I haven’t been blogging here these days because I have been very busy with multiple things: a month or so ago I was busy with my school exams, and now that I am back in Singapore I have been busy meeting my friends and enjoying life. :)
I am not sure what to write about, really. I am far too detached from the school to write anything about it, and I am not sure what you all want to know about university life that hasn’t already been written about or isn’t available via googling. Also, given the lack of writers (we don’t have many juniors who are continuing on) it seems like this blog may be forced to shut down after all of us go to college, cos no one has time to write articles anymore I think. It’s sad, because this blog is almost 2 years old now, but I suppose everyone is rather busy with their college life (myself included).
I like how the tagboard is progressing as a good avenue for people to ask questions and discuss ideas though. Should we move this to a forum-based site instead of a blog? What does everyone think?
Showing posts with label admin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label admin. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
More writers needed?
I’m been thinking that there are some issues which would be good to have someone to write about, but I’m not qualified to comment since I never went through them. To my knowledge, there are few, if any Collegetalk writers who are able to write about the following issues from their own experience.
1. Applying for medicine to the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Australia, and the UK. What should you do to increase your chances of getting into medical school? What’s the interview like? The tests? No alumni writer for Collegetalk seems to have applied for Medicine yet, and most of the information on the medical admissions process is catered to A level graduates. Did you have to fly to the respective overseas universities to go for the interview, or were the interviews held in Singapore? Would there be a disadvantage for you if you didn’t do biology in high school but wanted to do medicine, both in terms of chances of admission and prior knowledge once admitted? Seeing how popular medicine is as a career choice for NUSH students, it’ll be great if someone could write about this. And also, what about doing medicine in Hong Kong? HK has some great universities offering medicine as well.
2. How do you secure internship placements at hospitals? Which hospitals tend to take in a lot of interns? Whats the minimum time commitment for interns? Is two weeks or one month the minimum? Would you be allowed to intern on a part time basis if you are still in school? Is there a certain minimum age you must be to be accepted by a hospital? Maybe you should be at least 15, perhaps? What do you do as an intern there? Filling papers, preparing equipment, research, job-shadiwing other things??? Learning points? I heard it’s very hard to get into medical school if you’ve never done an internship at a hospital/ clinic – how true is this stereotype? Personally, unless I'm absolutely outstanding, I won't apply for NUS medicine without doing some form of hospital internship.
3. Applying to countries other than Singapore, the US, or UK. I’m talking about places such as Australia, China, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, etc. So far it seems most Collegetalk writers only applied for colleges in the first three countries mentioned. Even if they applied outside of those three countries, they did not take up their place there. How did the application process go, especially if the form had to be filled up in a foreign language? What were the problems faced and how were they tackled? And questions for someone who did go there to study: If you had to learn a whole new language to study in say, France; what were the problems you faced? Was it challenging to catch up with your peers due to the language barrier? Maybe someone can write about their experience applying to, say, Y school in Germany, as an NUS High School student. What are the pitfalls and how to avoid them?
4. The problems or advantages with applying to a school during NS, not during Year 6. Your teachers may have changed already. Would you ask your superior in NS to write a recommendation letter? Would you have problems getting leave from NS to go for scholarship interviews, etc? Is there enough time to do all the application necessities up once you are in NS? Do you have time to mug for the selection tests, etc. How did you cope? Would you have applied for college in High School if you had the chance to redo the application process? Oh, and some scholarships require entrance to SISPEC/ OCS. Advice for the wannabes?
5. I don't know how important this is - but for those who went out of Singapore to study - did you get culture shock? What were the things about the new country and people which surprised you? In what way was the country different from Singapore? Did you have problems adapting? What advice would you give to a Singaporean trying to settle in that country to study?
1. Applying for medicine to the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Australia, and the UK. What should you do to increase your chances of getting into medical school? What’s the interview like? The tests? No alumni writer for Collegetalk seems to have applied for Medicine yet, and most of the information on the medical admissions process is catered to A level graduates. Did you have to fly to the respective overseas universities to go for the interview, or were the interviews held in Singapore? Would there be a disadvantage for you if you didn’t do biology in high school but wanted to do medicine, both in terms of chances of admission and prior knowledge once admitted? Seeing how popular medicine is as a career choice for NUSH students, it’ll be great if someone could write about this. And also, what about doing medicine in Hong Kong? HK has some great universities offering medicine as well.
