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2012-02-21T22:17:00.001+08:00

Yale-NUS releases tuition, financial aid policies

Staff Reporters

Friday, February 17, 2012

While Yale-NUS College has modeled much of its curriculum and student life on Yale College, the tuition and financial aid policies for the overseas liberal arts college, released Wednesday, more closely resemble those of a Singaporean institution.

Though all undergraduates at Yale are charged the same baseline tuition, Yale-NUS has determined students’ tuition costs based on their citizenship, in accordance with Singaporean law. Yale-NUS is also offering merit-based scholarships — a type of financial aid not available at any Ivy League school. The tuition and scholarship policies, which will be reviewed again after the college’s first year, are designed to attract top students in Singapore and internationally, administrators said.

According to the Yale-NUS website, students will fall into one of three tuition categories. Singaporean citizens have the cheapest tuition costs, at S$7,500 per semester, which is roughly equivalent to $6,000 U.S. dollars. Permanent residents — noncitizens who reside in the country — will be charged S$10,500, while international students will be charged S$15,000.

But unlike tuition, financial aid and scholarship eligibility will not vary based on a student’s citizenship, Yale-NUS Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan said Thursday.

“We’re going to be doing an individual analysis of every student,” Quinlan said. “Even though we don’t know how many students will receive scholarships or be on need-based financial aid next year, we’re committed to trying to make this an affordable education for as many students and families as possible.”

According to the newly released Yale-NUS policies, students admitted to the college’s inaugural class will automatically receive one of three merit-based scholarships.

Students deemed the strongest applicants by the Yale-NUS Admissions Office will be awarded the “Founder Scholarship,” which covers the full cost of attendance. The next tier of applicants will earn the “Merit Scholarship,” which pays for a “significant portion” of tuition and pays for half of one year’s room and board. Those who do not qualify for a founder or merit award will receive a “Community Scholarship,” which also covers half of one year’s room and board, but does not pay for any tuition expenses.

University President Richard Levin said administrators decided Yale-NUS would give merit-based scholarships to keep the school competitive in a country where all colleges and universities offer merit-based awards.

“We’ll have merit-based scholarships as a base layer of financial aid, with need-based aid on top of it for those who need financial help,” Levin said. “It’s necessary to attract the best students, that some component of their package is merit-based.”

Quinlan noted that all the scholarships allocate money to housing costs, which is important since all Yale-NUS students are currently required to live on campus — an uncommon stipulation, as many students at Singaporean schools live at home to save money.

Ronald Ehrenberg, director of Cornell’s Higher Education Research Institute, said merit scholarships allow institutions to attract top-notch talent, though these awards detract from the amount of need-based financial aid an institution can provide.

But Levin said he does not expect the merit-based aid at Yale-NUS to take away from need-based aid. He said the school’s financial aid policy will be competitive with those of many elite U.S. universities, though not on par with the aid offered by Harvard, Princeton and Yale, whose need-based financial aid packages meet students’ full demonstrated need with only grants, not loans. Ehrenberg also said it makes sense for Yale-NUS to differentiate tuition based on citizenship, comparing the Singaporean policy to those of U.S. state schools, which charge out-of-state students higher fees.

Quinlan said the Singaporean government determines the levels of tuition by first setting the price for Singaporean students and then using a “price multiplier” to increase costs proportionately for permanent residents and international students. Despite the variations in price, Quinlan said Yale-NUS is relatively inexpensive for all students. Still, international students who receive additional financial aid in the form of tuition grants are required to work for a Singapore-based company for three years upon graduation.

“This is much less expensive than Yale or a liberal arts college in the United States,” he said, adding that the Singaporean government heavily subsidizes higher education for its citizens.
Tuition fees for Singaporean citizens are currently set to increase to S$9,000 for the college’s third class of students, Quinlan said, to help cover additional construction and maintenance costs on the new campus.

Yale-NUS will open in fall 2013.

Top 20 Countries Where Non-UK UCL Students Come From

2012-02-07T15:26:00.000+08:00

When college applicants plagiarize, Turnitin can spot them

2012-02-06T15:54:00.000+08:00

UCLA's Anderson School of Management and Stanford University are among more than 100 colleges using Turnitin's database to detect plagiarism in application essays.

By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times

January 29, 2012, 5:34 p.m.

The student's admissions essay for Boston University's MBA program was about persevering in the business world. "I have worked for organizations in which the culture has been open and nurturing, and for others that have been elitist. In the latter case, arrogance becomes pervasive, straining external partnerships."

Another applicant's essay for UCLA's Anderson School of Management was about his father. He "worked for organizations in which the culture has been open and nurturing, and for others that have been elitist. In the latter case, arrogance becomes pervasive, straining external partnerships."

Sound familiar? The Boston University student's essay was written in 2003 and had been posted at businessweek.com. The UCLA applicant was rejected — for plagiarism.

The detection of such wholesale cheating in college applications is on the rise due to the use of Turnitin for Admissions, an anti-plagiarism database service that compares student essays to an immense archive of other writings. Around the country, more than 100 colleges and universities have adopted it, mainly in graduate divisions, although Stanford University is among the dozen schools starting to use it for freshman applicants this year.

That growth highlights the search for authenticity in college admissions at a time when the Internet offers huge amounts of tempting free material, increasing numbers of private coaches sell admissions advice, and online companies peddle pre-written essays. In addition, the larger numbers of applications from overseas have raised concerns about cheating that may be difficult for U.S. schools to discover unaided.

"The more we can nip unethical behavior in the bud, the better," said Andrew Ainslie, a senior associate dean at UCLA Anderson. "It seems to us nobody ought to be able to buy their way into a business school."

In the school's first review of essays from potential MBA candidates this year, Turnitin found significant plagiarism — beyond borrowing a phrase here and there — in a dozen of the 870 applications, Ainslie said. All 12 were rejected.

Turnitin — as in, "turn it in" — began in the 1990s and became a popular tool at high schools and colleges to help detect copying in academic term papers and research by scanning for similarities in phrases from among billions of Web pages, books and periodicals.

Two years ago, the Oakland-based firm developed a service for admissions decisions, allowing large numbers of essays to be reviewed quickly and creating a database of students' essays. The service shows sections of essays next to the possible source and calculates a percentage of possibly copied material. It is left up to schools to determine whether the plagiarism was minor, accidental or serious enough to reject the applicant.

"If you are a very selective institution, or a very prestigious institution, and you have a huge number of people vying for just a couple of slots, admissions people want to make sure they have all the information to make the fair decision," said Jeff Lorton, Turnitin for Admissions' product and business development manager.

Internal testing of the database, using past essays, showed plagiarism ranging from about 3% to 20% of applicants, Lorton said.

Colleges want "to be proactive in discouraging dishonesty," said Richard Shaw, Stanford's dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid.

So Stanford will test Turnitin on the 7% or so of its 36,000 applicants who make it past other hurdles to be offered admissions, Shaw said. If plagiarism is detected, students will be allowed to respond but probably will face revocation.

Other schools are skeptical about using Turnitin on prospective freshmen, especially since the company charges large campuses several thousands of dollars a year. Rather, plagiarists can be discovered when admissions officers notice mismatches between strong application essays and weak grades, interviews and SAT or ACT writing samples, said David Hawkins, public policy and research director of the National Assn. for College Admission Counseling. Schools also fear wasting time on false positives triggered by cliches and platitudes, he said.

And experts say it can be easy to tell when several applicants repeat the same material or, more glaring, when they don't change electronic typefaces from their sources.

Turnitin's freshman screening could rise sharply, however, if the service is adopted by Common Application, the online service used by 456 college admissions offices. Rob Killion, Common Application executive director, said there is "a very real chance" it will add Turnitin in 2013.

Among current Turnitin for Admissions users are some graduate schools at Johns Hopkins, Brandeis, Northeastern and Iowa State. They pay annual fees that start at $1,500 and rise depending on volume, averaging about a dollar per application, Lorton said. About half the schools explicitly tell applicants about the detection while others warn more vaguely.

Before adding the tool, staffers at Penn State's Smeal College of Business two years ago discovered 29 essays about "principled leadership" that contained material lifted from the Web, said Carrie Marcinkevage, the MBA program's managing director. Except for a few borderline cases, those graduate school applications were denied.

Since then, Turnitin has helped find plagiarism rates of between 3% and 5%, Marcinkevage said, adding that the technology is worthwhile since it "covers a lot more ground" than humans can.

Dominican University of California, in San Rafael, recently began using Turnitin in graduate programs. Applicants sometimes "resort to whatever means possible to get an edge. It's unfortunate, but I think it's human nature," graduate admissions director Larry Schwartz said.

A few suspicious reports are being investigated and most suspected plagiarists will be given "the benefit of the doubt" and a chance to submit a second essay for scrutiny, Schwartz said.

At UCLA Anderson, one recent applicant didn't search far for essay material. He stole verbatim from the school's website in citing "exceptional academic preparation, a cooperative and congenial student culture, and access to a thriving business community."

If plagiarists like that are denied admissions, future business leaders may include fewer unethical careerists, said UCLA Anderson's Ainslie. "If they are going to do that," he said, "they are going to do it in every aspect of their lives."

2012-02-06T15:01:00.000+08:00

Colleges obsess over rankings, students shrug

When U.S. News & World Report debuted its list of "America's Best Colleges" nearly 30 years ago, the magazine hoped its college rankings would be a game-changer for students and families. But arguably, they've had a much bigger effect on colleges themselves.

Yes, students and families still buy the guide and its less famous competitors by the hundreds of thousands, and still care about a college's reputation. But it isn't students who obsess over every incremental shift on the rankings scoreboard, and who regularly embarrass themselves in the process. It's colleges.

It's colleges that have spent billions on financial aid for high-scoring students who don't actually need the money, motivated at least partly by the quest for rankings glory.

STORY: College administrator faked SAT scores

It was a college, Baylor University, that paid students it had already accepted to retake the SAT exam in a transparent ploy to boost the average scores it could report. It's colleges that have awarded bonuses to presidents who lift their school a few slots.
And it's colleges that occasionally get caught in the kind of cheating you might expect in sports or on Wall Street, but which seems especially ignominious coming from professional educators.

The latest example came last week at Claremont McKenna, a highly regarded California liberal arts college where a senior administrator resigned after acknowledging he falsified college entrance exam scores for years to rankings publications such as U.S. News.

The scale was small: submitting scores just 10 or 20 points higher on the 1,600-point SAT math and reading exams. Average test scores account for just 7.5% of the U.S. News rankings formula. Still, the magazine acknowledged the effect could have been to move the college up a slot or two in its rankings of top liberal arts colleges. And so it was hard not to notice Claremont McKenna stood at No. 9 in this year's rankings, which to people who care about such things sounds much sweeter than No. 11.

"For Claremont, there is I would think a psychologically large difference between being ninth and 11th," said Bob Schaeffer of the group FairTest and a rankings critic. "We're a top 10 school,' (or) 'we're 11th or 12th' — that's a big psychological difference. It's a bragging rights difference."

If it was an effort to gain an edge, it backfired badly. Another popular list, Kiplinger's "Best College Values," said Friday it was removing Claremont McKenna from its 2011-12 rankings entirely because of the false reporting. The college had been No. 18 on its list of best-value liberal arts colleges.
Competitiveness may be naturally human, but to many who work with students, such behavior among fellow educators is mystifying. Contrary to widespread perceptions, they say, students typically use the rankings as a source of data and pay little attention to a school's number.

"When I started in this business, I thought, 'The rankings are terrible,'" said Brad MacGowan, a 21-year-veteran college counselor at Newton North High School outside Boston. "But spending all this time with students, I just don't hear that much about them. I'm sure it's colleges that are perpetuating it."
It's hard to know how common cheating like that reported at Claremont McKenna is, given that while U.S. News cross-checks some data with other sources, it relies largely on colleges themselves to provide it. Modest forms of fudging through data selection are undeniably common, especially in law school rankings. The most high-profile case of outright cheating involved Iona University in New York, which acknowledged last fall submitting years of false data that boosted its ranking from around 50th in its category to 30th.

But most rankings critics say by far the most pernicious failure of colleges isn't blatant cheating, but what they do more openly — allowing the rankings formula to drive their goals and policies.

Colleges, they argue, have caved to the rankings pressure in a range of ways. A big one is recruiting as many students as they can to apply, even if they're not likely to be a good fit, just to boost their selectivity numbers. And they've showered shower financial aid on high-achieving, and often wealthy, kids with high SAT scores.

In the mid-1990s, roughly one-third of grant aid, or scholarships colleges of all types awarded with their own money, was given on grounds other than need (typically called "merit aid'). A decade later, they gave away three times as much money — but well over half was based on merit.

Yes, some colleges recruited better students, but there was a price to be paid. Consider a 2008 study by The Institute for College Access and Success that examined the $11.2 billion annually four-year colleges were awarding in grant aid. Of that, $3.35 billion was awarded as merit aid. That would have easily covered the $2.4 billion in unmet need-based aid that the colleges said their low-income students still faced.

Rankings critic Lloyd Thacker, founder of the group Education Conservancy, calls that a shift in financial aid from "charitable acts to competitive weapons." Or, as Schaeffer describes it, "they end up giving the money to rich white kids."

The vast majority of students attend college within three hours of home, so national rankings have little meaning. What matters? Usually more mundane or subjective concerns. One student who went to MacGowan's office last week for a college planning meeting, junior Bridget Gillis, said she'd yet to even see a college ranking guide. Her criteria: "If they have my major, if it's a nice campus, how big it is, if they have the sport I want to play in college (field hockey)."

The latest version of a huge national survey of college freshman conducted annually by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute asked students to list various factors affecting their choice of college. Rankings in national magazines were No. 11 for current college freshmen, with roughly one in six calling them very important, well behind factors such as cost, size and location.

Those findings may be somewhat misleading. The leading factor cited, by almost two-thirds of students, was their college's "academic reputation," which can be hard to disentangle from its ranking. A reputational survey ranking accounts for 25% of a college's score in U.S. News, and fame from a high U.S. News rankings contributes to reputation, even if students say the ranking itself wasn't a factor. Such circularity is one of many things critics dislike about the U.S. News methodology.

But the survey data do suggest students generally heed the magazine's advice not to use the rankings to make fine-grained distinctions between schools.
"As someone who is asked every year to comment on the rankings, it seems to me that who cares most is the media," John Pryor, who directs the UCLA survey, wrote in a blog post last year. "Second would be college presidents and development officers. Way down the list seem to be those who are actually trying to decide where to go to college."

