of Economics, Govt and Politics
5. UCL, Natural Sciences (this choice was added really late because I didnt know what I should put to use up my last choice)
Well I only needed 3 choices but since I was paying for 5 I thought I'd try my luck at LSE. If you dont know how to use up your choices yet, you can just fill a few first and fill up the rest of the choices later.
The moment you hit the send button on the UCAS form, the whole application goes to all of your choices simultaneously. Hence there is no way of modifying your personal statement to make it specific to each university you are applying to.
Your personal statement normally contains information about yourself, any achievements you want to highlight, why you want to study in the UK, and (very importantly) why that course. My personal statement was about why I liked chemistry, so little wonder I got rejected from LSE in the end - the 1st university that replied me. :P
Cambridge and Oxford have a supplement that is specific to them. I am not sure about Oxford - I am sure you can check it out - but for Cambridge, the supplement doesnt require any additional information you haven't already filled up other than your SAT score (if you didnt put it in UCAS) and a short essay on Why Cambridge.
Following that, the school may conduct interviews with you to determine your eligibility for them. They will make references to your personal statement and ask you questions about it. At this point I think I will post my profile for UCAS before I talk about my interview:
Qualification 1
Qualification type
SIPHSMSD (Singapore Integrated Programme High School Math and Science Diploma)
Date taken
01-Sep-2008
Examining body
NUS
Subject
Singapore-Integrated Programme-Nat Uni Singap
Module details
Date: 01/09/08 Title: English Grade: 4.34
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Higher Chinese Grade: 4.23
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major in Biology Grade: 4.18
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major in Chemistry Grade: 4.5
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major in Physics Grade: 3.47
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major in Mathematics Grade: 4.54
Date: 01/09/08 Title: History Grade: 4.17
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Literature Grade: 4.25
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major with Honors in Chemistry
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major with Honors in Mathematics Grade: 4.5
Date: 01/09/08 Title: Major with Honors in Biology Grade: 4.5
SAT I: CR 740, M 800, W 720
SAT II: Math Level 2 790, Chemistry 800
APs:
AP Biology, Stats, Calculus BC, Calculus AB, Chemistry, Physics B: 5
O Levels: Higher Chinese A
Personal statement: (I took out some parts that were sensitive and not meant for the public to see)
“I can never stand still. I must explore and experiment. I am never satisfied with my work. I resent the limitations of my own imagination.”–W. Disney. I can perfectly understand how he feels as I am also a person who simply cannot stand still.
I walk with that distinct bounce along the classroom corridors, a goofy smile constantly on my face. I jump, I skip, if I could I would fly to my destination, as time is always of the essence. Have an assignment for me? Don’t rush me, give me a deadline, give me the freedom to do what I want to do, don’t come at my ear giving me constant reminders, and I will give you your product coupled with a touch of my perfectionist streak.
Most of my academic achievements lie in research. I have worked on 2 projects in the field of spiders. The 1st project was a finalist at the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF) 2007 and was presented at the International Students Science Fair 2006 and the London International Youth Science Forum 2007. The 2nd project won a silver award in SSEF 2008 and was presented at the Ritsumeikan Students Science Fair 2007. In addition, both projects were presented at the 12th International Society for Behavioral Ecology Congress in Cornell University.
My strongest subject is Chemistry, where I represented the school in the Singapore Chemistry Olympiad and won silver, and was selected for phase I of the national team training. I find chemistry an interesting subject as it is the foundation of all science; everything in the world can thought of as simple compounds, molecules and atoms. It amazes me that these atoms are the building blocks of life, bonded with other blocks in different combinations and concentrations to create different materials that can be used in so many different ways. Given my active nature, together with my friends, we set up a Chemistry Interest Group in our school, aimed at introducing the wonders of chemistry to our juniors through fun experiments such as creating ‘dye’ (which are actually acid-base indicators or complex ion mixtures).
I love organizing camps and teaching kids values such as leadership and teamwork. I have organized camps for organizations such as the Children’s Kidney Centre and other primary schools. My experiences in the school debating team, model UN conferences and leadership positions in school were certainly helpful in my work.
Student leadership is something that I am very passionate about. I have taken up various leadership positions, such as Vice Captain of Canoe Polo, President of Student Council and Vice House Captain, among others. In addition, I was also one of the authors for the book “50 Math and Science Games for Leadership”. Out of school, I am the Head of Volunteer Management and Development in ECO Singapore, an environmental organization that promotes environmental friendliness through youth-initiated projects.
Being the eldest child and the first college entree of my family meant that I am often forced to find my own solutions to any problems that I may encounter in my life. I find this a blessing in disguise as I have the freedom to solve problems in any way I can. This meant lots of surprising discoveries along the way (it is possible to walk on a mixture of cornstarch and water), lots of learning (you can’t trisect an angle with just a compass), and of course, lots of accidents as well (pouring phenolphthalein on my shirt and it turning blue when placed in the wash), but it really isn’t a bad thing, is it?
