For those studying In US,

are u guys managed to secure JPA loan? how much? full amount?

Any other sort of loan(with low interest rate) provided by US bank or NGO or anything else?

Thanks.

Hi, i wish to study Forensic Science in US. Is there any study loan for this? How about JPA loan? Thx

I've studied for it, but haven't taken it yet

I'm interested in applying to liberal art colleges in the States. I'm currently sitting for SPM.

May I know do people go for liberal art colleges after SPM or do they normally go after having pre-u?

It's a little confusing cause I've seen people go right after SPM.

Go after SPM.

Hey thanks for the quick reply.

I guess I will have to start preparing for SAT and TOEFL then. But I guess I won't be able to make it cause some of the application closes in Jan/Feb.

You can apply straight after SPM.
Some colleges don't even require SAT.
Even if they do, you still have the time.

Depends what kind of a school you want to get in and how much you're willing to spend on your total education. There is no hard standards for intakes across America so you can probably find something to suit your schedule if you really wanted to. You can PM me your situation if you'd like a more detailed advice.

Hi
So basically if I am applying for US college after Form 5, straight after SPM I will be enrolled into a four year Liberal Arts System, whereby I spend 4 years as an undergrad, then graduating as a Bachelor of Arts & Science, then continue on to post graduate study?

Is this the usual system? Or am I any way wrong? lol, trying to clarify..

And btw, what is different in comparision to choosing UK syllabus?

Sounds about right.

The difference between the US and UK is mainly that the UK is exam-based, and it's three years to a bachelor's. This is only because the US has a "foundation" year.

So what do people usually do after their undergrad years? after graduating, going after Masters or working already?

in a nutshell,

US - 4 years undergrad
UK - 3 years undergrad

US - a lot of subjects
UK - maybe 3 or 4

US - more focus on extra curricular
UK - more focus on exam results

okay. for US, u need either SATs, ADP, or exchange program right?
but since SAT results and SPM results need to wait for results to arrive, probably won't be in time to apply for application right? SO will need to waste one year waiting for the results?

If not, do we usually use SPM trial results in the portfolio?

I heard something of a one-and-a-half-year intensive course for undergrad, anyone heard anything of it or something similar?

Haha thanks for all the great advice thus far

Actually, most people graduate from US high schools knowing much more than the average A-Level student. Since they have the freedom to choose their subjects in high school, it's common for them to take Advance Placement or even university level classes while in high school. Personally I did math for my first two years so I did see freshman who had already taken 2 years worth of university level math in high school already.

So actually a determined student can complete their degree in two years if they wanted to. I switched majors in my 3rd year and actually took about 1 year to complete all the necessary classes for my new major.

Why do people spend 4 years there? They don't overload classes and do research, summer internships, community work, attend conferences or company presentations.

Hence a graduate there would already have 2 years of internships if he was on a career path and 3-4 years of research experience if he was on a research path.

It's also no unusual for them to take 1-2 years break after college. Some build up their credentials, some do Peace Corps, Teach for America etc.

It's very different there. They care about what you have done and can achieve rather than nonsense people here care about like how you look like(no one attaches pictures in their resume, job or college applications), your major (you can be a philosophy major and join an investment firm), your age(I've never seen an age limit in a job application there).

Some US universities (and UK universities too) will accept your SPM trial results for your applications. The application cycle starts usually towards the end of the year and you get an offer by the spring (April onwards) for entrance in Aug/September. So yes for the most part you'll have 9+ months of not much to do.

Note however that top US universities eg. the Ivy Leagues, MIT etc are starting to require 12 years of education so you no longer can apply straight after SPM. They'll take A-levels or form 6 as the 12th year.

Well what about attending US College first? 4 years of undergrad right?

Hey there it's me again with more questions, hope you don't mind answering ...

Currently I have a decent SAT score(slightly >2000), and haven't take SAT II yet, I considered applying for EA / ED however more of those schools who have these offers are on CommonApp and typically the deadline for application is Nov 1 ... Any recommendation for me if I don't wanna do SAT II at all? Can I still get into one of the good unis ?

In another thread I didn't list what's my major gonna be, erm it's actually Economics I really admire people like Robert Schiller / Paul Krugman / Joseph Stiglitz reading their work and from reading many other titles written by economics journalist I find this subject way more deeper and interesting than what I learn in A-level currently.

