quaintly - Latest Comments in Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

pinkpau — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:39:09 -0000

if your school uses their own application system instead of the common app, then you dont have to register for the common app.

if your school uses both their own app system AND the common app, you can choose which one you want to use. usually, people go for the common app because it's less work to send out the same app to multiple schools.

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

pinkpau — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:38:02 -0000

no i never went through the cambridge interview process :) but like with all interviews, the best advice i can give is to a) research well and b) be yourself

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

sara — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 06:23:27 -0000

hi.. i have a question.. is it compulsory to register through common application before apply online through the university website? because i had started my application in several universities ( penn state, tulsa, missouri, southern california..) and i did not register in the common app..

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

John — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:58:48 -0000

hey, how about the "Bank Letter"?

is there any format?

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

surrealist — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:06:36 -0000

Wow. Wauw. Hwau!

The guide's really amazing, detailed, well-formated, informative, 'yadaa yadaa yadaa', quite frankly I could go on but it'd be pointless because it'd only be repetitive (looking at the comments above =O).

Oh, but I did notice you never use capital letters, and sentence structures are very informal, feels like I'm reading a transcript of somebody's conversation.. Humbleness and colloquial, much better than reading those bland websites or listening to my advisers (mum included).

And sorry, I'm sorta going off-topic. Stating such things as though I'm sorta superior, yet another guality, er quality, of self-imposed and false confidence..

Anyhoo, just wanna say thanks lots (oops, repetitive!), as I will most defiintely, waittt slash that, definitely be referring to this for my application! Which quite sadly may, or may not happen.. Reason being because it depends on my SAT I scores coming out on the 23rd of October aha! Worrisome..

And a bigger worrisome is 24th of October, Cambridge interview! Any tips on that? Suppose you do, considering you pulled through one already, right!

Erghh, re-reading and editing my blob of text, it still seems very convoluted and silly. Ah, a little sorry for given troubles ploughing through this!

Will come and kacaaau more, given my fate on 23rd.

Wow!

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

pinkpau — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:04:54 -0000

no never ever send a 'back up'. you either choose to send the forms online or send a hard copy. this is something that is mentioned many, many times throughout the application websites.

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

hahaha — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:22:56 -0000

Hi ya there! Thanks for sharing your walkthrough with the rest of the world, not many people would do that you know so thanks a lot!
Just wondering: some universities mentioned they prefer online application. So can i still apply not through online application? If i do anyway, can i send in the hard copy as back up?

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

Rainbow — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:12:54 -0000

Thank you very much. I got the idea already.
thanks a lot ya....
really learn a lot from here.
Solved many of my doubts !!
Thanks you very much !!!

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

pinkpau — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:44:30 -0000

nope i'm not familiar with post grad applications.

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

passer-by — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:13:56 -0000

Wow, an Ivy-league. Impressive :)

By any chance, do you know whether post-grad applications carry the same steps as you mentioned?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

Oyico — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:41:57 -0000

heyy thanks for writing such a helpful post!
Good luck in your life and i'm sure all of us are looking forward to your 2 other posts! : )

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

pinkpau — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:07:23 -0000

a report card is totally acceptable, as long as you translate everything from BM to english. um of course you can have photocopies of transcripts.. just so long as you have a "Certified True Copy" stamp on each photocopy.

i would suggest photocopying your report book if it looks neat and professional enough :)

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

pinkpau — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:05:30 -0000

you can try applying this year with your first semester grades, but perhaps it would be better to apply after you have one full year of ADP? then again i know ADP is undergoing a bit of a change, now that JPA and Mara scholars have their own american college preparatory... so if that's the case, one semester should be fine.

what cover letters? do you mean my for resume, or just the letters that i attached to my transcripts to explain certain stuff? i wrote them under my own name, of course! but my college did send in two letters explaining the ADP program and how it's not a valid pre-u. complicated! i dont remember how many letters i sent in.. probably 3 or 4, explaining the school system and resume cover letters.

aiya it doesnt matter how many cover letters i sent in. it differs from person to person. if you feel like you have a lot of things to explain, ie why your grades were really poor for a certain year, or why your attendance was poor, then you should write letters. but most importantly there should be a letter explaining the grading system of your school.. like what the subjects offered are, the streaming system if your school has that, when and how often the exams are, how students are graded, what's the percentage for A's B's C's etc. some colleges even specifically ask you for that letter.

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

-p — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:07:31 -0000

very nice post here
i appreciate u for posting very much

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

Rainbow — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:55:36 -0000

Hello, pinkpau.

Thanks for your reply. But I have somemore questions here. As I do not do any pre-u, and I am in the midst of the FIRST sem in ADP, what should I put for my MYR ? I have no results to be summitted. That's is wat made me insane !!!

Oh ya... did you write the cover letters under your own name ? or you write it on the behalf of the so said counselor ?

I am quite curious about how many cover letters have you sent in ? Including the secondary booklets explaining education system. Haha, do u mind to tell us about this ?

Thanks for sharing !!! Grateful........... ^@^

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

camy — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:30:17 -0000

I used to have a report book in my SMK dulu. Is that the transcript for form 1, 2, 3 and 4? See.. the thing is, they're asking for TRANSCRIPTS and they dont want a photocopy of the transcript. Then, I cant sent them my ori Report book. I need to send a few transcripts to a few unis. What do you suggest? My school is in Miri and I have now moved to KL. It might be hard getting in touch with my previous school.

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

pinkpau — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:27:49 -0000

give your teachers several envelopes, ask them to photocopy their letters after they've written them, and then seal the envelopes. yes of course they accept photocopies of the SSR and MYR :)

as for the explanation letters... my school actually had a kind of booklet explaining the malaysian system and also the school-specific system, so i sent that in. my letters mostly went to explaining the difference between my pre-u and high school, which was sent thru the common app Additional Info, so im afraid i dont have a copy of that anymore. it's not that difficult so dont be daunted :) we all have to work hard to make our applications the best they can be.

