Welcome back! Hope you had a relaxing and productive holiday. Grade 12 students applying to university for 2010 should now have a short list of universities and programmes and be getting ready to start their applications. Remember to keep me informed of your short list and plans, so I can help you finalise your decisions and begin your applications. University of Melbourne Music Auditions BrightSparks Scholarship Information University Visitors – Grades 11 and 12
posted on
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at
12:16 AM
There are two very important meetings for Grade 12 students to go through the application process. This includes students who intend to take a gap year or are first going to complete NS. If you cannot be there you must have a very good reason and talk to me/email me before. Bring a pen and something to write on.
· Applying to the UK – Thursday, 23 July, 1pm in Science Lab 6 to go through the UCAS application process, deadlines and writing personal statements.
· Applying to the US – Tuesday, 28 July, 1 pm in Science Lab 6 to go through the application process, essay writing, deadlines and tutor/subject references.
University of Loughborough, UK, and Wesleyan University, US
Any Grade 12 students thinking of applying to Loughborough or Wesleyan see me or send me an email this week.
US University Fair – Experiences 2009, Sunday 26 July, Suntec City Concourse 3, 10am – 5 pm
This fair is organised and run by overseas Singapore students who are currently studying in the US to provide information to prospective students who wish to study in the US. It is endorsed by the US Embassy. 40 U.S. universities, 5 from Canada and the UK, as well as scholarship organizations will be featured. There is also a parallel seminar series on topics such as visa applications by the US Embassy, financial aid, health and travel talks, SAT test strategies, and choosing the right university. Admission is free, and all students and parents are invited to attend. See the bulletin board or www.experiences-sg.com for more information.
Auditions will be held on Tuesday, 4 August for intake into Semester 1 and 2, 2010. See the flyer on the notice board. If you are interested in studying music at Melbourne you will need to audition. See me for more details.
Apologies from the British Council - Cancellation of the Education UK Roadshow 2009
The British Council had to cancel the university fair scheduled on 10 July because of the H1N1 virus. They have sent apologies.
BrightSparks is sending a magazine for all Grade 11 and 12 students with scholarship and university information. It will be available in Tutor Group sometime next week.
To register at the BrightSparks website for scholarship information go to http://brightsparks.com.sg/ , select “All Other Students” under Students, register and select St Joseph’s Institution International from the drop down menu of Schools. Note that a lot of the scholarship information is still for 2009 and has not been updated for 2010 yet.
Unfortunately some of the university visitors travel dates this term clash with Mock Exams, IB Exams and our holidays but it is very important that you try to meet the representatives if you are thinking of applying to their institutions. If you cannot make their presentation please see me and I will try to arrange an alternate meeting for you. If you do not make the effort to meet the representative they will question how serious are you about their university and why they should give you a place. This applies to students planning a gap year or doing NS as well.
Thursday, 30 July, 1pm – Wesleyan University, USA. Anand Gopalan will speak about Wesleyan, the Freeman Asia Scholarship and his experiences studying in the US. Anand is a student at Wesleyan and a Singapore Freeman Scholarship recipient. He completed the IB Diploma and NS before going to Wesleyan. You are strongly advised to attend this session if you intend to apply to the US.
Tuesday, 18 August, 1pm – University College London, UK. Penny Zorbas, who spoke at school last year as well, will talk about UCL as well as give advice on writing personal statements in general. She has promised to show examples of what to avoid in personal statements. You are strongly advised to attend this session if you intend to apply to the UK.
Tuesday, 25 August, 1pm – Humber Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning, Canada. Humber offers degree programmes in a number of areas and has more accessible entry requirements - minimum IB Diploma scores of 24 will be considered, but scores of 28 or higher are recommended. See www.humber.ca for more information.
Thursday, 27 August, 1pm – University of British Columbia, Canada. Håkan Björn will speak about the programmes at UBC as well as scholarship opportunities at UBC.
Thursday, 22 October – Saturday, 24 October – Canadian universities
Representatives from Trent University, Carleton University, University of Calgary, York University and the University of Victoria will be in Singapore. Unfortunately their trip is during our October holidays so they will not visit us at school. However, they have offered to arrange individual appointments for students interested in their institutions and have also invited us to their presentation at the International School Singapore (ISS) on Thursday, 22 October from 12:15-12:55. See me if you would like to arrange an individual appointment or attend the presentation at ISS.