Archive for category college
Example of University Application Essay
Posted by admin in Uncategorized, college on July 11, 2009
Amherst College
”The world as revealed by science is far more beautiful, and far more interesting, than we had any right to expect. Science is valuable because of the view of the universe that it gives.”
George Greenstein, Professor of Astronomy, Amherst College
My interest in science has developed back in Grade 10, when our regular science course divided into Biology, Chemistry, and Physics (11 Honours). At that time, I discovered, to my own astonishment, that there is so much more knowledge about the world than I could ever hope to learn. Each time I studied a new principle, the world would change its meaning. I often take solitary walks around the park, where I would “see” atoms moving randomly about, plants busy with their Calvin cycles, and reactions happening spontaneously when atoms of the right orientations bump together. Some of the greatest pleasures of science, for me, lie in having a more real perspective on the world.
I get addicted to the feeling of understanding more of the world. I would often ponder on unsolved problems in science, and my favourite is designing experiments to test my theories. My experiments included rather simplistic ideas such as testing the patterns of rock-paper-scissors playing (I had a conclusion that serve as a “perfect” strategy guide for players), and also advanced ones like a method of testing the resistance of superconductors. My physics teacher forwarded that proposal to a Ph.D, who even discussed the design with many of his colleagues before getting back to me with his comments.
Royal Military College of Canada: A description
Posted by admin in Uncategorized, college on July 10, 2009
The Royal Military College (RMC) is the only military college in Canada that is accredited with university status. It combines physical training, military tactics, and second language training along with regular academic studies. It also has a variety of extracurricular activities, with some of the best sports and music teams.
Foreign Language:
The RMC requires all graduates to be effectively bilingual. Therefore, although cadets have a choice of either English or French instruction for all courses, the main communication language between the faculty and the students switches weekly throughout the year.
All cadets’ roommates, too, are of a different language preference. The English speaking students are always paired with a French speaking student, so that the learning of language can be faster.
A summer camp in intensive language training is required if students are not reaching an acceptable standard by their second year.
Physical Training:
The cadets are upheld to a high level of physical ability throughout the college. While the first year physical education course involves only ordinary games and sports, the physical education in upper years consist of combat and survival training.
Assessments of agility and endurance must be passed each year for continuation in the college. Awards are given for high performance in sports and commitment to regular voluntary exercise.
Military Training:
Military History is one of the required arts courses that all students have to take.
In addition, students must take rigorous leadership and military skills training each summer, with the exception of those that did not fulfill their foreign language requirement. The Prior Assessment, which happens during the summer before the first year, is also a part of the admissions process that determines the students’ physical readiness and military aptitude for success in RMC.
Academics:
The Complete AP Exam Guide
Posted by admin in Uncategorized, college on July 9, 2009
What are AP exams?
Created by the Collegeboard (the entity that also administers SATs and PSATs), AP exams are used to gauge your knowledge, at the first-year university level, in a variety of subjects. There are 37 courses and exams to choose from, which seeks to broaden your horizons beyond that of the highschool level. Officially, AP exams are designed for motivated students that have a passion for the subject, but most students write AP exams for pragmatic reasons shown below. Nevertheless, it is important to have passion for the knowledge and interest in the subject so that studying for this exam would not become a burdensome, onerous, task. Otherwise, the enjoyment in gaining of knowledge would not be lost. AP exams are written in May.
Why write AP exams?
AP exams can save you a lot of money in university by giving you university credits. Although each exam costs $80-$100, the price for the university credits otherwise is usually much higher (at the range of $300-$600, depending on the exam). Also, these credits can give you some “down time” in university and thereby alleviate stress, or, if you choose, allow you to expand your horizons further by taking more electives.
The AP exams themselves are a challenge and a test of knowledge. If you score unsatisfactorily on the exam, you can cancel your score for a fee, although the score report will say “score cancelled” for that particular exam. A course is helpful in preparing for the exam, but many students self study the materials and write the exam – be sure to check with your school officials if you wish to attempt that, however, as some schools do not allow students that are not registered in a course to take the exam. In Canada in particular, finding a test center for self-studied students poses a formidable challenge.
Having AP exams in your academic record shows motivation and intellectual curiosity to colleges, so writing APs are helpful in the admissions process. The problem-solving and writing skills developed in those AP courses would also prepare you for university level work.
Exam Scoring:
The AP exams are scored on a scale from 1-5, with 1 acknowledging your ability to write your name on the exam paper, and 5 being fully competent in the exam materials. For each exam, about 20% of all students get a 5, and since the raw scores are not used in anything other than the Siemen’s award in the US, achieving perfection in the exam record is not extremely difficult. However, this also means that having 30 exams (the record number of AP exams taken by a single student, according to Collegeboard) may seem a lot better than having 6 exams, even if the person writing the 6 exams has achieved a perfect raw score in all of them, while the person writing 30 is merely on the borderline for 5s.
