Dear Ern Sheong:

As we near the end of regular decision application review for Cornell’s Class of 2012, we would like to share with you important information regarding admissions decision notification. Please be certain to retain this email for your reference.

You will be able to view your admission decision online on Monday, March 31, beginning at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) at https://app.applyyourself.com/?id=cornellu. More than 30,000 applicants will be eager to access their online decision at or shortly after 5:00 p.m., so we ask for your patience if you cannot access your decision right away. Please also know that Cornell will mail admissions decisions to all applicants, so you can expect to receive paper notification as well.

…

Best Regards,

Aba Blankson
Director of Information Technology
Admissions and Enrollment 

31st FASTER COME LAHHH !!!!

Admission decisions for applicants to the Princeton Class of 2012 will be available online on Monday, March 31, 2008 after 5 pm EDT. We also will mail decision letters by post to all applicants.

…

Thank you for applying to Princeton!

Sincerely,
Princeton Admission Office

I can’t wait… 5pm EDT means 5am Malaysian time on 1st April 2008, Tuesday morning.

Somehow I think Princeton is going to reject me.

Yeah so I asked CIMB whether there really was the purported CIMB Scholarship as stated on their website.

They replied:

Dear Ern Sheong,

We wish to inform that currently, CIMB only offers scholarships to employees of CIMB Group. We however would like to thank you for your interest in CIMB and wish you all the best in your future undertakings.

Best regards

Thanks for the (very late) reply, CIMB. Too bad my father works at Maybank, which offers only local scholarships.

I applied for the National Infocomm Scholarship (half-heartedly, thus I filled up the application form at my whim and fancy) at the urge of my mum here and my aunt in Singapore.

(I’m sorry I posted this a day after the deadline of application for this scholarship but I wanted to just share what this scholarship is all about.)

Firstly, for the overseas programme, the scholarship offers to pay tuition fees, allowances, accomodation costs, airfare costs, medical expenses, etc. It covers many engineering courses such as E & E, computer engineering, information systems, etc. The Overseas Full Scholarship comes with a 5-year bond and if one is not a Singaporean, one has to become a Singapore PR. Is that good?

But here is another take on this scholarship by Jiin Joo, a Malaysian who is currently working in Singapore for the Infocomm Development Authority (former ASEAN Scholar): 9 Considerations for National Infocomm Scholarship

One thing in particular gained my attention from Jiin Joo’s post.

5. Do you know the difference between a salaried job and running your own shop?

Entrepreneurs beware. This is perhaps one of the most un-thought of consequence - the fact you have to run your passion “part time” while “bidding your time” in some government agency. This will be particularly true for geeks and wannabes as they are naturally attracted to NIS. You might say, hey, I don’t really have a passion, but you forget the fact that perhaps after going through uni life, you might hit on THE thing you want to do, and lo-and-behold, it doesn’t exists in Singapore, if not your bonded organization. You can’t be good at something you only do part time.

Ha! That is what I am afraid of! Landing on some great idea as an wannabe entrepreneur and being unable to work on it just because I am bonded to some stupid scholarship! This point applies to all scholarships as well, in fact. This is indeed a dilemma. No one makes it big doing something part-time. But without any scholarship, I will not have enough funds to study in the US in the first place. Is there another way out? How else would I get the money to go there?

Another interesting point regarding this particular scholarship is how Hongyi advised Haoyi not to apply for any scholarship in Singapore. Haoyi was considering applying for the National Infocomm Scholarship but his elder brother Hongyi advised him against it in a letter. (Hongyi and Haoyi are Lee Hsien Loong’s sons, and thus also Lee Kuan Yew’s grandchildren) Even though this account does not hold anything against the NIS Scholarship in particular, it reveals the sentiments that fills the minds of every bonded scholar in town (Lee Hsien Loong’s son notwithstanding)

Can there be another way out? It would be agonizing to get a bonded scholarship and then realizing that there are so many funding opportunities, grants and scholarships waiting for me when I am already there in the US. But the first step would have to be a leap of faith, paying my way there on my own first.

