Before we proceed, here are some info about me. I went to KTJ for A-levels, with a subject combo of economics, history and double math. I plan to major in Economics and concentrate in East Asian studies in Columbia. On top of applying to the US, I also applied to the UK and received offers from LSE, UCL, Warwick, Leeds and City University of London.

The idea of studying in the US appeared to me when I was 15 as I remembered myself shamelessly telling my friends that one day I’ll be going to one of those top-notch schools in the world. But it was out of my sheer admiration for the reputation and fame these schools bear. I had no idea what a liberal art college means and could barely give examples of US universities other than Harvard and MIT, left alone what courses I’m interested in pursuing.

Having said that, I still think applying to the US universities (US apps) was one of the most precious memories in my A-levels journey. I started off with only knowing taking the SAT is a prerequisite to apply to the US, I gradually became familiar with the mechanism and now, here I am, having everything set for my long-awaited university life to start.

When friends approached me asking for tips to successful US apps, the first thing that came to my mind is always “you don’t need to be perfect in everything”. In the end, the tedious and long application process that most of the US universities have is meant to give us as much space as we need to portray ourselves as an unique individual. It is not a prerequisite for you to be a CEO nor a Mathematical Olympiad gold medal holder because I believe everyone would have a unique life lesson that no one else could duplicate. Our job is to show the admission officers how the uniqueness has shaped us into who we are, how we think and what we believe. “The key lies on whether we can show them how interesting and high-potential we are as a teenager.” Hence, I think it is important that when you finish your essays, have other people proofread it, to see if they can picture “you” through the words you have written.

Though, the essay prompts could still be quite overwhelming. When this happens, I would suggest:

Talk to people who know you well as a person. By asking the right questions, I often found out interesting traits they saw in me that I never realized and this does help me to know myself better.
Reach out to people who are studying or have studied the courses or in the universities you are interested in because they know things that aren’t written on the university websites and often enough these would give us a very good grasp of the “true colors” of the university. So don’t be shy to ask people to connect you with all these seniors!
Brainstorm essay ideas when your mind is relaxed (at least it worked well for me haha). While waiting for people to come for dinners, listening to music, doing window-shopping, I would think about the essay prompts from time to time and a lot of crazy ideas or random flashbacks actually came from here.

Still, the application journey was definitely not a smooth one for me. I had experienced academic pressure to juggle between my A-levels syllabus and the tedious preparation for my SAT1 and SAT2 exams. Having no science subject in my A-levels, I have long detached from physics ever since I graduated from high school. Hence, taking the physics subject test became a big challenge for me (I planned to take “world history” initially but the exam board changed the timetable and physics became the only doable subject for me). With less than 2 months of preparation (and with other exams and school responsibilities on hand as well), to be completely honest, I didn’t manage to catch up with the entire physics syllabus well and thus I experienced the bitter taste of getting unsatisfying exam results.

If you too, are doing A-levels and are planning to apply to the UK universities as well, please don’t be surprised if you find Upper 6 Term 1 a bit hard. You might find yourself sacrificing some of your “messing-around” time with friends but it is just temporary and Term 2 would be much more enjoyable with most of the university application done. If this may help, try to settle your UCAS application ASAP so you can focus on refining the US essays because they are both of totally different approaches. (I wrote most of my UCAS PS over the summer and submitted it in the first week when the UCAS opened for application.)

I’m not going to lie, it was still hard, even with tons of help from seniors and friends. However, if I were to talk to myself from two years ago, I would still encourage her to do this. I’m not going to lecture you on how the US education system might fit you but rather I would say, keep reflecting on your intentions to apply: are you genuinely interested in the education system and the lifestyles the US could bring or are you attracted merely for the reputation of the universities? The application might be hard and tedious, but a clear vision of what you are pursuing for your next 3 or 4 years of life would make the journey more bearable or even enjoyable.

If there is only one thing that you could take from my sharing, then maybe let it be this: “You don’t have to figure everything out to start doing something ”. As you go through the process, things will become clearer to you and the day will come when it’s your turn to share your experience. May all of you have a successful application but don’t forget that on top of the application results, the knowledge, skills and network as well as mental growth we get throughout the process are those that make the journey more worthwhile. Because of applying to the US, you might get the opportunities to make friends with people of diverse interests who are equally passionate towards the idea of studying in the US; you might find yourself spending your free time more efficiently as you explore across different networks to learn about the works of professors in your prospective universities, the resources available in different college communities, as far as to the history and progression of the land that you might be spending your next 4 years on.

Man Ching

Man Ching is in her freshman year at Columbia and her prospective major is Economics and East Asian studies. Fun fact about her: she loves PINK and still watches Barbie. She is also one of the Assistant Editors for CollegeLAH’s US section. Feel free to drop her a message at leemanchingmc@gmail.com if you feel like asking anything.

Hullo!

I’m onto my second year reading Biological Natural Sciences at Homerton College, Cambridge.

Being a very disorganised and somewhat spontaneous person, my application to a university as fussy as Cambridge was … not great, to say the least.

It started with the UCAS application. In the early stages, while others were furiously typing away, I had a severe case of writer’s block. On top of not knowing what to write, I put it off for a long time, right up to the final days of the school’s internal deadline. I still distinctly remember the manic state I was in, furiously coming up with a rather poor first draft that was littered with repetition. This nightmare fuel of piss-poor planning will be recurring theme throughout my application process.

Then comes the time to choose a College – in case you’re wondering, the constituent Colleges in both Oxford and Cambridge are the ones in charge of admissions, and most people apply to a College of choice. As Colleges are where students are housed in and taken care of, it is an important aspect of your life as a student. I was a little impatient, and I chose my College mostly out of a whim, rather than sinking in time to browse through College websites. In hindsight, I don’t regret my choice, but I would highlyrecommend spending more than 20 minutes choosing a College!

In addition to the UCAS application as mentioned, an application to Cambridge requires you to complete an additional “questionnaire” called the COPA. It’s basically an extra UCAS application, with its own optional personal statement (1200 characters). While there are some cases where these are omitted, I would advise against this – don’t take your chances, do it.

Next comes the admission tests. Most Oxbridge courses mandate this, and Natural Sciences is no exception. I had to complete the NSAA, which is designed to be difficult to complete, let alone complete perfectly, like most admissions tests. However, you should get accustomed to the ridiculous time constraints, so practice is a must. There aren’t a lot of NSAA past papers, due to the NSAA being a rather recent addition to Cambridge’s arsenal, so practise with other papers relevant to your course first. For biology, the BMAT gives a good approximation of the speed expected in multiple choice questions. Leave the NSAA past papers to a week or two prior to D-Day.

If you’re getting interviewed in the UK, invitations start rolling in a few weeks after the tests are completed. Most people will get to this stage, as Cambridge is less stringent in their test score requirements relative to Oxford. They will ask you to fill in a form confirming your attendance – please read your emails thoroughly. I recall frantically asking hotel reception for a printer, then using CamScanner to scan my signed form, the day before the interview. Sigh.

Of course, there’s the interview, which may be the hardest to prepare for. No, it’s not because you have to know X or Y (you only need your A-levels), or answer for your College choices. They can’t care less. Who they’re looking for are people that can think on their feetand solve problems. Most of the time, they’re not even looking for the right answer – they just want to know your thought process. As such, ‘preparing’ for an interview by Oxbridge is not to memorise everything under the sun. Rather, the only way to prepare is to ready your mental and emotional aptitude to analyse problems, present your ideas and accept new ideas. This means you must engage with the interviewers, and say or write down what you think; an interviewer can only help or correct you if you tell them what you’re thinking of! Other than that, you’ll want to avoid feeling intimidated or feeling the need to impress your interviewers. Try to establish a rapport with them; interviewers often look for people that they would like to teach in their supervisions. Sadly, this does mean that most interviews are heavily luck-based – there’s no way of telling if you’ll get along well with your interviewers that day, or that a stroke of bad luck means they have a bad first impression. Nevertheless, practising and remembering to continuously engage with them should help get you as close to interview-ready as you can. If you can, do a few mock interviews. Cambridge’s Malaysian Society offers these during November, so keep your eyes peeled!

In hindsight, I could only chalk up to my “success” mostly on luck. I was lucky that there was leniency and leg room for me to scrape by for my lack of organisation. The NSAA paper allowed me to choose only chemistry questions to do, rather than awful biology essays. My interviewers were extremely friendly people, but were firm when they believed I needed some help.

Nevertheless, despite all the shortcomings, there is one aspect to my application which worked out: reading a lot. I was a fairly avid book reader at the time, which allowed me to explore my options and decide on what I liked best. It also helped strengthen my personal statement. If you’re an aspiring biologist, there are a few books I’d like to recommend!

A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution, by Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg (some valuable insights from the discoverer of CRISPR’s ability to do gene-editing)
Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth, by Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans (very accessible, entertaining, and concise description of recent advances in biology, and what we can do with them)
Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life by J. Craig Venter (from the guy crazy enough to “compete” against the US government in sequencing the human genome)
Any of Dawkins’ books about evolutionary biology, especially The Selfish Gene (try to avoid his other books about atheism, entertaining or infuriating as they may be)

Finally, my best advice for those who’d like to apply is … do it! If you believe you have the grades and capabilities to succeed in Oxbridge, or if other people are saying that you do, there’s a decent chance that you have a good shot to make it to the interview stage. If it were not for the latter, I would never have entertained the possibility of “wasting a slot on UCAS”, especially when I was having a difficult time in the early months of A-levels.

Alright, that’s all from me, really. If you’ve managed to get this far, congratulations, you get 10 internet points.

If not, TL;DR:

Stay organised and be thorough throughout the entire application process
Do your research before choosing your university or your College (if you’re aiming for Oxbridge)
Prepare for your admissions tests, because the time constraints are ridiculous
Academic interviews in Oxbridge ask of you to solve problems, not know everything. Engage with the interviewer, stay calm and focused, and build rapport!
Read far and wide

Hello there everyone My name is Shabita Nandy, and I will be beginning my first year as a Cardiff University medic in September. If you’re thinking of applying for medicine and feel completely overwhelmed by the avalanche of information and challenges it presents, that is completely understandable! So I wrote this article to help break down what your workload looks like into manageable chunks and how you can get through it, which you absolutely can!

There are 3 key components of your application that must be completed before you submit your application: your admissions tests(either UCAT or BMAT), your personal statement, and your IELTS examination.

Let’s talk about these first.

UCAT/BMAT

The first step of your application should be to have an idea of which universities you want to apply to so you can determine if you need to sit for one of these 2 tests or both. I chose to apply only to universities that required the UCAT so I did not do the BMAT.

One of the biggest hurdles of the UCAT test is the time crunch, so make sure you learn the on screen shortcuts and calculator functions. For example, I did not know that you could type the numbers on the keyboard instead of having to click them on the screen calculator and this saved me a remarkable amount of time! Besides that, all questions in each section are worth the same number of marks, so do not get distracted by any difficult questions at the start. Capitalise on the flag function by flagging those questions to solve later and complete as many questions as you can first.

The UCAT is an aptitude test, so the answers are 100% based on your interpretation of the question, as opposed to pre-learned content. Your best bet at acing it is to learn and practice the thinking patterns required to derive the correct answers for each section- essentially, building your aptitude! For example, in the abstract reasoning section, it is important to learn how to identify patterns in shape, size and number of lines; and in the verbal reasoning section, to discern between statements that are possibly true and those that are definitively true.

This is why I found that although there were plenty of practice questions online, watching videos and buying UCAT textbooks that provided detailed, step-by-step explanations were much more useful. Most of the tips I mentioned in this article are from these guide books and videos, so you should definitely check them out to find out more! Here are some of them.

Kharma medic is one of my favourite medic youtubers- I religiously watched every single one of his UCAT videos before my exam because they are extremely informative and helpful!

Personal statement

For medical personal statements, intellect and scientific curiosity are integral, but do not forget to highlight your empathetic, people-friendly side as well, as this is what differentiates doctors from other scientific career paths. Besides that, if you mention any books, experiences or accomplishments, make sure you are able to elaborate and discuss them in critical detail as your personal statement is likely to be brought up in interviews. It is always a good idea to adopt a reflective tone when discussing your interests and experiences, one that shows how they contribute to your understanding of and interest in a career in medicine.

IELTS

The IELTS examination is not as challenging for fluent English speakers, which you should be after completing your personal statement and UCAT exam, but it is advisable to read the online guidance and complete the practice questions provided by the British Council to acclimatise yourself to the examination format.

However, there are other unofficial feathers in your cap that you are encouraged to have as an aspiring medic such as volunteering experience, work or research experience or reading medical books. While these qualifications are not essential, medicine has become such a competitive field that almost all applicants will have some variation of them as they are a great way to improve your personal statement and interview experience.

Work experience/volunteering

Ideally, you should get some work experience in a clinical setting to gain some insight into what patient- centred care by a multidisciplinary team and your future workplace environment looks like. You could email hospitals or get in touch with any healthcare professional and request to shadow them for a week or two. If you are unable to secure a placement at a hospital, other healthcare settings you could gain exposure from include kidney dialysis centers, hospice homes or old folks homes. Most universities understand that it is very difficult to secure a work or research placement, but they do expect you to show that you have a sense of empathy and commitment, which you can display through any form of volunteering experience, even if it is not clinical.

Regardless of which route you take, the most crucial factor is being able to build a personal reflection that expresses how this experience has contributed to your passion and fitness for a medical career. For example, I volunteered regularly as a teacher at a refugee center during my A levels. In my personal statement, I discussed how teaching a group of kids aged between 7 and 12(the most hyperactive and excitable ages!) had taught me valuable lessons on commitment during challenging times, patience and empathy, all key qualities of a good doctor;

Reading medical books

Again, this is not essential to your application, but one of the ways you can show your passion for medicine is by being well-read. If you do opt for this, some authors whose writing I absolutely love are Atul Gawande, Henry Marsh and Paul Kalinithi(Kalinithi wrote a book called ‘When Breath Becomes Air before passing away that inspired my interest in neurology but also left me bawling by the end- a highly recommended read!).

Once you’ve submitted your application, you have one final stage of the selection process to complete and that is your interview. This was the most fun to prepare for me as I got to learn about medical ethics, key medical breakthroughs and reflect on my relationship with medicine, which really deepened my interest in the subject

Interviews can be challenging because they call for a sense of self-assurance and confidence in our thoughts that many of us struggle to achieve. I was an anxious, incoherent mess when I first began preparing for my interviews, but somehow managed to get all 3 offers from all 3 interviews I attended! So I would highly encourage everyone to start preparing early because although you will never feel completely ready, the more practice, research and preparation you do, the easier it gets to let go of your inhibitions and let your passion and intelligence shine!

There are two main types of interviews:- the Multiple Mini Interview(MMI) and the panel interview.

MMI

I attended the MMI interview for Cardiff University and Queen’s University Belfast. For MMI interviews, you get a short period of time( about a minute) to prepare an answer to each question so it is important to practice mentally organizing information and responding quickly. The interviewers usually won’t speak or prompt you with questions while you are delivering your answer, so it is important to practice delivering comprehensive and holistic answers so you can earn as many marks as possible.

