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On July 12 2011 14:54 KwarK wrote:Show nested quote +On July 12 2011 12:53 Demoninja wrote:On July 12 2011 12:36 Sgany wrote:
Basicly we do it like this
First 7 years are your junior years
Next 5 are your middle years (These are the exams I did bad on)
Next 2 are your final years
You get points for each grade you get the max being 625 now, it just went up from 600. It means getting A1 = A+ in everything. So basicly a perfect GPA.
Sorry I'm not adding anything but I'm curious haha. If you already got a bunch of C's and only a few B's how is it possible for you to still achieve the max of 625? As he explained the 5 middle year exams only count to see if you can do the final 2 years (if you can't you're stuck with them though). If you get to do the final 2 years then nobody cares what you got on the previous ones, they're obsolete.
Sorry, only one thing I disagree with here. Oxford especially takes a very strong look at your GCSE grades. Cambridge on the other hand looks more are your specialized test, ie your STEP/BMAT etc.
With regards to the maximum score thing. There are two tiers of paper, so say you are doing Maths. There will be a higher tier paper, and a foundation tier paper. Higher obviously including more things in the curriculum and being harder. If you were to achieve full marks in the foundation paper, you get a (C?) whereas if you achieve full marks in the higher paper, you would get the highest grade (A*)
I think what the OP is saying is that because of the bad school he went to, the teachers were only able to teach up to foundation level and therefore the highest grade he could possibly get was a C.
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On July 12 2011 20:29 SirJolt wrote:Show nested quote +On July 12 2011 20:26 deconduo wrote:
Where does the extra 35 points from? I didn't realise they'd changed the layout.
I believe he is including the bonus offered by some colleges for those who achieve high results in both honours maths and applied maths, though there could be some other numerical witchcraft at work here that I'm not aware of  Show nested quote +On July 12 2011 12:17 Sgany wrote:
The reason I done so bad was that I went to a bad school and the system in the UK means that there is two test tiers and I was forced to do the lower papers as the teachers could not teach the higher tier stuff to the class. So, if I'm understanding this correctly, you were forced to do easier papers and you still managed to score poorly?[You mean to say "did" so "badly" here] Show nested quote +On July 12 2011 11:55 Sgany wrote:
Due to different education systems I cannot see the Cs effecting my that much due to it basicly my "middle school" grades.
Show nested quote +On July 12 2011 11:07 Sgany wrote:
For the last year I have been fixated with going into an Ivy League College (or Stanford) or going to Cambridge or Oxford in my native UK.
To start of I am 17 year old male from an average family in the UnitedKingdom ... I moreless plan to achieve 635 points total which is the highest amount of points you can earn in the Irish education system. I am also planning to sit SAT and two SAT IIs, achieving near max marks in all of them hopefully. I know this sounds arrogant to say I am going to get the highest marks possible but it what I feel I need to do, and I am going to invest the time needed to do so, even if that means rarely leaving my room.
[deletia]
I have been getting very bad paranoia if I fail to get into one of these universities that I will be unable to forget about it as it is what I see as my main goal in life. My parents honestly do not seem to care at all, moreless calling me stupid for attempting to get into any of these universities.
As someone who has sat an Irish leaving certificate, I have to ask: Do you worry that your issues with English writing might cost you your 635 points? Marks are deducted for poor grammar, spelling and punctuation. This isn't meant to be inflammatory, just a question.
The highest possible grade you can get in the lower paper of every subject is C you cannot get higher, the only subject which has no tiers is History which was probably my weakest subject and I got a high B in it, with very little revision/work done for it.
My English writing is pretty poor I'll admit that but I wrote the blog around 2am - 4am in the morning while pretty tired, I did not spell check it or read it, like I would for something which is going to be marked for spelling and grammar.
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- You will not be able to afford university abroad. International student fees are astronomical.
- Extracurricular activities are hugely important when it comes to getting into Ivy League schools. The applicants all have amazing marks, so EC is the only way to separate them.