Thacker says the rankings do have negative psychological effects on students, though usually only the top 10 to 15% who are applying to competitive colleges. But it has affected a much broader swath of colleges that have been unable to suppress their competitive urges for the educational common good.

"It has more an impact on colleges, presidents and trustees than it does on students," Thacker said. "The colleges have shifted resources and changed practices and policies that were once governed by educational values to serve prestige and rank and status."

That effect, he says, is dishonorable, even if some colleges at least feel guilty about it. More than 80% of college admissions officers surveyed for a report last fall by the National Association for College Admission Counseling felt the U.S. News rankings offered students misleading conclusions, and roughly the same proportion agreed they caused counter-productive behavior by colleges. Yet more than 70% said their schools promoted their ranking in marketing materials.

The fact that the highly regarded dean apparently involved in the scandal at Claremont McKenna may have been driven to submit inflated test scores is an indicator of the scale of pressure that surrounds the rankings, said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research at NACAC, the counseling group. That pressure comes from all corners of the university — trustees, alumni, presidents, even politicians,

"It's clear from the (Claremont McKenna) story that admission offices are under pressure," he said. "The key question is, how do you stop the madness?"

Bob Morse, who oversees the U.S. News rankings as director of data research, says many of the behaviors the rankings have incentivized in colleges are benign. He points to universities like Northeastern and Southern California that have moved up in recent years through concerted efforts to improve their stats in variables that go into the formula — but which also are good for students. Things like more small classes, programs to boost retention, higher faculty-to-student ratios. And why, Morse asks, should colleges be criticized for casting a wider recruiting net?

But even Morse, who says colleges paid the rankings little attention when they debuted in 1983, says he's been shocked by how seriously they now take their standing, and the lengths they go to move up.

"None of those things when we first started we had in mind would even happen or even could happen," he said. "It's evolved in ways that have taken on a life of their own. To us, it's proof people are paying attention."

2012-01-26T17:42:00.004+08:00

A place at Oxbridge is a matter of luck

· By Tabatha Leggett

· Notebook - A selection of Independent views -, Opinion

· Tuesday, 24 January 2012 at 1:06 pm

Schoolgirl Elly Nowell sent a rejection letter to Oxford ahead of hearing the result of her interview last week, claiming that it “didn’t quite meet the standard” of other universities. In her letter, Nowell complained that holding interviews in formal settings “allows public school applicants to flourish… and intimidates state school applicants, distorting the academic potential of both.”

Naturally Nowell’s letter elicited a huge media response, with some admiring her tenacity and others complaining that she has merely reinforced the stereotypes that Oxbridge is so desperate to shake off. Either way, the letter has raised some important questions about state-school access and thrown some light on the Oxbridge interview process.

To argue that Oxbridge aren’t doing their bit to increase the intake of state-school applicants is unfair. Given that private schools account for just 13% of A-level exam entries, the fact that just 59.3% of Cambridge students are state educated is fairly surprising. But, Cambridge spends over £3 million a year on widening state-school access, through shadowing schemes, open days and student conferences. They are doing everything they can to widen access.

It’s too easy to claim that the Oxbridge interview system favours public school applicants, but it’s equally easy to claim that there is a pressure to admit more state school applicants to fill a quota. In fact, one Cambridge admissions tutor told me that during the winter pooling process – a system that allows undersubscribed colleges to look at the strong applicants that oversubscribed colleges don’t have room for – that a college with a deficiency of state school pupils might be told to “look closely” at state applicants. “This is a euphemism for ‘ignore the independents’,” he said.

This is an old argument, and in reality, neither view is strictly correct. Getting offered a place at Oxbridge is about more than favouring students with a certain background, whatever that background may be. Largely, it’s about luck.

We’ve all heard the story about the Oxbridge interviewer who threw a ball at his interviewees as they entered the room: dropping the ball meant missing out on a place, catching the ball meant getting a conditional offer, and throwing the ball back guaranteed you a place. Unfortunately, the process isn’t quite as exciting as everyone likes to make out. Getting a place at Oxbridge means knowing your subject inside out, and being lucky on the day of your interview. And let’s not underestimate the caliber of those who get turned down.

Last year 27 percent of A level entries were awarded an A or A* grade. The problem is that the number of students receiving top grades increases every year (and that’s assuming that exams and coursework are an accurate indication of the sort of intelligence that Oxbridge are after).

It’s not a question of writing a good personal statement either. Aside from the fact that expressing anything of interest in 2,000 characters is almost impossible, the nature of online UCAS applications means that anyone can write a personal statement for you; you can even buy personal statements online. Of course references aren’t much help either, since they depend largely on students’ relationships with their teachers. Teachers from schools that aren’t used to Oxbridge applications, for example, won’t understand what Oxbridge look for in a reference, and teachers at sixth form colleges won’t know their students for long enough to write accurately.

The current university admissions system leaves those looking for the brightest pupils with a problem. Last year, Cambridge received 16,000 applications and offered 3,400 students places, whilst Oxford offered just 3,200 of their 17,000 applicants places. These are all straight A students, and the majority of them would probably thrive at Oxbridge. This forces admissions tutors to make life-changing decisions based on a couple of 20-minute interviews and additional exam papers.

But preparing for Oxbridge interviews is a tricky business. Yes, you can make sure you’ve read all the books you mention in your personal statement, and you’ve looked up your interviewers’ interests, but ultimately there’s not much more you can do. If you happen to share a particular passion for a certain topic with your interviewer, who – if you are accepted – will become your Director of Studies, of course you’ll be offered a place over someone with differing interests.

These tutors are looking for students who they want to teach; students who they want to spend their time with. If one interviewee gets on with his interviewer on a personal level, he’s far more likely to get a place than another interviewee who may be equally academically talented but interested in different aspects of the course.

Getting offered a place at Oxbridge means knowing your subject inside out, and being lucky enough to get on with your interviewer. That’s all there is to it. Ultimately every college will admit the students that they think will achieve the best possible grades in their tripos, because exam results are all that really matters, regardless of what sort of school they come from. Claiming that state school applicants are disadvantaged by the interviews system is unfair; in reality, a rejection could be down to something as simple as not sharing interests with your interviewer.

So who is good enough to get into Cambridge?

2012-01-18T16:58:00.004+08:00

The pinnacle of academe? King's College, Cambridge. Photograph: Steven Vidler/Eurasia Press/Corbis

It's a life-changing roll call. As the admissions tutor reads out names, the men and women gathered around the table reply crisply to each one: "Yep ... yep ... yep." Each "yep" is actually a no. It's a rejection of a candidate who has applied for a place at the University of Cambridge.

The weakest of the field have already been sifted out; up to a fifth of applications are declined before the interview stage. Now the tutors are gathered to consider the results of those interviews. Five women and seven men are gathered at a table, in a light-filled, rectangular room at Churchill College to discuss admissions to study natural sciences.

The easy ones go first. These are the candidates whose academic track record is – by Cambridge standards – marginal, and whose performance at interview has been disappointing. As one candidate's name is read out, one of the academics notes that he got an interview score of two, out of a possible 10. "Oh dear," says Richard Partington, the senior admissions tutor, who sits at the head of the table. Next to Partington is a steel trolley with the applicants' files.

Then, they get down to business. After the straightforward rejections, and those they have already decided to offer places to, there is a band of candidates who fall in the middle. They might be teenagers who have done well at interview, but whose academic performance seems patchy. There are some with impeccable credentials on paper – but, in a phrase that is repeatedly used, "failed to shine" at interview.

Cambridge has opened up the admissions process to give a clearer picture of the effort that goes into the assessment of each candidate. Competition is intense: around 16,000 candidates are chasing just under 3,400 undergraduate places. Churchill College has 39 places in natural sciences and more than 170 direct applicants. The academics will make about 45 offers, in letters that arrive on candidates' doormats this week. To help preserve the anonymity of the candidates, most of the academics in the room have asked for their names not to be used.

As the wind shakes the bare branches of trees outside, the academics discuss an interviewee from a sixth-form college. One notes: "He was extremely careful with everything he was doing, but not exactly engaging in the discussion. I think mathematics is something he does quite well, but he doesn't shine."

The boy is an unusual case – he has won a scholarship to study in the UK after going to school overseas. His home country is a poor one, not known for its education system. One of the women says: "I would take him and keep a close eye on his progress. He might need a boost in confidence."

"Let's take him," Partington agrees. "Everyone content?"

Next up is a girl from a leading private school, who was strong on paper but stumbled at interview. "She seemed surprised by quite a lot of the things we were talking about – [she would say] 'Oh right' as if she hadn't seen it before," one of the academics, in a wine-coloured sweater, says.

"Had she not revised?" Partington asks.

"We asked them what they'd done recently, and based the questions on that, so it was starting with something familiar, but seeing it in a different context," the academic replies.

Partington suggests: "One possibility is that she's someone who's learned in a compartmentalised way."
Another tutor says: "The comment I've put down is: 'Needed help with next steps.'"

Partington wonders aloud if tutors can lead a student through an entire degree. "We could," one of the men responds dryly.

Both Oxford and Cambridge are regularly accused of bias against state school applicants – most famously, in the case of Laura Spence, the girl from Tyneside who was refused a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, more than a decade ago. The tutors gathered at this table are aware that Cambridge is committed to admitting between 61% and 63% of its UK students from state-sector schools and colleges.

At present, that proportion is 59.3%. The university has also agreed with the Office for Fair Access – an official watchdog set up when the Blair government brought in top-up fees – to increase the share of students from neighbourhoods where few people have gone to university.

Churchill College is a low-rise modernist stack on the edge of the city centre, a series of interlocking brick cubes. It does better on state-school intake than Cambridge as a whole. This is partly because of its reputation for science, which attracts more state school pupils. The split at Churchill is 70/30 in favour of the state sector. That is still out of kilter with the school system as a whole – just 7% of pupils in England attend private schools. But it is a bit closer to the split at sixth form, where private schools account for around 13% of the total number of A-level exam entries.

In its prospectus, the college is described as having a "friendly, unpretentious social atmosphere". It is certainly not as physically daunting as some of the grand and ancient buildings in the city centre. But even here, the surroundings speak of wealth and intimacy with power; the sketches on the walls are by Winston Churchill, the floor is teak and the room is panelled with another glossy tropical hardwood.

The phrase "a good school" comes up repeatedly in the tutors' discussions. It is used most frequently about private and grammar schools, but also some comprehensive schools, and has a double meaning. "A good school" is a high-performing one. It is a school that knows what Cambridge requires, where the school reference is delivered in the terms the university is looking for – the key phrases are ones that emphasise superlative performance compared with their age group: "He [or she] is best in … he is top of …" But when a candidate comes from "a good school" they are also cut less slack. Of one applicant from "a good school", a bemused tutor says: "The thing that didn't sit with me is, his [predicted] A* is in further maths, but he couldn't do his arithmetic."

The Sutton Trust, the charity that aims to promote social mobility through education, blames the unequal outcomes between state and private candidates at university level on the poor exam performance of some schools. That failure at school level becomes painfully apparent in the case of one of the Churchill candidates. She has had "unimaginable teaching difficulties", the tutors hear. She has taken her A-levels at a school that has had a spectacularly high turnover of teachers.

Peering at his laptop when her name is announced, Nick Cutler, an admissions tutor at Churchill, says there are "multiple flags". The flags are used to indicate factors such as poverty, or a school that performs very poorly at GCSE. There are six categories in all – including whether an applicant has spent time in care. There is evidence that a strong candidate from a bad school is likely to perform well when they come to Cambridge. But the academics are concerned that in this case, the school has been so turbulent that she simply lacks essential knowledge. Her examination and interview marks are low.

The rapid pace of Cambridge would "kill her", one of the academics says. Another agrees: "I would really like to give her a place, but for her own sanity, she's much better going to one of the other redbrick, Russell Group universities, and just taking her time."

Partington says: "If we gave her a chance she would do what everybody else would do, and think: 'I'll probably be all right' and she will probably be wrong."

The Bridge of Sighs at St John's College, Cambridge. Photograph: Brian Lawrence/Getty Images

There is a despairing consensus around the table that the university cannot repair the gaps in this candidate's knowledge. A damning line from the school's reference – which lays bare its inability to teach the candidate – is read aloud by a tutor who raises outstretched hands in exasperation.

The candidate's file goes back into the trolley with a clang.

Another candidate from a comprehensive school has four contextual data flags by her name. There is a note too about "teaching difficulties" – a physics teacher who left during the sixth form and a stand-in for chemistry. This is an easier case – her interview scores are high, an eight and a seven out of 10. She has a 92% mark in her chemistry A-level. One of the academics reviews her "flags": "She's got low socio-economic, low-performing GCSE, low Oxbridge – she's nearly got the full set."

Partington says: "Take her."

There is another girl from a comprehensive school who got an eight at interview, but one academic exclaims: "Blooming heck, her GCSE score was terrible."

"The school doesn't know how to write a reference," another comments.

Partington decides to make an offer but to set the hurdle high because of the doubts. "We're going to A* the chemistry," he says firmly.

"I would A* the maths," one of the others suggests. "The other thing I would do is write to her separately, encourage her to do further maths through the Further Maths Network."

The tutors are divided about this – there is a feeling she has already been stretched thin in a "school that's not great". But they decide this will not be an entrance requirement. She just needs a little more fluency in maths to cope at university.

On the table are white china cups of tea and coffee, two barely touched water jugs and a single slightly blackened banana. The academics leaf through coloured spreadsheets with the candidates' names, their exam performance to date, predicted grades, interview scores, contextual flags and ranking – based on exam performance – compared with all of the university's applicants this year.

The pace is swift, despite the meeting lasting five hours. It is occasionally leavened with a touch of humour, or avuncular kindness. One of the academics, looking at a file photo, sighs: "Oh he's young – he looks like one of the Bash Street kids." Another remarks, of a different candidate: "You could conduct a biology study in his hair." Recalling an over-caffeinated and under-dressed teenager, one says: "The T-shirt, oh yes, the T-shirt …"

Although a candidate's ethnicity is generally evident from his or her name and the photograph in their file, there is never any overt discussion of race. This seems surprising when both Oxford and Cambridge have been accused of being racially as well as socially exclusive.

Geoff Parks, director of admissions at Cambridge, says later: "Race doesn't come up in its own right. It's inseparable from socio-economic factors. Cambridge admits a proportion of BME [ethnic minority] students that is above the proportion of the teenage population, [but] with 'low-participation' neighbourhoods we feel we're not meeting a relatively low target. Many people who are first-generation British might also be living in low-participation neighbourhoods."