Panel Interview

I attended the Barts and the London panel interview as well. These are typically much shorter and the environment is slightly more relaxed. For some panel interviews, like the one I attended, you may be given an article to discuss during the interview so make sure you read it thoroughly and can comment extensively on it.

Besides having a good grasp of the 4 pillars of medical ethics, the Good Medical Conduct guide available for doctors online is a really condensed, useful tool that I used in understanding medical ethics, a topic you will almost definitely be asked about. This guide can also help with the Situational Judgement section of your UCAT exam. Also make sure that you thoroughly research the learning style, curriculum and features of each university, as most universities want to be sure that you will thrive in their environment. Lastly, know just one or two news topics or advancements in case you are asked about them. The medic portal is a website that provides really great, easily digestible articles on the latest developments and topics of debate in the medical field for aspiring medics to read.

And once you’ve passed your interview, that marks the end of the application process. Getting into medical school is an enormous feat, but i promise that finally getting your offer is well worth the blood, sweat and tears! I hope you found this article useful, and wish you all the very best

Shabita Nandy is a bubbly first year medic at Cardiff University that intends to cultivate her dreams of becoming a doctor. When she isn’t studying or taking care of her friends, she spends her time marvelling over the intricacies of slam poetry and jamming out to the soundtrack of Disney movies and musicals (primarily Hamilton!)

When I first started joining Epsom, I was afraid that I wouldn’t have any friends but turns out Epsom is more welcoming than I expected. Having been in a boarding school before, I was very used to boarding but Epsom gave me more of an experience. I decided to take the opportunity to be a full-boarder meaning that I would be spending most of my weekends in school instead of going back home weekly (I live an hour away from Epsom). This is because Epsom provided me a lot of opportunities and top-notch facilities in order to develop my soft skills. I am proud to say that I am at least 10% better at sports now than I was before joining Epsom. Apart from that, I also got the chance to continue my passion for music. On weekends, I would be in the music room in Propert House playing the piano despite the fact that I did not sign up for proper music sessions (which you could if you are very passionate about music).

I was worried about transitioning into a new school but the people in Epsom are very welcoming and supportive. Due to its small community, everyone knows everyone here basically. You can always ask for any help and there will be somebody that will be coming to you to assist you. The Sixth Formers here in Epsom are very helpful and fun! We all work hard but we play hard as well! There are a lot of social events too – Christmas dinners, music concerts, drama performances, Epsom Edge and the Year 12 Midway Dinner. This is a great platform for students to socialise with others and build networks.

During my time in Epsom, I also got involved in activities outside the college, which was heavily supported by the school. For instance, I got the chance to be a part of the college’s winning ASA Viva team in which we won 1st place and RM500. The team consistedof 5 students (including myself), where we had to conduct research about the public healthcare system in Malaysia and what could be done to bring more equality and fairness into it. This was certainly very challenging as we had to present it in a viva presentation to Dr.Greta from Exeter University. This taught me the values of teamwork and the techniques needed in researching. These values will help me a lot in university later on in my life.

In Year 12, I was involved with the college leadership team – having joined the College Committee. Fast forward to Year 13, I was appointed as the college’s new Academic prefect for the next academic year 2019/2020. I was very excited and couldn’t wait to start contributing to the college to assist the staff and students in Epsom.

So how was it like to be at one of the most expensive private international schools in Malaysia?

To be very honest, it was an enjoyable experience. It felt very posh, and at first, it didn’t feel like a school. It was more like a daycare centre, having comfortable en-suite rooms and buffet-style meals. But then again, it was indeed stressful because of the college rules and regulations ; you can’t do this, you can’t do that. Most of my teachers were British so it took a while for me to understand but I am proud to say that I managed to adapt myself. There were times where it was problematic, having to change teachers every term but hey, you just need to be a little bit more independent. Definitely a different experience to my previous public all-boys boarding school life.

I would have never pictured myself to be spending the last few days of A-Levels at home. With the whole COVID-19 pandemic situation going on and a myriad of national Movement Control Order restrictions being imposed, I missed the chance to properly bid farewell to the people who were there for me throughout my 2 bittersweet years in Epsom College. Indeed, it was one hell of a ride. Ups and downs. Failures after failures. Countless of heartaches and misunderstandings. Disappointments and sorrow. Nonetheless, I consider these to be a huge part of my character development and for that I am forever grateful.

Most memorable experiences?

Throughout my 2 years, obviously I focused most of my time on academics. For your information, I took Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Economics, Politics and EPQ. Fun Fact: Epsom is the only college in Malaysia that offers A-Levels Politics! The thing is that when you’re enrolled in a ‘sports’ school like Epsom College, you can never avoid doing sports. Don’t get me wrong, I never hated sports, in fact I enjoy them but I just didn’t have the courage (and time) to do any? But then again, being in Epsom, I took the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and actually joined various sports. I participated in House Football, Rugby, Basketball, Badminton, joined gym classes, swimming, archery and took some martial art classes. I also managed to lose some weight since joining Epsom partially because of the sports. Ever since Christmas dinner in 2018, I started a pescatarian diet (someone who only eats veges and seafood) and proud to say that I am still on the diet.

Apart from that, I definitely enjoyed meeting new people and socialising with a bunch of different people with different ethnicities and backgrounds. Don’t worry if you live far away from home and planning on to join Epsom! Here in Epsom, we celebrate every festivals and cultural events; Eid-ul Fitri, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Christmas and etc. Epsom College embraces all the students and the diversity they bring to the school. With so many different festive celebrations, you will get to understand more about other people’s culture and in a way, experience a whole new different environment. With the newly established International Prefect post, students coming from other countries can seek help and guidance if you ever feel homesick or in need of any assistance. Epsom Prefects are really nice people! Trust me, I was one!

I spent 5 years in an all-boys public boarding school before joining Epsom so obviously it feels awkward having to see girls at school (maybe just me). Nonetheless, I am totally grateful for being at Epsom I guess, it felt like a training ground for me before going to the UK for my studies.

Student Support?

My experience in Epsom was wonderful despite being here for only 2 years. Throughout my A-Level journey, Epsom has provided me more than just quality British education, I was exposed to many doors of opportunities. The student support is amazing especially when it comes to university application. I was grateful to had gotten all 5 of my UK university offers and plan on reading Economics at the University of Warwick this summer. In Year 13, I was appointed as the Academic Prefect, this gave me the chance to enhance my leadership skills and, in a way, it helped me understand the meaning of teamwork and communication. Best part of being in Epsom College is the community here. Settling in Epsom was not a problem because the housemasters and housemistresses really take good care of you. There will always be somebody that you can talk to whenever you’re feeling down in the dumps. Even with the current Covid-19 pandemic going on, I was still able to attend all my classes virtually. The teachers were very committed and determined to carry on with lessons despite being far apart from the students.

In a nutshell, Epsom College provided me the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and broaden my horizon. A-Level is more than just academics. What’s important is how you enhance your soft skills and at the same time grow as a person. I am so grateful to spend my 2 years of A-Levels in Epsom College because of the amazing student support and facilities. Surely I will recommend 10/10!

Scholarships Available If You Are Interested !!!

Good grades in SPM/IGCSE? Have a talent for sports and music? Then why don’t you apply for an Epsom College Scholarship! You can either apply for the academic, sports, music or the prestigious Tune Libra scholarship in which you can be waived 100% from your tuition fees! Check out if you are eligible for any of the scholarships listed @ Epsom College website.

Link – https://www.epsomcollege.edu.my/admissions/scholarships-and-bursaries/academic-scholarships/

So how was it like to be at one of the most expensive private international schools in Malaysia?

Most memorable experiences?

Student Support?

Scholarships Available If You Are Interested !!!

Link – https://www.epsomcollege.edu.my/admissions/scholarships-and-bursaries/academic-scholarships/

Muhammad Alif Iman did his SPM in Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah (SAS) and completed his A-Level in Epsom College (ECiM). He’s currently reading Economics @ The University of Warwick, UK (Class of 2023).

Disclaimer: This article was originally written by Annabelle Ooi in 2014 and reviewed/edited by the CollegeLAH team in September 2020

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FINANCIAL AID PART ONE: JARGONS & CHOOSING UNIVERSITIES

Hello prospective Class of 2019 (and later)! I am Annabelle, a sophomore at Mount Holyoke College. When I applied to American universities, I remember being overwhelmed and frustrated (well… mostly frustrated) by its tedious financial aid application process, a phase I am sure most of you are going through right now. I hope my article does its part in tiding you through the process.

Before we begin, let’s get our terminology straight.

Scholarships (merit-based) versus Financial Aid (need-based)

Merit scholarships are awarded based on merit on the nature of academics/extracurriculars. On many cases merit scholarships alone might not be sufficient to offset the total cost of attendance because they are not tailored to a student’s financial need. However, note that one or more merit scholarships can also be part of a need-based financial aid package.

Need-based financial aid is offered based on your financial need, i.e. the difference between the total cost of attendance of a university and how much your parents/guardians can afford to pay. A typical need-based financial aid package is comprised of one or more of the following: grant, merit scholarship(s), student loan and work-study.

State/public universities generally offer only merit scholarships for international students whereas private research universities and liberal arts colleges usually offer both need-based aid and merit scholarships. UC schools do not offer financial aid for international students but if students are selected for Chancellors’ and Regents’ scholarship after getting an offer, their full financial need will be covered. – include this. Some schools also offer 90% scholarship/financial aid, so you only need to pay just $1000-2000 per year.

Need-aware versus Need-blind

Universities that offer need-based financial aid are either need-aware or need-blind.

Need-blind universities are universities that do not consider your financial need when deciding your admissibility. In other words, applying for financial aid will not “hurt” your chances of being admitted to these universities. Conversely, universities that are need-aware will take into account the fact that you applied for financial aid when considering you for admission.

**In case you still have trouble differentiating the terms I introduced, keep in mind that the word, “need-based”, describes a financial aid policy, whereas the terms, “need-blind” and “need-aware”, are used in relation to admission.

POP QUIZ!

Drawing from what you read earlier, if you are admitted and offered a need-based financial aid package by a university, you now have the financial means to attend this particular university. Is this true? (You have 5 seconds to scroll back and check if you dozed off reading just now.)

*
*

The answer is no. (“What?! But you said […]”) Okay, to be fair, that was a trick question. Note that not all universities that offer need-based aid promise to meet 100% demonstrated financial need.

Need-based versus Meets Full Need

Some people might have a hard time differentiating between the concepts of need-based and meeting 100% demonstrated need, so I am going to show some calculations below in regard to this.

Say you, an aspiring scarer, applied to Monsters University and got admitted with a need-based financial aid package.

Total cost of attendance for Monsters University: USD 58000
MINUS
The amount your parents can afford to pay: USD 9500
EQUALS TO
Your financial need: USD 48500
(This is how much financial aid Monsters U should offer you in order for you to attend)

However, Monsters U does not promise to meet full need.

Monsters U adcoms are aware that you need USD 48500-worth of financial aid in order to enroll but unfortunately the university does not have sufficient funding, so you are awarded USD 30000 in financial aid and have until May 1st to decide if you want to enroll.

****** 10-minute water break ******

Choosing universities

The ideal university for a financial aid applicant would, of course, be one that offers need-based aid, is need-blind in terms of admission and promises to meet 100% demonstrated financial aid. Sounds too good to be true? Well, good news for you – they do exist! As of now, there are six need-blind universities in the States that meet full need: Amherst, Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Yale. (Technically, Amherst is a liberal arts college, but for the sake of consistency I will maintain the usage of the term, “university”, in this article.)

“But… as financial aid applicants, we don’t only have five universities to choose from, do we?”

Of course not! There are many universities in the States that, albeit being need-aware, offer need-based aid and promise to meet full need upon admission. When I applied, I had the fortune of stumbling upon a website that had an almost comprehensive list of need-aware, full-need universities. Click on ‘Paying’ on the left-hand side and set the filters to “100% financial need met” and “financial aid available for international students”, voilà – some 69 universities miraculously pop up.

There are, however, two shortcomings about this site:

There is a very rigid toggle limit for the %-of-financial-need-a-school-can-meet function. The next percentage down from 100 that you can select is 80. Even schools that meet 99.9% need, only 0.1% down from full need, will be ruled out if you set the filter to 100%. I believe that universities that meet more than 98% of financial need should not be ruled out because, speaking from personal experience, there is always the possibility of appealing/negotiating for more aid upon admission.
Some universities don’t report data on financial aid.

FINANCIAL AID PART TWO: APPLICATION MATERIALS

For international financial aid applicants, you typically submit the CollegeBoard CSS/ Financial Aid PROFILE or the International Student Financial Aid Application (ISFAA). Sometimes the Certificate of Finances (COF) is required along with the ISFAA. In rare cases, some universities, like Bates, Franklin & Marshall, Hamilton and Middlebury, use their own financial aid application forms for international students. In addition to your main financial aid application form, most of the time universities will also ask for certified copies of your parents’ statements of income and tax return forms.

CollegeBoard CSS/ Financial Aid PROFILE (Base fee of USD9 + USD16 per university)

This is an online form and the only form that allows you to fill in amounts using Malaysian Ringgit. If you are applying to universities that use a combination of PROFILE and ISFAA and/or COF, I suggest you start with PROFILE and plug in the numbers using the current exchange rate to other forms later.

CollegeBoard International Student Financial Aid Application and (sometimes) Certification of Finances (free of charge)

These forms come in .pdf format so you can either complete these forms with Adobe or print them out and fill them in manually. Everything in both forms should be completed in USD.

Statement of Income

This would generally be your parents’ monthly pay slips. If they are not in English, translate them into English and have your parents’ employers certify the copies. Companies have these in soft copies – so ask your parents to try to get the soft copies for translation purposes. It does not matter in which currency the amounts are denominated as long as the currency used has been clearly stated. There is no specific requirement as to how many monthly pay slips you should submit, but I submitted three consecutive ones for both parents.

Back when I applied some universities asked for an annual statement of income instead of monthly statements. Neither of my parents’ companies had one of those, so I printed the numbers on my parents’ company letterhead and had my parents’ employers certify them. Below is a template for this in case any of you ever need it.

To Whom It May Concern,

Verification of Annual Income and Taxes Paid in Year 201X

I hereby verify the details of my employee, XXXXXXX as followed:
a) Total Amount of Income Received in Year 201X: RM XXXXX
b) Total Taxes Paid in Year 201X: RM XXXX

Yours faithfully,
XXXXXXX

Tax Return Form

For parents who work in private sectors in Malaysia, this would be the EA form. If you have to translate this form, an English version is readily available in .pdf online. Again, your parents’ employers need to certify these.

FINANCIAL AID PART THREE: MINIMIZING APPLICATION COSTS & OTHER TIPS

The financial cost of applying to American universities can add up, and it doesn’t help that we have to multiply everything by 3.20 or so. Here’s how to not break your (parents’) bank on your way to ‘Murica:

1. Have your college application fee waived (You save:USD 60-80 per school)

Have your school counselor write an application fee waiver request on your behalf, attesting to how the application fee is going to put a strain on your family’s finances. Support with evidence like your annual household income, number of dependants in your family, the total cost of application you have to pay and the current exchange rate. Alternatively, you can write it yourself and have your counselor certify it.