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

pinkyboo — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:24:37 -0000

hi there. I thought i'll share some knowledge / my own opinion in this. I wont say Im 100% certain, but a 3 yr australian degree should be sufficient to enter a Masters program in the USA, however, this is assuming that you did some sort of Pre-u beforehand (Form 6, SAM, CPU, A Levels, etc) or, if you did not study in Malaysia, then this is assuming you did Year 12 in Australia. Because, if you add up your Pre-u or Year 12 with your 3 yr bachelor degree, it totals up to 4 years, which makes you the same level as the other US degree graduates. I hope I make sense :) Whoever who's reading this, if Im wrong, pls feel free to correct me thanks.

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

pinkpau — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:21:44 -0000

nope i only applied to US schools

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

Jeanette — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:42:34 -0000

Thanks, thanks!
Ok, but I got more questions...
I'm intending to apply to more than one university so I would need duplicate copies of all my reports. But if like you said the teacher/counselor recommendations have to be sealed, then I cannot photocopy them on my own? Do they even accept photocopies of SSR and MYR? Little technicalities... >.<

Uh... I was also wondering if you could please send me a sample of the explanation letters you were referring to regarding the Malaysian school system, grade conversion etc. as I am not sure how to go about it. (Ya, I know you gave an outline but I'm still lost)

*grateful eyes...

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

-p — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:58:50 -0000

ivies are still, kinda expensive imo
did u apply to others btw, say like toronto or mcgill, up north?

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

Fatcat — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:23:47 -0000

Oh, thank you, Chen Chow and pinkpau, esp. for taking time to reply to my comment/questions. :)

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

blue nowhere — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:34:53 -0000

thanks su ann! btw, since they don't require certs to be sent, aren't they worried that applicants might 'declare' activities that they weren't even involved in? and oh yea, ur guide is really cool!! it's so kind of you..=)

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

pinkpau — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:03:12 -0000

just curious : eh i noticed you like to ask questions but never leave any identity. why?

hw : well said! :)

rainbow : ahhhh i knew i forgot something. the international supplement!!! if i remember correctly, we should submit the international supplement in place of the SSR right? in which case you should use SPM in your international supplement and Pre-U for MYR. i'm assuming from your questions that you didnt do pre-u? i only converted the GPA for the actual SPM, because that was my "final" grade. for the rest of Form 1-5 grades, i just attached transcripts without converting anything. definitely write letters explaining whatever you're doing. all of us should write at least one letter just on the grounds that our system is different from the american system. most adcoms know what the malaysian system is like, but it's always good to explain anyway.

booyah : ooh tough one. did you know that actually you're not supposed to look at your recommendations? you're supposed to sign a waiver of your right to view the letter, and then your recommender is supposed to give you back the letter inside a sealed envelope for you to mail out. so translation by yourself is definitely out of the picture. you COULD edit grammar for them... but know that this is "illegal" and you do this at your own risk. the adcom could call up your school and ask to speak to your teachers (for whatever reason), or email them, and if they find out that your teacher's english is not good, but the letter displays perfect grammar, they're going to think you wrote your own letters. i dont mean to scare you.. but it's something to keep in mind.

cs : that's definitely not good.. :( US colleges are particularly keen on weeding out people who join clubs and then not contribute (ie "activity collectors") or people who are lazy and give up quickly. it would definitely be obvious to them when you are filling out your application, because the duration of all your activities are like only days or weeks long.

-p : well i already said that what works for me may not work for you :) i thought the conversion was important especially if the adcoms were using a specific index to rank their applicants. yes i got interviews.

blue : you shouldnt have to send any certs at all, because you will 'declare' all your activities in the application forms or your resume. yes thats right, i sent in my final year exams for Form 1,2,3,4 with a letter explaining our schooling system (that in the first 3 years we do the same subjects with progressively more difficult syllabi, and that we have a mid year exam and final exams, and then a national exam in form 3, followed by form 4 and 5 where we choose a stream of subjects for two years.. then SPM.. blablabla). hmm you shouldnt convert anything except your SPM results. remember that converting is not necessary, but it was something i chose to do. you can just cross out those sections and put Not Applicable, and attach another letter explaining your ranking in school, how many A's you got, what the highest number of A's in your school was, etc.

jeanette : ok you see the headings for all my sections? some of them have Envelope 1, Envelope 2 etc. these are the envelopes that you send in by mail. at the end of the day, you should have something like 5 to 7 individual envelopes for one school, so what you do is put these 5 to 7 envelopes into one big envelope and mail it to the school you're applying to. so yes you would collect sealed envelopes from your recommenders to put into your Big Envelope. as for the letters... if you looked at your forms properly you would see that the SSR and MYR evaluation space is only for counselors, not teachers. so teacher recommendations should not even be in the SSR in the first place. if you did both high school and Pre-U, you should have 2 teacher recs and 2 counselor recs. if only high school, then 2 teacher recs and 1 counselor rec.

Re: Pinkpau’s Guide to US College Applications, Part 1

Jeanette — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:42:52 -0000

Hey, I would like to ask about the actual mailing of the application to US. The instructions tell us to include a stamped envelope for our teachers (for SSR, MYR, etc). Does this mean they must send the reports on their own? Or do I collect the reports back and send with the rest of my application in separate envelopes? Confused..

Also, is the teacher's evaluation (TE) and counselor's evaluation (SSR ,MR) the same? For example, if the uni requires two TE do I still need to find two other recommendations since I already get recommendations in my SSR and MR?

Many, many thanks, this site helped me a lot :-)