2. How do you secure internship placements at hospitals? Which hospitals tend to take in a lot of interns? Whats the minimum time commitment for interns? Is two weeks or one month the minimum? Would you be allowed to intern on a part time basis if you are still in school? Is there a certain minimum age you must be to be accepted by a hospital? Maybe you should be at least 15, perhaps? What do you do as an intern there? Filling papers, preparing equipment, research, job-shadiwing other things??? Learning points? I heard it’s very hard to get into medical school if you’ve never done an internship at a hospital/ clinic – how true is this stereotype? Personally, unless I'm absolutely outstanding, I won't apply for NUS medicine without doing some form of hospital internship.
3. Applying to countries other than Singapore, the US, or UK. I’m talking about places such as Australia, China, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, etc. So far it seems most Collegetalk writers only applied for colleges in the first three countries mentioned. Even if they applied outside of those three countries, they did not take up their place there. How did the application process go, especially if the form had to be filled up in a foreign language? What were the problems faced and how were they tackled? And questions for someone who did go there to study: If you had to learn a whole new language to study in say, France; what were the problems you faced? Was it challenging to catch up with your peers due to the language barrier? Maybe someone can write about their experience applying to, say, Y school in Germany, as an NUS High School student. What are the pitfalls and how to avoid them?
4. The problems or advantages with applying to a school during NS, not during Year 6. Your teachers may have changed already. Would you ask your superior in NS to write a recommendation letter? Would you have problems getting leave from NS to go for scholarship interviews, etc? Is there enough time to do all the application necessities up once you are in NS? Do you have time to mug for the selection tests, etc. How did you cope? Would you have applied for college in High School if you had the chance to redo the application process? Oh, and some scholarships require entrance to SISPEC/ OCS. Advice for the wannabes?
5. I don't know how important this is - but for those who went out of Singapore to study - did you get culture shock? What were the things about the new country and people which surprised you? In what way was the country different from Singapore? Did you have problems adapting? What advice would you give to a Singaporean trying to settle in that country to study?
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Happy New Year everyone, and new poll up!
Hello everyone,
Now that the new year has begun, please vote again on which level you are on the poll below so that we can cater our posts to our audience!
Thank you dear readers for supporting us in the past year! Collegetalk is going to be 1 year old and it's quite amazing how it has come so far and it's still surviving (I thought it would have closed down by now haha).
Of course, much thanks to our contributors, especially:
1. Vanessa, the person who first came up with the idea of collegetalk and encouraged me to go for it
2. Zhongming, despite his busy schedule he still tries to keep this blog going
3. Kenneth and Chui Yi, the juniors who joined and the reason why this blog will (hopefully) continue for another year
4. Fiona, Margy, Mira, and the rest of the contributors who make the effort to post despite your busy schedules (thats college life for you haha it's so busy!)
If you have benefited from this blog and would like to contribute, do come on board! This blog cannot continue without contributors and you can definitely contribute in any way and any topic that you want! After all, this blog is not just restricted to college admissions but also life in nus high and if you want even tips to excel in APs, SATs, NUS modules or school modules! The school has changed a lot over the past years and we will need YOUR help in addressing these topics, especially because our info may not be as current as yours :D
So join us! Haha what better way is there to help your juniors than to come on board and talk to them about your life here! ESPECIALLY ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO BENEFITED FROM THIS :)
I will be writing up some posts on the plane back to Stanford tomorrow before I go back into my hiatus and studying for next quarter!
Some topics are:
1. Why do I say that Stanford is the best school in the world? (I guess saying Stanford rocks is not very explanatory, haha)
2. US and Singapore cultural differences too from my pov
3. Why apply, or dont apply for a PSC scholarship
4. A timeline for the year 6s!
Now that the new year has begun, please vote again on which level you are on the poll below so that we can cater our posts to our audience!
Thank you dear readers for supporting us in the past year! Collegetalk is going to be 1 year old and it's quite amazing how it has come so far and it's still surviving (I thought it would have closed down by now haha).
Of course, much thanks to our contributors, especially:
1. Vanessa, the person who first came up with the idea of collegetalk and encouraged me to go for it
2. Zhongming, despite his busy schedule he still tries to keep this blog going
3. Kenneth and Chui Yi, the juniors who joined and the reason why this blog will (hopefully) continue for another year
4. Fiona, Margy, Mira, and the rest of the contributors who make the effort to post despite your busy schedules (thats college life for you haha it's so busy!)
If you have benefited from this blog and would like to contribute, do come on board! This blog cannot continue without contributors and you can definitely contribute in any way and any topic that you want! After all, this blog is not just restricted to college admissions but also life in nus high and if you want even tips to excel in APs, SATs, NUS modules or school modules! The school has changed a lot over the past years and we will need YOUR help in addressing these topics, especially because our info may not be as current as yours :D
So join us! Haha what better way is there to help your juniors than to come on board and talk to them about your life here! ESPECIALLY ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO BENEFITED FROM THIS :)
I will be writing up some posts on the plane back to Stanford tomorrow before I go back into my hiatus and studying for next quarter!