How to submit your college application fee waiver request:

Most colleges want you to mail it physically. However postage can be costly (not as costly as the application fee, but still.) so I asked my counselor to scan and attach the waiver request within her online recommendation letter. For schools that specify they need to receive a fee waiver request before you apply, you can always try sending them a scanned copy of the fee waiver request, explain how posting it will strain your family’s finances, ask if they can accept the scanned copy for now and promise that you will have your counselor send it online along with the rec letter.

How to submit Common App with a fee waiver:

2. Have your test scores sent through counselor (You save: RM100 for IELTS per school and USD11.25 for SATs per school; not sure about TOEFL)

In order to do this, you need to write to individual schools and ask in advance, or schools will deem your application incomplete. You don’t need a formal letter like the fee waiver request; just shoot them an email stating how sending scores via CollegeBoard/ETS/IDP will strain your finances and ask if it’s possible to send them via your counselor instead.

Which score report to submit:

CollegeBoard doesn’t provide you with a physical copy of your SAT test score report unless you request and pay for it. Instead of doing this I downloaded the Online Student Score Report that is available free-of-charge to everyone who has taken the SAT and had my counselor submit the first page of both my SAT I & SAT II reports. There will be a watermark that says “NOT AN OFFICIAL SCORE REPORT” embedded somewhere highly visible on your online report, but fear not – this report will be considered official by most schools once your counselor stamp and certify it.

Where your counselor should attach your test scores:

If you have all your scores ready by the time your counselor submits the Mid-Year Report, have him/her attach them in the Mid-Year Report. Otherwise, wait till all your scores are in and have your counselor submit an Optional Report. I would suggest that you consolidate all test scores and submit them in the same report, i.e. either the Mid-Year Report or the Optional Report. Submitting them separately can be very confusing for the adcoms, and they are already doing you a favor by accepting these score reports via your counselor (this means the extra workload of entering your scores into the system manually), so be considerate!

3. Have your PROFILE fee waived (You save: Base fee of USD9 & USD16 per school)

You do this in two ways:

Ask for a PROFILE fee payment code by explaining your financial hardship

For reference, schools that provided me with a code were Amherst, Colorado, Cornell, Duke, Lafayette, Mount Holyoke, NYU and Skidmore. Not all schools offer a fee payment code, though. And if they don’t, go for option b.

Ask if they accept the ISFAA and COF in lieu of the PROFILE

Schools that I applied to had varied responses to this. Some agreed to it; some didn’t but agreed to hold off my PROFILE requirement until (if) I receive an admission offer; others sent me their own financial aid application form that they reserve for only students who cannot afford the PROFILE.

4. Have your financial documents (e.g. parents’ statements of income and tax return forms) sent electronically (You save: Whatever postage costs)

Additional Notes:

The bulk of what I wrote above applies only to those with lower/mid-level household income. If you do not fall under this category and attempt to abuse these fee waivers by misrepresenting your application, know that in life what goes around ultimately comes around.
When approaching the schools for waivers, be polite but persistent and assertive. You will be surprised at what you can get simply by asking.
Financial aid applicants should also consider the availability of funding for unpaid summer internships and study abroad programs in a particular university before applying. This might not seem as important at the moment, but – trust me – it will be highly relevant in a year or two.

Annabelle Ooi is a neuroscience major in Mount Holyoke College. She is probably one of the few unartistic left-handers in this world who can’t draw and is tone-deaf. Feel free to email her with questions on financial aid, NeXXt scholar program, liberal arts colleges and life in an all-women’s college.

My name is Nashwa Nabihah binti Saiful Yazan and I am currently in my second year of Mechanical Engineering in IUT Grenoble, France. I am under the scholarship of Yayasan Telekom Malaysia for their Overseas scholarship programme in which I was offered France for their 6 years of Engineering programme.

To be choosing France for my undergraduate studies, I would say it was more towards by chance instead of by choice but it was by far the best chance I have managed to grab. France is widely known for their engineering schools as this field of study is one of the biggest in the country and also on how they prioritize hands-on learning for the students. These are a few of the driving factors on why I chose France as my place for study.

During my first year in France, which was in 2018, I had to go to a preparatory school for a whole year where I studied French and science-based subjects which were Chemistry, Physics, Mechanics and Mathematics in order to be able to apply to the universities here. It is required for the international students to be certified with a level DELF B2 for their French language and to score a minimum of 12/20 for their overall performance during their preparation year. Thus, I would say that the preparation year was more towards getting use of French as our first language of study and performing well in DELF.

The university application was done by one of our professors in which he would request the students to shortlist a maximum of 3 choices of university and their desired course. He/she would then look into our results for both semesters before proceeding to send our applications. We would be given a few words of advice from the professors regarding our performance and their recommendations on our desired course. In general, the university applications differ from one university to another. As for me, my application required my results from both semesters and they would process it themselves and reach back to me within 3 months for my application result. For some of my friends, they had to undergo a phone interview with their university and submit a Personal Statement as a mandatory process for the application. I have chosen IUT Grenoble as my first choice to pursue my studies as this university is ranked as one of the top 5 best universities in France and they are known for their practical class experience as they are equipped with advanced robotic technologies and fabrication machines. Grenoble is one of the best student cities in France where there are many students’ residences with an affordable living cost for the students compared to other big cities in France (e.g. Paris). The location is also a driving factor for me as it is located at Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, a region famous for its plethora of mountains, ski resorts and national parks that can be discovered for a nature enthusiast like me.

My university application to IUT Grenoble was successful as I had met the minimum requirements of my semester’s examination. All in all, the pushing factor would be on how interested I was to be pursuing Mechanical Engineering in their university and that was why I have worked hard in my Mechanics and Mathematics during my preparation year. My advice is that it is crucial for the students to do well during their preparation year, especially on subjects on which course they would want to pursue for their upcoming years because it would add as an extra point as to why they would have to accept your application. Most importantly, focus on your progress in French language as it is very much required as the classes in university are all being done in French. With all of these and endless determination, everything will be eased for your future application into French universities!

Nashwa Nabihah is currently a second year mechanical engineering student in IUT Grenoble (Batch FP19). She is sponsored by Yayasan Telekom Malaysia and loves cappuccino more than she loves herself.

My name is Arjun Alberts and I am currently studying Sports Management and Business in Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HVA). I have just started my second year of my course over the four years in total.

I firstly chose this course due to the fact that the sports business industry is rapidly booming hence why I felt that landing a job in the future in the sports industry would be very accessible after studying this course. Moreover, the sports management course in HVA gives you the opportunity to do two internships over the four years which excited me as I was looking to broaden and create my network in the sports industry before actually diving into it. Apart from my obvious interest and love for sports, I chose to come to Amsterdam firstly due to me being half dutch which made things slightly easier but also because the tuition fees being much lower than the UK, especially for an international student. This also results in saving your parents a lot of money. Besides, Amsterdam itself is such a diverse city which really attracted me to living in Amsterdam. Everyone in Amsterdam speaks English making your life a lot easier.

To apply for courses in the Netherlands, you will need to use Studielink which gives you access to all the different courses in the Netherlands. Requirements depend on what course you apply to but be prepared with at least a motivational letter and your grades to show, like any other uni. Moreover, most Universities in the Netherlands require you to sit for an entry exam regardless of whether your course is in Dutch or English.

One major key that boosts your motivational letter/personal statement is showcasing who you really are as an individual and supporting it with something you have achieved or experienced in the past. It doesn’t necessarily have to be winning the world cup, but universities like seeing your ability to express your qualities even if it’s from a small accomplishment, as long as you feel it has impacted you and there has been a change from then on. In my case, I used my story of having need to overcome a whole string of terrible injuries which inevitably ended my hopes of taking my football career to the next level. I showcased that regardless of what happened, I was able to be resilient and get back up on my feet to find new opportunities which, in fact, has turned out very well considering the current situation I am in.

Another important aspect of getting into my university was keeping close contact with my university which showed them I was interested and keen to study their course. Although my grades weren’t as good as they could have been, I feel me being open and showing my interest definitely played a role at making up for that.

In all, it is totally fine if you are lacking in your academics or are uncertain of which university suits you best in terms of living there or the course itself. The best advice I can give you is to carefully consider and question yourself on how studying in that specific university will benefit you in the next four to five years as after university, you are going to be thrown straight into the real world, and this time the real, real world.

My names Arjun Alberts, 19 years of age and I’m from Holland but I have lived most of my life in Malaysia. Quite frankly, I love living in Amsterdam and I couldn’t ask for anything better.

Kolej Yayasan UEM (KYUEM), or KY as it’s commonly known, is an A Levels boarding college located in Lembah Beringin, Selangor. And yes, specifically for A Levels only. That may be surprising to many because you practically never hear of colleges focusing on one type of course. But, that’s KY! So, as a former KY student, I’ll be breaking KY down into a few aspects: education, the KY community, our university relations department, food, activities/events, and the KY lifestyle.

Education

Two key factors that always drive people to apply to KY are the academic & university admissions track records of the college, which to me can be broken down into three defining aspects: our student-teacher ratio, the competitive academic environment, and our teachers.

A great aspect of KY is our super small student-teacher ratio. Most classes have about 16 to 17 students on average which gives each student great face-time with their teacher, ensuring classes don’t seem like mass lectures. These classes are kept small through our block system in which each student gets a specific block for each class. So, for example, Math is our most subscribed subject, since almost the whole student body takes Math. That said, all the students taking Math are divided into different blocks under different teachers, which ultimately ensures each class keeps to the small student-teacher ratio discussed. In a day, there are 6 blocks in total with each student getting one specific block per subject, leaving students normally free for 2-3 blocks a day (depending on the subjects they do). To me, this is an excellent system to keep students structurally engaged with their subjects on a daily basis.

Now, the competition between students. Academic competition in KY is EXTREMELY HIGH, across all subjects! No joke about that. We have students who cry when they don’t get a 100% for Math (they get 99% instead), we have students in every batch who get Top in Malaysia & Top in the World awards, and we generally just have students who are constantly on top of their academic game for all their subjects. Daunting? Absolutely. But, empowering? Absolutely too. The community is so driven to excel that consciously and subconsciously, you’re motivated to keep pushing harder, to strive to achieve your personal best. That said, I personally wasn’t great academically and therefore, really found KY stressful and overwhelming every day. The pressure can get to you. But, in hindsight, I am grateful that I had my KY experience to help me deconstruct how I study, to help me really challenge myself not just intellectually but in my academic stamina, and above all, to really make sure I actively pursue my dreams with everything I have within me. KY can be an extremely scary place but it can really teach you so much as well (and definitely not just academically).

Finally, teachers. If I’m being honest, not every subject has the best of teachers and even teachers within a faculty can range from excellent to maybe not so. Maybe it’s the naturally competitive spirit of KY that actually fuels the academic achievements of our students, but just as much as some teachers make powerful, important differences in these students’ academic life, others can really be negative factors. I had wonderful teachers for History and Economics (shout-out to Dr Cooke and Puan Zai, if you’re reading this!) and they really were such great influences throughout my two years at KY. But, sadly, not everyone in KY can say that about their teachers. So, frankly if you’re looking for excellent teachers across all subjects, KY may not give you that. But, if you’re willing to take a chance and see which teachers you end up with, trust that beyond just the classroom, there will be amazing batchmates to help you in every subject because if there’s one thing that every student in KY will vouch for, it’s our sense of community.

The KY Community

Now, coming to probably my most important point of all: KY’s community. The camaraderie we have is sublime. Many of us found family within the community and many of us genuinely believe that the bonds that most of us have with each other will last our entire lives. Not going to lie, sometimes the community is the only reason you stay on in KY, in spite of all struggles. KY gave me some of the best people in my life and that is something I’ll always be grateful for.

This may surprise you but despite the academically competitive nature of KY, the people in KY are genuinely some of the most helpful people you’ll find and linking my first point (education) to this second point now, the community is there to help support you academically, not because they have to but because they want to. No doubt about that.

Also, one reason why our community is as tight-knit as it is is because of our housing system. We have 4 houses in KY – Garnet, Topaz, Diamond and probably the greatest house of them all, Sapphire. Sapphire is truly the greatest! But, ok moving on hehe, this housing system is very much like Hogwarts and you’ll have many activities and bonding events with your house members. Everyone is automatically part of a house and that house spirit will carry on even past your KY days. Evidently. Hehe.

University Relations Department

So, back to the education side of KY. As mentioned earlier, two big factors that lead people to KY are our academic and UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS track records. *Enter KY’s universally accepted favourite person* PUAN KAS! If you think you know what a gem of a person is, be prepared to see this embodied in Puan Kasthuri Thillaga. Puan Kas is our University Relations head and she guides students in all our applications, be it for the UK, US, Australia, Hong Kong, Netherlands or so on, while also providing course-specific help regardless if you’re applying for medicine or like me, for a humanities course. Puan Kas liases directly with universities as well and if you’re really looking for a great place that equips you in all your applications, KY IS AMAZING FOR THAT. ( If you ever read this, Puan Kas, we love you!)

So, now that we’ve talked about the three most pertinent aspects of KY (education, community, university relations department), let’s go on to food, activities, and the KY lifestyle!

Food

Okay so the most miserable part of KY lol is our food. Our dining hall food is not great. Ok, not great is an understatement but you get my point… I’m not a big foodie so as much as I know the food’s not good, it never really bothers me (unless they serve butter chicken with butter rice and butter vegetables, WHICH THEY HAVE AND AHHH THAT’S ONE MEAL I CAN’T STAND. TOO MUCH RICHNESS). But, I do know the quality of food here does bother many other students.

Which leads me to my next sub-point: our cafe. The cost for dining hall food is included in the fees paid to KY, so no expenses are required on a day-to-day basis. But, we do have a cafe! Where money can be spent on getting other food – nasi goreng, better buffet food, milo dinosaur etc. So, if you really can’t stand our dining hall food, there’s always the cafe if you wanna spend money. Sometimes, some KL/Selangor kids bring food from home on a weekly basis and store them in their mini fridges that are SUPPOSEDLY there for *health purposes lol. Either way, that’s the low-down on KY cuisine.

Activities/Events

Activities! Now, contrary to popular misconceptions, KY ISN’T A PLACE WHERE YOU ONLY STUDY 24/7. I mean, yes, it can be that place if you want it to be. But, we have tonnes of sports and societies to be a part of, with tonnes of house activities, competitions, events, and performances to be involved in. Students can be seen having sports time every evening after classes, all non-competitive. But, if you want to be part of competition teams for certain sports like football, rugby, touch rugby, badminton, or Ultimate Frisbee, you can as well! As for events, we have loads of college events scattered throughout the semesters and these truly end up being huge highlights of our time there. From Hari Raya & CNY celebrations to Diwali Night, from Bangsawan/Boria competitions to Sports Carnival/Health Awareness Week and finally, to our End-of-Semester dinners, you have so many fun experiences to look forward to! And a big point to note of: nothing is compulsory. Everything is your choice, so it’s completely up to you to tailor your life according to what you want to be involved in!