- Harvard is a beautiful campus. If I were to go to MIT for graduate studies I would go straight there or to UCLA, which is amazingly beautiful.
- School environment only means anything if you're in a bullshit (read: non-technical) program and have the spare time to participate in anything.
- Schools frown upon educational gaps. I heard a story just last night of a girl who didn't get into Waterloo because she took grade 12 twice to improve her marks. She's now going to McMaster...
- What school you go to means everything to employers. Where you get your degree will instantly put you ahead of other applicants because it reflects on the effort you put into getting into and completing your education at that school.
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To get into Oxbridge you'll want to start doing as many EC activities as you can. DoE is the standard one that everyone does, basically you want activities that both show you're passionate about your chosen subject, but also ones that show there's more to you then academic ability.
If you aim slightly lower, so top universities aside from Oxbride and Imperial, the standards are a lot lower. Normal EC activities and good grades are enough, I applied this year for Maths & Physics with predicted grades of AAB, but a fairly poor application apart from them, and got offers from Manchester, Glasgow, Nottingham, Cardiff and got rejected from Bristol.
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let me tell you as one of the people who attend one of the schools that you mentioned in the OP:
don't worry about it too much but make sure you make up for it during college.
doing well in "mediocre" college >>>>> doing badly in a top college
this is true for almost all industries (mayyybe except for in business). and you can always go to a prestigious grad school.
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Ivy Leagues are not the source of success. It all boils down to you. A lot of people attend these schools but by the end of their careers, only make 150k. This is a lot of money, but for all the trouble and money spent on the education itself, it pales in comparison since many many more poeple make that exact same amount through hard work and determination. So really, just find what you love in life and put yourself behind that and you will succeed. Ivy Leagues are a great start, but certainly not everything!
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This reminds me of those ads that try to convince you that Bayer is better than aspirin, so that you'll pay more for it. "I've got to get into a top 20 school!" WTF is a top 20 school, and who cares? The quality of your education depends entirely upon you and the effort you choose to put into it, but I guess their self-created image is a good way to get people to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars attending these places.
People are claiming you can go to Harvard for free? That sounds mind-numbingly stupid to me and my brain can't even comprehend it right now. All I'm trying to say is don't buy into the hype, and don't kick your own ass trying to get there. You will be much better off investing your time in learning some marketable skills for the real (job) world. Anyone who puts a lot of weight on which piece of paper came from which university probably won't have a large impact on your life. If you are just a workaholic then I guess have fun studying all day long. Do you even play starcraft?
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Do something.
No, seriously, just go out there and find some online business club or whatnot or project (there must be at least a few), join up and do something.
Offer to intern. Have a family member that runs a business? Go help them, research and make a plan for their "company." Write it up formally, propose it to them and then keep track of how it effects their business.
Tie all of that stuff together with a pretty bow and you'll get into whatever business school you want, as long as your test scores support it decently.
Schools are much, much more impressed by self-motivated projects in the field than they are by a few private school courses.
HOWEVER, do make sure you take all classes that fulfill the college's suggested requirements (whatever it may be: calculus, 3 years of foreign language, etc).
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On July 13 2011 02:09 jdseemoreglass wrote:
This reminds me of those ads that try to convince you that Bayer is better than aspirin, so that you'll pay more for it. "I've got to get into a top 20 school!" WTF is a top 20 school, and who cares? The quality of your education depends entirely upon you and the effort you choose to put into it, but I guess their self-created image is a good way to get people to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars attending these places.
People are claiming you can go to Harvard for free? That sounds mind-numbingly stupid to me and my brain can't even comprehend it right now. All I'm trying to say is don't buy into the hype, and don't kick your own ass trying to get there. You will be much better off investing your time in learning some marketable skills for the real (job) world. Anyone who puts a lot of weight on which piece of paper came from which university probably won't have a large impact on your life. If you are just a workaholic then I guess have fun studying all day long. Do you even play starcraft?