----------
As you can see I didnt really talk about why I want to study in the UK, but I had a significant amount of my essay dedicated to my achievements and extracurriculars. I am not too sure if my extracurriculars were taken into consideration, because there was no mention of them during my interview at all.
Cambridge and Oxford require your app to be submitted by September, while the rest by January. It is then redirected to the college and faculty and they will contact you with regards to an offer / interview / whatever else. Offers normally come in 3 forms: Unconditional (you get a place regardless), conditional (fulfil XXX conditions or you arent coming, or rejected (sorry no go).
Imperial was the 1st successful one to respond for mine - sometime in October. It was an unconditional offer.
Then I received an invitation for an interview for Cambridge (most colleges have 1), which was to be held in RI, and the time to take the TSA, which was held on a Saturday at HCJC. Most colleges for Cambridge and Oxford require you to take a Thinking Skills Assessment test. You can try 10 questions of it here: http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/tsacambridge
During my Cambridge interview, I was asked about topics related to my course of study - natural sciences. I was first asked to describe my IR - which I did, both projects - and then told that they want to know if I am able to handle the coursework at Cambridge. So I was given some paper, and asked a few questions - I will quote from 1 of my previous posts about the details:
"After that she got me to estimate how many cells were in a person's body, I didnt really know the answer so she asked me how big was a cell. I didnt know either and she told me 10 microns long. So I said something to the effect of assuming it's a sphere, calculate volume of person via mass/density (assume density is equivalent to water) and divide accordingly.
After that she gave me a few math questions. First was to differentiate x^3 sin x. So I did that with a bit of ease though I was kind of caught unaware. Then it was to integrate x ln x, which I could do as well. And then she got me to graph y = xe^(-x), and I got stuck halfway because I could do y = e^(-x) but I wasnt too sure about y = xe^(-x) but I got the graph half-right so that's better than nothing.
Next she asked me about cornstarch and water and what happens when I mix them together. So we spoke a little about the structure of cornstarch (which I didnt know again but I knew the structure of carbohydrates) and how it changes as you add water. Then spoke about coloured compounds - why do they have colours? So I said conjugation, excitation of electrons make them jump up the orbitals - sigma, pi, n, pi star and sigma star and as they fall back down they release energy that corresponds to a frequency in the visible spectrum. She seemed really impressed at this juncture and asked did you learn this in school and I said yes. So she asked why doesnt everything produce colours then and I thought it was simple, because they might fall along other areas of the EM spectrum? And she seemed very happy after that.
Following that she kind of ran out of time on me but since I was the last person it wasnt so bad. She chatted with me about how she thinks Cambridge is a good fit for me and etc. "
------------
As you can see it is very academic/subject-oriented, I didnt expect that, but now you can expect that.
A few days after that I received a few emails from UCL with regards to their courses, etc but I think what's exciting you more is the following email:
"I hope this email finds you well. Thank you for your application through UCAS to study Chemistry at University College London.
My apologies for the slight delay in responding to you, as I been finalising our process for overseas applicant to ensure fairness.
As I am sure you are aware, it is our normal policy to interview all candidates. As we cannot do this face-to-face, the "interview" will
be conducted by email and followed-up by telephone if necessary.
On Monday I will be sending you some further information on the course at UCL and more general information, the
same information I give UK-based students on their visit.
I will shortly afterwards send a series of questions for you to respond to. I wish you to do this as if we were having a conversation - I do not
need essays, I need conversational responses (of course if you wish to attached drawn structures as scanned images then feel free).
You should not need to refer to notes or other sources. The aim is to allow us to judge if you are able to think about chemistry in such a
way to allow you realise your full potential here at UCL.
You should be able to complete the questions 20 minutes at most. I may then follow-up with further questions.
Please respond within 7 days of receipt of the email.
Once this process is complete, I will confirm if we will be recommending an offer and the Faculty Admissions Tutor should make an
offer within 5 working days of receipt of my recommendation.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or call me (I will call you back)."
A few days later, I received an email again from UCL:
"Thank you for your application to study with us in the Chemistry department at UCL.
I hope you found the mailing last week useful - do not hesitate to call or email me if you have any questions. I now wish you to provide answers to the following as part of our admissions process.
Could you write me some brief notes on the topics below. I would appreciate a reply within 7 days if possible.
I have two beakers of water, one at room temperature, the other at 50oC. Do you expect their pH to be the same or different? Why?
What property of constarch an water makes it possible to walk on? How is this possible?
Why did you shirt go blue?"
As you can see - once again, very subject-based. This was my reply:
"With regards to your first question about the pH of water being
similar or different at room temperature and 50 degrees C.
I would definitely expect it to be different. pH = - log [H+] and [H+]
is dependent on the K value of water, typically 1 x 10 ^ (-14).
Since 2 H2O <=> H3O+ and OH-, Kc value of H2O = [H3O+] [OH-]
However, K value is affected by the temperature of the surroundings
because of thermodynamic properties. deltaG of a reaction = deltaH - T
deltaS = - RT ln K. The temperature affects the direction which the
reaction would be more likely to proceed.