The KY Lifestyle

And finally, to conclude, the KY lifestyle. Three important facts to remember: boarding college, away from the city, lack of access to public transport. As a city girl, I LOVED the KY life. It was refreshing and invigorating and it brought me to a whole different side of the world. And I truly, truly loved boarding life. No joke! KY was my first boarding experience and I’m so glad I had that. That said, it is quite hard to get out of KY if you need to. Our closest access to public transport is the Tanjung Malim KTM station which you’d normally have to book a taxi to get to, since KY is in Lembah Beringin (an area beside Tanjung Malim). The college does provide frequent trips to KL malls which you can sign up for and some students even rent cars from some car dealers in Tanjung Malim for certain daytime lepak sessions. But, yes, if you’re a person who wouldn’t like being cooped up on campus grounds all the time and if you’re from far states, the seclusion of KY can be hard, especially on weekends when students are normally left to themselves. But, remember what I said about the KY community. There will always be people for you to spend time with over the weekends and in fact, given how hectic our weekday schedules are, sometimes you do need quiet weekends to just chill and bond with friends. To me, the KY lifestyle is unique if you’re up to an independently structured life, away from the regularity you have.

All in all, with all the above aspects considered, KY was one of the greatest experiences I ever had in my life. Hands down. And yes, it can be an extremely overwhelming place with so much pressure, not just externally but from within you as well. But, it’s a place that shapes you. It’s a place that assists you in achieving your dreams and above all, becomes a place where you can work towards being the best version of yourself, if you can see the beauty in the KY experience. So, if you’re worried about coming to KY, know that we all felt the same way. But, you will learn from your KY experience and you will thrive in your own special ways because KY makes you see parts of yourself you may never have before.

And, remember my most important point. Point No 2. The KY community. You’ll find a family here. And the people you’ll meet here will be some of the greatest blessings you’ll ever have in your life.

Abbernaa Dhevi Kukananthan is currently reading Human, Social, and Political Sciences (HSPS) at the University of Cambridge. The number 5 is her least favourite single digit because it’s a centrist number!!! Her favourite numbers are 6,7, and 8. (She promises that it doesn’t say anything about her political leanings…)
If you intend to contact the author, feel free to contact the CollegeLAH Team at contactus@collegelah.com.

When hunting for scholarships post-SPM or otherwise, you might’ve come across this either familiar or alien acronym: PNB. For those who don’t know, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) is a Malaysian investment company; you may have heard of some of their products like ASNB or their projects like the Merdeka 118 skyscraper. PNB gives out multiple types of scholarships to mostly Bumiputera students as part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative, but here I’ll highlight the nitty-gritty of my experience in applying for the 2019 PNB Global Scholarship Award (Anugerah Biasiswa Luar Negara PNB).

Before that, let me give you a little run-down of what this particular scholarship is and what it entails. PNB Global Scholarship Award provides outstanding students tertiary education opportunities at approved top universities abroad, namely the United Kingdom and the United States. PNB scholars enjoy the liberty to pick their university courses to their hearts’ content (except medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, or other non-relevant courses like music or theology). PNB sends its scholars to Kolej Yayasan UEM (KYUEM) to study Cambridge A-Levels as the preparatory course, and fully covers all academic expenses (even external exams like SATs!) while also giving an allowance.

There is an employment bond between the scholars and PNB: one year of sponsorship in Malaysia gives you one year of bond, one year abroad gives you two years, totaling to either eight or ten years of bond depending on how long your course is. While this may deter some, I personally see this as a win—a job at a renowned investment house and an opportunity to advance in the corporate world. Indeed, I am eternally grateful for being blessed with receiving the 2019 PNB Global Scholarship Award.

Now then, let’s get to the crux of this article: the application.

THE APPLICATION STAGES

Stage 1

While the stages do happen in this exact chronological order, what constitutes as a “stage” is my own arbitrary choice. So, stage 1 (according to me, haha) would be filling in the application form.

Now, if you’re anyone like me, you probably already have some other scholarship application underway, and you’d know that most other sponsors have some kind of online portal to fill in the application form details. PNB, however, employed more traditional methods—mail and email. The application form was an excel sheet, but don’t let that intimidate you. I didn’t encounter weird technical issues and, in many ways, it really was just like the online forms. Some things to keep in mind when filling up the form:

READ THE FINE PRINTS. In my cycle of the application, we were required to send the completed form via e-mail and physical mail. Some applicants missed the mailing part and their application was not considered (my 11A+ friend fell victim to this, but he did secure another scholarship though, thankfully). In your cycle, the form submission process may differ, so do read the small prints.
Check your email and phone frequently. PNB relays information through email and often requires you to reply as confirmation (even accepting the scholarship is done via email). Occasionally, PNB will call you to remind you of the upcoming stage, ask you about important details or inform any changes to the venue and whatnot.
Choose your course wisely. You have the freedom to change their intended course later during A-Levels as you see fit, but your A-Level subjects will largely be determined by your initial course choice, making especially a major change a difficult process.
There is (or was, anyway) no essay! So, if you’re eligible to apply, I strongly urge you to do so.

Shortly after sending the application form, I got the confirmation email and, about two and a half weeks later, the invitation email to the next stage.

Stage 2

If you’ve met the minimum requirements and eligibility for the scholarship, chances are you’ll receive an email invitation to the next stage: the written test. My test was carried out at the PNB Tower at Jalan Tun Razak, KL. At this point, there were a lot of qualified applicants, so the pool of applicants was spread over a few days to take the test.

Despite what PNB called it, this test was not, strictly speaking, a written test—it’s multiple-choice. The test took about three hours and consisted of three aptitude sections and one psychometric one. The aptitude portion was made up of numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, and logical/inductive/diagrammatic reasoning sections. In simpler words, maths, English, and puzzles (I really don’t know how to describe this one). I didn’t study for the test but I did take a look at sample questions from this website.

Honestly, at this time, I didn’t bank on getting the PNB scholarship because I didn’t complete all the questions and I wasn’t really hopeful with the prospect of being one of the ~25 per something-hundred successful applicants. But I did my best to answer those questions, and you should too!

Stage 3

Around 3 weeks later, I received another email invitation, this time it was for the interview session. The interview also took place at the PNB Tower. By then I already had an experience at another interview (JPA) and it.. did not turn out very well, so I vowed to do better in this one. Aside from researching common interview questions, I also read the 2018 PNB Annual Report and familiarised myself with corporate and finance jargon. If you make it to this stage, do acquaint yourself with current issues, especially in the field of finance and investment, as I found that PNB does like it if you can show that you’ve gone that extra mile.

My interview session was on a blue Monday, 13th May 2019. It was a hot and slow day, and when I arrived at the tower, the previous interview session hadn’t ended yet. The interview sessions were carried out in groups of four. I was the first person to arrive in my session group, and when the others started arriving, I began to feel a little intimidated. But, after being placed in a waiting room for an hour, we’d chatted a lot and gotten along really well (in the end, we all got into KYUEM!). After that, we were called into the interview room.

The interview room was super cold which didn’t help me compose and calm myself. There was a big video camera at one of the corners of the room, and we sat opposite of the four interviewers. The interviewers were PNB’s own from officers from different departments—human resources, public relations, and education department. In fact, these are the officers that will watch over the scholars once they are selected. The interviewers were quite laid back and the atmosphere got less tense as the interview progressed. The whole thing lasted for one hour, but it felt much shorter than that. I thought my performance was okay. I managed to answer all of the questions without much stuttering, but after it ended, I was a bit disappointed that I forgot to mention some facts that I thought might’ve bolstered my performance even more.

Overall, I’d say that these are the most important takeaways from the interview:

Prepare for the interview beforehand. This means researching PNB and current affairs, common interview questions, and, if possible, doing a mock interview with another person.
The questions were a mix of personal and critical questions. Some sessions had their share of questions skewed to either one, for example, my group had more “tell me about yourself” type questions while some of the other groups, as I found out later, had more “what should PNB invest in” type of questions.
Relax. If you’re the type of person who gets nervous at interviews, think of it as a normal conversation. The officers won’t chastise you or anything, so make yourself comfortable speaking with them as soon as you can. If you’re the type who likes to talk a lot, by all means, do, but don’t be over imposing or cutting off other people.
In the end, it’s all a learning experience. Note your deficiencies and, hopefully, eliminate them in the next stage!

Stage 4

At last, the final stage. Comprising a group presentation and an online test, this stage was different in that we were given time to prepare for the actual day of the presentation. The qualified applicants were divided into groups of five with one assigned group leader, and the presentations were to be delivered in a “staged debate” format wherein four of the group members were to be the “debaters” and the group leader was to be the “moderator”. Our group got the debate prompt two days before the day of the final stage and, naturally, a WhatsApp group was created. We wanted to have a complete discussion—from planning to creating the PowerPoint slides to distributing the points—but WhatsApp wasn’t a very good platform for that. So, three of the group members, including me, agreed to meet at Perpustakaan Negara the day before the final stage (the final stage was also carried out at the PNB Tower).

The debate prompts were all about contemporary issues. No spoilers, but think trade war, climate change, Brexit, voting age, et cetera, and whatever two sides that are diametrically opposed in the context of those issues. On the day of my final stage, there were about 30 applicants amounting to six groups, and with this stage spanning two days, there were around 60 applicants who made it to the final stage. The presentations were carried out in a designated room, and everyone who wasn’t presenting sat as the audience. The jurors were the same officers as before, and the whole event lasted from about 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. It was a really interesting experience seeing how other applicants spoke and presented their points, and I was fortunate to have made some new friends here.

Some tips from my experience:

It’s always a good idea to prepare early. PNB gave us about an hour prior to the presentation session to give everyone the chance to get up to speed (especially for those who couldn’t meet physically). This time should only be used to clarify things and go over the roles one last time, your group should have the main points ready by then.
Though staged as a debate, this is NOT the time to fight with your groupmates. Your group should have distributed the points beforehand, the “debate” is only to signify that your group is expected to have considered both perspectives on the topic. Also, moderators shouldn’t just be the “transition” between debaters but rather be actively involved in the discussion, e.g. by asking clarifying questions whenever they see fit.
The way you articulate your arguments is just as important as the arguments themselves. Avoid reading from the slides (your slides shouldn’t have too much text anyway, only diagrams, or whatever visuals to corroborate your points) and generally have composure in your speech. Showing confidence goes a long way to sell your points, but again, don’t be over imposing.
In my time, the audience was allowed to ask questions. Don’t feel pressured to ask questions just to impress the jurors; asking too many questions can actually do the opposite. If you do want to ask something, keep it succinct.

I hear you asking—what about the online test? Don’t sweat it, it was actually just another psychometric type of test, and from what I’ve heard it’s used by PNB to determine what roles suit you best when being employed in the future (not really sure about this though).

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Applying for the PNB Global Scholarship Award is a long and arduous process, the whole ordeal took roughly three months. But by God, it was a totally rewarding experience not only because I got the scholarship but also because of the experiences and lessons that continue to benefit me today.

I can say for myself that joining the PNB family has been one of the best things that have happened in my life. Being a PNB scholar gave me a slew of things to be thankful for—the best private A-Level education in the country, the opportunity to study at top global institutions, UK and US university application support, supportive officers, amazing friends—and it is absolutely a life-changing thing. So, if you are intending to apply or are already applying for the PNB Global Scholarship Award, all the best to you!

Irfan Azhan is currently studying A-Levels at Kolej Yayasan UEM. He hopes to read Physics at a top university in the United States. A tech enthusiast who can be found playing Rocket League or sleeping, usually the latter.
If you intend to contact the author, feel free to contact the CollegeLAH Team at contactus@collegelah.com.

Dear Reader,

If I have to be completely honest with you, I feel that the entire university application process has been overly dramatized as a stressful experience. There always seem to be horror stories about people pulling all-nighters before deadline day in order to finish their personal statements, or perhaps you might have heard about someone having gone through a mini existential crisis because they were simply unsure about the subject they want to study, or maybe even about students stressing out over which universities they should apply to.

So, to begin with, I would have to emphasize that these series of unfortunate events (pun not intended, or maybe?) is extremely preventable!

A little bit about myself

To start with the usual intro – hi, I’m Bianca. I previously studied at Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar, did the classic triple science single maths subject combo (i.e. Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics) because I’m not the biggest fan of double maths. ~~Survived~~Completed the BSc Biochemistry course at Imperial College London in 2020 and am currently reading a Master’s in Management at Imperial College Business School!

The whole idea for this article is really to help demystify the UCAS application process (with some focus on Imperial’s Biochemistry course), and I sincerely hope that this short piece can, in some way, be of assistance to you during your application journey.

An overview of the application process

The UCAS application process is probably one of the simplest university application process that I know of for the time-being.

In the context of getting into Imperial’s Biochemistry course, the process can really be summarised into these simple steps:

Get the grades (AS Level in my case)
Get good predicted grades for A Level
Choose a degree subject
Pick Imperial and four other universities to apply to
Write up a 4000-character personal statement
Get your teacher’s references
Create a UCAS account
Apply
Sit back, relax and wait for your offers to come! (no interviews are conducted for admissions into Imperial’s Biochemistry course)

Okay, maybe I am getting a little ahead of myself. Yes, it looks simple on paper, but there are several mini sub-steps that one would have to go through in order to complete the entire process.

Let’s start again from the top, shall we?

Choosing your degree subject

Okay maybe not quite the top, but I trust that you are working hard to achieve the best possible grades that you are capable of!

When it comes to picking your degree subject, I would daresay you really need to think about what you are trulypassionate in, because the truth is that top universities will grindyou over the next three/four years of your life (bear in mind that they are top universities for a reason). Thus, it is really important for you to enjoy what you are learning because grit, hard work, and commitment towards your subject are key to being successful in your tertiary education.

Some of the key questions that you could try asking yourself to help you get started would be:

Which subjects are you strong at?
What kind of problems are you passionate about solving? And would studying your chosen subject equip you with the skills to address it?
What sort of topics make you forget to eat?

Those are definitely relatively difficult questions to answer, I don’t blame you for that. Though what you can do to help you find your answers to those questions would be to explore the different topics. Read a relevant book, watch a few educational videos on YouTube, take some courses on FutureLearn, Coursera or Udemy, speak to your teachers, university alumni, or someone working in that field. Do something to learn more about a degree subject that you are thinking of applying to!

In essence, be proactivein finding out what topics “click” with you, and I believe this will be a useful way to you to learn more about yourself and what youcare about.

Picking your universities

Many students tend to not think that through well enough as they fall into the trap of only wanting to apply for a place at prestigious universities.

You got to remember, gaining admissions into a top university is really only the beginning of your learning journey, and to directly quote a friend of mine – “surviving your degree is another challenge all by itself”, but that’s not the focus of this article. In short, university reputation and ranking forms only one part of the entire story. There is a myriad of other aspects that you ought to think about before filling up your five university choices.

To begin with, once you have made a decision on the subject you want to study at university, it is time for you to look into the course structure of the various universities offering your subject. Always remember that different universities may structure their Biochemistry courses differently, despite the both of them bearing the same course title. Typically, you can find the Biochemistry course programme booklet for each university on Google pretty easily, and the university website would have elaborated further on how this course is designed too! Do also have a think about the style of teaching that suits you best – are you the type who prefers smaller groups (e.g. how Oxbridge conducts regular tutorials with their students), or are you more of a lecture kind of person?

