I don't go back until March, then I have a 13 Week semester with a one week break in the middle (usually around Easter). The 13th week is followed by a Study week (no classes), then a two week exam period. We then have a two week holiday before another semester, with the same format as the first, which finishes around early November.
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Final Grades/GPA thread/School/University Discussion
- Thread starter sora13
- Start date
I have an alumni interview with Princeton tomorrow morning; if anyone has any tips (generally or specifically with Princeton) they'd be greatly appreciated. I already had an interview with Yale, which went ok -- the only question that threw me off was about Health Care, but I think that is more specific to the interviewer (he asked my friend about it too) than all interviews?
Fun fact: Former President of Princeton has the same last name for me, sadly he's not related :'(
Fun fact: Former President of Princeton has the same last name for me, sadly he's not related :'(
In addition to the "Why do you want to go to XXX", if you're applying for a specific course you need to have a standout answer for "Why are you interested in physics/geology/law/medicine/psychology?"
By standout, though, I don't mean "Much better than anyone else", I mean it in the literal sense. Don't say you want to do medicine because you want to help people. Be specific about why you're interested in a particular field.
In fact, that's a good strategy for interviews in general. They're not looking for you to give canned answers, they're looking for you to be different from the other 9999 people who applied.
...
My semester started January 4th.
January 4th - February 12th
February 14th - 28th off due to Olympics
I assume we finish in mid-April due to the Olympic break
My interviews with my congressmen's boards varied widely in style and topics covered. Harry Reid's panel seemed agitated from the start, not very welcoming, and quick to criticize (strangely, none of them were or are military members - rather odd since this is a board for applying to a service academy =/). I, being nervous and out of breath from having sprinted to get there on time, had a pretty bad interview and was pretty sure I wouldn't get his nomination - but I did. Goes to show that even if you screw up an interview, you can still get in to the school as long as you're good enough on paper.
John Ensign and Dina Titus' boards were much nicer, however. They were welcoming and more casual. Ensign's board tried to intimidate me at the beginning by asking how I would respond to combat situations where I knew my men would die and told me I was "sucking wind" behind all the other applicants because I wasn't taking a calculus course this year. I came off as very confident and assured, and by the end they were all impressed with both my resume and interview.
The last interview, Titus', went very well too.
Def. be sure to look out for "why do you want to attend xxxx?" It's bound to pop up. Some other questions I was asked:
- What school activities do you participate in?
- Name one of the hardest experiences of your life.
- Give any examples of leadership that you've shown throughout your highschool career.
- What are your hobbies and extracurricular activities?
- What would you do in x situation?
- Why do you want to go to this school over x?
- What are your plans in case you don't get accepted to this school?
- Define leader/integrity/honesty/the academy's honor code.
- Who would you say your greatest role model/hero is?
- Explain the history of the school.
- What is your favorite x?
- What would you say your strengths/weaknesses are?
- Why should we give you this nomination/acceptance?
- What would your greatest critic have to say about your potential at this school?
- Is there anything you want us to ask you/to tell us? BIG ONE
That's just off the top of my head.
John Ensign and Dina Titus' boards were much nicer, however. They were welcoming and more casual. Ensign's board tried to intimidate me at the beginning by asking how I would respond to combat situations where I knew my men would die and told me I was "sucking wind" behind all the other applicants because I wasn't taking a calculus course this year. I came off as very confident and assured, and by the end they were all impressed with both my resume and interview.
The last interview, Titus', went very well too.
Def. be sure to look out for "why do you want to attend xxxx?" It's bound to pop up. Some other questions I was asked:
- What school activities do you participate in?
- Name one of the hardest experiences of your life.
- Give any examples of leadership that you've shown throughout your highschool career.
- What are your hobbies and extracurricular activities?
- What would you do in x situation?
- Why do you want to go to this school over x?
- What are your plans in case you don't get accepted to this school?
- Define leader/integrity/honesty/the academy's honor code.
- Who would you say your greatest role model/hero is?
- Explain the history of the school.
- What is your favorite x?
- What would you say your strengths/weaknesses are?
- Why should we give you this nomination/acceptance?
- What would your greatest critic have to say about your potential at this school?
- Is there anything you want us to ask you/to tell us? BIG ONE
That's just off the top of my head.
Alright end of semester report even though it ended 3 weeks ago.
Calc 1 - A
general Psych - A
Comp/Lit 1 - B+
Environmental Studies - B
GPA: 3.65
im feeling pretty good right now. just hope i keep going into next semester
Comp/Lit 2 Calc 2 Local politics (i think, it might be some other poli sci class) and biology 1 for s2
Calc 1 - A
general Psych - A
Comp/Lit 1 - B+
Environmental Studies - B
GPA: 3.65
im feeling pretty good right now. just hope i keep going into next semester
Comp/Lit 2 Calc 2 Local politics (i think, it might be some other poli sci class) and biology 1 for s2
So, got my report card, got straight A's in all my classes (Japanese, Philosophy, Creative Writing, Speech, General Studies class) --except Psychology, which, bizarrely, I received an incomplete in. It had something to do with research or some shit. Anyway, I was pretty scared 'cause it's a pre-req for two of my classes--Abnormal Psychology and a research study--so I e-mailed my professor and my advisor and they both said that I could take care of it and that I'd be allowed to take the classes.