At times, the procedure seems brusque; a life-changing decision made in a second. In fact, it is the end point of a long, intensive process of evaluating candidates. Most of those who apply are interviewed. And the interviews are designed to probe their knowledge deeply. For natural sciences, the interview has a practical bent, with candidates tackling problems under the gaze of the tutor. Confidence is appreciated. Of one candidate, a boy from an academy school in Norfolk, a tutor says: "He managed to strike a balance between not being fazed by what's going on, and not being cocky either. The sort of person …"

Someone else finishes: "You'd like to teach."

Great emphasis is placed on exam performance, and the academics are keen to drill down into performance in individual modules. One notes approvingly of a candidate who has "done some hard units". There is far less interest than is popularly thought in extra-curricular activity. An academic remarks with bafflement that a candidate has "got his violin grades on there".

It is not just poor teaching – or a lack of teaching – that can wreck a candidate's chances. Their combination of subjects is also crucial. There is consternation about a candidate who is applying to read natural sciences without having either maths or biology; he is taking physics and chemistry but his third A-level is an arts subject. The lack of maths rules him out for the study of physics. The absence of biology means he will struggle to be accepted as a biologist.

The school is a "really ropey" one. One of the academics, a man in a grey fleece, comments: "I feel sorry for him, but I don't think we can fix the problem."

Academics considering applicants from the winter pool in Clough Hall, Newnham College. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

The consensus is that they will "stick him in the pool". The "winter pool" is a third option – neither a straightforward offer nor an outright rejection. It means the application is forwarded for consideration by other colleges. Strong candidates who are at risk of being squeezed out because they have applied to an over-subscribed college also get a second chance this way.

The pool takes place in early January, around three weeks after the college decision meetings. Admissions tutors from all the Cambridge colleges gather in two rooms at Newnham College, and examine the pooled candidates' folders again.

The main room in which the pool takes place is Clough Hall, an elegant banqueting room with a minstrels' gallery and a ceiling decorated with plaster mouldings of flowers and heraldic beasts. There is very little conversation. Tutors go through bundles of files making lists of candidates they would like to pull out for their college. Anglepoise lamps spill yellow light on to the desks. Outside, it is overcast.

Andy Bell, admissions tutor at Gonville and Caius College, has spotted three potential candidates for places in an arts subject at his college. One of the files that has caught his eye is a boy whose educational background is not that of a "straightforward, standard Cambridge applicant".

He is applying from a "perfectly decent" sixth-form college, but before that he had attended a poor comprehensive school. Bell notes: "His GCSE performance is really quite strong, getting a lot of A*s at GCSE.

This is someone who's been working far above the level of his cohort from an early age." Outside school, he has displayed an interest in the subject he is applying for – it is such a small course that naming it risks identifying him – through work experience at a university in London, and extensive reading. "This is somebody who's worked really hard for a number of years, who's really serious about making something of his academic ability," Bell says.

Seated at a table by one of the tall, arched windows, James Keeler, the admissions tutor at Selwyn College, has perhaps the most dreaded job – reviewing candidates for medicine, a course so competitive that excellent applicants are routinely turned down.

Keeler opens the folder of a candidate who is applying after taking his A-levels. The school reference describes him as a "strong applicant" and underlines the adjective. This is borne out by his results – he has four A*s.

For medicine, the tutors look for both a strong aptitude for science and the beginnings of a bedside manner. This candidate has divided his interviewers. While the clinicians thought highly of him, there is a question mark over his scientific ability. Keeler seems inclined to attach greater weight to his exam performance than the interview. "The interview is just part of the picture – his four A*s is the summation of many years of work," he says.

He carries on leafing through the folder, looking for evidence of what the candidate is doing now. "Looking at the personal statement for medicine, it's important that they have a range of activities and, particularly, that they have done a serious level of volunteering – handing out teas in a hospice, working with disabled children. Something where they have to take on a caring role and think about why doctors can't cure everybody.

"He's been on a gap year," Keeler notes.

"If he's been sitting on a beach for a year, I'll put him in the bin ..."

He turns a page of the folder and reads the candidate's statement: "He's been volunteering with St John Ambulance. And also training to be a special constable – that's something I've never seen before. He's clearly doing something worthwhile. He's currently volunteering at a care home." The admissions tutor smiles. "That's a tick for me."

College Interview Questions

2011-12-09T16:01:00.002+08:00

12 Questions You Should Be Ready to Answer in Your College Interview

By Allen Grove, About.com Guide

Most college interview questions are meant to help you and the interviewer find out if the college is a good match for you. Rarely will you get a question that puts you on the spot or tries to make you feel stupid. Remember, the college is trying to make a good impression too. Use the interview to show off your personality in ways that aren't possible on the application. Below are some typical questions and some suggestions for answering them. When you've mastered them, check out these 20 more interview questions. Also be sure to avoid these 10 common interview mistakes.

1. Tell me about yourself.

This question seems easier than it is. How do you reduce your whole life to a few sentences? And it's hard to avoid commonplace answers like "I'm friendly" or "I'm a good student." Of course you want to demonstrate that you're friendly and studious, but try also to say something memorable here that really makes you different from other college applicants. Can you hold your breath longer than anyone in your school? Do you have a huge collection of Pez dispensers? Do you have unusual cravings for sushi? Read more tips for this question...

2. Why are you interested in our college?

Be specific when answering this, and show that you've done your research. Also, avoid answers like "I want to make a lot of money" or "Graduates of your college get good job placement." You want to highlight your intellectual interests, not your materialistic desires. What specifically about the college distinguishes it from other schools you're considering? Read more tips on this question...

3. What can I tell you about our college?

You can almost guarantee that your interviewer will provide an opportunity for you to ask questions. Make sure you have some, and make sure your questions are thoughtful and specific to the particular college. Avoid questions like "when is the application deadline?" or "how many majors do you have?" This information is both uninteresting and readily available on the school's webpage. Come up with some probing and focused questions: "What would graduates of your college say was the most valuable thing about their four years here?" "I read that you offer a major in interdisciplinary studies. Could you tell me more about that?" Read more tips on this question...

4. Who in your life has most influenced you?

There are other variations of this question: Who's your hero? What historical or fictional character would you most like to be like? This can be an awkward question if you haven't thought about it, so spend a few minutes considering how you would answer. Identify a few real, historical, and fictional characters you admire, and be prepared to articulate WHY you admire them. Read more tips on this question...

5. Why do you want to major in ______________ ?

Realize that you don't need to have decided upon a major when you apply to college, and your interviewer will not be disappointed if you say you have many interests and you need to take more classes before choosing a major. However, if you have identified a potential major, be prepared to explain why. Avoid saying that you want to major in something because you'll make a lot of money -- your passion for a subject will make you a good college student, not your greed. Read more tips on this question...

6. What will you contribute to our campus community?

You'll want to be specific when answering this question. An answer like "I'm hard-working" is rather bland and generic. Think about what it is that makes you uniquely you. What exactly will you bring to diversify the college's community? Read more tips on this question...

7. Tell me about a challenge that you overcame.

This question is designed to see what kind of problem solver you are. When confronted with a challenge, how do you handle the situation? College will be full of challenges, so the college wants to make sure they enroll students who can handle them. Read more tips on this question...

8. What do you do for fun in your free time?

"Hangin' out and chillin'" is a weak answer for this question. College life obviously isn't all work, so the admissions folks want students who will do interesting and productive things even when they aren't studying. Do you write? hike? play tennis? Use a question such as this one to show that you are well-rounded with a variety of interests. Read more tips on this question...

9. What do you see yourself doing 10 years from now?

You don't need to pretend that you have your life figured out if you get a question like this. Very few students entering college could accurately predict their future professions. However, your interviewer does want to see that you think ahead. If you can see yourself doing three different things, say so -- honesty and open-mindedness will play in your favor. Read more tips on this interview question...

10. Does your high school record accurately reflect your effort and ability?

In the interview or on your application, you often have an opportunity to explain a bad grade or a bad semester. Be careful with this issue -- you don't want to come across as a whiner or as someone who blames others for a low grade. However, if you really did have extenuating circumstances, let the college know. Read more tips on this interview question...

11. Recommend a good book to me.

The interviewer is trying to accomplish a few things with this question. First, the question asks whether or not you've actually read much. Second, it asks you to apply some critical skills as you articulate why a book is worth reading. And finally, your interviewer might get a good book recommendation! Read more tips on this interview question...

If you've read a book that you think would work well in an interview environment, share your recommendation with other readers.

12. If you could do one thing in high school differently, what would it be?

A question like this can turn sour if you make the mistake of dwelling on things you regret. Try to put a positive spin on it. Perhaps you've always wondered if you would have enjoyed acting or music. Maybe you would have liked to give the student newspaper a try. Maybe, in retrospect, studying Chinese might have been more in line with your career goals than Spanish. A good answer shows that you didn't have the time in high school to explore everything that is of interest to you. Read more tips on this interview question...

20 Most Selective Colleges and Universities in the U.S.

2011-12-02T15:19:00.001+08:00

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/collegerankings/tp/most-selective-colleges.01.htm

These Colleges Send Out the Greatest Percentage of Rejection Letters By Allen Grove

Here you'll find the 20 most selective colleges and universities in the U.S. These schools accept a lower percentage of applicants than any others. As you read the list, consider these issues:
• I did not include colleges that are essentially free (although many have a service requirement). Nevertheless, College of the Ozarks, Berea, West Point, Cooper Union, Coast Guard Academy, USAFA, and Annapolis all have extremely low acceptance rates.
• I did not include extremely small places like Deep Springs College and Webb Institute
• I did not include schools with a performance- or portfolio-based admissions process such as Julliard and the Curtis Institute of Music
• Selectivity alone doesn't explain how hard it is to get into a school. Some schools not on this list have students with higher average GPAs and test scores than some schools on the list.

20. Duke University

mricon

• Acceptance Rate: 19% (2010 data)
• Location: Durham, North Carolina
• Enrollment: 14,350 (6,578 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university

19. Washington and Lee University

wsuhonors / Flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 19% (2010 data)
• Location: Lexington, Virginia
• Enrollment: 2,153 (1,759 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private liberal arts university

18. University of Chicago

puroticorico / Flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 19% (2010 data)
• Location: Chicago, Illinois
• Enrollment: 15,094 (5,114 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university

17. Vanderbilt University

Zeamays / Wikimedia Commons

• Acceptance Rate: 18% (2010 data)
• Location: Nashville, Tennessee
• Enrollment: 12,506 (6,794 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university

16. Cornell University

Photo Credit: Allen Grove

• Acceptance Rate: 18% (2010 data)
• Location: Ithaca, New York
• Enrollment: 20,633 (13,931 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university (Ivy League)

15. Middlebury College

khanqpa / flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 17% (2010 data)
• Location: Middlebury, Vermont
• Enrollment: 2,482 (all undergraduate)
• School Type: Private liberal arts college

14. Claremont McKenna College

Bazookajoe1 / Wikimedia Commons

• Acceptance Rate: 17% (2010 data)
• Location: Claremont, California
• Enrollment: 1,238 (all undergraduate)
• School Type: Private liberal arts college

13. Swarthmore College

EAWB / flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 16% (2010 data)
• Location: Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
• Enrollment: 1,525 (all undergraduate)
• School Type: Private liberal arts college

12. Amherst College

Amherst Chapel

• Acceptance Rate: 15% (2010 data)
• Location: Amherst, Massachusetts (five-college area)
• Enrollment: 1,744 (all undergraduate)
• School Type: Private liberal arts college

11. Pomona College

CMLLovesDegus / Wikimedia Commons

• Acceptance Rate: 15% (2010 data)
• Location: Claremont, California
• Enrollment: 1,550 (all undergraduate)
• School Type: Private liberal arts college

10. University of Pennsylvania

rubberpaw / Flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 14% (2010 data)
• Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Enrollment: 24,599 (11,954 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university (Ivy League)

9. Dartmouth College

Brave Sir Robin / flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 13% (2010 data)
• Location: Hanover, New Hampshire
• Enrollment: 5,987 (4,196 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university (Ivy League)

8. Caltech (California Institute of Technology)

Velo Steve / Flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 13% (2010 data)
• Location: Pasadena, California
• Enrollment: 2,130 (951 undergraduates)
• School Type: Small private university with engineering focus

7. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

controltheweb / Flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 10% (2010 data)
• Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Enrollment: 10,384 (4,232 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private university with engineering focus

6. Columbia University

Yandi / Flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 10% (2010 data)
• Location: New York, New York
• Enrollment: 24,230 (7,743 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university (Ivy League)

5. Brown University

_Gene_ Flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 9% (2010 data)
• Location: Providence, Rhode Island
• Enrollment: 8,574 (6,244 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university (Ivy League)

4. Princeton University

_Gene_ / Flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 9% (2010 data)
• Location: Princeton, New Jersey
• Enrollment: 7,592 (5,113 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university (Ivy League)

3. Yale University

interrupt / Flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 8% (2010 data)
• Location: New Haven, Connecticut
• Enrollment: 11,701 (5,310 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university (Ivy League)

2. Stanford University

Paraflyer / Flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 7% (2010 data)
• Location: Stanford, California
• Enrollment: 18,498 (6,602 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university

1. Harvard University

David Paul Ohmer / flickr

• Acceptance Rate: 7% (2010 data)
• Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Enrollment: 27,651 (10,257 undergraduates)
• School Type: Private comprehensive university (Ivy League)

The many myths about college admissions

2011-10-27T16:24:00.002+08:00

A dean of admissions once told me that a big part of his job is to simply dispel myths and rumors about the application process — an especially difficult task in the Washington region, where talk of college prep often starts at birth (if not earlier). He wasn’t joking. It’s true.

Last week, Valerie Strauss (author of the Post’s Answer Sheet blog) and I sat down to compose a list of seven myths about college admissions, which was published in today’s paper.

A quick recap of the myths we picked:

1) It’s best to set your heart on one school and really go for it.

2) The tuition price listed in brochures is what everyone pays.

3) The admissions department adores you.

4) It’s best to crowd your application with a volume of extracurricular activities.

5) It’s better to have a high GPA than to take difficult classes.

6) Essays don’t really matter much in the end because grades and test scores are so dominant in admissions decisions.

7) Recommendations from famous people can give an applicant a huge boost.