Besides that, do factor in the potential expenses incurred to study at any of your top five choices. Don’t forget that in addition to the tuition fees, accommodation fees can differ significantly across different regions in the United Kingdom. Thus, it should come with no surprise that London is going to be a pretty expensive stay! And not to mention, you should also consider the university’s location – can you see yourself living in a big city like London? Or stay in a relative quiet place like Warwick?

To shift gears slightly, do some research into the unique opportunities that your chosen universities has to offer. Taking Imperial as an example, Imperial offers a year in industry/research placement if you are interested in pursuing a career in R&D or academia (fun fact: some of friends got to intern at GSK or study abroad in other European countries). If you are more business-oriented, Imperial’s Biochemistry course also includes the option of taking a Joint Honours Management course at Imperial College Business School. Meanwhile, did you know that the Life Sciences Department at Imperial hosts a science invention competition, where you can win lab space to develop proof-of-concept of your idea (Google Imperial FoNS-MAD)? Not to mention, the Imperial Enterprise Lab also provides a lot of resources and entrepreneurship competitions that you can participate in if you happen to be entrepreneurial.

But of course, I can only talk about Imperial given that I studied there. There are definitely other unique opportunities that other universities may offer in which Imperial doesn’t, so I would encourage you to do a thorough research on those as much as you can.

One platform that may be helpful for you in learning more about these unique opportunities would be to check out a platform known as UniBuddy, where you can speak to current students at various universities about their Biochemistry course, so that you can better understand what a typical day is like at university, the expected workload, the breadth of topics covered, unique opportunities, and many more.

Crafting your personal statement

To put things simply, the personal statement is the perfect chance for you to showcase your passion and commitment towards your subject. It helps a lot to view it from the mindset of your personal statement being a toolfor you to express your thoughts regarding your subject.

If I were to pick three top tips for writing a good personal statement, it would be these three:

Structure and simplicity are key

Trust me, you don’t need to a walking Thesaurus that churns out bombastic sounding words and sentences for your personal statement, because they often don’t add any value to your personal statement. One thing to always keep in mind is that scientists rewardconciseness, so a potential strategy you can adopt whilst hunting for content would be to ask “so what?” whenever you are considering to add a certain snippet of your life story – does this piece of information show my passion for Biochemistry? Does it make my writing a little more unique? Does it demonstrate how I grew as a person/scientist?

Just like for any other project, you will need to plan out your structure before writing. Make sure that your story flows in a coherent and concise manner so that it makes it super easy for your reader (i.e. the Admissions Tutor) to follow. Remember that I mentioned that Imperial ‘s Biochemistry admissions doesn’t involve an interview stage, and that’s because the Admissions Tutors place a great focus on your personal statements. So this is that one opportunity to sell yourself!

Your experiences don’t haveto be something absolutely amazing

Based on my experience working as a Student Ambassador at Imperial, where I was involved as a panellist in various student outreach events regarding university admissions, one of the Admissions Tutor highlighted that “it doesn’t matter whether you interned at a Nobel laureate’s lab or spent your summer holidays collecting flora and fauna in your local park, if you are unable to talk about what you have learnt from those experiences, then the entire purpose has been defeated”.

To put it simply, all you really need to do in order to demonstrate your passion for your subject, is to be able to properly reflect on your learning experiences. Tell your readers what you have learnt – did something in lab internship surprise you? How did you overcome a certain challenge you faced during your time there? What insights could you draw from reading that book? Do you have a certain opinion regarding the topic you have just read? What would you like to learn next?

Most people are excellent “re-writers”

You probably are already aware that being a perfectionist may be counterproductive in the long run, and that would be true for your personal statement writing journey.

A lot of people tend to fall into the habit of procrastinating because they couldn’t craft the perfect opening sentence or paragraph. To help combat this, I would advise that you don’t worry too much about it first and just get started. Write down everything you hope to tell your reader and then worry about fixing the flow of sentences after that.

For my application, I wrote a lot about my Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), a book that I’ve read (Genome by Matt Ridley), and then draw links between them to talk about what I’ve learnt and what do I hope to learn about next.

What I think helped to give my application a boost

Before I dive a little deeper in this, a little disclaimer – I acknowledge that I have had some privileges that may not have been easily accessible for others and am grateful for those experiences as they have helped shaped my application.

To strengthen my application, I completed an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), which is basically an independent project that you can take to obtain a qualification that is equivalent to an AS Level subject. The project entails you picking a topic of your interest and then doing a lot of research around that subject area before writing up a 5000-word essay report detailing your findings and opinions about it. In some cases, you can opt for a 1000-word report coupled with a prototype/product instead, though that is more for students intending to pursue more technical-/vocational-related degrees such as Architecture. On top of that, you need to reflect upon your progress as you go along (by keeping a logbook) and are required to chair a 10- to 15-minute presentation at the end of your EPQ journey whilst ~~getting grilled~~completing a Q&A session right after that.

It might sound a little intimidating for some of you, but trust me, it really isn’t that bad! In case you happen to be curious, I wrote about the effectiveness of using the Sterile Insect Technique to curb the ever-increasing global prevalence of malaria for my EPQ.

I chose to do an EPQ mainly because it allowed me to lead my own research as well as learn about something that was not covered in the A Level syllabus. You could arguably say that one doesn’t need to take this qualification in order to do all these, but I digress. The whole idea was to challenge myself on improving my secondary research capabilities, formulate a well-structured report, practice academic writing (an extremely critical skill at university!) and referencing. Not to mention, taking an EPQ also pushed me to cultivate certain soft skills including communication and presentation skills, time management and organisation. Remember me mentioning about university grinding you earlier (not literally of course!) – university will constantly assess you on all these skills, so it is never too early to start practising!

Besides completing an EPQ, I also attended a number of academic events discussing biology-related topics, which were hosted by The Oxford & Cambridge Society Malaysia (I got to learn about these events through my college). At that point of time, I got the opportunity to learn a bit more about certain life sciences-related issues and the current research that is being done to address it, whilst getting the opportunity to speak to the presenters to gain a better insight about their thoughts about it. Attending these events briefly introduced me to the various fields of biology and biochemistry, thereby giving me a few prompts for further reading and research for my personal statement.

Some final food for thought

Having said that, this concludes the end of my article. I hope you managed to gather some useful insights that can give you a clearer direction on how to approach your UCAS applications.

A few last words from me would be to stay calm and try to enjoy the journey. This would be a time where you reflect on your past and go on your own mini adventure to find out more about your subject and area of interest. To a certain extent, it is really about following your heart, thinking about what kind of “legacy” you hope to leave behind and whether your chosen degree subject help you to achieve that. It really is some sort of self-discovery journey that helps you grow as a person, so take it as something positive and worth celebrating!

All the best there, you’ve got this.

Bianca is the author of a book called How to Write a Winning UCAS Personal Statement. You can find a snippet of the book below. You can purchase the book here.

Book feature: How to write a Winning UCAS Personal Statement Download

Bianca is a BSc Biochemistry graduate from Imperial College London. She is the Co-Founder of a platform known as www.in2biochem.comand also the author of How to Write a Winning UCAS Personal Statement for STEM Subjectsthat is now available on Amazon. Overall, she is passionate about finding ways to bring a positive impact to her community, whether big or small. When she’s not tied to her work, Bianca is a big fan of jogging in huge parks, trying out different flavours of ice cream, watching TV series on Netflix, and exploring new places.

WHAT’S NEXT AFTER SPM?

Have you ever dreamt of studying abroad without having to spend even a single penny? Have you ever dreamt of securing a full scholarship for your tertiary education which will lighten your parents’ burden? Have you ever dreamt of becoming a scholar and hanging around with some of the most brilliant peers in Malaysia? If yes, then Petronas Education Sponsorship Programme (PESP) would be a perfect pathway to help you realise your dreams! Thus, hesitate no more and apply for PESP once you get your SPM result since building castles in the air will be useless.

The sponsorship is opened for students aspiring to pursue their undergraduate studies at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) as well as overseas universities. Having received the PESP award for Accounting studies in United Kingdom, I would write about my experience of getting it and some advice for future applicants.

WHAT IS PETRONAS EDUCATION SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMME (PESP)?

It is an education sponsorship awarded by Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) to outstanding Malaysians who have high academic calibre and leadership capability to pursue undergraduate studies in oil and gas related fields. The sponsored programmes range from Accounting to Sociology, from Applied Chemistry to Instrumentation Engineering. It is a fully-funded scholarship which equally takes care of the students’ tuition fee, welfare and also accommodation. The main aim of the PESP is to develop the right talent that will ultimately contribute to the growth of the society and the nation.

The bond for this sponsorship is 1: 1, which means after completing your 5-year studies under the sponsorship, you would need to be bonded to PETRONAS for 5 years. Besides, possessing the leadership skills and having participated actively in extra-curricular activities will be an added advantage for you in securing the PESP award.

HOW TO APPLY?

Apply PESP via its Online Application System at https://educationsponsorship.petronas.com.my and follow the steps shown in the ‘Guidelines for PESP Applicants’ to register.

(NOTE: Application for PESP is usually opened on the date the SPM result is released and will only have 1 week for the students to apply before the deadline, so don’t miss the date!)

Fill in the Application Form for PESP and most importantly, be truthful when providing your personal information. It’s the nicest one since there is NO essay or resume that you need to submit for PESP!

Then select the programme, discipline and country that you would like to apply for. You can choose to apply for overseas or local programme, whereas for discipline, you will have various choices regarding the fields of studies you intend to pursue.

COUNTRY	COLLEGE	PROGRAMME
Australia & New Zealand	Taylor’s University	South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE)
United States of America	Taylor’s University	American Degree Programme (ADP)
United Kingdom	Kolej Yayasan UEM/ UOW KDU/ Kolej Tunku Jaafar	A-Level
Canada	UOW KDU	A-Level
Malaysia	Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP)	UTP Foundation Programme
Japan	Ambang Asuhan Jepun, Universiti Malaya	Examination for Japanese University Admission (EJU)
China	Kong Zi Institute, Universiti Malaya	Chinese Proficiency Test

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

After receiving my SPM result on 5 March 2020, I immediately applied for the PESP through its Online Application System at this website: https://educationsponsorship.petronas.com.my. The deadline for PESP application was on 11 March 2020.

From the sources online, I got to know that the shortlisted candidates would be invited to attend PETRONAS YoungStars Day (PYD) which aims at measuring the students’ potentials via series of assessments at the designated date and venue. However, due to the Movement Control Order imposed by the government because of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, PESP had to execute their PESP assessment activity via online mode this year.

All of the latest updates and announcement and invitation for PYD will be available at the website as well as through your email, so do check them from time to time!!

The assessments include:

Phase 1 Assessments which consist of Cambridge Personal Style Questionnaire (CPSQ) and Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA),

Phase 2 Assessment which is the Student Potential Assessment (SPA)

PHASE 1 ASSESSMENT: CAMBRIDGE PERSONAL STYLE QUESTIONNAIRE (CPSQ)

We were required to complete the CPSQ test within an hour anytime from 6 May 2020 to 12 May 2020. It is an online behavioral style assessment which will provide an insight into how you approach tasks and relate to others.

(NOTE: There is no right or wrong answer for this assessment.)

PHASE 1 ASSESSMENT: THINKING SKILLS ASSESSMENT (TSA)

On 13 May 2020, I received an email from PESP informing me that I had been shortlisted to proceed to the Phase 2 of the PESP assessment!

TSA is another assessment by Cambridge to test your ability in critical thinking and problem solving, skills which are really essential for success in higher education.

Since it is an important test, online remote proctoring was carried out to ensure the integrity of the online assessment where each candidate needed to use a laptop/ desktop that is equipped with webcam.

My session date was on 14 May 2020. There was only one section with 40 questions to be completed within 1 hour 30 minutes.

(IMPORTANT ADVICE: DO FAMILIARISE YOURSELF WITH SOME PRACTICE TESTS ONLINE BEFORE SITTING FOR THE ASSESSMENT, IT WOULD REALLY HELP A LOT!)

You can look for the practice tests using this website:

https://www.admissionstesting.org/for-test-takers/thinking-skills-assessment/tsa-cambridge/preparing-for-tsa-cambridge/

REMEMBER! LUCK = PREPARATION + OPPORTUNITY

PHASE 2 ASSESSMENT: STUDENT POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT (SPA)

This is a group interview session which was being conducted via Microsoft Teams. I attended my SPA session on 2 June 2020 for about 2 hours 30 minutes.

Before the interview, I received an email with a link of Microsoft Teams to get into the virtual chatroom.

During the interview, there were two interviewers as well as 4 candidates in my group. We started with a short briefing by the interviewers. Once the interview had started, each of us introduced ourselves and the ambience was really relaxing since everyone was so kind and friendly in the interview session.

Then, the task was given and my task was related to the skills for the future. We needed to choose the most important skill from the five skills provided, which were emotional intelligence, creativity, flexibility, data literacy and technical savviness besides providing reasons for it.

10 minutes was given to each candidate to prepare for the task individually as later, each of us would have to present our own ideas in 3 minutes.

After that, we prepared and discussed the task in the group for 20 minutes. There will always be different ideas presented by each candidate, so we learnt to accept others’ opinions and eventually, presented our best ideas to the interviewers.

Before the session ended, we got the chance to share our last words.

TIPS FOR ONLINE INTERVIEW SESSION:

Be punctual as it will give a very good first impression!
Wear smart casual that you are comfortable with.
Ensure that you are in a conducive environment without any interruption and loud noise.
Do research about PETRONAS beforehand to show your keen interest in the company.
Keep smiling because smiling is contagious and it shows that you are a positive person!

All the best to you if you are applying!

June Yee Xin Rou is a PETRONAS scholar under PETRONAS Education Sponsorship Programme 2020. She is currently studying A-Levels at UOW Malaysia KDU University College, Utropolis Glenmarie and will hopefully pursue her degree studies in Accounting in United Kingdom. She used to putting the ice cream in the refrigerator section instead of the freezer section due to insufficient space in the freezer section, but still enjoyed eating the melted ice cream!

New Zealand. Never have I ever thought I was going to be continuing my undergraduate study in this ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Hobbit’ country. I did dream of studying abroad but my main choice was definitely United States – primarily because I was often exposed to the top universities there, and not going to lie, Taylor Swift lives in the USA so, maybe there’s like 0.000001% chance I might bump into her at theCornelia Street (?). But here I am writing this essay in the corner of the University of Canterbury’s library about my journey that brought me to this extremely beautiful country. Hi, I am Khairunisa Binti Shaiful Khairi, a final year student at the University of Canterbury, majoring in Information System. I am a recipient of JPA scholarship in the twinning program.

Disclaimer: Even though I will be using the term scholarship/sponsorship throughout this essay, the fund that I received from JPA is a convertible loan. I signed an agreement to work with the government for eight years after finishing my study.

As I mentioned earlier, New Zealand was not my ‘numero uno’. After receiving my SPM result, I started looking through the scholarship programmes for undergraduate students offered by different organizations, be it from the government or private company. To be honest, this was one of the toughest parts of the journey mainly because I had no idea what my interest was, and I did not know what I wanted to be in the future. My main goals at this time were I want to study overseas, and I will not take any science-related courses because I struggled a lot with this subject. Actually, this was a good start. I started eliminating sponsorship programmes that offered science courses and only went seeking for sponsors that offered the overseas program. This had brought me to the JPA-MARA scholarship programme. They offered many programmes that support overseas study with a preparation year done locally. There were many countries to choose from such as Korea, Japan, Australia, and of course, New Zealand. I simply chose the New Zealand twinning program because this program offered the perfect combo of what I always wanted; an English-speaking country because I am bad at learning new languages, non-Science courses, and four years in total for foundation years and Bachelor Degree, which can be considered as a short period.