Some topics are:
1. Why do I say that Stanford is the best school in the world? (I guess saying Stanford rocks is not very explanatory, haha)
2. US and Singapore cultural differences too from my pov
3. Why apply, or dont apply for a PSC scholarship
4. A timeline for the year 6s!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Congratulations to the successful ED/EA applicants!
(as the title says, congrats to all ED/EA applicants who were successful in getting into the college of your choice!)
If you got into Stanford, feel free to poke me and I am always glad to share how amazing this school is. If you are thinking about applying RD and want to talk to me about Stanford as well, that is of course always welcome :) especially now that I am back in Singapore! We can always chat over coffee or something.
Cheers!
If you got into Stanford, feel free to poke me and I am always glad to share how amazing this school is. If you are thinking about applying RD and want to talk to me about Stanford as well, that is of course always welcome :) especially now that I am back in Singapore! We can always chat over coffee or something.
Cheers!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
A list of useful forum posts + others.
So have you signed up on the googlegroup that Mr Allan has set up? If you havent, you really should because there are some interesting posts up there!
Here are a few:
If I could do everything again, this is probably what I would have done
Studying medicine overseas
Renowned universities in China
As a sidenote, today is the 7th month anniversary of collegetalk! Haha I know it's random but I forgot to celebrate the half a year anniversary of collegetalk, so i shall celebrate the 7th month anniversary! Thank you for all your support the past 7 months, my dear readers!
And since I am on that topic, again this is another call for seniors, juniors, etc alike to come on board and join us in continuing this collegetalk project! You dont have to be a walking dictionary, or a ivy-league bound student. All you need is a want to tell your juniors about your experiences in our school!
Why do we keep trying to recruit people to come and help us? You might have noticed that many of the writers from my batch dont really write but they are there. This is not because we dont want to write, but because university has started, and we are preparing for our classes and all and our lives are going to be rather busy. As such, we will need you, the 2nd/3rd/4th/nth graduating batch of nus high to continue with this blog, to take over and pass it on from batch to batch.
We currently have a dearth of writers from this year's year 6s, year 5s, and so on, and that's not a good thing because collegetalk is going to die a slow and natural death. As with all startups, sustainability is the key factor and we already have a GREAT number of people reading this blog, but we dont have enough writers to sustain this long term.
So this is why we implore to you to join us in helping your juniors, ESPECIALLY if you are a senior, and ESPECIALLY if you have benefitted from this blog!
Cheers!
Here are a few:
If I could do everything again, this is probably what I would have done
Studying medicine overseas
Renowned universities in China
As a sidenote, today is the 7th month anniversary of collegetalk! Haha I know it's random but I forgot to celebrate the half a year anniversary of collegetalk, so i shall celebrate the 7th month anniversary! Thank you for all your support the past 7 months, my dear readers!
And since I am on that topic, again this is another call for seniors, juniors, etc alike to come on board and join us in continuing this collegetalk project! You dont have to be a walking dictionary, or a ivy-league bound student. All you need is a want to tell your juniors about your experiences in our school!
Why do we keep trying to recruit people to come and help us? You might have noticed that many of the writers from my batch dont really write but they are there. This is not because we dont want to write, but because university has started, and we are preparing for our classes and all and our lives are going to be rather busy. As such, we will need you, the 2nd/3rd/4th/nth graduating batch of nus high to continue with this blog, to take over and pass it on from batch to batch.
We currently have a dearth of writers from this year's year 6s, year 5s, and so on, and that's not a good thing because collegetalk is going to die a slow and natural death. As with all startups, sustainability is the key factor and we already have a GREAT number of people reading this blog, but we dont have enough writers to sustain this long term.
So this is why we implore to you to join us in helping your juniors, ESPECIALLY if you are a senior, and ESPECIALLY if you have benefitted from this blog!
Cheers!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
More new writers onboard!
So you would notice that we now have more new writers on board!
The first writer that we have is Gregory. Greg is going to study physics and economics at MIT this year on a PSC scholarship. He also obtained admissions to every school (I think) that he applied to, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc. He tells me that he will try and psycho you all to go to MIT and make this a MIT blog and I told him to feel free to do so, so maybe we will see some MIT related stuff *propaganda hint* here soon!