Let’s keep the list going past seven. I asked my Facebook and Twitter followers to share their advice, and here’s what they suggested (reframed in the form of a myth):

8) There are only three accepted topics for your essay: The person you most admire, volunteer work in a third-world nation or great insight about a current event. (HT to Smith College in Massachusetts, which advises applicants to write heartfelt essays.)

9) As long as you run spell-check, there’s no need to proof-read your essay. Plus, college officials don’t care about typos — and they love when you shorten words so your essay reads like a text message.

10) Admissions staffers are super impressed when you use big words, even if they aren’t used correctly. (HT to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and its list of hot tips for applicants.)

11) If you don’t get accepted, it’s game over. You will never ever attend that institution.

12) There’s no need to visit campus because all colleges are the same.

13) All student loans are the same, so don’t read that fine print. You have four years to learn about interest rates and deferment, so don’t worry about it now.

14) Only apply for massive scholarships worth thousands. It’s a waste of time to apply for awards only worth a couple hundred bucks.

By Jenna Johnson [Posted at 09:10 AM ET, 10/24/2011]

U.S. News & World Report's Shocker-Free 2012 College Rankings

2011-10-14T10:26:00.000+08:00

U.S. News & World Report released its annual list of America's Best Colleges today and the news is, well, not exactly surprising.

Like most every year, the Ivies are at the head of the pack, holding all four of the top spots, closely followed by the four other Ivy League schools, which all place in the top 20.
While there wasn't too much movement at the top, there were an overwhelming number of ties on the list this year. There are two universities in the No. 1 spot, five schools tied for fifth, six colleges in 62nd place, seven vying for 72nd and 10 colleges tied for 101st place, among many, many other ties.

The number of ties further calls into question the usefulness of the college ranking system, which though it is U.S. News' bread and butter, has been questioned in the past for using dubious statistics and fueling crazed competition among colleges hungry for prestige.

Nevertheless, here are this year's 10 Best Colleges in the Nation:

1. Harvard University
1. Princeton University
3. Yale University
4. Columbia University
5. California Institute of Technology
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5. Stanford University
5. University of Chicago
5. University of Pennsylvania
10. Duke University

The next five are: Dartmouth College, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University, Washington University in St. Louis and Brown University. (See the full list here.)

This year's list isn't much different from the past. Last year, Harvard took the top honors, followed by Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania (in a two-way tie for fifth), the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (tied for seventh) and Dartmouth and Duke (tied for ninth; the University of Chicago also tied for ninth, making it the 11th school on the list).

Sound familiar? It should. The most major change at the top this year is that the University of Chicago was bumped up from its ninth place finish last year to tie for fifth with four other schools. That move bumped Ivy League school Dartmouth out of the top 10, to an eleventh place finish.

Excluding the Ivies and other private schools, the top-ranking state schools are as follows: the University of California-Berkeley, the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Virginia (tied for 2nd), the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the College of William and Mary, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of California-San Diego, the University of California-Davis and finally, in a three-way tie for 10th, the University of California-Santa Barbara, the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Other than the national rankings, U.S. News breaks their data into several other lists that may be especially useful for high school students and their families when it comes to select a college. Among them are a list, which you can find over on TIME's Moneyland site, of the schools that saddle their students with the most (and least) amount of loan debt.

Another is called A+ Schools for B Students, which provides a list of colleges where students with slightly lower grades still stand a fair shot at getting in. That list features states schools like the University of Connecticut and the University of Oregon, as well as smaller, private schools such as Baylor University in Waco, Texas and Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Among the other lists are Best Black Colleges, which ranks the nation's historically black colleges and the best national liberal arts colleges.

See the full 2012 Best Colleges rankings: http://www.usnews.com/colleges.

By: KAYLA WEBLEY

Universities Seeking Out Students of Means

2011-10-14T10:14:00.001+08:00

Money is talking a bit louder in college admissions these days, according to a survey to be released Wednesday by Inside Higher Ed, an online publication for higher education professionals.

More than half of the admissions officers at public research universities, and more than a third at four-year colleges said that they had been working harder in the past year to recruit students who need no financial aid and can pay full price, according to the survey of 462 admissions directors and enrollment managers conducted in August and early September.

Similarly, 22 percent of the admissions officials at four-year institutions said the financial downturn had led them to pay more attention in their decision to applicants’ ability to pay.

“As institutional pressures mount, between the decreased state funding, the pressure to raise a college’s profile, and the pressure to admit certain students, we’re seeing a fundamental change in the admissions process,” said David A. Hawkins, director of public policy and research at the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “Where many of the older admissions professionals came in through the institution and saw it as an ethically centered counseling role, there’s now a different dynamic that places a lot more emphasis on marketing.”

In the survey, 10 percent of the admissions directors at four-year colleges — and almost 20 percent at private liberal-arts schools — said that the full-pay students they were admitting, on average, had lower grades and test scores than other admitted applicants.

But they are not the only ones with an edge: the admissions officers said they admitted minority students, athletes, veterans, children of alumni, international students and, for the sake of gender balance, men, with lesser credentials, too.

At many colleges and universities, the survey found, whom you know does matter. More than a quarter of the admissions directors said they had felt pressure from senior-level administrators to admit certain applicants, and almost a quarter got pressure from trustees or development officers.
“If external parties are trying to influence admissions decisions, that’s a concern that strikes at the legitimacy of the whole process,” Mr. Hawkins said. “We certainly have standards, but there needs to be awareness that when the economy starts to crumble, the standards may start to go out the window.”

Lloyd Thacker, executive director of the Education Conservancy, a two-person nonprofit he founded in 2003 to improve college admissions, said the Inside Higher Ed findings were troubling.

“There’s always been elements of this behavior, but it seems to me that it’s growing,” Mr. Thacker said. “I don’t know whether to blame it on hard times or lack of courage and leadership.”

Mr. Thacker said his own research had found students becoming more cynical about higher education.

“Students say, ‘They’re cheating us, so we can cheat them,’ ” he said. “The cheat they see is that colleges are out for themselves, not for them as students. Our research, with 2,500 students, found that of all the sources of information students get about higher education, they thought the least trustworthy sources are the colleges and college reps themselves.”

While community colleges said their most important challenge in the near future was reduced state funding, all the other institutions named rising concerns from families about tuition and affordability.

Admissions directors at many public universities said in the survey that recruiting more out-of-state and international students, who pay higher tuition, was their top strategy. At community colleges and private institutions, admissions officers were more likely to say that providing aid for low- and middle- income students was their focus.

More than half the admissions officers from four-year institutions said that coaching by parents or college counselors was making it harder to really learn about applicants.

By TAMAR LEWIN

Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/education/21admissions.html?_r=1&ref=education

University to scrap first class degrees to combat award inflation

2011-10-13T14:24:00.003+08:00

A leading university is to become the first in Britain to scrap traditional degree classifications.
Julie Henry ; Education Correspondent
7:30AM BST 09 Oct 2011

University College London will stop telling students whether they have received a first, second or third, and instead given them an American-style "grade point average".

It gives students a score based on all the courses they have taken as undergraduates.

The move comes after "award inflation" which has undermined the traditional undergraduate degree classification.

Official figures showed almost two-thirds of students gained a first or upper-second class degree in 2010. Some 46,825 students – one in seven – were awarded first class degrees by UK universities, double the number a decade ago.

Malcolm Grant, the Provost of UCL, said that the honours degree classification was no longer capable of providing the information that students deserve and employers require.

"There is clearly award inflation," he said. "The public assumes there is a national exam process but there is not. Every institution determines its own proportion of grades. Perversely, award inflation has been fuelled by league tables which give points to those universities with higher proportions of the top grades.

"Award inflation over the past three decades has led to student performance being essentially recognised by classification into only two main groups first class and upper second class honours. It is a crude and undistinguished model."

The Provost said that the UK system was not well recognised around the world and that a form of grade point average (GPA) would "ensure that our students' mode of study is internationally recognised."

The university, ranked 20th in the world and third in Europe in the 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities, will develop and pilot its own model of GPA next year, and if successful, adopt the new approach to reporting academic achievement.

Calls for a reform of degree grades have grown in recent years. They have been fuelled by a series of university whistleblowers who claim external examiners have been "leaned on" to boost grades.

One former academic said lecturers were under pressure to "mark positively" and turn a blind eye to plagiarism – helping universities climb national league tables.

Universities are currently trialling a graduate "report card", called the Higher Education Achievement Report. It is intended to represent a more accurate picture of students' achievements while also including an overall degree classification.

A Sunday Telegraph investigation earlier this year found that the universities awarding the highest proportion of firsts or 2:1s last year were Exeter, where 82 per cent of graduates received the top degrees compared with just 29 per cent in 1970, and St Andrews – Scotland's oldest university, where Prince William met Kate Middleton – where the figure was also 82 per cent compared with just 25 per cent in 1970.

Imperial College London and Warwick both granted 80 per cent firsts or 2:1s last year, compared with 49 per cent and 39 per cent respectively in 1970.

At Bath University the figure was 76 per cent last year compared with just 35 per cent in 1970.

Many blue-chip companies will only interview graduates with a first or a 2:1. A top-class degree also makes it much easier to get a scholarship for postgraduate research.

According to Professor Nigel Seaton, a senior deputy vice-chancellor at Surrey University, the current degree classification is unfair to some students.

He said the difference in academic achievement between a student with a 2:1 and one with a 2:2 might be almost nothing – 60.1% compared with 59.9%, for instance.

"In such a case, the difference in life chances reflects no difference at all in academic achievement,” he said.

A report by a committee of MPs in to higher education standards found that different universities demand “different levels of effort” from students to get similar degrees, suggesting that top grades from some colleges were not worth the same as others.

Source :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/julie-henry/8815641/University-to-scrap-first-class-degrees-to-combat-award-inflation.html

What it takes to make it to Oxbridge

2011-10-06T11:57:00.003+08:00

Standards may be high at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, but don’t be put off from applying.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8793862/What-it-takes-to-make-it-to-Oxbridge.html

Cambridge is the best university in the world according to international rankings

If you have excellent GCSE results and a brace of A grades at AS level, you may be thinking about applying to Oxbridge. For many people, the very word conjures up images of Sebastians and Julias in boaters and gowns, punting and drinking champagne. But as the deadline for applications approaches (October 15) don’t be put off by the Brideshead stereotypes. Oxford and Cambridge are consistently ranked among the top five universities in the world and attract students from any background.

That said, an Oxbridge application should not be taken lightly. If you’re offered an interview you will need to prepare for it, which could detract from your A-level studies. And if you are rejected, either before or after interview, you will have to cope with the disappointment and move on.

But if you have good grades and feel able to take a pragmatic approach to your Oxbridge application, why not give it a go?

Oxford and Cambridge are renowned for their research and high-quality teaching. In the latest QS global survey of universities, the top-ranking universities in the world were Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, Yale and Oxford.

Given the calibre of students that the two universities attract, it is also not surprising that so many of our leading politicians, scientists and businessmen are Oxbridge educated. David Cameron, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher are all Oxford graduates.

Two features of the universities make them especially attractive: the first is that students are primarily taught individually or in small groups (called “tutorials” in Oxford and “supervisions” in Cambridge), rather than through lectures and large seminars. These sessions are conducted by leading experts in their field, rather than by postgraduates, allowing students to discuss their work and ideas with some of the key thinkers in the world today.

The second unusual feature of an Oxbridge education is its “collegiate” nature. Students are members of colleges, which are small communities where friendships are easy to form. Undergraduates can get involved in college-based sport, music or drama.

What profile do you need?

To have a serious chance, you will need to have secured at least six A* grades at GCSE and all As at AS level. Cambridge will also ask to see individual module scores, which should be above 90 per cent on average.

You should also enjoy reading around your subject in your own time and relish the chance to discuss ideas with your peers. If not, Oxbridge probably isn’t for you.

Who applies?

Anyone with a strong academic background, a genuine interest in their subject and a self-motivated and enthusiastic approach should consider applying to Oxbridge. There is no “type” of person who will get in. Oxbridge is the exciting and vibrant option it is precisely because of the diverse nature of its student body.

How do I write an Oxbridge-geared Ucas form – and when do I send it?

As for all other universities, you need to submit a Ucas form (including a personal statement), but by the earlier deadline of October 15. By December students will know whether they have been offered a place (either conditionally or unconditionally depending on whether they’re applying before or after A-levels).

Do not refer directly to Oxbridge in your personal statement, as it will be sent to all the universities to which you are applying.

At least 80 per cent of your personal statement should relate to your academic studies, with only a small paragraph devoted to extra-curricular activities. This isn’t because Oxbridge students do nothing but work; it is because tutors pick their students from a large number of very high-achieving applicants and are concerned with how successfully you will cope with the demanding courses. Use your personal statement with this aim in mind: to impress upon the admissions tutor that you are academically able, intellectually curious, enthusiastic and hardworking.

In recent years, the interview has become just one element in a selection process that includes written assessments and the submission of written work. Oxford will use these tests to decide whom to call for interview, so it’s worth looking at some sample papers to get a sense of what is required. Certain courses at both universities require students to take the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA*). Cambridge will also ask you to fill out a Supplementary Application Form, which will include details of your module scores and an “additional information” section. More details about this are available on the universities’ websites.