Long story short, I went to the group interview with JPA, and months later I received the offer letter. I was beyond grateful but sadly, I was not offered the course that I applied for, which was Actuarial Science. They still offered the New Zealand twinning program but with a major in Information System, which was not even listed in the courses available for this program. I had a hard time making a decision because I have never imagined myself as an ‘IT’ student. I always knew I hated Science (no offense) but IT? Do I have to be a computer geek to study overseas (this was a lame, typical assumption that I made for people studying IT at that time, sorry)? And the most important question- can I do IT? I hesitated to accept the offer at first because this was so out of my comfort zone, and at the same time I also received the UPU result, which I got a spot in my first choice. But eventually, I decided to proceed with the JPA offer because it would be a waste to reject this opportunity.

The programme that I enrolled in is called ‘twinning’ because half of our study years will be completed locally, and another half will be continued in the twinning country, which in my case- New Zealand. For students heading to New Zealand, there is only one preparatory college, which is KYS Business School (KYSB), Malacca. For this programme, they only offer Bachelor of Commerce subjects such as Accounting, Finance, Information System, Actuarial Science, and Economics. The preparatory years required us to complete one year of Foundation in Accounting, and a first-year degree at KYSB. For the first-year degree, all of us learn the same Commerce subjects despite the differences in major. We will only focus on our major once we are in the university in New Zealand. I am pretty sure most of you have not heard of KYSB before since this college is quite new. My batch is the fifth batch in the college. The number of students in each batch is quite small, and in my opinion, this is an advantage for the students as well. There are only 72 students in my batch, hence, we learned in a small group during foundation year. One class consists of no more than 20 students, and in some classes, we are grouped into 10 students only. This gives us the advantage to be more connected with the lecturers and even our batchmates. It’s like everyone knows everyone in the college. The lecturers in KYSB are diverse as well. We have lecturers from New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Malaysia, South Africa, Russia, and the UK, which helps me to prepare myself to catch up on different accents and ways of teaching.

Enough with promoting KYSB and Malacca, now we are moving to a more serious topic. How to apply to a university in New Zealand? Firstly, securing a spot in this twinning program does not guarantee your place in NZ. To be qualified, we have to take the IELTS paper and pass the 6.5 benchmark point. IELTS is an English assessment similar to MUET. There are four sections in this paper; writing, listening, reading, and speaking. Apart from having to pass the IELTS, we also have to exceed the cut-off points set by JPA to keep the scholarship. During my year, we had to exceed 80% for the foundation year, and 70% for the first-year degree. We can choose the university that we want to enrol in during the first-year degree. Three universities are linked to KYSB- University of Auckland, Victoria University of Wellington, and University of Canterbury. Out of these options, each student is allowed to select two universities, and pick which one is going to be their first choice and second choice. This option can be made through a Google Form that is set up by the college management, and then we have to wait until the third semester before the result of the university is out. But please bear in mind that you will not necessarily receive an offer from your first-choice university, trust me I have been through this. My first choice was not UC, I planned to get into the University of Auckland. I do not know how the management decides who is going to which university but some of us did get into our dream university. One thing that I was sure is they will distribute the students equally into all three universities. Undeniably, I am a bit heartbroken because first, I was not offered the course that I want, and then now, I can’t even get into the university that I like? Ouch!

BUT now, I am fully grateful for where fate has brought me. I would never do anything to change where and what I am doing now. Honestly, I could never imagine me studying Actuarial Science in Auckland. I have applied for the University of Auckland because it is one of the best universities in New Zealand, and I thought I love an urban lifestyle. However, when I arrived in Christchurch and spent a few months here, I totally fell in love with this city. The scenery, the people, the environment are beyond what I expected. Since Christchurch is located on the South Island, all the beautiful natural tourist attractions are reachable by road. We have been on a few road trips during semester break and tour the whole island. You name it, Lake Tekapo, Mount Cook, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Dunedin, Franz Joseph, Wanaka- we’ve traveled there and there’s only one word could describe those places- magical. If you are an adventurous-type-of-person, again, New Zealand is for you! Bungee jumping, sky diving, Nevis swing, cruise, a helicopter ride are some of the activities you can do here, and the list keeps on going.

I think I might have answered every single question you could have regarding how I secure a place in New Zealand. If you are hesitating whether you should consider the path that I took, here are some questions to solidify your stand:

1) Do you like commerce?

2) Are you ready for an adventure?

If all your answers are YES, then, you won’t regret it. There’s only one reminder that I want to share with you, don’t be afraid if your plans change, you will make it to the end. Just trust yourself, and the process!

Khairunisa is a final year student majoring in Information System at the University of Canterbury. She finished her high school years at Sekolah Tun Fatimah and continued her preparatory college years at KYS Business School, Malacca for two years before flying to NZ. She enjoys trying new things, and she thinks NZ is the perfect country for that.

The realities of studying abroad… and no, I’m not talking about England.

Hey collegelah readers! I’m Sofiyah and I’m a 2nd year (sadly virtual) LLB Law student at Cardiff University. As a creative kid who really liked business -paradox, I know- it was pretty difficult for me to attach myself to law before starting the course. With that being said though, once I did start, I really liked it. Cardiff law was super welcoming and kind of funny at times. Except the amount of readings and essays. Still don’t like those but I’m getting there.

Before leaving to the UK, I had chosen Cardiff because it was a town-like city full of lots of students. There was also something old-timey about it. This makes it super easy to study. There are no temptations, really, none… at all. But… upon arriving it was easy for me to find things I liked to do whether it was strolling in the park or walking to… basically everywhere, a concept foreign to my sit-in-a-car-to-all-destinations-Malaysian-ness. Cardiff also had an established law and politics program which was important to me as law isn’t an easy course to navigate alone.

Aside from my course, there were a lot of extra-curricular activities on offer and a bustling Student Union. I sort of dabbled in a little bit of everything. Pretty early on into my first year I joined ICMS, a professional student body organisation that spans across 5 (6 this year!) chapters. Although I was in Cardiff, ICMS helped me meet Malaysian students from all over the UK which was really fun as being in Wales can feel a little isolating at times.

An aspect about Cardiff law that I really liked was the support system when it came to my career. There are career related events hosted almost everyday with weekly emails about what’s happening in the law school. The law society is also pretty active and keeps us up to date on what’s going on in the ‘real world.’ AKA law firm job applications and opportunities outside of Cardiff. For anyone considering law at Cardiff, or just thinking about Cardiff in general, it’s definitely an option worth considering. I believe all law applications are pretty standard across all unis, really just demonstrate why you’ve decided to pursue this course. Happy applying and the best of luck to all of you high school/college kids (Now that I’m in uni I feel really old and think that it’s fitting to address you guys as kids ).

Sofiyah Rohaizi is a 2nd year LLB Law Student at Cardiff University expected to graduate in 2022. She’s currently a director at the International Council of Malaysian Scholars (ICMS) and pursues very mundane hobbies in her free time such as reading and painting.
P.S. This is a photo of her looking veeerryyyy happy because she found rendang…in the UK… during winter.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiyah-rohaizi/

Hello! My name is Aqil Azmi and I’m a freshman at Harvard College. I’m planning to pursue a joint concentration in Mathematics and Philosophy. I’ll be sharing the journey I went through while applying to Harvard.

To start off, let’s get the basic requirements out of the way. They sometimes change it from year-to-year, so you always have to check at the official Harvard website. But generally, what you need is at least one year of study post-SPM (A-Levels, IB, STPM etc), the SAT exams, the SAT Subject Tests, and two teacher recommendation letters (plus one recommendation letter from your school counsellor). I know for a fact that as of now, both of the SAT exams are not compulsory for the class of 2025, but it’s always good to check the website in detail.

Let me talk a bit about academics. All of your examination results will be scrutinised from your Form 3 exams until whenever you’re studying. Yes, that means it’s from your PT3 Trials exams all the way to where you are now, and it really is every exam (SPM Trials and SPM are included). You will need an official slip for it all in English, so I would recommend you going back to your secondary school early to request for a translated copy of all your results with verification from the school. If you’re reading this and you’re planning to apply to Harvard, it’s extremely important that you don’t flunk any exams at all. I took A-Levels and usually it’s only the final AS and A2 exams that mattered for UK universities, but it’s different for US colleges—every single internal exam matters.

Okay, here’s the thing about SATs. Lots of people think that you need a perfect score, but clearly you don’t. It might help but I don’t think it helps much. I’m pretty sure that you just need to reach a certain minimum score that they set (which is unknown) and any score differences beyond that doesn’t really matter. But I’m not an expert so don’t take my word for it. Anyway, anything above 1500 is probably fine.

Application-wise, you can apply through the Common Application (CommonApp—which was what I used), the Universal College Application and the Coalition Application. I can’t speak about the others, but when I applied through CommonApp, I needed to have one general essay that I used for all my college applications, and a supplement essay that was specifically for Harvard. While applying, there’ll be some prompts which require around 150 words of response (either a short paragraph or a list).

For the general essay, there are many prompts that you can choose. I chose the one about overcoming hardship/difficulty and what I learnt from it. Generally, this essay is truly where you as a person should come to life. The admissions officer reading this should be able to imagine you as a real-life person with passions, values, and goals just by reading your essay—so make it personal. The golden rule is, “show, don’t tell”. Have a captivating narrative that showcases who you are. For my essay, I told a story about my experience in learning Arabic and how difficult it was during school. In the end, learning Arabic opened up a new dimension of learning I never realised existed before which changed how I viewed knowledge as a whole. I made an observation on the depth and intricacy in learning Arabic and found that it was similar to learning mathematics. The essay was quite philosophical which is one way to go about it if you don’t know how to write an essay that focuses around feelings like me.

From my essay, you can already see what I was trying to show. Firstly, my passions: in Arabic, the Islamic sciences, philosophy and mathematics. Secondly, my values: curiosity, perseverance, intellectual development, etc. Thirdly, an interesting narrative with ups and downs in the story: I failed some exams when I was in school, got better, but still wasn’t satisfied so I got even better. Fourthly, my goals: that I can continue learning things in larger depth and breadth in college, that I can share my values with people I meet, etc.

Officially, they say on their website that an interview isn’t required for admissions but I’m pretty sure that every single international student who got in was interviewed. That happens about a month after you submit your application. The interview itself is super chill. Honestly, don’t sweat it. My interviewers were two Harvard alums who invited me to have coffee at a coffee shop in Kuala Lumpur. There’s no way to “prepare” for the questions that they ask because it’s like having a conversation with someone. There’s no structure to it at all—they’ll ask you about almost everything they find interesting about your background, your interests, extracurriculars, your goals at Harvard, your future goals, your past experiences, etc. To give you an idea of the depth of the questions, I was asked what my favourite A-Level subject was, to which I answered Further Mathematics. I was then asked which specific topics I enjoyed and why, and we ended up discussing a bit about Proof by Induction. The next minute, when they asked about my interests, I told them I read philosophy books in my spare time, and we had a long conversation about specific books I’ve read and how it shaped my life.

All in all, you definitely cannot anticipate the questions during the interview, because it’s not mechanical like your normal sort of interview. Thankfully, I didn’t do any preparations for it. What I found incredibly useful to get an idea of what Harvard is looking for is the opening essay in the Interviewers’ Handbook. You can just Google this. It tells you about the type of students they are looking for, and you should mold yourself into it.

I don’t think I can pinpoint exactly what made my application successful but one thing I noticed is that everyone at Harvard is incredibly unique. You have to look past the academic excellence and extracurricular achievements and you’ll see that each one of them has something that they’re devoted to which shaped them into who they are. As for myself, I think my background was kind of unique because I went to a religious school and was personally tutored rigorously in the traditional Islamic sciences, which instilled a lot of the values that make me the kind of person I am today.

Therefore, the advice I have for aspiring Harvard applicants is to remember to go beyond your classroom studies, beyond your school-sanctioned extracurriculars, and beyond cliched activities. Be curious about everything, and chase down strange projects!

If you have any questions, please feel free to DM me on Twitter on Instagram at @aqilazme

Aqil Azmi is a freshman at Harvard College, Class of 2024, Joint concentrator in Mathematics and Philosophy. He can be contacted via Twitter and Instagram @aqilazme

LIFE@SUNWAY AS AN AUSMAT STUDENT

Trying to get the best advice before starting college? I might not the best advisor but I do hope my experience enlightens you!

HOW I GOT INTO AUSMAT

I was still contemplating whether to choose science or arts, and AUSMAT was my best choice at that time. I had the freedom to mix-match the combination of subjects I wanted while leaving my options open. Additionally, the education system slightly differs, it consists of 50% school assessment and 50% external examination, rather than 100% examination. Personally, it was a new challenge too!

AUSMAT SUBJECTS AND MARKS

‘Every mark matters’.

Right from the beginning, every single assessment (no matter the form) is graded and it accumulates.

5 subjects was the maximum amount you can take. My subjects were Chemistry, Human Biology, Mathematical Methods, Accounting and Finance and lastly English as an Additional Language(compulsory). Speaking deep down from my heart, never once did I regret choosing these subjects.

‘CONSISTENCY’.

One thing to take note about AUSMAT is, although the subjects are not as in depth compared to other courses, but there’s surely a handful amount of subjects to deal with, given the short amount of time in hand. Henceforth, from day one, ensure that you continuously revise whatever you have learned. At the very least have a certain degree of understanding rather than having an empty shell. Considering that you have 5 subjects to juggle, and each individual subject will have its own set of assessments, you just cannot afford to fall behind. Worst case scenario would be having numerous assessments bombarding you in one go.

The calculation to each assessment is quite complicated. On that account, I will try to give an overview to reinforce my previous point, ‘every mark matters’. All the internal assessments that’s conducted is only subjected to a 50% of your official ATAR(like your CGPA). So, imagine this, every assessment will surely amount to 100%, but the marks will shrink down to certain percentage. In the end, every single mark you’ve earned in all 5 subjects will perfectly sum up to 50%. Significant drop or jump in scores are fairly common.

HOW DID I DO FOR MY AUSMAT

Don’t switch page just yet! Because the good news is about to come. To assure you at this very moment, it’s not undoable. I have successfully completed my AUSMAT with an ATAR OF 96.70/100. I wouldn’t ignore the fact that it’s tough, but with great challenges comes with great fulfillment.

Right at the commencement of AUSMAT, I had to set my mindset right. What was my goal? What is the one thing I want to achieve out of this? What should be my priority? This incident that I’ve encountered was the game changer.

Chemistry was my weakest point since high school. So, since the first class, I paid extra attention to what the teacher was teaching. I did everything I was told to, and even finish all handouts given. I was one step ahead of everyone, eventually having more time to clear my queries with the lecturer while others were still trying to finish up the questions. ‘Effort will never betray you’. In the first chemistry internal test, I was awarded for being the highest in the cohort. Lesson learnt was as long as I am willing to put in effort, nothing is impossible.