Well, 8 days to Stanford decisions and also those from Cornell and Princeton. I shall wait and see.

Dear Ern,

Freshman decisions for fall 2008 will be announced on March 27!

We know you’re hearing from other University of California campuses, but before you give them your reply, please wait to hear from UC Berkeley: we’re worth the wait! (The only UC I applied to is Berkeley)

Berkeley decisions will be posted online via the student portal, myBerkeleyApplication, at: http://students.berkeley.edu/myberkeley/myberkeleyapp.asp

If you haven’t already done so, log in now to create your password so you’ll be all set to find out the admission decision as soon as it’s posted.

…

Well well, they’re all coming really really soon…

10 days to Stanford decisions!

Zhong Liang approached me and asked my about my MIT admission decision. I was like, “Not out yet what…”

Then he said, “But hey, my friend already knows that he got waitlisted through e-mail.”

“Huh, I never received any e-mail…” (still skeptical) Blur me…

So my heart jumped and I went directly to mitadmissions.org to track my application status. Entered my username and password twice and then THIS page popped out:

Dear Ern Sheong,

The Admissions Committee has completed its review of your application, and I am so sorry to tell you that we are unable to offer you admission to MIT.

Please understand that this is in no way a judgment of you as a student or as a person, since our decision has more to do with the applicant pool than anything else - most of our applicants are not admitted simply because we do not have enough space in our entering class. This year we had almost 13,500 candidates for fewer than 1,600 offers of admission, from which will come our 1,000 freshmen. Since all of our decisions are made at one time and all available spaces have been committed, all decisions are final.

I am very sorry to bring you this disappointing news, and I wish you the very best as you continue with your education.

Sincerely,

Stuart Schmill
Interim Director of Admissions

No wonder I did not get any e-mail from them yet…

Haha… no comments… 1 down 4 to go. Come on Stanford…!!!!!

Bumped into this in Hazwani’s blog. Looks like most of us (me especially) do not read the New Straits Times =.=

Yes we have all heard about this guy with 20 A1s and 1 A2.

But A DJian has scored 15A1s and became Selangor’s top student! Congratulations to Chow May Suen! (Puan Yap’s daughter) May Suen is now officially the DJian with the most number of A1s in SMKDJ’s history! Congrats again!

Good time management the secret of her SPM success

PETALING JAYA: Good time management - that was the secret of Chow May Suen’s success when she was announced as Selangor’s top student in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination.

The 18-year-old student of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Damansara Jaya scored 15 A1s.

“There was never any special formula, I just managed my time well - for studying and co-curricular activities,” she said..

Chow, who wants to major in pediatrics, is currently pursuing her A-Levels at Taylor’s College in Subang Jaya.

Her mother Yap Swee Pek, 46, who is teaching chemistry at her daughter’s former school, called Chow “very hardworking”.

-NST March 13th 2008

(Yes, despite despising the bond that is attached to most, if not all, scholarships, Ern Sheong is embarking on a Malaysian Scholarship ATTACK while ignoring the bond part, at least for now during the application stage. Good thing for him that SPM results were already released, so there are abundant scholarship options NOW. Many of these still accept post Pre-U students (A Levels in my case).

His options, after his not-so-comprehensive and not-so-encompassing research online and input from his dear mummy, are 12 Malaysia overseas scholarships: Name of Scholarship (Deadline)

1. Biasiswa Khazanah Global (26 March)
2. Shell Malaysia Scholarship (31 March)
3. Yayasan Telekom Malaysia Scholarship (31 March)
4. Securities Commission (31 March)
5. Bank Negara Scholarship (11 April)
6. Yayasan Sime Darby Scholarship (31 March, only for selected UK and Aus universities, sorry US ppl)
7. Yayasan Tenaga Nasional (16 March, I discovered this at the last minute!)
8. Felda Scholarship Programme (22 March)
9. Gamuda Scholarship Awards (15 April)
10. Great Eastern Scholarship Award (31 May)
    
11. Astro Scholarship (20th April)
12. CIMB Scholarship (only for CIMB employees’ children)

Yeah so if you guys heard of any other OVERSEAS scholarships around here in Malaysia which is not listed above kindly comment here. And yeah I purposely omitted Petronas and JPA (don’t think they take in A level students anyway, and I was already rejected by them earlier).

