February appearances

Testtakers will be visiting United World College, Tanglin Trust School and St. Joseph's Institution - International this February:

  • Monday, February 6, 2012; 12:30 PM United World College University Counselling Centre

There will be an informal question and answer session with interested UWC students and parents about the SAT and US university admissions.   The event is open only to current UWC students and parents.

  • Thursday, February 9, 2012; 4:30 PM Tanglin Trust School Careers Office

Question and Answer session open to Tanglin students only.  Tanglin students and parents should contact Isobel Barclay, Head of Careers (Senior).

  • Saturday, February 11, 2012; 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM International University Fair SJI - International Campus

The event is closed to the general public.  Representatives from local and international universities and organizations will be present.

Hope to see you there!

Advance 2012 at Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Save the date: Testtakers will be present at Ngee Ann Poly on Friday, February 3, 2012 to take part in Advance 2012.  We will answer questions and provide sage advice to students curious about the SAT and other standardized tests and how they fit into the overall American university admissions picture.

Early Admissions Snapshot

Take a look at the accompanying chart from this NY Times article (may require subscription if you have used up your monthly 20-article viewing allocation). It gives you a sense of the different types of early applications that exist as well as the acceptance rates. Note that many schools offer both binding and non-binding Early Decision and Action options and some schools do two rounds of Early admissions. The article mentions that those who opt for early admissions usually have well-informed and sophisticated college advisors, who can assess a student's chances effectively based on the school of choice.  Therefore the admitted rates can be misleading - it is not the average student that applies for a particular school, but relatively above-average candidates; so applicants should weigh that as a factor when deciding.

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American Admissions Myths Debunked – Part Five

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As the rush to submit university applications intensifies, we start to hear more rumors and whispers about the process that in some cases are misleading, and in other cases simply not true.  Here we debunk several of things that we have been hearing of late…..

Myth: “My advisor said that he/she knew the admissions representative at university XXX and said he/she could put in a good word and get me in.”

Fact: No one can pick up the phone or write an email and ensure that a student will be accepted into one of the more competitive universities.  The application process is hard to understand, but all efforts are taken to ensure that students are considered on their own merit in an objective fashion.

Myth: “The university will only accept my most recent SAT score.”

Fact: Universities receive all of your SAT scores and in general will consider the highest combination or set of scores on record.  Most students take the SATs a few times and it is perfectly OK to take the test again.

Myth: “I want my child to go to an ‘Ivy League’ school like Stanford, UC Berkeley, or MIT.”

Fact: None of those schools are in the Ivy League!  The Ivy League is nothing more than an athletic conference of eight schools that play sports against each other.  All the schools are on the East Coast and have been around for a long time.  As such, they are blessed with strong financial resources and are academically excellent.  However, being a member of this club really just means that they play baseball, basketball, soccer and other sports primarily against other teams in the conference.  For the record, the eight Ivy League schools are: Dartmouth, Brown, Harvard, Cornell, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and University of Pennsylvania. 

Myth: “Only the Ivy League schools are good.”

Fact: No no no no!  Sure the Ivys are all good, but for engineering you may be better off at the schools that specialize in engineering.  Moreover, the Ivys are mainly large research institutions and smaller liberal arts colleges often offer a more personal undergraduate educational experience.

Myth: “I need a minimum score of XXXX on the SAT to get into that school.”

Fact: No, you don’t.  The SAT is one of many things that are considered in the application process and no school that we have heard of has a “minimum” score.  Now, you do need to score well on the SAT to get into a competitive school but a perfect score of 2,400 wouldn’t guarantee you entrance to any of them if you aren’t strong in other areas as well.  A good rule of thumb is to look at the median 50% SAT score range for the admitted students and compare that with your score.

Myth: “That school only accepts X students from Singapore per year.”

Fact: Schools can’t accept 200 students from Singapore in a given year; however, we have not heard of any formal quota system.  One problem students here face is that many excellent students apply to the same small batch of schools – effectively making it that much harder to get in.  Simply put: applying to the same schools that all your friends and classmates are applying to isn’t the best idea.

Myth: “Universities are better than Colleges.”

Fact: Colleges in America generally only award Bachelor degrees while universities generally offer post graduate degrees all the way up to a Doctorate.  Many colleges are excellent choices as the focus is on undergraduates.  Williams College was good enough for Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, after all…