Actually, big name schools provide many full-ride scholarships due to the absurd amount of money they get from their alumni.
I know that my family is pretty well off, but I wouldn't have had to pay tuition if I had decided to go to Stanford (if your parents make less than $80k or $100k combined, I forget which, your tuition is waved).
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On July 12 2011 21:08 GoDLy MD wrote:Show nested quote +On July 12 2011 14:54 KwarK wrote:On July 12 2011 12:53 Demoninja wrote:On July 12 2011 12:36 Sgany wrote:
Basicly we do it like this
First 7 years are your junior years
Next 5 are your middle years (These are the exams I did bad on)
Next 2 are your final years
You get points for each grade you get the max being 625 now, it just went up from 600. It means getting A1 = A+ in everything. So basicly a perfect GPA.
Sorry I'm not adding anything but I'm curious haha. If you already got a bunch of C's and only a few B's how is it possible for you to still achieve the max of 625? As he explained the 5 middle year exams only count to see if you can do the final 2 years (if you can't you're stuck with them though). If you get to do the final 2 years then nobody cares what you got on the previous ones, they're obsolete. Sorry, only one thing I disagree with here. Oxford especially takes a very strong look at your GCSE grades. Cambridge on the other hand looks more are your specialized test, ie your STEP/BMAT etc. With regards to the maximum score thing. There are two tiers of paper, so say you are doing Maths. There will be a higher tier paper, and a foundation tier paper. Higher obviously including more things in the curriculum and being harder. If you were to achieve full marks in the foundation paper, you get a (C?) whereas if you achieve full marks in the higher paper, you would get the highest grade (A*) I think what the OP is saying is that because of the bad school he went to, the teachers were only able to teach up to foundation level and therefore the highest grade he could possibly get was a C.
I know people at oxford with Bs and Cs at GCSE *shrug* as long as you´ve got your 4 or so As at A level and impress them at interview (the most important thing really) (+ ace whatever subject exam they give you) you´ll be fine i think, overall I think people in this thread are vastly exagerating the importance of his GCSE results, do unis in the US really look at your middle school grades ? :s
My advice for the OP is that should make a bigger deal than you seem to about whether you should study in the UK or the US. The systems are very different, the american major and minor style seem to be very compartmentalised, meaning you take individual courses (maybe 4-6 each term?) and are examined on each one. This gives you greater freedom to shape your education the way you want it and you also get to do some stuff completely unrelated to your major.
On the other hand the exams are smaller and more frequent which favour a memorise and forget sort of learning you also probably won't get to specialise to the same degree should that be what you want.
In the UK you'll be doing the subject they accepted you for and only that. This leads to greater depth but in return you are pretty screwed if you end up not liking your subject.
Also (at least in oxford but I assume everywhere) you often have (depends a bit on subject) one set of exams for a three year course. In my oppinion this strongly encourges actually understanding your subject to a deeper level and you also don't need to constantly waste time throughout every single year for pure exam preparation but can again focus on learning.
On the other hand if you crack under pressure once finally sitting the exam then bam there you stand with a 2.2 and 3 wasted years.
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Here is the thing.
I studied in Toronto, and from my highschool (#1 public school in the province), only 1 made to Harvard. Even that is amazing. now, he had the highest mark in the entire province in one of the hardest academic school, + robotics club + math club + etc etc
pretty much, he was a genius.
Either you have to be an absolute genius or you have to REALLY stand out. there are THOUSANDS applying to ivy league, and only a handful gets in. They ALL have similar scores, so who will they pick? the outstanding ones.
My recommendation is, stop dreaming.
undergrad at ivy league is crazy expensive for international students. of course, if you are outstanding, these schools pay for your tuition entirely. but thats not easy.
You should aim for TOP TIER universities in the states or the UK that is NOT Ivy league (Like, not Harvard MIT UC Berk Yale Stanford etc)
UPenn Cornell Toronto NYU Chicago Columbia and bunch of other Engineering strength universities will do. go to QS or Times University ranking and check out the top 20 schools. if you do well in undergrad, you can definitely make to ivy league Grad school.