Offhand I dont exactly know the deltaH value for this reaction, but
given that temperature affects K -- which in turn affects the amount
of ions dissociated -- thereby affecting the concentration of H+ ions,
the pH of water in different temperatures will obviously differ -
although in this instance it wouldnt differ by a large amount due to
the small difference in temperature.
With regards to the 2nd question: It is interesting that you ask this
question too because it is a question that I get asked a lot many
times (in interviews, demonstrations, etc). A mixture of cornstarch
and water yields oobleck, a non-newtonian fluid which behaves like a
solid when pressure is applied to it and behaves like a liquid when
allowed to flow freely. Other non-newtonian fluids include quicksand
and ketchup whereby they don't follow typical 'newtonian laws'.
Honestly I have wondered about this question many times myself but
despite checks from other reference sources in the past I never really
got an answer to it. My guess is that given that cornstarch is a
polymer in itself, its addition to water actually disrupts the VDW
forces between the water molecules and causes the area within the
water to be 'more crowded' in a particulate sense. It is in the state
of balance between a solid and liquid (i.e. its particles are not
clumped together enough to be considered a solid, yet its particles
are also not spaced out enough to be considered a liquid - in
accordance with the Brownian motion). Hence when pressure is applied
to it, it causes the particles to now be clumped up together enough
for us to consider it a solid, but otherwise it would flow like a
liquid - not as quickly as a typical liquid like water would, but
still behaving like a viscous liquid (I did notice that adding a
cornstarch and water mixture to my vegetables while cooking actually
made the gravy more viscous as well!).
My shirt turning blue - I assume you are asking about the statement in
my UCAS personal statement? Well perhaps blue isnt that accurate, it
actually turned purple. It is again based on equilibrium.
Phenolphthalein is an acid base indicator which is colourless at a
normal pH but turns purple when exposed to an alkali solution.
Phenolphthalein itself is a diprotic acid - let's call it H2In. This
compound is colourless but when exposed to alkali solutions (which
gives off OH- ions that react with this acid), it gives us In2- ions,
which are purple. Hence, the more alkali the solution is, the more
purple my shirt would become.
In this scenario, the alkali solution is really the ammonia from my
detergent. Ammonia, NH3, is a basic solution that goes by the equation
NH3 + H2O <=> NH4+ + OH-, and is the prime reason for causing my shirt
to turn blue."
We exchanged another 2 more emails about the details of certain things, and he replied:
"Excellent responses - precisely why we interview: I want to know what you can find out, and you have that
ability in abundance. I will process your offer on Monday. Let me know if you have any questions."
It turns out that he was the faculty tutor for Natural Sciences as well, so I got an unconditional to both Natural Sciences and Chemistry.
Cambridge's offer came in January. Most offers come in January so Cambridge wasnt late, it was on time... a conditional offer. My condition was a minimum 4.2 CAP overall, 4.2 for English, 4.2 for Math, and 4.2 for Chem - which I fulfilled.
So how do you choose which UK school to go? I say it's easy because if you are only putting 1 choice chances are you already know what you want (typical choices are Cambridge, Oxford, LSE), and if you are putting 5 choices, you pretty much know what school you are willing to fund yourself to and what you arent. Here are the university rankings, according to Times: http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_gug/gooduniversityguide.php.
Between Cambridge and Oxford: Cambridge is better in the sciences, but Oxford better in the Humanities. As a sidenote, if you are keen in going into humanities, consider the course PPE (1 of the hardest course to get in) in Oxford, which stands for Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In terms of culture, Cambridge and Oxford are like little towns of their own and has this old but traditional kind of feel - you really feel like you are surrounded with tradition there. I have been to Oxford before and it's a beautiful place, an open campus within that little town and you can see the Great Hall in Harry Potter there (you got to pay I think, my friend paid and this is what he taped).
I have never been to LSE before, but I have been to Imperial and UCL before. Imperial is in the middle of a busy road and looks a little old (I personally didnt like the vibes that I got from Imperial but you may like it). UCL, wow I love the place. I stayed at Ramsay Hall, which was near Warren Street (the Tube). It's in the middle of the tube line, but it's not too noisy. Imagine the kind of quietness you get from staying at a bungalow in 1 of those private housing areas in Singapore, but yet the NTUC-equivalent (called Sainsbury), food stores, coffee places, etc are just along the streets, opposite you, next to your hostel, everything. Very convenient, and the Tube is just a 5 minute walk. It's an open campus as well, and it's near King Cross Station - you can see platform 9 3/4 there! Let me post a picture of what it looks like:
Most dorms at UCL are singles - you get your own room. My room looked like that, with my own sink.
Not too bad, I felt. The conclusion is that I prefer UCL to Imperial, but it's your choice. Some people also include King's College London in their list of choices, but I didnt feel like including it.
Okay since it's time for dinner I wont continue this post anymore (this is a realllllly long post), but the next time I post I will write about the US admission side.
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