The 2nd writer that we have is Karyen. Karyen is going to the University of Dayton this year on a scholarship given by the school. She was also successful in her application for USP and NUS pharmacy, so maybe she will share some tips about that in addition to why she decided to go to UDayton for her studies!
The first writer that we have is Gregory. Greg is going to study physics and economics at MIT this year on a PSC scholarship. He also obtained admissions to every school (I think) that he applied to, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc. He tells me that he will try and psycho you all to go to MIT and make this a MIT blog and I told him to feel free to do so, so maybe we will see some MIT related stuff *propaganda hint* here soon!
The 2nd writer that we have is Karyen. Karyen is going to the University of Dayton this year on a scholarship given by the school. She was also successful in her application for USP and NUS pharmacy, so maybe she will share some tips about that in addition to why she decided to go to UDayton for her studies!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Another new writer
Ying Zhen has asked that I introduce myself, so here goes!
My name is Kenneth and I'm a 5th year student at NUS High School. I joined the school in 2005 as part of the pioneer batch, and I'm currently doing quad honours (that's Math [Track 4], Chem, Bio and Physics) and Biology Olympiad Training. I'll be glad to demystify NUSHS in the posts to come!
My name is Kenneth and I'm a 5th year student at NUS High School. I joined the school in 2005 as part of the pioneer batch, and I'm currently doing quad honours (that's Math [Track 4], Chem, Bio and Physics) and Biology Olympiad Training. I'll be glad to demystify NUSHS in the posts to come!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Another new writer!
As you would have noticed, we have another new writer. Wei Ling is a student from my batch, going into NUS Science Fac this August. She took physics major with hons, math major with hons, chem major with hons and biology. :)
Again, if you are interested in writing for collegetalk or have anything you want to share with our juniors, feel free to contact us! Dont ever feel that you dont have anything to contribute because I am sure juniors and parents want to know about life in NUSHS, be it in terms of academics, extracurriculars, etc.
As a sidenote, I think that restricting this blog to just college info might be a little restrictive, so I will be expanding the list of topics to life in NUS High in general. This means that topics like "how to prepare for CM5102" or "hostel life" or "the coolest cca in school" can be written about in this blog.
AHA, ALL YOU YEAR FIVES AND SIXES IN NUS HIGH. NOW YOU HAVE NO MORE EXCUSE NOT TO HELP US WRITE. Remember, this blog is kept alive (and will only be in future) if seniors from upcoming batches take over it and continue writing for subsequent batches of juniors to come. So if you have benefited from this blog, please help the future juniors too by volunteering as a writer! :) Dont feel that this blog is just restricted to "collegetalk", you can share your tips on cramming for exams, koping the best books from the library, hostel life, or about your internship experience!
Cheers.
Again, if you are interested in writing for collegetalk or have anything you want to share with our juniors, feel free to contact us! Dont ever feel that you dont have anything to contribute because I am sure juniors and parents want to know about life in NUSHS, be it in terms of academics, extracurriculars, etc.
As a sidenote, I think that restricting this blog to just college info might be a little restrictive, so I will be expanding the list of topics to life in NUS High in general. This means that topics like "how to prepare for CM5102" or "hostel life" or "the coolest cca in school" can be written about in this blog.
AHA, ALL YOU YEAR FIVES AND SIXES IN NUS HIGH. NOW YOU HAVE NO MORE EXCUSE NOT TO HELP US WRITE. Remember, this blog is kept alive (and will only be in future) if seniors from upcoming batches take over it and continue writing for subsequent batches of juniors to come. So if you have benefited from this blog, please help the future juniors too by volunteering as a writer! :) Dont feel that this blog is just restricted to "collegetalk", you can share your tips on cramming for exams, koping the best books from the library, hostel life, or about your internship experience!
Cheers.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Yes, another writer.
We have with us another writer, Zhongming. :) Zhongming is a current year 6 student doing 4 majors with honours and taking up all the modules in the history major as well. Like Vanessa, he will be glad to share any experiences he has in NUSHS pertaining to anything from the school curriculum to what life is like. :)
Friday, May 22, 2009
Another new writer!
And we have another writer joining us! Margaret is a current Year 1 student at Boston University who is transferring to UPenn this year. She is also from our batch and I am sure she would be happy to take any questions if you all have any. :) She is currently majoring in International Relations.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
New writers onboard!
Today we welcome 2 new writers: Vanessa and Fiona.
Vanessa is a current year 6 studying in NUSH and will write on her experiences in NUSH (e.g. the da vinci programme, the diploma, cap, etc) for worried juniors who dont know what's in store for them! She is also 1 of the founders of collegetalk even though she has been lying very low...