Richard Cairns is headmaster of Brighton College

*Thinking Skills Assessment sample questions available at following URL.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8796308/Thinking-Skills-Assessment-sample-questions.html

QS World University Rankings 2011/12

2011-09-06T17:39:00.000+08:00

Rank	Institution	Country	Domestic	Fees ($)	International	Fees ($)	Score
			undergrad	postgrad	undergrad	postgrad
1	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	14,000 - 16,000	4,000 - 6,000	18,000 - 20,000	20,000 - 22,000	100.0
2	Harvard University	United States	38,000 - 40,000	36,000 - 38,000	38,000 - 40,000	36,000 - 38,000	99.3
3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	United States	38,000 - 40,000	40,000 - 42,000	38,000 - 40,000	40,000 - 42,000	99.2
4	Yale University	United States	38,000 - 40,000	32,000 - 34,000	38,000 - 40,000	32,000 - 34,000	98.8
5	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	14,000 - 16,000	4,000 - 6,000	20,000 - 22,000	20,000 - 22,000	98.0
6	Imperial College London	United Kingdom	14,000 - 16,000	4,000 - 6,000	30,000 - 32,000	32,000 - 34,000	97.6
7	UCL (University College London)	United Kingdom	14,000 - 16,000	6,000 - 8,000	24,000 - 26,000	24,000 - 26,000	97.3
8	University of Chicago	United States	42,000 - 44,000	42,000 - 44,000	42,000 - 44,000	42,000 - 44,000	96.1
9	University of Pennsylvania	United States	40,000 - 42,000	26,000 - 28,000	40,000 - 42,000	26,000 - 28,000	95.7
10	Columbia University	United States	42,000 - 44,000	38,000 - 40,000	42,000 - 44,000	38,000 - 40,000	95.3
11	Stanford University	United States	40,000 - 42,000	38,000 - 40,000	40,000 - 42,000	38,000 - 40,000	93.4
12	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	United States	36,000 - 38,000	36,000 - 38,000	36,000 - 38,000	36,000 - 38,000	93.0
13	Princeton University	United States	36,000 - 38,000	38,000 - 40,000	36,000 - 38,000	38,000 - 40,000	91.9
14	University of Michigan	United States	10,000 - 12,000	16,000 - 18,000	36,000 - 38,000	36,000 - 38,000	91.3
15	Cornell University	United States	38,000 - 40,000	28,000 - 30,000	38,000 - 40,000	28,000 - 30,000	90.7
16	Johns Hopkins University	United States	40,000 - 42,000	40,000 - 42,000	40,000 - 42,000	40,000 - 42,000	90.0
17	McGill University	Canada	4,000 - 6,000	4,000 - 6,000	18,000 - 20,000	14,000 - 16,000	89.6
18	ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)	Switzerland	1,000 - 2,000	1,000 - 2,000	1,000 - 2,000	1,000 - 2,000	89.5
19	Duke University	United States	40,000 - 42,000	38,000 - 40,000	40,000 - 42,000	38,000 - 40,000	89.3
20	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom	2,000 - 4,000	6,000 - 8,000	16,000 - 18,000	18,000 - 20,000	87.8
21	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	United States	10,000 - 12,000	10,000 - 12,000	32,000 - 34,000	24,000 - 26,000	87.6
22	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	4,000 - 6,000	4,000 - 6,000	14,000 - 16,000	14,000 - 16,000	87.0
23	University of Toronto	Canada	10,000 - 12,000	12,000 - 14,000	32,000 - 34,000	28,000 - 30,000	86.2
24	Northwestern University	United States	40,000 - 42,000	40,000 - 42,000	40,000 - 42,000	40,000 - 42,000	85.9
25	The University of Tokyo	Japan	6,000 - 8,000	6,000 - 8,000	6,000 - 8,000	n/a	85.9
26	Australian National University	Australia	6,000 - 8,000	22,000 - 24,000	40,000 - 42,000	28,000 - 30,000	85.7
27	Kings College London (University of London)	United Kingdom	14,000 - 16,000	6,000 - 8,000	20,000 - 22,000	20,000 - 22,000	85.0
28	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore	34,000 - 36,000	6,000 - 8,000	40,000 - 42,000	18,000 - 20,000	84.1
29	The University of Manchester	United Kingdom	14,000 - 16,000	8,000 - 10,000	18,000 - 20,000	22,000 - 24,000	84.0
30	University of Bristol	United Kingdom	14,000 - 16,000	6,000 - 8,000	20,000 - 22,000	20,000 - 22,000	83.7
31	The University of Melbourne	Australia	6,000 - 8,000	n/a	28,000 - 30,000	24,000 - 26,000	83.6
32	Kyoto University	Japan	6,000 - 8,000	6,000 - 8,000	4,000 - 6,000	4,000 - 6,000	82.9
33	École Normale Supérieure, Paris	France	< 1,000	< 1,000	< 1,000	< 1,000	82.4
34	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	United States	10,000 - 12,000	10,000 - 12,000	32,000 - 34,000	24,000 - 26,000	81.9
35	Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland	1,000 - 2,000	1,000 - 2,000	1,000 - 2,000	1,000 - 2,000	81.8
36	École Polytechnique	France	< 1,000	6,000 - 8,000	12,000 - 14,000	8,000 - 10,000	80.5
37	The Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	4,000 - 6,000	4,000 - 6,000	12,000 - 14,000	12,000 - 14,000	79.5
38	The University of Sydney	Australia	6,000 - 8,000	22,000 - 24,000	30,000 - 32,000	28,000 - 30,000	79.3
39	Brown University	United States	40,000 - 42,000	40,000 - 42,000	40,000 - 42,000	40,000 - 42,000	79.2
40	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong	4,000 - 6,000	4,000 - 6,000	8,000 - 10,000	4,000 - 6,000	79.1
41	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States	8,000 - 10,000	10,000 - 12,000	24,000 - 26,000	24,000 - 26,000	79.0
42	Seoul National University	Korea, South	4,000 - 6,000	4,000 - 6,000	4,000 - 6,000	4,000 - 6,000	78.7
43	Carnegie Mellon University	United States	42,000 - 44,000	36,000 - 38,000	42,000 - 44,000	36,000 - 38,000	78.5
44	New York University (NYU)	United States	40,000 - 42,000	34,000 - 36,000	40,000 - 42,000	34,000 - 36,000	77.7
45	Osaka University	Japan	6,000 - 8,000	6,000 - 8,000	4,000 - 6,000	8,000 - 10,000	77.5
46	Peking University	China	< 1,000	2,000 - 4,000	4,000 - 6,000	4,000 - 6,000	77.4
47	Tsinghua University	China	1,000 - 2,000	1,000 - 2,000	4,000 - 6,000	6,000 - 8,000	76.3
48	The University of Queensland	Australia	6,000 - 8,000	n/a	22,000 - 24,000	12,000 - 14,000	75.9
49	The University of New South Wales	Australia	6,000 - 8,000	8,000 - 10,000	28,000 - 30,000	28,000 - 30,000	75.7
50	The University of Warwick	United Kingdom	14,000 - 16,000	8,000 - 10,000	20,000 - 22,000	20,000 - 22,000	74.9

Top UK University League Table 2012

2011-08-23T14:32:00.000+08:00

CUG Rank		University Name	Entry Standards [1]		Student Satisfaction [2]		Research Assessment [3]		Graduate Prospects [4]		Overall Score [5]
2012	2011	University Name	Entry Standards [1]		Student Satisfaction [2]		Research Assessment [3]		Graduate Prospects [4]		Overall Score [5]
1	2	Cambridge		559		4.1		2.98		85.5		1000
2	1	Oxford		536		4.2		2.96		85.0		992
3	3	Imperial College London		519		3.8		2.94		86.7		940
4	5	London School of Economics		513		3.9		2.96		84.1		928
5	4	Durham		487		4.0		2.72		80.4		890
6	6	St Andrews		485		4.1		2.72		76.3		854
7	9	University College London		477		4.0		2.84		81.1		842
8	7	Warwick		480		4.0		2.80		72.5		822
9	8	Lancaster		407		4.0		2.71		71.8		820
10	12	Bath		459		4.0		2.71		77.9		800
11	16	Bristol		467		3.9		2.72		77.7		794
12	10	York		437		4.1		2.78		68.2		790
13	11	Edinburgh		442		3.8		2.75		72.4		782
14	14	Southampton		427		3.9		2.72		70.8		779
15	24	Exeter		439		4.1		2.62		70.3		768
16	13	King's College London		447		3.9		2.69		82.6		758
17	18	Nottingham		428		3.9		2.67		77.9		753
18	15	SOAS		423		3.9		2.60		68.7		751
19	21	Loughborough		390		4.1		2.62		69.2		749
19	19	Sussex		380		4.1		2.61		69.3		749
21	26	Glasgow		408		4.0		2.59		72.1		748
22	23	Birmingham		421		4.0		2.64		71.8		742
23	22	Leicester		399		4.1		2.45		71.5		740
24	29	Newcastle		410		4.0		2.63		75.4		738
25	17	Aston		370		3.9		2.43		74.8		735
26	25	Sheffield		426		4.0		2.72		73.6		729
27	28	East Anglia		386		4.1		2.58		66.1		728
28	33	Surrey		388		3.9		2.58		76.4		715
29	31	Manchester		422		3.8		2.82		70.4		714
30	32	Liverpool		401		3.9		2.54		70.3		712
31	35	Queen's, Belfast		362		3.9		2.56		69.4		710
32	27	Leeds		408		3.9		2.72		65.8		702
33	30	Royal Holloway		381		4.0		2.67		63.1		693
34	38	Kent		329		4.0		2.60		67.3		684
34	40	Reading		370		4.0		2.53		66.3		684
36	39	Queen Mary		387		4.0		2.73		71.7		683
37	41	Cardiff		406		3.9		2.69		73.6		672
38	37	Essex		307		4.0		2.77		58.6		668
38	34	Heriot-Watt		335		3.9		2.48		68.8		668
40	35	Strathclyde		394		3.9		2.45		73.0		665
41	47	City		361		3.9		2.48		70.6		646
42	20	Buckingham		273		4.4				87.5		639
43	45	Dundee		353		4.0		2.54		68.9		628
44	43	Keele		310		4.0		2.41		67.5		619
45	52	Stirling		305		4.0		2.41		66.2		613
46	44	Aberdeen		332		4.0		2.57		69.4		604
46	50	Oxford Brookes		314		3.9		2.20		62.0		604
48	41	Hertfordshire		244		3.9		2.40		59.7		597
49	47	Aberystwyth		298		4.1		2.48		55.1		596
50	46	Brunel		325		3.8		2.32		59.3		594
51	51	Robert Gordon		295		3.9		2.06		76.7		575
52	54	Ulster		266		3.8		2.48		53.9		572
53	65	Plymouth		297		3.8		2.18		64.3		560
54	60	Swansea		314		3.9		2.43		60.3		559
55	49	Nottingham Trent		287		3.8		2.16		60.6		557
56	53	Chichester		290		4.0		1.96		54.4		555
57	57	Goldsmiths College		327		3.8		2.58		53.8		551
58	67	Huddersfield		273		3.9		2.10		69.5		548
59	70	University of the Arts, London		276		3.6		2.49		53.1		545
60	64	Northumbria		300		3.9		2.15		68.0		539
61	68	West of England, Bristol		278		3.8		2.20		61.4		538
62	55	Bournemouth		297		3.8		2.18		61.1		534
62	56	Hull		309		4.0		2.37		64.6		534
62	68	Sheffield Hallam		289		3.8		2.05		61.8		534
65	72	Central Lancashire		260		3.9		1.96		59.6		530
66	58	Birmingham City		263		3.8		2.31		67.7		526
67	71	Lincoln		289		4.0		1.90		55.9		525
68	73	Brighton		290		3.9		2.37		55.5		524
68	59	UWIC, Cardiff		267		3.9		1.88		55.3		524
70	76	Winchester		280		3.9		2.16		54.0		519
71	97	Middlesex		207		3.8		2.18		57.8		517
72	75	Coventry		298		3.8		1.85		59.9		514
73	61	Bradford		268		3.9		2.34		69.4		513
73	87	Roehampton		259		3.8		2.20		59.9		513
75	62	Gloucestershire		264		3.9		1.72		57.8		510
76	79	Glasgow Caledonian		302		3.9		2.01		57.3		504
77	94	Westminster		273		3.7		2.23		55.1		502
78	63	Bangor		288		4.0		2.43		59.7		498
79	109	University for the Creative Arts		269		3.6		1.90		50.8		494
80	81	Chester		273		3.9		1.74		63.4		489
81	65	De Montfort		259		3.9		2.32		52.8		488
81	89	Portsmouth		283		3.9		2.24		56.7		488
83	86	Glamorgan		279		3.9		2.04		54.3		485
84	74	Edinburgh Napier		296		3.8		1.83		69.3		484
85	83	Bath Spa		293		3.8		1.89		46.5		481
86	81	Cumbria		263		3.8		1.23		66.2		474
87	77	Queen Margaret		309		3.9		1.37		61.8		469
88	84	Kingston		243		3.8		2.04		52.3		468
89	89	University of Wales, Newport		252		3.9		2.42		54.5		467
90	105	Teesside		271		4.0		1.99		61.9		466
91	93	Sunderland		246		3.9		1.86		54.8		465
92	-	Trinity Saint David		251		3.9		2.11		59.7		463
93	89	Manchester Metropolitan		271		3.7		2.16		57.1		462
93	95	West London		220		3.7		1.67		52.8		462
95	98	Abertay Dundee		252		3.9		1.83		57.7		460
95	85	Leeds Metropolitan		267		3.8		2.05		55.5		460
97	96	Salford		280		3.8		2.36		55.1		459
98	88	Edge Hill		260		4.0		1.50		63.2		453
99	80	Staffordshire		241		3.9		1.62		60.7		452
100	106	Canterbury Christ Church		247		3.8		1.79		63.3		447
101	102	Liverpool John Moores		263		3.8		2.15		50.5		442
102	78	York St John		282		3.9		1.40		51.8		439
103	101	Bedfordshire		187		3.8		2.09		61.2		438
104	92	Glyndwr		231		3.9		1.69		65.5		430
105	100	Northampton		238		3.9		1.69		52.9		429
106	102	Worcester		271		3.9		1.54		60.8		421
107	108	Buckinghamshire New		212		3.7		1.67		48.8		416
108	104	Derby		250		3.9		1.96		52.3		414
109	110	Greenwich		215		4.0		1.90		54.7		413
110	106	Anglia Ruskin		254		3.7		2.07		55.5		412
111	111	Southampton Solent		266		3.9		1.49		46.2		384
112	-	West of Scotland		241		3.9		1.84		58.3		362
113	113	East London		200		3.7		2.24		48.6		335
114	112	Bolton		222		3.9		1.75		45.4		301
115	115	London Metropolitan		221		3.6		1.84		45.5		296
116	114	London South Bank		201		3.8		2.24		49.3		295

(Source : The Complete University Guide)

Footnote :
[1] Entry Standards
The average UCAS tariff score of new students under 21 years of age entering the University.
[2]Student Satisfaction
A guide to how satisfied students are with the quality of teaching they receive.
[3]Research Assessment
The average quality of the research undertaken in the University.
[4]Graduate Prospects
A guide to the employability of graduates on completion of their courses at the University.
[5]Overall Score
The total score calculated by our independent and trusted methodology, comprising the four measures listed in the University League Table together with Teaching Standards, Employment Prospects, Good Honours, Staff–Student Ratio, Academic and Facilities Spend, Degree Completion and Green (listed in the University Profiles). Click here to read more

Want a PSC Scholarship ? Be Yourself.

