It is approaching that time of the year again.
After a frenzied day rushing local university applications, the focus has invariably shifted offshore, in the greener pastures of America/Europe/Britain. Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s newer that it’s greener, not because it’s better that it’s greener, if you get my drift. And somehow after getting an overseas scholarship, I feel it is a God-bestowed right for me to study overseas. While I was not suicidal at not getting admitted into Stanford, I was not too thrilled at being offered places to study computer science + business at NUS, law + business in SMU and Renaissance Engineering at NTU. I eventually took up NTU’s offer, even though I lament the fact that UCB’s seal isn’t on the degree scroll. I don’t quite get it. Does ‘difficult to get in‘ equate to ‘great‘? You bet my Singaporean mindset it is.
Before prepping for A levels prelims, I spent a considerable amount of time researching different colleges (henceforth referring to overseas universities). As an aside, I did hesitate at the notion of sending in an application to Deep Springs, which prides itself on ‘a non-traditional curriculum with a core structure of composition, public speaking, labor, and self-governance’. Yep. Labor. But really, I found my cursor hovering near the admit rates column. The lower the percentage, the more exclusive, the better. But heck that means my chances of getting in are lower. Never mind the latter.
And so I sent in applications to Stanford with Cornell as my safety. The former with 8% and the latter, 16% admit rates. Of course, I was yearning to be disappointed.
Fast forward 2.5 months after the last of the admission decisions and obstinate me has just spent the whole of today (started at 8am, ended at 9pm) researching every last bit about UK unis and computer science. The current shortlist: Oxford (college not decided), Imperial, UCL. I’ll prolly just randomly pick the other 2 unis to fill up the rest.
Watch this space.
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“I truly respect the people who stay strong, even when they have every right to break down.”