So what do I find in my e-mail today? An e-mail telling me they just kicked me out of my Abnormal Psych class (but curiously not the research project), TWO DAYS BEFORE CLASSES START, and I can't re-register for the class. Even if it gets sorted out, there are, like, two spots left which would be gone within the week so I'd be screwed regardless. Not to mention it drops me to below full-time which basically shits all over my financial aid. God, I'm so mad right now I could drop kick a puppy...
So what do I find in my e-mail today? An e-mail telling me they just kicked me out of my Abnormal Psych class (but curiously not the research project), TWO DAYS BEFORE CLASSES START, and I can't re-register for the class. Even if it gets sorted out, there are, like, two spots left which would be gone within the week so I'd be screwed regardless. Not to mention it drops me to below full-time which basically shits all over my financial aid. God, I'm so mad right now I could drop kick a puppy...
Contact your Professor and advisor again, and contact the enrolment people and give them a copy of the first emails from your professor and advisor saying you could do the course.
I applied to 3 programs within Ontario, Canada. I chose not to apply to anywhere outside of Ontario, simply because of financial reasons.
I got accepted to Carleton's "Computational and Applied Mathematics and Statistics" co-op program. They also offered me their highest scholarship, which requires an average of 95%+, and it's $16,000.
However, I'm awaiting to decline that offer as soon as my Waterloo acceptance gets in. I applied to Mathematics (general) and Computational Mathematics. Both of them are co-op. However, I'm currently thinking of choosing Mathematics (general) and majoring in Combinatorics & Optimization with a minor in Pure Mathematics or Computational mathematics. Or maybe even a double major.
I got accepted to Carleton's "Computational and Applied Mathematics and Statistics" co-op program. They also offered me their highest scholarship, which requires an average of 95%+, and it's $16,000.
However, I'm awaiting to decline that offer as soon as my Waterloo acceptance gets in. I applied to Mathematics (general) and Computational Mathematics. Both of them are co-op. However, I'm currently thinking of choosing Mathematics (general) and majoring in Combinatorics & Optimization with a minor in Pure Mathematics or Computational mathematics. Or maybe even a double major.
That was the main reason I didn't go for Oxford, though I'm under the impression that Oxford is starting to slip a tad?
I chose Downing College.
It depends on your circumstances, and the field. For instance, in my state there are 6 majorish universities: USyd, UTS, UNSW, MQ, UWS, Newcastle.
All of them have a Law course. However, law firms here tend to value the reputation of the school and course very very highly, and so consequently a law degree at UNSW or USyd is a significant step up from UTS and MQ, which are again a step up from the rest of the universities in the state.
If your field is not one where reputation makes a big difference, if you can't support yourself at the "better" college without said scholarship, and if the difference between the schools is not that much are all arguments for going to the lesser school.
i had to make that difficult decision in my senior year as well. i ended up choosing my local inexpensive suny over mit and cmu (who gave me next to nothing). doors don't close just because you aren't at a top-tier school. a 4.0 in a middle-tier school is impressive, and you'll find many people who made the same decision as you. reputation of your grad school matters more if you plan on going that route.
How much is it and which schools? If it's something like $2000 at UBC vs $3500 at SFU (which is the usual decision I see BC students make), just go with the better education. Not the one with the better name (UBC), but the better education (depends on area of study).
Edit: Saying to not think of the money too much as your tuition alone will be $20,000 - $25,000 (at least my program at SFU). So you're really just looking at the difference between 8% and 14%. You also have textbooks which can be quite pricey depending on major. Try to get into Co-op if a career is important to you. My last Co-op term was 8 months long and I made about $14,000 in that time which pays for quite a bit of my degree.
For SFU I can get approximately 10000-20000 dollars (dead serious) depending on my IB mark. I know my friend got a 39 and got a 40k scholarship to SFU. My cousin had a 35 and got 3/4 of his tuition slashed first and second year.
For UBC, it depends actually. Maybe from 5000-10000? The usual from UBC for IB students with similar grades with me is 5000.
And I'm going into chemistry/general sciences.
Assuming you guys do Science Honours like we do (3 years for a standard Bachelors degree, then Honours Year = Research Project as a 4th year, sometimes with high level courses). Science generally doesn't care about the reputation of your school when you graduate, but certain schools have particular research areas, so depending on what you're interested in, you might want to change schools once you get to Honours (which is reasonably easy to do if you have decent marks, since Honours takes enrolments separately).
So I'd be more inclined to go for the scholarshipped school, unless they don't allow you to research the particular stuff you're interested in, in which case you should normally be able to transfer when the time comes.
So, what classes are you bunch taking next semester? I'm thinking physiology, evolutionary genetics, methods in molecular biology in addition to the mandatory biochemistry/cellular biology/microbiology. Plus maybe whichever language class can be squeezed in, I think my options are German and Japanese. I'll take German I guess, unless I can take one of those "advanced english" nonsense and ace it.
My GPA is horrid, though. Should get it over 3.40 unweighted upon graduation, at least. 3.50 would be excellent.
Incidentally, my winter break begins at that very date.
My GPA is horrid, though. Should get it over 3.40 unweighted upon graduation, at least. 3.50 would be excellent.
Incidentally, my winter break begins at that very date.