2011-06-02T14:34:00.001+08:00

We are not looking for "Yes-Men"

" The worse case of someone who was trying to be 'politically correct' that i can recall was a candidate who said he would obey authority even if he disagrees with a particular instruction given to him .

I was appalled when the candidate went on to reply that if he were to work in a government ministry and was told by his supervisor to award a development contract to his supervisor's friend, he woud comply because it was an instruction from a person in authority.

Clearly, he thought the PSC is looking for someone who is totally compliant and totally obedient. "

- PSC Chairman Mr Eddie Teo

Want to know more about what the PSC is looking for in their scholars ??
Read on.

Now that you know what PSC is looking for ,
here are some tips from Mr Eddie Teo on what to do to prepare for the interview.

[ Source : The Straits Time 25th July 2009 ]

The world's top 100 universities ranked for medicine, biology and psychology

2011-05-06T09:25:00.001+08:00

Harvard has topped the world rankings for biomedical sciences. Get the full QS rankings

Harvard University has topped the first ever top 100 world rankings for medicine, biological sciences and psychology. Photograph: Mark Peterson/ Corbis

Harvard university has swept the board ranking highest in the world's top 100 universities for medicine, biological sciences and psychology with Cambridge and Oxford following closely behind.

Once again, the elite American university has topped another top 100 world rankings list - it was revealed earlier this year that Harvard had topped the world university reputation list as compiled by Times Higher Education.

Although the US seem to have shown a surge in university rankings across the world, the UK does follow in second place according to the rankings published today by QS. Ten UK universities feature in the top 50 in at least one of the three subjects; medicine, biological sciences and psychology.

With the trend of major UK universities planning to charge the maximum £9000 fees, universities will be under even more pressure to ensure students get value for money with highly esteemed courses. The results from QS show three UK universities to enter the top ten world rankings for medicine; Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial whereas this reduces to just two for both biological sciences and psychology (Cambridge and Oxford).

One of the factors accredited to Harvard's high medicine ranking has been noted by QS for "pioneering work in stem cell research" which was carried out in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However both Oxford and Cambridge were praised for being "traditional UK research hubs" although it was noted that in the field of biological sciences, research citations fell short of their US counterparts.

We have compiled these rankings and all the QS rankings so far into a spreadsheet which can be downloaded below. The rankings feature scores broken down into citations, academic and employer rankings and feature both the biomedical sciences by individual subject and the engineering and computer sciences too. Below is a table showing the top 25 in all three biomedical sciences by subject.

=============================================================================

Data summary

=============================================================================

Rank	Institution	Country	Academic	Employer	Citations	Scores
World's top 25 universities for medicine
1	Harvard University	United States	100	100	84	93.6
2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	81.7	94.1	74.1	79.9
3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	United States	62.6	83.2	100	79.6
4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	76.5	90	79.2	78.9
5	Stanford University	United States	74.9	66.3	70.4	72.2
6	Yale University	United States	67.1	55.9	70.3	67.3
7	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	United States	63.5	54.5	67.2	64.1
8	Johns Hopkins University	United States	63.7	29.6	65.7	61.1
9	Imperial College London	United Kingdom	56.9	45.6	63.9	58.6
10	University of California, San Diego (UCSD)	United States	50.6	27	71.2	56.5
11	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	United States	32.4	38.1	90.8	56.3
12	University of Toronto	Canada	55.7	47.9	54	54.2
13	McGill University	Canada	45.9	63	60.4	53.4
14	Duke University	United States	39.7	57.3	68.6	53
15	The University of Melbourne	Australia	53.2	60.4	49.6	52.5
16	Columbia University	United States	42.8	60.8	62.2	52.4
17	University of California, San Francisco	United States	45.2	24.5	67.5	52.1
18	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore	58.3	57.9	42.3	51.9
19	University of Chicago	United States	41.2	46.4	66.5	51.8
20	The University of Tokyo	Japan	62.8	45.7	38.2	51.3
21	University of Pennsylvania	United States	40.1	48.6	63.5	50.3
22	University of Michigan	United States	39.5	44.3	64.8	50.1
23	Cornell University	United States	40.3	47.2	61	49.3
24	University of Washington	United States	41.4	27.8	64.2	49.2
25	UCL (University College London)	United Kingdom	42.7	46.9	57	48.8
Source:QS

Rank	Institution	Country	Academic	Employer	Citations	Scores
World's top 25 universities for biological sciences
1	Harvard University	United States	98.6	100	78	90.5
2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	United States	81.1	85.6	83.9	82.7
3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	100	88.2	54.3	80.5
4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	86.6	85.2	51.5	72.4
5	Stanford University	United States	78.5	75.6	62.9	72
6	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	United States	86.7	63.8	51.9	70.5
7	Yale University	United States	62.1	68	59.8	61.8
8	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	United States	58.2	38	67.7	60
9	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	United States	60.6	49.5	57.8	58.4
10	University of California, San Diego (UCSD)	United States	61.9	34.4	55.1	56.4
11	Imperial College London	United Kingdom	62.8	57.1	43.9	54.7
12	University of Toronto	Canada	64.7	36.8	45.6	54.3
13	Johns Hopkins University	United States	54.6	37	56.9	53.8
14	Columbia University	United States	46.5	67.8	58.1	53.3
15	The University of Tokyo	Japan	71	46	30.1	52.1
16	Cornell University	United States	52.6	61.4	47.9	51.6
17	University of Pennsylvania	United States	43.4	71.9	56.4	51.5
18 =	McGill University	Canada	56.7	53.9	44.1	51.4
18 =	Princeton University	United States	48.9	53	54.1	51.4
18 =	University of Chicago	United States	47.3	49.9	56.8	51.4
21	Arizona State University	United States	16.5	7.3	100	49
22	ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)	Switzerland	53.9	36.6	45.5	48.8
23	University of Michigan	United States	39.1	54.9	56.4	47.6
24	University of British Columbia	Canada	53.6	44.2	40.3	47.3
25 =	Duke University	United States	41.3	47.9	54.2	47.1
25 =	The University of Melbourne	Australia	53	66.1	35	47.1
Source:QS

Rank	Institution	Country	Academic	Employer	Citations	Scores
World's top 25 universities for psychology
1	Harvard University	United States	100	93.8	97	97.5
2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	83	100	88	89.1
3	Stanford University	United States	91.2	74.7	86.3	85.3
4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	77.8	87.5	76.8	80.5
5	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	United States	86.9	70.1	65.4	77.6
6	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	United States	74.4	59.2	81.6	71.3
7	Yale University	United States	72.2	63.6	78.2	70.8
8	The University of Melbourne	Australia	68	67.9	66.3	67.6
9	Princeton University	United States	58.9	46.5	98.5	63.1
10	McGill University	Canada	61.9	45.3	70	58.5
11	The University of Sydney	Australia	68.4	42.8	56.9	58.4
12	UCL (University College London)	United Kingdom	55	49.4	78.5	58
13	University of Toronto	Canada	68.4	32	66.7	57.1
14	University of Chicago	United States	56.7	38.3	84.5	56.7
15	University of Michigan	United States	63	31.8	74.3	55.9
16	University of British Columbia	Canada	64.4	33.5	67.5	55.8
17	Columbia University	United States	53	42.9	80.4	55.5
18	The University of Tokyo	Japan	66.4	47.1	33.6	54.1
19	Cornell University	United States	52.3	45.2	71.6	54
20	Australian National University	Australia	53.9	42.6	68.3	53.4
21	University of Pennsylvania	United States	46.2	46.3	81.2	53.2
22	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore	64.7	40.3	38.4	52.1
23	New York University (NYU)	United States	54.9	27.5	80.3	51.8
24	Carnegie Mellon University	United States	48.2	27.9	90.9	50.7
25	Peking University	China	57.9	38.1	47.6	49.9
Source:QS

Ivy League Acceptance Rates for the Class of 2015

2011-05-06T09:20:00.000+08:00

Ivy League acceptance rates for the class of 2015 are in. While the admissions process will continue to drag on into the summer as colleges manage their waitlists, most schools now have a pretty good picture of the acceptance numbers for the class of 2015. For the country's most selective colleges, the picture isn't pretty. Below are the acceptance rates for the eight Ivy League schools. For all of these elite schools, acceptance rates are lower this year than last.

The lower acceptance rate isn't necessarily because there are more students going to college this year. Rather, a similar number of students are sending out more applications. The lower the acceptance rates go, the more students feel they need to apply to a lot of schools to improve their chances of getting in. This situation is going to make it more difficult for colleges to predict their yield, and as a result we're going to see a lot of students stuck in waitlist limbo.

The chart below shows what the Ivy League application numbers and acceptance rates look like for the class of 2015. To learn more about each school including typical SAT and ACT scores, click on the school's name in the table.

College	Number of Applications	Acceptance Rate	Source
Brown	30,948	8.7%	Brown News and Events
Columbia	~35,000	6.9%	Columbia Spectator
Cornell	36,392	18%	Cornell Daily Sun
Dartmouth	22,385	9.7%	Dartmouth Now
Harvard	34,950	6.2%	Harvard Gazette
Princeton	27,189	8.4%	News at Princeton
University of Pennsylvania	31,659	12.3%	Daily Pennsylvanian
Yale	27,282	7.4%	Yale News
Compare ACT scores for the Ivy League
Compare SAT scores for the Ivy League

Oxford and Cambridge introduce new entrance tests

2011-05-06T09:18:00.003+08:00

Students are facing a battery of new tests to get into Oxford and Cambridge amid continuing fears that A-levels fail to mark out the best candidates.

More than 70 per cent of Oxford applicants are required to sit a pre-interview entrance exam in subjects such as history, English, languages, mathematics and science this term, compared with 50 per cent just two years ago.

The development has fuelled a dramatic rise in demand for private tutors set up to help teenagers negotiate the admissions process. One company reported a doubling in the number of enquiries for coaching specifically to pass Oxbridge entrance tests.

It comes as record numbers of school-leavers attempt to get into the two universities in 2010. Oxford has already announced a 12 per cent rise in applications.

An increase in entrance tests – sat by thousands of candidates this month – will fuel fears that tutors are finding it increasingly difficult to select the best candidates from record numbers of pupils leaving school with at least three As at A-level.

In the mid-1980s, fewer than half of Oxbridge applicants gained straight As, but this year every candidate is expected to achieve the feat.

Earlier this month, the Government announced a major review of university admissions, suggesting that A-levels should not dictate entry to the most sought-after courses.
Mike Nicholson, Oxford’s director of admissions, said: "Without aptitude tests as part of the admissions process, it would be impossible for Oxford to effectively shortlist candidates for interview in the subjects that are most over-subscribed.

"When we are presented with 17,000 candidates for around 3,200 places, all of whom have glowing references and excellent academic records, aptitude tests and interviews allow us to differentiate between the very best and the very good."

Applications to Oxford and Cambridge close in October – before the deadline for other universities.

Both institutions largely abolished entrance exams in most subjects in the mid-90s under pressure from state schools which claimed they discriminated in favour of pupils from the private sector.

But different tests have been slowly reintroduced over the last decade. Oxford insisted they beared almost no resemblance to the old entrance exams.

Students applying for 36 different subjects at Oxford are now required to take a pre-interview aptitude test. Subjects such as experimental psychology and PPP (philosophy, psychology and physiology) were added for the first time this year.

At Cambridge, students take a generic "thinking skills" tests after applying to study computer science, economics, engineering, land economy, natural sciences and PPS (politics, psychology and sociology) at some colleges. For the first time this year, Cambridge is also running its own law exam after dropping the Law National Admissions Test, which is used to dictate entry to many courses across the country.
Most exams are taken in the first week of November or early December.

Sucedo, a company offering exam coaching, said it had seen a "massive upsurge" in demand for help to pass admissions tests, particularly from state school students.

A spokesman said: "Entrance examinations are growing exponentially year-by-year, and will expand beyond Oxbridge soon, in force."

James Uffindell, founder of Oxbridge Applications, which advises students applying to leading universities, said seminars focusing on entrance exams were over-subscribed this year and sales of mock tests doubled.

[Source]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/6561399/Oxford-and-Cambridge-introduce-new-entrance-tests.html

Oxbridge 'prefers interviews to exam results'

2011-05-06T09:15:00.001+08:00

Oxford and Cambridge universities are increasingly relying on interviews to select the best students because A-levels and GCSEs fail to distinguish between bright and weak candidates, according to researchers.

As a result many applicants could see their fate decided by their responses to famously bizarre questions put by Oxbridge interviewers to test their knowledge and powers of reasoning.

School exams alone are no longer a marker of sixth-formers’ ability as record numbers now leave with a string of A grades, it is claimed.

Universities cannot even rely on references from teachers who are reluctant to criticise students for fear of being served with an official complaint.

Geoff Parks, the director of admissions at Cambridge, said interviews were becoming "more important" as other methods used to select sixth-formers are eroded.

But according to Oxbridge Applications, which advises people applying to the ancient institutions, interviews are more likely to benefit those from elite independent schools or state grammars.

They are more likely to be "coached" by teachers to give the best answers, they say.

Last year a student applying for a geography course at Cambridge was asked: "What is the population of Croydon?"

Another applying for physics at Oxford was asked: "How high can I go up a mountain having only eaten a Mars bar?"

James Uffindell, the founder of Oxbridge Applications, said interviews often punished comprehensive school pupils.

Figures from Cambridge show that 34 per cent of independent school pupils and 31 per cent from state grammars who apply get a place. However, just 21 per cent of comprehensive pupils get in.

At Oxford, more than 32 per cent of independent school pupils who applied were admitted last year.

Mr Uffindell said: "Tutors are understandably having to reply on the interview — what else do you do when a quarter of all A-level papers are now marked an A?

"This means pupils from the state comprehensives and the less well-known independent schools will find it harder to get in. They don’t have the amount of knowledge of the Oxbridge interview process that perhaps they have in the big private schools, where many teachers know the type of questions that are going to be asked and can provide coaching."

Earlier research by Oxbridge Applications showed that almost one in 10 state school students who had good grades did not apply to Oxbridge because they lacked confidence about the interview process.

An Oxford spokesman insisted the interview process was fair to all students. "One of the reasons for asking questions that require some lateral thinking is to really examine how a candidates thinks, rather than how they’ve been coached or what they’ve been taught," she said.

"They are looking for raw aptitude, not polish.”

Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563343/Oxbridge-prefers-interviews-to-exam-results.html

Oxford University applicants asked: 'What's normal for humans?'