Fiona is from the same batch as me - i.e. she has already graduated from NUSH. She is enrolling in Harvey Mudd College (a top Liberal Arts College in US) this year and has outstanding achivements in both Physics and Chemistry Olympiads. She can answer any queries you have about anything, be it olympiads, school curriculum, liberal arts colleges, etc (yes she is the poster girl on the NUSH brochure last year :)).
And yes, we are still recruiting writers. If you would like to contribute to this blog no matter how old you are, feel free to drop us a tag or a note somewhere and we will get in touch with you. :)
Vanessa is a current year 6 studying in NUSH and will write on her experiences in NUSH (e.g. the da vinci programme, the diploma, cap, etc) for worried juniors who dont know what's in store for them! She is also 1 of the founders of collegetalk even though she has been lying very low...
Fiona is from the same batch as me - i.e. she has already graduated from NUSH. She is enrolling in Harvey Mudd College (a top Liberal Arts College in US) this year and has outstanding achivements in both Physics and Chemistry Olympiads. She can answer any queries you have about anything, be it olympiads, school curriculum, liberal arts colleges, etc (yes she is the poster girl on the NUSH brochure last year :)).
And yes, we are still recruiting writers. If you would like to contribute to this blog no matter how old you are, feel free to drop us a tag or a note somewhere and we will get in touch with you. :)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Upcoming topics
Upcoming topics:
1. The value of APs - how important is it?
2. The value of our diploma and the CAP
3. Scholarships - How has our school fared and what can you do to improve your chances?
4. Scholarships - choosing scholarships to apply to
5. A timeline of events for the year 5s and 6s.
1. The value of APs - how important is it?
2. The value of our diploma and the CAP
3. Scholarships - How has our school fared and what can you do to improve your chances?
4. Scholarships - choosing scholarships to apply to
5. A timeline of events for the year 5s and 6s.
Writers, Guest columnists, etc wanted!
Hi everyone,
If you are interested to write articles for collegetalk (for the benefit of our juniors), be a guest columnist or anything else at all, do let me know! :)
Cheers.
YZ
If you are interested to write articles for collegetalk (for the benefit of our juniors), be a guest columnist or anything else at all, do let me know! :)
Cheers.
YZ
Why havent I been writing much these days?
Hi everyone,
I guess you might be wondering why I havent been writing much these days, instead I have just been linking articles here and there. There are 3 reasons to this:
1. I am having a writer's block! I dont know what you all want me to write about! Please post comments etc on what concerns you all have!
2. I have been busy lately with tuition. Just as this is your exam week, it is also other people's exam weeks and so all my tutees are asking me to increase the frequency of lessons for the last week. Finally the madness is over.
3. I am in the midst of shifting this blog to blogger instead, at http://nushscollegetalk.blogspot.com. Update your bookmarks! This is because blogger offers me a lot more freedom in uploading content and posting helpful links and all.
Thank you very much to the parent (see below post) who posted that comment, you gave me some ideas and I think I will write about scholarship offers in my next post. :)
And thank you to my readers who still read even after such a long hiatus of non-posts.
I guess you might be wondering why I havent been writing much these days, instead I have just been linking articles here and there. There are 3 reasons to this:
1. I am having a writer's block! I dont know what you all want me to write about! Please post comments etc on what concerns you all have!
2. I have been busy lately with tuition. Just as this is your exam week, it is also other people's exam weeks and so all my tutees are asking me to increase the frequency of lessons for the last week. Finally the madness is over.
3. I am in the midst of shifting this blog to blogger instead, at http://nushscollegetalk.blogspot.com. Update your bookmarks! This is because blogger offers me a lot more freedom in uploading content and posting helpful links and all.
Thank you very much to the parent (see below post) who posted that comment, you gave me some ideas and I think I will write about scholarship offers in my next post. :)
And thank you to my readers who still read even after such a long hiatus of non-posts.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Scholarship packages, anyone?
If anyone would like these scholarship packages, please drop me a note via email/sms/tagging here preferably asap as I am coming to school on Wednesday. I managed to obtain a few recently and am giving 3 of them away.
Each package includes:
1. Brightsparks magazine
2. "First Degree" by Today
3. The Definitive Guide to Scholarships
4. Brochures from many many agencies
5. Full set of Scholars' Choice by The Straits Times (with a checklist of all the scholarships in Singapore available)
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Welcome.
Hello everyone, thanks a lot to my wonderful junior Vanessa who created this blog for me to write about my college and scholarship experiences, I am here writing this... I will be posting my thoughts on college admissions, interesting articles, etc on this blog instead of my personal blog. Feel free to ask any questions by leaving a comment. Cheers.
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