Regardless, you really need to stand out, so try to have an impressive resume for the application.
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Finances should also definitely be taken into consideration. If your family income is lower to middle class income, I know harvard and yale provide very good aid. Then it may be worth working hard for, because you get the chance to study abroad while paying low tuition.
Otherwise, it's definitely not worth dishing out 200k+ . I read that the tuition for cambridge is less than 9k a year (and was like under 4k in the past). Shit, compared to the u.s that's really really cheap.
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You're fucked.
You have C's and B's on your transcripts that these colleges are going to see. Unless your family is giving hundreds of thousands to these schools there is pretty much no chance of you getting in. Sorry bro but that's just reality, I'd start looking somewhere else and maybe kick ass at some other college in hopes of going to a good grad school; because it is probably too late for you to try and get in these top schools.
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I passed on Ivy League price tag to go to local public school. Best decision I ever made (monetary wise). Now I'm studying Law in America at a relatively good school.
The school you go to does not define you. It really doesn't.
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Also, the whole idea of "get into the best school you can" is absolutely retarded. Jobs are all about connections.
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My friend that got in to cornell had straight a's for all of high school, was first chair violin for an award winning private orchestra, did research and volunteer work for over 20 hours a week at the largest aquarium in connecticut, biked across the united states from georgia to california twice, and was an eagle scout.
My friend that got in to Oxford had straight a's for all of high school, won an international IBM programming contest, did lab work and testing for a fortune 500 cosmetics company in new york city, and was captain of the robotics and math team.
Just to give you an idea of the competition you'll be up against
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C's and 2 B's
sorry but you've got no chance whatsoever unless you want to resit all of your GCSE's until you get all A*'s or A's
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Pretty much my whole family has been told that without a line of A*'s for GCSE behind your Oxbridge application or something seriously shit-hot in the extra-curricular department it will be very difficult, not impossible though. That said, you get 6 UCAS choices so there's really no harm in trying anyway.
However UCL / Imperial / KCL / LSE would be worth a shot, they are all really pretty equal academically although UCL probably has the most diverse crowd being more into arts and humanities than the other 3. I personally can't see it making a huge difference job wise (although someone in business can fell free to correct me).
The best extracurricular thing you could probably do based on my experice from Medicine and my sisters from Economics & Architecture is to get some kind of experience in what you are going to study. Then you can genuinely talk about why you think it's awesome, what you have done etc etc.
edit: I cannot say how the UK Golden Triangle universities compare to the US Ivy League on a global scale. Should be fairly even though and I'm curious to know.
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On July 13 2011 07:30 MoonfireSpam wrote:
Pretty much my whole family has been told that without a line of A*'s for GCSE behind your Oxbridge application or something seriously shit-hot in the extra-curricular department it will be very difficult, not impossible though. That said, you get 6 UCAS choices so there's really no harm in trying anyway.
However UCL / Imperial / KCL / LSE would be worth a shot, they are all really pretty equal academically although UCL probably has the most diverse crowd being more into arts and humanities than the other 3. I personally can't see it making a huge difference job wise (although someone in business can fell free to correct me).
The best extracurricular thing you could probably do based on my experice from Medicine and my sisters from Economics & Architecture is to get some kind of experience in what you are going to study. Then you can genuinely talk about why you think it's awesome, what you have done etc etc.
edit: I cannot say how the UK Golden Triangle universities compare to the US Ivy League on a global scale. Should be fairly even though and I'm curious to know.
Please don't compare kings to Imperial/UCL/LSE...the students of the latter would be gravely offended. For medicine at least, kings is nowhere near Imperial/UCL.
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after reading through your posts a few more times its clear you're delusional and have no idea what it actually takes to get into these schools and have clearly not researched it properly, do not get yourself worked up and worried about something that is beyond you and move on with your life
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EPT