2011-05-06T09:14:00.004+08:00

Oxford applicants are being asked to assess the academic merits of Coronation Street and invent a new musical instrument as part of university interviews, it emerged today.

Oxford University released a series of sample questions to destroy traditional "myths" surrounding the interview process.

The university is increasingly relying on interviews and aptitude tests to assess students’ ability and reasoning power amid record numbers of applications.

As students prepare to negotiate the Oxford selection system in coming weeks, academics released a series of sample questions to debunk well-worn “myths” surrounding the process.

Mike Nicholson, the university’s director of admissions, said interview questions were aimed at “pushing students to think, not recite specific facts or answers”.

In one psychology interview, applicants to Brasenose College were asked: “What is ‘normal’ for humans?”
Students applying to study biological sciences at St Anne’s College, Oxford, were shown a cactus by one academic and told: “Tell me about it.”

A biomedical sciences interview at St Peter’s College asked applicants: “Why do a cat's eyes appear to 'glow' in the dark?”

And at Pembroke College, theology students were asked: “Is someone who risks their own life – and those of others – in extreme sports or endurance activities a hero or a fool?”

Some 17,144 people applied for just 3,200 undergraduate places at Oxford last year and numbers are expected to continue to rise amid growing demand for degree courses across Britain.

The ancient institution already employs one of the most rigorous selection procedures in the world, with straight As at GCSE and A-level seen as a minimum entry requirement.

Most students are forced to take two interviews, aptitude tests, submit written work and supply references – on top of exam grades.

But Dr Nicholas Owen, an admissions tutor for the Department of Politics and International Relations, insisted the university was not trying to "catch candidates out with trick questions".

The university released six sample questions taken from real interviews conducted in recent years. It comes ahead of interviews being staged in December.

In an English literature interview, applicants to Regent’s Park College were asked: “Why do you think an English student might be interested in the fact that Coronation Street has been running for 50 years?”
Dr Lynn Robson, an English lecturer, said the question was designed to show how literary analysis techniques can be applied to popular culture.

It was also intended to provoke discussion about issues such as storytelling techniques, mixing humorous and serious storylines and the use of serialisation, she said.

In a music interview at Merton College, students were asked: “If you could invent a new musical instrument, what kind of sound would it make?”

Dr Dan Grimley, from the college’s music faculty, said: “This question is really very open-ended, and I'm interested in answers which demonstrate a critical imagination at work; what kinds of sounds do instruments/voices make now, and how might these be imaginatively extended or developed?”
Mr Nicholson said: “There are many myths surrounding Oxford interviews, and they can be the most anxiety-provoking part of the Oxford application process for students.

“These questions show that the interviews are not designed to see how quickly students get the ‘right’ answer or show off specialist knowledge, but to gauge how they respond to new ideas.”

Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8073314/Oxford-University-applicants-asked-Whats-normal-for-humans.html

Princeton University to reinstate early admission program

2011-05-06T09:10:00.001+08:00

Source : http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/princeton_university_to_reinst.html

PRINCETON — Princeton University is bringing back its early admission program, just four years after killing it because campus officials thought it gave an unfair advantage to wealthy applicants.

"We have carefully reviewed our single admission program every year, and we have been very pleased with how it has worked," Princeton President Shirley Tilghman said. "But in eliminating our early program four years ago, we hoped other colleges and universities would do the same and they haven't. One consequence is that some students who really want to make their college decision as early as possible in their senior year apply to other schools early, even if their first choice is Princeton."

Princeton and Harvard made headlines in 2006 when they announced they were eliminating early admissions. For years, critics complained the programs — which allow students to apply and get accepted to a college in the fall of their senior year of high school — were mostly used by wealthy, white students. That gave low-income and minority students less of a chance of getting into the highly-competitive schools.

But Princeton officials said other top universities failed to follow their lead. Once the early admission program is reinstated, campus officials said they will use other methods to make sure enough minority and low-income students are included in each Princeton class.

Last year, Princeton admitted 8.8 percent of the undergraduates who applied, its lowest admission rate ever. Nearly 16 percent of the 1,313 students in the freshman class come from low-income families and 11 percent are the first in their families to go to college, campus officials said.

Earlier today, Harvard University announced it would also bring back early admissions. The University of Virginia did the same last year.

The Ivy League university announced today it will reinstate early admissions later this year for students applying to enter Princeton in the fall of 2012. Applicants will be able to apply early to Princeton, though the university will not require them to make their final decision on whether to attend until the end of the regular admissions process.

Looi Qin En - Reflections on my week long SPF internship

2011-05-05T08:31:00.000+08:00

In December 2010, I was indeed blessed to enjoy my internship with the Singapore Police Force F division for a week. Initially, the Ministry of Home Affairs was not my top three choices where I preferred to complete my PSC internship at, but I was fortunate to be offered an internship with the Singapore Police Force.

It turned out to be an extremely enriching and memorable experience which I would never forget. I was able to experience many aspects of the police life, varying from the crime control unit patrol rounds at night where we conducted spot-checks on suspicious looking people, to police car round-about patrols around my neighborhood. To be able to experience and understand the nature of police work was a delightful experience, as I was able to view my neighborhood in a different light, and understand how the men in blue kept our streets safe. Their high level of professionalism on the job and the camaraderie shared amongst the team whilst on the job was inspiring, and even though their job was physically and mentally demanding, the officers, regardless of rank, took pride in what they did.

Our mentor, Superintendent Alvin Moh, Head of Operations at the F Division also taught us important lessons on servant leadership. His ability to reach out to his team at all levels, even as a high-flying scholar, was heart-warming and inspiring. Indeed, the most important lesson I have learnt out of this whole experience is how to be a better leader. Whilst we interacted with the junior officers whom complained about their leaders at times, we heard nothing but compliments for Supt Moh, even when he was not physically around and there was no one over-hearing us. The level of respect he commanded and the care he shows to his men by taking time off his busy schedule to follow them on their rounds occasionally moved more than a few officers, and he epitomized what an effective leader would be. Even when some of the officers were unmotivated and not performing well on the job, he would sit down with them personally and discuss with them what were the problems faced. Instead of highlighting problems, he was suggesting solutions, and thus won the respect of his team. In essence, Supt Moh demonstrated leadership qualities which I aim to possess, so that in time to come, no matter where I may be, if given the opportunity to lead, I will be able to lead like him.

Will a Master's get you a job ?

2011-05-05T08:25:00.001+08:00

Will a Master's get you a job ?

Postgraduate courses remain in demand, but is one right for you? Our new guide will help you to decide
- By Lucy Tobin, The Guardian, Tuesday 15 February 2011

===============================================================
"It helped me stand out from the crowd and get a job," says Gitte Pedersen of her master's degree in international marketing. The fact that she's talking about the course from her office at advertising giant Ogilvy reinforces her point. "I learned a lot and became more motivated," Pedersen adds, "but the best thing about it was definitely that it helped me go straight into work."

Pedersen, who is 28 and originally from Denmark, was offered the job last year, while mid-way through her master's at London South Bank University. "I had picked the course for its industry links," she says. "I knew the course director had regular contact with alumni working in marketing, and that that led to a lot of job opportunities. I hoped that as well as improving my knowledge and boosting what I could offer a firm, the course would give me access to a whole secret network of jobs, and it did. Ultimately, that led to my job offer as an ad operations executive – I don't think I'd have heard about the position otherwise."
Not all postgraduate courses have such a happy ending, but students are still heaping their dreams on them. The spike in demand for postgraduate education during the recession is still in evidence. Almost 353,500 students enrolled in postgraduate studies in 2009-10, according to the Higher Education Careers Service Unit (Hecsu). Demand for master's degrees was up 7.4%, and the number of PhD students grew 1%. Hecsu has not yet published last year's admissions figures, but says anecdotal evidence suggests even higher student numbers.

With graduate unemployment at a 15-year high, it's little surprise that students want to further their education in the hope of finding employment. There are, however, growing fears in academia that the rise in undergraduate fees and the end of schemes such as the education maintenance allowance will leave domestic students too indebted to afford a postgraduate education in the UK, which could become the preserve of foreign students.

For now, those opting to return to academia are, like Pedersen, fanatically focused on one thing: employability. Recruiters like master's courses, but only if graduates can prove their value. "If post-graduate qualifications are undertaken for the right reason and graduates are able to explain their worth to prospective employers, they can be very worthwhile additions to a CV," says Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters. "But motivation is important. If it's just to delay the job search or as a last resort after failing to secure a job, then it's not worthwhile."

If you're considering a higher degree, Education Guardian's Postgraduate Guide, launched today, will help your research. It lists course fees, staff-student ratios, completion rates and expenditure per student. More than ever this year it's crucial to ensure you're getting the best value for money – not necessarily the cheapest fees, but a place on the course that is most likely to lead to the job you want, at an institution with good industry links, careers advice and student satisfaction levels.

"If you're serious about investing your time and money in a postgraduate course, ensure you're making an informed decision," advises Laura Hooke, careers consultant at City University London. "If you are motivated by the sheer enjoyment of study and a love of the subject, that's great. But if you see further study as a means of getting employment, proceed with caution. A job ... is not guaranteed."

If you do decide to proceed, pick your course with your career objectives in mind – whether that's work in academia or a particular industry sector. "Find as specific a programme as possible," advises James Intriligator, senior lecturer at Bangor University. When his psychology department switched its master's in "consumer psychology" to one in "consumer psychology and business", it saw a marked increase in the number of students securing jobs at the end. "Employers take notice of highly relevant, specialised programmes," says Intriligator. He also highlights the value of courses that include hands-on experience. "Our students do a semester-long project with a local company, which gives them something 'applied' to talk about in interviews," he says.

Would-be postgraduates should also look into the details beyond graduate employment numbers. "Write to your top few courses and ask what kind of careers their graduates tend to pursue," says Intriligator. "Ask how successful they have been, and ask for examples. Many will not answer you, but if you continually get no response, this should tell you something about the university." Past and current students are another useful source of advice, but try to track them down through student forums, Twitter or Facebook rather than just those beaming out of the prospectus: they're more likely to be honest.

Looking back on her own postgraduate experience, Pedersen says the best thing she did was secure work experience before picking her course. "You can select modules that are based around what you want as a career," she says.

This is something Katarina Palin did not do. Palin, 25, completed a PGCE teaching qualification at Sheffield Hallam University last June. She embarked on the course after graduating with a degree in business administration and sociology from Aston University. "After mild career panic, I thought I needed a vocation, and decided – with minimal knowledge of what it really entailed – that teaching would be it," Palin explains. "I found out there were still spaces on Sheffield Hallam's PGCE course and applied without really putting much thought into it."

Palin quickly regretted her decision. "On my first placement, I had a minor breakdown about whether I really wanted to continue, but I convinced myself I should carry on. I was trying so hard just to keep my head above water and was literally counting the days until the end of the course. Deep down, I knew I didn't really want to teach. After graduating, I ended up going back to recruitment agencies. I secured some admin work at a university, where I am now. I'd like to build a career here."

Palin says potential postgraduate students should not start a course in the vague hope it leads to a career. "I feel like I wasted a year. It was a path I chose out of blind panic, the idea that I needed a career – I'd never advise anyone to choose a postgraduate course because of that."

Spending time weighing up the pros and cons of a master's is all the more important when you consider the cost. The average fees for a one-year course for a domestic student rose to £4,000 last year; an MBA costs an average of £12,000. And experts predict that the cost of postgraduate courses will rise when tuition fees triple from 2012, as universities won't want to offer master's qualifications that are cheaper than undergraduate ones.
While bursaries are available for some, many need to take out a career development loan, worth up to £10,000, to fund two years of study. Alternative options include long-distance learning or part-time study, which can be juggled with paid work, or studying abroad: some European universities' fees are far lower than those in the UK.

Whatever postgraduate path you pick, make sure you're committed to the hard work. "At least 70% of what you get out of a master's is directly related to how much you put in," says Intriligator. "Be prepared to make things happen on your own – set up study groups, read widely, and engage. If you don't feel ready to take responsibility for learning on your shoulders, and don't feel interested or excited by the topic, then don't waste your time and money."

Five ways to get into Oxford

2011-05-05T08:20:00.000+08:00

“There is a presumption that if applying to Oxford, you have to be incredibly well-rounded... you don't.” - By BBC News

Thousands of students have now heard whether they have been offered places at Oxford University.For those that have nervously opened the envelope to find good news, they have the added satisfaction of knowing they succeeded in what the university says was the most competitive year yet. More than 17,200 people were chasing 3,200 places. The application process has a daunting reputation and, for state school pupils, it can seem especially difficult. While only 7% of pupils in England and Wales are from the independent sector, they make up around 46% of Oxford's undergraduates. The university says these stats don't tell the whole story, because a third of students with all A grades in their A-levels - the pool of talent from which Oxford students are drawn - are privately educated. Getting in is hard, but perhaps not as hard as people think, says Mike Nicholson,the university's head of undergraduate admissions, with on average five applications for every place."We're looking for students who are intelligent - very interested in their subject and who can demonstrate their interest," he says. So what are the ingredients of a successful application?

1. Have Chutzpah.

A touch of impudence can go a long way, says Mark Robinson, head of history at Barton Peveril College in Eastleigh, a state school with a good track record of getting students into Oxford. "It's about having confidence in your own opinions, even when someone else says 'that couldn't be right'. "Rather than the pupil giving ground, saying 'oh dear, silly me', we want them to say 'don't be ridiculous, of course that's the case'. "It's an adversarial, style of discussion. When we do our mock interviews and extra lessons with history students, I encourage them to argue."The small class sizes of independent schools help cultivate this skill because they make pupils feel special and give them a sense of entitlement, he says. Pupils who stick up for themselves stand out, says Oxford professor Thomas Noe."What we are looking for is a student who can address issues in a logical fashion, reason from premises to conclusion, we're looking for someone who can stand up for their own ideas but is not particularly inflexible."Even if a student is hesitant or shy, how well he thinks will still be evident, he says.

2. Unleash your Geek.

Extra-curricular activities are not that important, says Mr Nicholson."There is a presumption that if applying to Oxford, you have to be incredibly well-rounded. "It's not good enough just to be academic. You have to have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, raised £10,000 for charity and rescued three children from a burning building, all these fantastic achievements. You don't." Some students have well-rounded activities and some don't. But they are all smart and that's the key, he says.