There were certainly times where I slacked, and had to burn the midnight oil. You might be able to overcome it when the load is light, but as you get through the year, things will gradually become hectic. Thus, continuing this method would just be suicidal.

‘A good beginning is half the battle’.

It’s always harder to start something than to finish it. Since I was able to adapt well from the start, everything from then on was just a routine that I had to keep track with, using my utmost strength and discipline.

AUSMAT’S LECTURERS AND ADMINISTRATORS

With full assurance, I can vouch for the lecturers. They are superlative, always concerned on students wellbeing.

At least in my experience, all my lecturers were really proactive. We were clearly briefed on what to expect for each subject, what is the most effective way of preparing ourselves, in order to nail in every single assessment. With the ongoing digital learning, they dedicated most of their time for us.

However, for this system to be efficient, it must be a two-way interaction. First of all, you must try your best to finish up the exercises given. Only then would they be able to detect where your weaknesses are and clear whatever doubt you have. There are plenty of consultation time, so don’t be hesitant to contact them! They are more than willing to help as long as you are daring to ask.

The administration department was no exception as well. They often connect with students to get feedback on the classes and even the E-learning platform used during lessons. From there, they would do their best to improvise and improve, ensuring a smooth and effective learning is conducted.

There was also teacher advisors assigned to each student as well. This is a very personal consultation where you are required to meet them at certain set of time. Their role is to follow up with your current physical and mental situation, and guiding you through your career progression.

MY AUSMAT STUDENT ENVIRONMENT

As a matter of fact, my peers were the key factor in keeping me going. Undeniably, it’s common to find yourself breaking down at times. Maybe you are physically lethargic, but to be frank, it’s always a mental war. In the midst of this strenuous journey, I questioned myself a lot, ultimately discovering myself on the edge of giving up.

I’m blessed to have encounter a group of motivational friends. Multiple group study sessions took place and it was super effective. Surprisingly, studies wasn’t boring and dull anymore. While inputting information, there was fair share of fun. They were the cure to my panic, assuring me that I’m going to do just fine.

My advice is friends play a vital role. Having comrades in a battle is always better than fighting alone.

GETTING OUT OF THE ACADEMIC BOUNDARY

Mentor-Mentee programme was integrated into AUSMAT to promote peer-based learning. Basically, you meet your mentees once every week, guide and help them finish the task set by the lecturer. Speaking from experience as a Chemistry mentor, it benefits you personally as well, because it reinforce your understanding as you explain the concepts to your peers.

Besides that, there is a wide range of competition or quizzes to select, so there’s no harm in giving it a try! I participated in the Australian National Chemistry Quiz(ANCQ). It was a good exposure and great achievement.

Furthermore, the AUSMAT Student Council organised a wide range of events over the duration of the programme. The one that I personally took part in was the AUSMAT i-Care Run and Teacher’s Appreciation Day. There is also theme day almost every week, where you get an opportunity to dress up stunningly and have fun with your friends.

Finally yet importantly, there are tons of club in Sunway to browse and choose from! I highly recommend you to do your own survey and choose what best suits you!

THE ENDING OF MY STORY

I sincerely hope that you would find this article relatable or helpful in any way. Please do clarify and inquire more if you are interested in AUSMAT.

If you ask me, what is the one thing I would like to improve on, it would be finding a balance between academics and co-curricular activities. It is crucial to have good grades, but at the same time, this is a golden opportunity for you to unleash whatever potential you have as well!

Joy Chiew is currently pursuing ICAEW at Sunway College. In her free time, she loves binge-watching dramas and binge eating.

Briefly introduce yourself (your name, current uni and course, scholarship if it applies to you etc)
Hi there! I hope you’re doing well and keeping safe, wherever you are, at whatever time you’re reading
this. Allow me to introduce myself- I’m Narissa, your typical 21 year old Malaysian: a passionate foodie
who is still figuring life out, one day at a time. I just started my third year of medical school at University
of Malaya (UM), and I am under JPA’s Program Ijazah Dalam Negara (PIDN) scholarship, which I
applied for using my first year degree results. However, because of the COVID-19 situation, my clinical
years (the final three years of my degree in which I am supposed to have hands-on learning at the
hospital) has been a series of video calls and pre-recorded lectures. Hopefully things get better soon, and I
hope you’re hanging in there too!

What made you choose to study at your current uni?
University of Malaya. UM. Where do I start? The oldest university in Malaysia, with a huge campus
situated in the middle of Kuala Lumpur, 12 residential colleges for students to stay in, a beautiful lake,
stadium, swimming pool, fields, courts and filled with many activities to do. Alright. I want to be as
honest as possible with you, so let me admit that throughout high school, I didn’t even know UM existed.
You must be thinking, “Wait, what? Does this girl live under a rock??” But it’s true, and there are
possibly many others like me who are not well introduced to local universities. Throughout my high
school experience, I was taught to “aim high, reach for the stars”, and to many of my high school
teachers that meant getting a scholarship and studying abroad- Oxford, Imperial, Harvard, MIT, these
were the universities they told me about. Now, it is without a doubt that these are very prestigious
universities, and every student should strive to get the best education, however we must not forget that
there are many reputable universities locally too! At one point, I was willing to give up medicine just to
study abroad, although I don’t think I would’ve been happy studying a course I didn’t enjoy.

I first found out about UM and their medical program from a relative, she and her husband had completed
their Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery (MBBS) degree there, so she told me all about the
program. UM’s medical program is a five year program which includes two years of preclinical studies
(where you’d learn all the theory aspects of medicine) and three years of clinical studies (where you’d be
able to go to the hospital and apply what you’ve learned). What made me even more interested in UM’s
medical program is that during those two preclinical years, each week you’d have a ‘clinical day’, which
is simply one day of the week where you get to go to the hospital and have hands-on learning with the
doctors and patients there. This way you’d be able to practice basic clinical skills even before you enter
your clinical years! That was it- later that evening I went online to do some research and had a long, thorough discussion with my parents- I wanted to get into UM’s medical program. (Though I did apply to
other universities as a plan B, always have a backup plan kids!

What are you involved in at your uni (for eg extra-curriculars)?
Before I entered medical school, I was told that I would have to sacrifice a lot of time spent on hobbies in
exchange for studying because of the packed schedule and workload. I thought I would have to succumb
to the bland, boring medical student life that everyone warned me about- Not. At. All. From the start of
orientation week to the end of my second year, life in UM has been anything but boring. Each month you
would have a different event- competitions, concerts, performances- it kept me busy and content, knowing
I was still able to enjoy my hobbies in undergraduate life. One of the first events I joined during my first
year was Pentas Terbuka, it is part of UM’s convocation festival and is a competition comprising of three
categories; performance poetry, dance and college cheers. I was in charge of the dance performance, and
because Avicenna college is one of the smaller colleges, we didn’t have much to spend, so my friend and
I (shoutout to Sahirah, love you sis) spent many late nights in the dance studio choreographing the
performance (with the help of Youtube of course). There were about 20 of us, and although it was hard
trying to teach 20 people choreography in a very, very small dance studio, we ended up having so much
fun. We managed to get second place out of the 12 colleges- a big achievement for us underdogs.

Then came the big ones- SUKMUM and FESENI. (Don’t worry, I’ll explain each abbreviation as we go
along). First, SUKMUM (Sukan Mahasiswa Universiti Malaya)- sports! It is UM’s biggest annual sports
event, where all 12 residential colleges send their best athletes to compete in various different sports;
tennis, swimming, hockey, rugby, netball (my personal favourite) and so many others too! Funnily
enough, I used to hate netball in highschool- more so the training than the actual sport. The coaches in
highschool expected you to already know how to play (when I didn’t even know the rules!) and they
already had a team that represented the school, so netball practices were more focused on the school
team- which is understandable, however, there was no room for me to learn. So I thought it would be the
same in university, I had NO interest in joining. But then one evening, a good friend of mine (yes Sahirah
again, I really owe her one) dragged me down to the netball court for tryouts- she had spent the whole
afternoon explaining the rules to me, she even drew a mini netball court to explain what positions there
were and their roles in the game. I was lucky, because when I came down to the netball court that
evening, I met the most amazing group of girls, all of whom were willing to teach me the sport from A to
Z. So it began- we trained almost every evening up until the last few days before our SUKMUM
tournament, and we ended up placing third out of the 12 colleges! I fell in love with the sport, all thanks
to the group of girls that took the time to teach me.

Next up, FESENI. Festival Seni Universiti Malaya, a festival for performing arts! I’ve been dancing since
the age of ten, so I was ecstatic when I was chosen to be part of the creative dance team to represent my
college during my first year. Training was exhausting, we had practices every evening and night, but it
was all worth it- we got second place! No one expected it- even we didn’t expect it! Avicenna college was
considered to be one of the least active colleges out of all 12 colleges (let me remind you that the college
is filled with mostly medical, nursing, biomedical and architectural students, most of which you’d expect
to be very kiasu) but that year was different, 2019 was different for Avicenna college, and I was glad to
be a part of it all.

How was your experience studying at the uni?
It was tough at first, balancing studies and extracurricular activities. My schedule was packed- back to
back classes from 8am-5pm, then in the evening and after dinner it would be either netball training or
dance practice. I was exhausted, my body ached, but I loved it. I was so glad to be able to enjoy my
hobbies, all while pursuing my dream course. I’m not going to lie, there were many times I broke down,
many times I couldn’t get a grip on the fast paced life I was living. I was always rushing, always trying to
catch up. While other people studied, I was down at the netball court, or in the studio- there were times
when I felt I was falling behind. But my friends, my wonderful batchmates, they pulled me through it all.
I honestly wouldn’t have survived the first two years of med school without them. They called me every
morning before class to make sure I was awake. They studied with me, shared their books, shared their
notes. We would practice our physical examinations together before exams, and we’d go almost
everywhere together- the faculty, library, cafe- they were my motivation. Every time I felt like giving up,
they were the ones who picked me up and pushed me to keep going. I am forever thankful for them. I’ve
made friends for life here in UM.

What do you think is so great about your uni that made your university experience awesome?
I think the most valuable thing about my life in UM is the lessons I’ve learnt. I’ve had to adjust to
everything- new friends, new schedule, new way of studying. I learned how to prioritise what’s right and I
definitely learned how to manage my time better. Besides that, I also learned not to be afraid to try new
things, because it is never too late to learn something new. I grew up a lot the past two years, I became
more confident, and more goal-oriented. But the most important lesson I learned in the past two years at
UM, is the value of friendship. It may sound corny, or even typical, but it’s true; when you are surrounded
by the right people, people with good values, and kind hearts, you truly become a better version of
yourself.

How to apply to your uni? Any tips?
Applying to UM depends on the course you are interested in, each course has its own set of entry
requirements, but all local students must pass their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia with at least a grade C for
Bahasa Malaysia and pass History in order to apply for any course in UM. As for UM’s medical program,
local students are required to pass their foundation, matriculation or STPM with at least a 3.80 CGPA.
However, I do advise you to aim higher than a 3.80 CGPA, as each year there are more and more students
applying to UM’s medical program- this means more competition for the limited slots. (For more specific
information regarding UM’s entry requirements, do visit their website, I’ll insert a link down below).
After successfully applying to the program, you will be called for an interview- I suggest you prepare well
by reading up on current issues, as most of the interviewers would ask for your opinion about those
issues. Don’t worry, most of the time there is no right or wrong answer, they just want to see how you
think and how well you articulate your ideas. But most importantly, as cliché as it sounds; just be
yourself.

I hope that by the time you’ve reached this last paragraph, what I’ve written above would’ve been helpful
to you in one way or another. I guess this is goodbye for now- stay safe and be kind to one another.
UM entry requirements page: https://www.um.edu.my/admissions-bachelor

Narissa Hakim Azlan is a third year student at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. She is studying Medicine (MBBS) and will be graduating in 2023. She is also a plant mommy working on her little home garden (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

How College Can Help You Radicalize & REALize

Blonde white girls in their staple red uni sweater, plain black leggings and white air forces flood the streets as they all line up to enter bars and coffee shops. The next morning you’ll bump into another hundred of them similarly dressed, on your way to class on a cold fall morning. Like I always do, with my embarrassingly consistent high self-esteem, I would take OOTD snaps before class. Freshman year me, clad in all-rainbow: striped sweaters I brought from Malaysia (some I bought during my exciting first trip to an American Forever 21 Chain, before I learned how evil fast fashion can be), rainbow socks from Sunway Pyramid’s Monki store, a bright coloured choker and my multicoloured floral backpack. From on top of Bascom Hill, one could spot me walking out of my apartment, a freshman-year brown hijabi “international student” dressed like a circus clown (pretend you are reading this as my subconscious). But the thing is I loved it. I felt brand new attending an American college 9000 miles away from home, the fresh smell of freedom from oppressive institutions that would quickly assault me for wearing a hijab above my chest and not waist-level. Despite the overwhelming whiteness of the academic space I just walked into, it did not feel like much of a big deal, as I had a premature conception of freedom of self-identification and self-actualization without knowing that months to come, I will be hit by a staggering feeling of alienation and confusion.

Since this is an essay submission that aims to share my honest American college experience, I would like to note that this is specifically catered to the Malaysian youngins aspiring to learn and unlearn. My experience is rather political, or at least I think of it that way. Existing in a white space and retaining your identity is political. Leaving your home country and pursuing your life of choice is political. How UW-Madison played its role in this journey was allowing me to double major in Gender Studies alongside my sponsor-assigned major, Economics. The professors in the Gender Studies department were terrific! Here, in this tiny gender studies classroom made up of 70% white girls, 25% black and hispanic girls and 5% non-Americans (rarely any cis-men) , my professor would let me speak my truth. At times,when the discussion is too Eurocentric and white-liberal, I would assert my presence and provide an international and multicultural perspective to whatever is being discussed, be it reproductive justice, freedom of speech, and sex education. Because sometimes they need it. They need to hear what you have to say about things outside the Western world and the Western narrative. The academia, although its mission is to provide an intersectional and global discussion of humanities, may sometimes not include your stories. Here, you might feel politically excluded, but never feel discouraged to share your culture, the good and the bad.

Making friends was hard, for me. Thankfully I was roommates with my Malaysian friends who had the same halal-haram ratio as me, so life wasn’t that bad. Outside of my small Malaysian bubble, I did not know who to befriend. I just did not quite feel a connection with random straight white classmates I conversed with. And soon enough I was making friends through music/art events and the queer community of Madison. The East side of town is my favourite. That’s where you find the neighbourhood that supports Bernie Sanders and socialism, LGBTQ rights, the Black Lives Matter movement, and also has a great thrift store (my favourite place in Madison). I realized that you don’t necessarily need to find a sense of belonging on campus since there is a larger and more lively community outside the university. Here I met students of other smaller colleges and residents from East Madison, some through dating apps and some at BLM/Queer events. Some are white, some aren’t. Some cis, some are non-binary. Some atheists, some are Christians who will listen respectfully to your stories of religious trauma and then give you a hug if you start crying. Some you may have a crush on, some you might become best friends with for one whole summer and either one dips and you stop seeing them again. It’s a never-ending cycle of meeting someone new, making art with them by the lakes (there are so many artsy people here I am in love), listening to Charli XCX or other hyperpop music and ending the day by going thrifting.