The raw score needed for a 5 varies by exam, but it is generally 55-70%. This allows for someone to not study everything in the course and still get a 5. A friend of mine who achieved a score of 5 for both AP Physics C Mechanics and Physics C Electricity & Magnetism had only taken the regular Physics B course, which, as opposed to C, has no calculus component and does not go into a number of important theorems. He started studying for Physics C the day before. That is not to say that he finished the entire course in one day (he did leave a full written question blank), but simply that he has studied sufficiently to cover more than 55% of the material.
How to write a university application essay
Posted by admin in Uncategorized, college on July 5, 2009
With the deadlines for university applications fast approaching, many students are scrambling to figure out how get their essays completed. The essays play an absolutely integral part in the success of an application. They can make a person with an average record stand out, or make a person with excellent scores fall to the ranks of the “denied” and the “regretted”. But how do you write an outstanding essay?
Audience
The first step to any writing is always to consider your audience, be it a school teacher, a politician, a newsreader, a peer, or an application reader. What are quintessential admissions officers like?
• They do not have a lot of time reading your essay. An average application reader spends less than 2 minutes on each essay.
• They read thousands of applications daily, with many repetitive stories.
• Depending on the college, their standard varies. A “solid” application with no outstanding qualities may suffice at a second-tier school, but would not be received with nearly as much excitement at HYP.
• They come from a variety of backgrounds in education.
• They get to know your academic and extracurricular records intimately.
The audience always determine every aspect of the writing. So what do these characteristics of your demanding audience imply?
a) Style
Your reader cannot spend a lot of time trying to decipher your abstract meanings and subtle innuendos, nor your hundred word sentences. Therefore, you writing must be succinct, clear, and flowing. While deep reasoning might be a part of your personality, revealing your ideas with simplicity is also a fundamental skill.
Top Liberal Arts Colleges: Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore and Beyond
Posted by admin in Uncategorized, college on July 5, 2009
Granted, many more would have heard of the “Big Three:” Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, than the “Little Three:” Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore. Yet the liberal arts colleges have a strong tradition lasting over two hundred years. In the elite circles of high-end business executives, graduate school admissions, and high-class society in general, these colleges have plenty of prestige.
Prestige doesn’t emerge from nothing. Unlike the national universities, which depend on world-changing research and top notch academics for their reputation, the liberal arts colleges give a great education – an added value that goes beyond the resume. Without the gigantic number of alumni to spread influence and increase the probability of having at least a couple of the graduates that are influential, the liberal arts colleges focus on only one tenth of the student body.
But they educate those few very well. Even Harvard, during its 2003 curriculum reform, made particular efforts to, quote, “becomes more like Amherst” in its teaching and general academic experience.
It is not that the professors of Liberal Arts Colleges are simply teachers. In fact, research is an important criterion in getting tenure in any institution of advanced study, and many academics, including several Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winners, reside in such colleges.
In addition to a passion for the life of the mind, however, Liberal Arts professors have an intense interest in teaching – the interest that led them to a smaller institution in the first place. To their students, they serve the role of the teacher and the mentor, challenging the minds and putting together a skill set that can hardly be overstressed: critical thinking, writing, analysis, and liberal debate.
Traditional and often high-calibre Liberal Arts schools do not train graduates for a set career. They are founded on the philosophy that the world is constantly changing, and the skills demanded to successfully navigate through it changes rapidly as well. Instead of spending four years concentrating on training for a job that may not even exist years later, these colleges are committed to training the mind into being capable of adapting in any social environment, and open doors for further training later.
After all, college graduates would have all their lives to learn their little niche, but only four years to see the entire world of human achievements and build enough skills to have a solid foundation regardless of their interest.
Medical schools, law schools, top financial firms, and graduate schooling are usually the landing grounds for the graduates of Top Liberal Arts Colleges, but even if the graduates may not get into any of these, the stimulation of the mind and the solid foundation still make them extremely successful – perhaps about ten years after graduation.
A 1998 study found that even though only 3 percent of American college graduates were educated at a residential liberal arts college, alumni of these colleges accounted for:
• 8 percent of Forbes magazine’s listing of the nation’s wealthiest CEOs in 1998
• 19 percent of U.S. presidents
• 23 percent of Pulitzer Prize winners in drama, 19 percent of the winners in history, 18 percent in poetry, 8 percent in biography, and 6 percent in fiction from 1960 to 1998
• 9 percent of all Fulbright scholarship recipients and 24 percent of all Mellon fellowships in the humanities
• 20 percent of scientists elected to the National Academy of Sciences
• 20 percent of Phi Beta Kappa inductions made between 1995 and 1997