The thing is most good unis(Yale, UChicago) are private ones and they are so expensive to attend To begin with I don't have any scholarships yet, and my budget is likely to be around 350k for the entire study. I've been thinking about cheaper ways to go to US - 1) Go to a community college and transfer 2) Go to public unis (Wisconsin-Madison or Minnesota Twins) either directly or via transfer from another public u - and try to finish the study within 3 years if I cannot secure any scholarship next year.

Any suggestions for me who wants to save n' still go into a nice econs school? Also is A-level grades generally available for credit transfer in universities, try looking it up but to no avail.(Kinda regret doing A-levels instead of ADTP ) Next thing of course is how to look for a scholarship when public unis are relatively more stingy than their private counterparts? My friend is trying Stanford's ED and he requested no financial aid, presumably to have a higher chance of getting in, but is it advisable to place such a huge bet, since there's a legal bind on his admission ?

Well tbh, 2000-2100 is on the low end of for the best schools. You might get into to the likes for Yale, MIT etc with a very strong extra-curricular. I don't really know how much weight ED adds to your application since the statistics are rather vague on that. Whether you can send in your SAT 2 scores late or not depends on the school too. And remember for schools of Yale level, everyone probably has a full 800 on their SAT 2s.

Good public schools like U Chicago, U Illinois, U Michigan etc take in more students thus have a wider range of admission, but you won't get a scholarship. Seriously you won't. You might get a few grants here and there that won't amount to much. They aren't any cheaper either.

It's extremely unlikely that you will get into Yale level schools by transferring halfway.

You'll need 50k USD a year for tuition, 12k for living. I've written alot of cheaper routes to US, don't feel like rewriting them today.

Harvard and Yale might not give you credit for A-Level, but I think most others will if you got As. Gotta speak with the actual person incharge of the credits.

If your friend can afford the whole 4 years at Standford why not? If he can't, well I think he should be able to weigh pros and cons if he is aiming this high. I've written quite alot about what I think is important about undergrad and graduate education if you need more information to make that call.

This post has been edited by mumeichan: Oct 25 2013, 08:23 PM

Well I have done my research and I knew that's the low end too, that's why I wasn't really aiming for Ivies but rather public unis. What I wanna confirm is whether that transfer from one public uni to another is simple n has higher chance than going to a community college firstly ?

The thing is my friend only thinks about getting offer first and hunting scholarship later but do you see all the stanford freshman getting corporate scholarships/ JPA? Frankly speaking I think he hasn't thought of the consequence of choosing ED thoroughly enough even though I told him the risk at stake. On the other hand, is expecting corporate scholarship/ JPA to cover the tuition fees a realistic approach?

Anyway can pls u brief me those cheaper routes to US Or post any links here.

PS : Do you volunteer for USAPPS before ? Just curious.

The fees at another public uni wouldn't be much cheaper, plus I don't think it will make your chances higher to transfer between equal level school. I don't see any problem transferring from a community college to a public school. Just maintain the exceptional results and make sure your SATs and TOEFL is still valid.

JPA has changed their system lately. I'm not too sure what the chances are of getting sponsored if he got into Stanford.
Private sponsorships are there, but again, 800000/48 is giving 16000 a month to someone to study. Even with a bond of 7 years, that's almost paying the guy 10k a month to work. Will a Standford undergrad bring in more than 800000 value to the company over 7 years? And he's tying himself to a major and to a company here. If that's the price he is willing to pay for an education than it's worth it.

You can read up this whole US thread and some of my other posting.

And yea I've been at that event before

This post has been edited by mumeichan: Oct 25 2013, 08:52 PM

There's this Southern Illinois Uni which offers in-state tuition fee to existing Sunway students, so I'm considering it. Have heard about the community colleges being overcrowded and experiencing decline in students successfully transferred. Getting in a 4-year uni is going to be hard isn't it ? Still gotta hear more about that when the school rep comes on the following Monday for presentation @@

Again thanks a lot on your comment above. Definitely will dig up all the useful info here page by page.



This post has been edited by Shyuejer: Oct 25 2013, 09:37 PM

With a 2000 SAT score, you should be aiming for University of Illinois and not Souther Illiois. Please at least tell me you got into some top 50 school in the world. If you can already afford 350k which is enough for 2yrs+, beg on your knees if you have to for the remaining amount. I would have seriously wasted my time replying if you're gonna shortchange yourself that much

I await good news from you and hope you will contribute to the future generations here at LYN.

This post has been edited by mumeichan: Oct 25 2013, 10:11 PM