At this moment right now that I am typing out this essay, I am in the middle of my first semester of my third year in the middle of the coronavirus outbreak. This is a game changer to my uni and adulthood life. The election is four days away and the tensions are high. All my American friends are depressed (it is normalized and destigmatized here, help & resources are available) and anxious of what the future looks like. Donald Trump almost kicked us international students out of the country a few months ago and he is not making the country any better. This semester alone I am taking 3 gender studies classes which assign a lot of critical readings on the harms of American capitalism. I could see these theories on the subordination of the working class, poverty and hunger translate into real life everytime I step out of my apartment building right next to State Street and see old and recently homeless folks (who lost housing due to Covid-19) begging for warm meals in the middle of a 0 degrees Celcius fall morning. I feel the same agony as I go to work as a part-time student employee in the kitchen of a residence dining hall where the friendly Mexican full time workers constantly express their fear of losing their jobs due to the incompetency and selfishness of the government and establishment, especially at dealing with the country’s health and economic Covid-19 response.

I apologize if this essay that was supposed to enlighten you on the midwestern campus experience happens to give you feelings of sadness, but I promise you this was intentional. I would like to let you know that there is a lot to learn here (more than what your degree can provide), even if you spend your four years in a country with a broken system. Grassroots organizations such as LinkMadison (a local BLM movement), ReparationsThrift (food & clothing donors), and other NGOs radicalized me and taught me that I should go out and feed the homeless a couple days a week, even though it is against the law to provide them home-cooked meals. F*ck the police, ACAB. These are words spray-painted all over town and it is exactly what makes the people in my community inspiring. The country leaders might be horrible, but I have faith and respect in the people I’ve watched lead demonstrations after the death of George Floyd, the young girls I befriended who I watched show compassion to black homeless men, and my trans and non-binary friends who become the resistance just by choosing to exist as who they are. Here I am allowed freedom of conscience, I finally felt like I can think outside of what is conventional. My artistic endeavours flourished, I have completed several paintings on my journey of self-discovery. There are so many things to unlearn and here is a non-exhaustive list to name a few: capitalism, theism, anti-blackness & racism, heteronormativity and the gender binary, prison and police establishment, and mental health stigma. America and specifically Madison is a place to experience political activism first hand and to be involved in the many levels and ways that are available and accessible to you.

Honestly I do not know where I am going with this but I hope this may give you some courage to come here ( if you have the support and resources) (and also if you see yourself getting down this same path of learning and unlearning) as this college campus may have something for you to help you flourish and become a friend of the anti-establishment and help change the world. Malaysia is not too different, and I do think we need more of us to come home from abroad and help our local community in the many ways that we can. If you are an ideological outcast just like me, I hope this essay reaches you. If UW-Madison is not an option, I’m sure there are many other colleges in the US that can provide a similar experience! Remember, it is not the college per se, but also the community that surrounds it that matters.

Info about author: The author is studying Economics & Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Hello there! My name is Pramira V Ganesan. I am currently a law student at Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus. Heading to university is definitely an overwhelming journey of emotions for everyone. Sometimes, it may even be scary! Both for myself and you! New environment, new course, new friends, being away from home and the list goes on… Nevertheless, it was relatively easy for me to decide which course I wanted to pursue, as law was all I ever thought about. However, the point of indecision was on where I wanted to complete my LLB. So, upon completing my A-levels in Taylors College I did heaps of surveys as well as scouting around the law schools in Malaysia.

Personally, as important as it is to choose the right course, it is equally important to me to choose an institution that provides you with the best of both worlds – in terms of both one’s curriculum academic and their extra co-curricular activities option. I eventually decided to continue in Taylor’s, “The No. 1 Private University In Malaysia And Southeast Asia” as they provided me with the best discounts, scholarships and most importantly they had an amazing curriculum framework.

In Taylor’s, the lecturers are the biggest asset as they go extra miles to shape the students to be an employable graduate. Lecturers train the students to be independent as early as the first semester, which is indeed very helpful now that I am transferring to the UK. As we all know, a law degree is all about the cases, arguments and a lot of reading – but you might be surprised that it is more than just that.

With the world rapidly moving forward in technology, our lecturers incorporated teaching with gamification and including technology in our learning process. In the current times, where we are adapting to the new normal, incorporating technology into learning has become an essential part of the education system. In fact, Taylor’s has one of the best e-learning platforms. It is so user friendly for both the students and the staff, enhancing the whole learning experience.

If you are someone who loves studying in the outdoors with nature or just dislike sitting in the same place for too long (like me), Taylor’s caters my needs where there are many outdoor study areas as well as cafes to study in instead of just the library and classroom. But I must say, the library is huge with different types of study spaces and it has a wide range of books to select from and it is really coy! It also has a mini theatre for us to chill when we feel like our brains are about to explode. Oh, wait! How can we forget the lake!! The sight of the lake will definitely leave you spellbound. Whilst you are there, do not forget to click a picture for the gram.

The best part of Taylor’s was it had more than just education. Besides studying, Taylor’s provided a broad-spectrum of clubs and societies to explore one’s talents and hobbies. In Taylor’s; they hone and perfect students’ unique strengths to create life-changing discoveries and breakthroughs.

I told myself I would be a social butterfly and in order to keep that promise, I decided to join the Taylor’s Asian Law Students Association. I ran for the position of Training, Exchange and Development Director during my very first semester. Being part of this association, I met many talented and exceptional individuals. In addition, this provided me with the platform to expand my network by connecting with potential employers and legal practitioners. The law society and the mooting society too provide a lot of opportunities for students by conducting many webinars and workshops to engage with students and learn more outside the classroom. The Taylor’s Legal Aid Centre also allows us to volunteer according to the duty roster in helping clients that approach the centre. It is indeed an amazing opportunity to learn how to handle clients and enhance your researching skills.

In my second year, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. Therefore, I decided to join Taylor’s University Student Council 19/20. I was elected to be the vice president of the term. It could easily be one of my best years in university life. I have bonded with my fellow council members who are now my best mates. Being a council member made me explore the unknown horizon of leadership. Over the past year, I have witnessed a multitude of good and the bad side of working in a team. It was indeed an interesting term to be appointed in office as we definitely would go under history of being the “Covid-19 Batch”. As fun and interesting it was, it was definitely a hell of a roller coaster ride but I would not have it any other way.

Besides that, I was also part of SPARTS which is a performing arts club. We have weekly training on various techniques and skills. We also organise Sparties Shorties where students who would like to express their talents in performing arts are provided with a platform to do so. Through such an event many of our students have received many offers and appreciation from well-known people. Hence, there are definitely many other clubs and societies as well as events that would suit your interest for you to explore.

Hence, if you are a person who would like to sharpen your leadership skill or pick up a new hobby or even would like to just make new friends, Taylor’s definitely has something that would be your cup of tea. So, if you are worried about fitting in Taylor’s, don’t worry! You will definitely meet some amazing people who might just turn out to be the greatest blessings of your life.

Last but not least, if you are keen to be a Taylorian and would like to know more? All you have to do is to just visit our official website and choose the programme of your choice. You will be able to check out all the necessary information, even download your own personalised prospectus and don’t forget to book an appointment to meet with one of our representatives. It’s that easy!As exciting and fun it may sound to go to a university it could be as complicated and confusing. The good thing about university life is that you are left to your own devices, unlike school, where you’re told what to do and how to do it. It’s important to socialise and meet new friends. I think at the end of the day, university life is all about learning and making memories. Thus, grab all the opportunities to explore things out of your comfort zone and you will be surprised with what you discover. In short, just have fun and enjoy the ride, as long as you attend classes and study regularly, you will be fine! Good luck venturing into an amazing stage of your life!

Pramira Ganesan is currently a final year law student at University of Reading (class of 2021). She loves the thrill of being spontaneous hence, you will always find her ready for an adventure at any time. Also, she is always talking to a stranger as she loves making new friends. So, if you see her , don’t forget to say Hi!

Hi! I’m Farisa, a second year student currently reading PPE (no, not THAT COVID-19 PPE) at the University of Manchester. PPE is an abbreviation for Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

During the UCAS application process, the main factor I considered for each university was their location. Of course, the content of the programme they were offering and their reputation were both important, but I had to be certain that this was the place I was going to be living full-time for the next 3 years! Growing up in the city since I was child, I was certain that I would choose a university situated in a bustling city. Although others may prefer a quiet or serene environment, I usually find comfort in the noise because it assures me that there are always people around and about. In addition, it was always extremely convenient to travel where I needed to go (university buildings, grocers, my accommodation).

In addition, with a course as flexible as PPE, PPE programmes at different universities ranged quite drastically. Although core modules were more or less the same, the optional modules were vastly different. I was very pleased with the modules provided at University of Manchester, particularly that I knew I wanted to focus on Economics in my last year, so I had the option to choose BSc Economics modules during my three years!

In my first year, I ran for the Welfare Officer position under the Malaysian Students’ Society of Manchester (MSSM). My role consisted of being the go-to person for any members’ issues, whether personal (should they want to share it with me) or administrative-related issues i.e. visa problems. Furthermore, I was in charge of handling the member database and issuing the MSSM Membership Cards. Unbeknownst to me at the beginning of the year, there was one more role to be added onto Welfare Officer. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to adapt to provide continuous COVID-19 related support and guidance for the Malaysian students in Manchester. This has been my greatest challenge, yet an experience that I am extremely grateful for and am trying to improve on everyday!

This year, I have been elected as the Vice President. My primary roles include overseeing the operations of the society, assisting the President and being the Producer of this year’s Malaysian Night alongside the General Secretary. I am looking extremely forward to this year’s production, as we are hosting our very first MNight Short Film! (do stay tuned on our social media to find out more).

Unique to Manchester is definitely the community and the social life here. As the area is very cosmopolitan, the university community is extremely diverse. Generally, people are very welcoming and non-judgemental. Meeting friends from all over the world, with a variety of interests, has enabled me to try new things and explore different cultures. Plus the architecture in Manchester is extraordinary. Along Oxford Road are traditional, historical buildings intertwined with elevated, modern architecture. Although I’ve already been here for a year, I feel as if everyday I explore something new from the artsy Northern Quarter district to the canals that run under the city.

Students can apply to the University of Manchester through UCAS, which those students applying to universities in the UK will be familiar with. The process is pretty straightforward, and for my course in particular there was no need for an interview. Therefore, the most crucial element of your application is your personal statement! The personal statement could be the most exciting thing you’ve ever written or be the most stressful essay to write. How do you present yourself on a measly A4 piece of paper?

I, thankfully, was given a lot of guidance from my Head of Higher Education which hopefully helps you too! Write down a list of all your achievements, your skills and why you wanted to study that course. It might be a lot of mumbo-jumbo that you’re scribbling down, but trust me it works! After you scrawl this down, think to yourself how they can intertwine with each other. How did your experiences in the past help you develop skills that led to your achievements? Think about why you were motivated to achieve what you did; most probably because these were steps on your journey leading to your ultimate ‘goal’ in life. Then elaborate on how studying the course is the next step of your journey and will contribute to your goal!

Throughout this process, I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to stay true to yourself! If you are trying to find ‘the perfect answer’ from the perspective of the admissions office, you will hate writing your statement and be extremely unmotivated to do so. The admissions office wants to know about YOU and what YOU will get out of completing this course. It is impossible to find a general ‘perfect answer’. These were guidance that made me proud of my personal statement.

Ultimately, wherever you end up, make the most of your experience. Get involved in extracurriculars, be open to meeting different kinds of people and engage in social life! Yes, university is primarily about completing your degree, but this period also transitions you from adolescence to adulthood. The challenges you will face will enable you to develop the skills you need to be truly independent as an adult.

Farisa Wan is a second year Politics, Philosophy and Economics student at the University of Manchester. Farisa runs a self-care dedicated instagram page called @wanmoreday. In her free time, she obsesses over Marvel movies particularly Captain America!

“Remember to apply for scholarships!”- those words were constantly ringing in my ears. After I’ve graduated high school, I googled all kinds of scholarships there are and printed those forms before I even obtained my results. You have to be really prepared because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Give yourself the chance to choose which scholarship instead of being stuck with only one choice or none. I know my family won’t be able to afford a medical degree in a private university without a scholarship so I put in 200% effort in applying for scholarships, in addition to studying really hard.

I think a lot of students are unaware of The Star Education Fund Scholarship. This scholarship aims to help students who really can’t afford the degree without a scholarship. Basically, on their website they state the courses eligible at specific institutes. Good news is, there are a lot of choices to pick from. The form asks for personal details, academic & co-curricular achievements, family income, and a personal statement. You really have to express your enthusiasm on why do you want to study the course that you’ve picked. After submitting the form and attaching all the necessary documentations, all you have to do is be patient.

I applied for the RCSI-UCD Malaysia Campus (RUMC) program under The Star. This program comes with a two-and-a-half year experience studying in either the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) or University College Dublin (UCD). I submitted my application in March 2019 and I received a phone call from the manager of The Star Education Fund about 2 weeks after the deadline. She asked me about my family’s background and financial status to make sure I’m still interested in the scholarship as it’s a scholarship excluding living expenses. A week later I received another phone call from the manager telling me that I’ve passed first round of interviews and that I’ll receive details on what to do next soon. Following that, I received an email asking me to submit 2 essays:
(i) Discuss the impact on yourself, your family and the community of gaining a Star Education Fund scholarship? and;
(ii) Is society becoming over-medicalised?

They gave me two-week deadline to submit the essays. Since my mother is a medical sales representative, I was lucky enough to get guidance and the ‘inside scoop’ of current medical happenings from her friends in the field, and this was very helpful in the second topic. I submitted the essays 2 days before the deadline because doing it at the eleventh hour is never a good idea. 4 days later, I received an email for a face-to-face interview.

From my experience at the interview, I’d say prepare for the interview but don’t stress yourself out too much, just be yourself and convince the interviewers on why you’re the right candidate for the scholarship. I brought all the original documents requested as listed in the email. I’m not going to lie I was VERY nervous but luckily I wasn’t blank nervous, I honestly felt like I babbled to the three interviewers throughout. Luckily, the interview was very much like every other medical school interview. There’s no right or wrong in this situation, they just want to know how would you react. The interview lasted roughly 30 minutes. Towards the end of it, they asked me what happens if I didn’t get this scholarship and I told them about my plans and alternative routes. I think it’s wise and responsible to tell them what you have in mind.

Fortunately, 1 week later I got the good news via phone call! The manager also reminded me to submit my family’s proof of income and such to ensure that my family will be able to support me throughout my studies in Ireland for the first 2.5 years. Two weeks later, they asked me to go to the office and sign the agreement. They explained to me the terms and conditions of the agreement where a scholar has to be of exemplary character and maintain a certain CGPA. I know scholarship applications can be a little tedious but it’s worth it. Best of luck!

Joey Wee is currently a The Star Education Fund Scholarship Recipient. She completed her SPM in SMK Canossa Convent Melaka, STPM in Malacca High School (MHS) and is currently pursuing her Medicine degree in University College Dublin. If you intend to contact the author, feel free to contact the CollegeLAH Team at contactus@collegelah.com.