3. Be Passionate.

It's important to communicate your enthusiasm for your subject and not appear like you're regurgitating lines, says Bethany White, 17, who is heading to Mansfield College to study language and literature."It was all natural. When I was talking, I hadn't planned anything and maybe that helped. I didn't have preconceived ideas. it was spontaneous." Go for it and be yourself, adds Bethany, from Taunton's College in Southampton. "And your passion really. The enthusiasm and passion is really important, and if you haven't got that then don't bother."

4. Put in the Hours.

At some schools, like Barton Peveril, students in their final year complete nearly four hours a week of extra classes in preparation.Showing a knowledge beyond the A-level syllabus is crucial, and that's what makes the interview the most important part of the application, says Sos Eltis, an English tutor at Brasenose who teaches other Oxford professors how to interview.It's about identifying the pupils who think about more widely, for whom A-levels seem to hold them back."You can't see that from paper alone. You have to interview them." There is also a programme of week-long, residential classes over the summer, run by the university, called Uniq.Lawrence Holdsworth, 18, who will study history at Somerville College, says it made all the difference to him. "The Uniq summer school gave me a good taster of the teaching system which was something that I really enjoyed. The debating that comes with it and how you get to explore matters and really go off on a tangent. That is something I definitely advise."

5. Go to a School with Know-How.

Schools can develop relationships with colleges, says Mr Robinson. Once you get a student into a college, he says, that college will often write and ask for more. Anyone can get into any Oxford college, but some colleges seem to take students from the same schools year after year. Families also play a big part in providing the right encouragement and work ethic at home. Ragulan Vigneswaran, 17, says his Sri Lankan parents have been a big factor in his success in getting to Balliol College. "From a young age, my parents really tried to instil into me that education is pretty much the most important thing. "My mother I remember was teaching me maths from a really young age because she wanted me to become really adept at it and become passionate in the subject in the way she was. "They have been supporting me continuously and encouraging me to study more - encouraging out of school study - to make myself more knowledgeable and prepared for the future."

Determined to fight crime

2011-05-05T08:00:00.001+08:00

A brush with an armed gangster stiffened Ong Jin Wen’s resolve to be a crime fighter. The HOME Award (Polytechnic) recipient shares his thoughts. - By Jason Lee

It was a casual chat with a friend during his secondary days that helped spark Ong Jin Wen’s passion for upholding justice.

That friend had gushed over how cool it was being a gangster.

“I have zero tolerance for gangsters and their activities which pose a social threat to the community. The way he described his status as a new gang member made me determined to join the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and play a role in combating crime, especially gang-related activities,” said Mr Ong, 21.

That conversation was several years ago but his resolve did not waver.

A February 2009 encounter at Simei MRT station reinforced his decision.

“A gangster who was about 15 years old claimed that I stared at him, and whipped out a knife that was approximately 20 centimetres in length. We exchanged words and he challenged me to stay put as he sought reinforcements,” he recalled.

Photo by Jason Lee

Mr Ong Jin Wen, a recipient of the Home Team Merit Award(Polytechnic), on his determination in joining the Singapore Police Force. Prior to July 2010, Mr Ong had applied thrice to join the SPF without success

Several thoughts passed through Mr Ong’s mind at that juncture.

The first was to challenge the other party to a fight, which Mr Ong was confident of winning as the gangster was “smaller in size”.

The second option was to leave the scene quickly while the third was call the police.

Mr Ong chose to call the police.

Within 10 minutes, the suspect was arrested.

“I chose to call the police because I do not want to take things into my own hands. At the same time, I cannot let him off so easily. He was armed and was a danger to the community. I cannot allow the possibility of him stabbing others,” Mr Ong said.

Mr Ong, who is now pursuing a diploma in retail management at Temasek Polytechnic, is on his way to fulfilling that goal.

He was one of the 10 students who received the Home Team Merit Award(Polytechnic), or HOME Award (Polytechnic), in August 2010.

The programme sponsors successful applicants for a three-year full-time diploma course in the local five polytechnics. Upon graduation, these applicants will pursue a career with one of the Home Affairs Uniformed Services (HUS) of their choice.

For Mr Ong, the choice is clear: to become a regular police officer.

He had in fact applied to join the force even when he was still studying at the ITE College East in April 2008, and again in April 2009.

Despite his unsuccessful attempts, Mr Ong tried again in May 2009 when he applied for the inaugural HOME Award (Polytechnic).

He was again unsuccessful.

“I was disappointed to receive the letter of rejection after each of these applications, especially since I was not even shortlisted for any interview,” Mr Ong said.

He was not discouraged though.

“I was determined to join the force and hence I applied for the HOME Award again this year.”

In fact, when he received the letter sometime in July, he was prepared to face rejection once again.

“I told myself then: If I am rejected again, I will persevere and apply again next year … I am glad it was a letter of offer. I really feel my determination has paid off and I look forward to the day I begin my career in the police force.”

A faithful viewer of Crimewatch, Mr Ong said the popular monthly television programme inspired him to follow his dream.

“The way the police conducted their operations or investigations were simply inspiring! Whenever I missed an episode on television, I will watch it on YouTube.”

It’s not difficult to guess Mr Ong’s “dream” department within the SPF.

“I hope to join the Specialised Crime Division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) one day as I have always been against secret society-related activities and other offences such as illegal betting syndicate and unlicensed money-lending,” he said.

Mr Ong acknowledged that it will not be easy to join the CID but he believes his determination, passion and hard work – which enabled
him to graduate from ITE College East with straight As – will also help him fulfil the ambition someday.

Reiterating one of the key messages highlighted by the National Crime Prevention Council in recent years, Mr Ong said: “Low Crime doesn't mean no Crime

Zhang Yi Tao : Reflections on SPF’s Orientation Programme 2010

2011-05-05T07:30:00.000+08:00

Zhang Yi Tao, Singapore Police Force Overseas Scholarship holder (2010)

Photo courtesy of Zhang Yi Tao

With my family at the Istana where I received the SPF Overseas Scholarship award from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng on 12 August 2010.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) orientation programme has truly widened my perspective on the Police Force’s scope of work and the many facets of this sprawling organisation.

Through the attachment, I was attached to land divisions, specialist units such as the Commercial Affairs Department and real-time operations on the ground at the National Day Parade.

I am also thankful that I was given the opportunity to interact with the top management through dialogues with the Commissioner of Police and the Police Chief-of-Staff to understand their perspective and direction for the force.

One of the key highlights of my attachment to the SPF was the ground attachment at the Ang Mo Kio Police Division (“F” Division).

We were attached to patrol cars on the ground responding to real life situations from unlawful restraint to unlicensed money lending and rioting.

It was an eye-opening exposure to the variety of crimes that officers on the ground have to deal with and respond professionally to.

While handling the rioting case, I was also afforded a glimpse into the technological capabilities of the SPF.

Within minutes of the case being reported, state-of-the-art equipment was used to take photos, obtain DNA swabs and lift fingerprints from around the area.

As an added bonus, I was also brought along for a stakeout near a private housing estate which had reports of harassment by potential illegal immigrants. This showed me a side of police operations I had never before
experienced.

The attachments to specialist departments were extremely fruitful as well.

My stint with the Commercial Affairs Department allowed me to realise that police presence is not merely limited to tackling crime on the ground, but that the police jurisdiction extends to white-collar crime to weed out unlawful activities in all spheres of society.

A stint with the Special Operations Command also further reassured me that SPF has the capabilities to fully respond to potential large scale insurgencies during events with massive crowds and that the years of peace
and prosperity has not led us to let our guard down.
Lastly, the highlight was the attachment to the National Day Parade command post. I was utterly impressed by how the Police Force could handle the intricacies of operations required together with the multitude
of security concerns.

The walk-through on the ground shed new light on an event that I've witnessed so many times.

What struck me most was that contingencies were planned so comprehensively that every aspect of the event was covered.

On the whole, the SPF orientation was an extremely fruitful introduction to SPF and I look forward to the day when I graduate and join the Force in upholding its tradition of excellence.

Jonathan Lim : Reflections on SPF’s Orientation Programme 2010

2011-05-05T07:25:00.001+08:00

Jonathan Lim Eng Sze, Singapore Police Force Overseas Scholarship holder (2010)

Photo courtesy of Singapore Police Force

Accepting my SPFOS award from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Mr Wong Kan Seng at the Istana during the SPFOS Presentation Ceremony on 12 August 2010.

I’ve had an awesome week, unique from those of everyone else. Sitting right here in my chair at home after a long, tiring day, I glance back at the past seven days of my Singapore Police Force (SPF) orientation programme. I’m quite sure that my career with the Police Force will indeed be one interesting and exciting life journey.

The SPF orientation programme allowed me to visit a wide range of police establishments such as specialist units like the K-9 Dog Unit and Criminal Investigation Department, as well as land units like the Ang Mo Kio Police Division.

Before this programme started, I was a fresh and avid police scholar who barely knew much about the workings of the Singapore Police Force (SPF), and relied only on his innate interest in policing and law
enforcement to feed his wish for such a career. Right now, I have experienced so much over the past week, and I’m really glad to say that I’m ready for more when I return from my studies.

I realize that Singapore’s streets and neighbourhoods are safe due to the tough work that police officers do. This includes nabbing burglars, stopping violent gangsters and chasing down those who disrupt the peace of the neighbourhoods.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lim

Zhang Yi Tao (Right) and I (Left) on the National Day Parade grounds, where we had the opportunity of experiencing how the SPF ran the security operations for the entire event, whilst the public enjoyed the parade in peace.

The tactical forces are training hard to deter terrorists from even considering making this island nation one of their targets. The Airport Police Division scans through tons of luggage and surveys the entire airport area closely to ensure that it is one of the safest in the world.

Many other units and departments in the SPF are also working around the clock. If we are not there for the public, then who will?

I’m very excited. Excited because I know I will be in for a meaningful time, and I won’t have a boring moment as a police officer.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lim

The SPF Scholars of 2010 and 2008 on attachment during the National Day Parade. “Going on attachments with the entire group of scholars has allowed us to bond quite well!” said Jonathan.

The SPF conducts a wide range of police operations, from maritime policing and counter-terrorism, to countering white-collar fraud and of course, the traditional evergreen honourable duty of fighting crime on the streets.

You don’t have that kind of diversity anywhere else, and no other career offers you the responsibility of keeping the country free of crime and free from harm.

Peers tell me that my years at university in the United States of America will be the best years of my life, but who is to say that the years spent in the Police Force after I return won’t be better?

In a week’s time, I will be leaving and I will make use of the time there to improve and develop myself into a better person for the Force, and for the country.

This has been a great start, and I’m looking forward to greater days!

Passion for Healthcare

2011-05-05T07:15:00.000+08:00

A nursing student tells us why she has decided to embark on a career with the Singapore Civil Defence Force. By Jason Lee
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After more than a year since Ms Nurul Nadzirah Abdul Karim received the Home Team Merit Award (Polytechnic), or HOME Award, her friends and relatives still could not understand why she decided on a paramedic career with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) over being a nurse.

They wondered if she would be able to cope with the demands of dealing with accident and emergency cases at incident sites as opposed to providing patient care in a hospital.

For the 21-year-old, her choice was clear.

“Every single day is about dealing with different situations at a different pace, unlike working in a hospital where it (work) might become routine after a while,” said Ms Nurul who is passionate about healthcare.

The Ngee Ann Polytechnic diploma in Health Sciences (Nursing) student wanted a vocation that required her to be “sharper in thinking, wiser in making decisions and quicker in action” since she would be dealing with emergency cases most of the time.

Photo by Tan Yi Wen

Ms Nurul Nadzirah Abdul Karim, winner of last year’s Home Team Merit Award (Polytechnic), hopes her nursing and paramedic training will mould her into a disciplined individual with “sharper critical thinking skills”.

Hence she opted to join the SCDF under the HOME Award scheme. Upon her graduation – expected to be in April 2012, Ms Nurul will spend the first 1½ years of her career training to become a paramedic. Besides three levels of paramedic courses, the training stint will also include an attachment to a fire station.

While she has opted for a career path that is different from most of her course mates, the lessons and skills Ms Nurul picked up during her nursing course will put her in good stead for a paramedic career.

One key lesson she has learnt is that the provision of care for someone goes beyond helping patients with tasks or treatments.

“For instance, I might be asked to shower a patient but that act in itself involves a lot of things. A person may look alright on the surface but look a little deeper, there could be many things that need attention,” she explained.

“This is what I find most beneficial about nursing training which can be applied to my future job as a paramedic because caring for someone is never about being focused on one area. Rather, it is about providing holistic care, especially in emergency situations.”

While Ms Nurul’s educational background will come in handy when she starts her paramedic career, she is under no illusion about the challenges that lie in front of her.

“In whatever I do, I expect challenges and setbacks along the way and I hope whatever comes my way will help to shape my character and make me a better and stronger person,” she said.

“When I was growing up, there were days when it got so bad that sometimes all I had was faith that things will get better,” she recalled. “I strongly believe that whatever that goes up, must come down and vice versa. Good days don’t last, so do bad days.”

Looking ahead, Ms Nurul envisions herself as a more disciplined individual with “sharper critical thinking skills” acquired from both her training as a nurse in school and as a paramedic with the SCDF.

She also hopes to pursue a degree course in paramedic sciences or emergency health sciences someday.

“I am interested to be a paramedic instructor someday because besides helping people, the next thing I love to do is to deliver knowledge,” she added.
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“Every single day is about dealing with different situations at different pace, unlike working in a hospital where it might become a routine after a while.”

- Ms Nurul Nadzirah Abdul Karim explaining her decision to join SCDF as a paramedic.

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How an award helps to enrich her life
For most of her teenage years, she had been an independent girl who juggled between studying and working part-time in order to support her studies.

Ms Nurul Nadzirah Abdul Karim could not afford to enrich her life with various activities until last year when she received the Home Team Merit Award (Polytechnic), or HOME Award.

The award sponsors successful applicants for a 3-year full-time diploma course in the local polytechnics and also offers a monthly allowance.

“I gave up part-time work and used this opportunity to occupy myself with other things which I could not afford back then, such as traveling with the school or picking up a new hobby,” Ms Nurul said.

For instance, the 21-year-old student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic traveled with a group of students to Vietnam earlier this year to educate the locals on health matters like personal hygiene and breast self-examination.

“The most memorable experience about traveling to places and doing community work is coming home feeling a little more humble and grateful for the things we have here back at home,” she noted.

Ms Nurul hopes to pick up photography too.

“Since I love exploring places, it would be good to document them in photographs so that I have something to remember these places,” she said.