Why BNM or SC or CIMB would accept a person intending to do an electrical engineering degree is anyone’s guess. Though with a Management Science or Operations Research course they might still accept me somehow.

Hope this helps those with the same situation as mine too: Want to go overseas but too expensive to pay on your own. ACT NOW!

UPDATED: Yayasan Sime Darby Scholarship added (No. 6); Yayasan Tenaga Nasional deadline and link updated (No. 7); Felda Holdings Berhad Scholarship added (No.8); Gamuda Scholarsip Awards (No.9); Great Eastern Scholarship (No. 10); deadline for BNM Scholarship added; status of CIMB scholarship added; Astro Scholarship updated

This post is in response to the post written by Kevin Chan, a former DJian who is currently working as a temporary teacher in SMKDJ.

Now, for the main reason I wanted to write this post, our very own disquieting headmistress - the Datin. Well, she IS my current boss, considering that I’m working in SMKDJ right now, but in lieu of all that I’m hearing from all around these days, I guess it would just be a cardinal sin to stay silent anymore. Thanks John, for making me see that a ‘tidak apa’ (heck care) attitude wouldn’t help anyone and it would only further undermine all our previous efforts in making DJ the prestigious school that it now is - our spirit of meritocracy and high standards.

Well, for the benefit of all DJ alumni and current students in DJ, these are the changes that Datin has implemented (or at least tried to implement) so far (this is by no means a comprehensive list, just some of the things that I remember):

1. Attempted to shut down the cheerleading squad.
2. Attempted to shut down our school’s strong Christian Fellowship (CF).
3. Made it mandatory that co-curricular clubs must have a certain number of Malays in their executive committee.
4. Took in a large number of Malay students into the prefectorial board without an interview. Note that other non-Malay students have to go through a rigorous selection and interview process before they are accepted as probationary prefects.
5. Reduced the number of periods a week for additional mathematics and increased the number of periods used to teach modern mathematics (which is largely regarded as an easier subject, unless you happen to come from a different planet), resulting in teachers making students stay back for extra classes. Didn’t we also use to stay back for extra classes back in the time where we had more add math periods?

Let me make this clear that this is by no means a puerile attempt at defamation, but genuine concern for the future of SMKDJ. I am in no way anti-Malay; my dear Hamlet is very much Malay and she can so testify to that, but the injustice in my alma mater these days just fills me and quite a few other concerned DJ alumni with indignation.

I believe that DJ has always stood out in so many things ranging from sports, debates, cheerleading to our overall school culture because we were fair.

Also read about Andrew’s Loh’s response to this issue. Andrew has also added points 6,7 and 8 based on current DJian feedback.

I have personally heard of all these stories myself from many people. It turns out that most, if not all, are true. Kudos to Kevin for speaking out vehement and doing something about it.

Well, so far a lot of discussion between DJians has been happening online about this. Ex-DJians, generate support and inform your little brothers and sisters in DJ to give feedback to Kevin or Andrew! Although I am strongly skeptical about the possibility of removing Datin from her post, we can at least define some boundaries for her to follow through the proper channels. DJ is supposed to be meritocratic! SMK Damansara Jaya is not just ANY school an outsider Pengetua can come and tamper with.

In the meanwhile, Kevin will keep us all updated about this issue!

I would like to extend my congratulations to all from National Junior College who did exceptionally well in the previous 2007 Singapore-Cambridge A Level Examinations! Kudos especially to Yoon Ji Wei, Navin Brian Ramakrishna, and Doan Duc Huy for being the top three students in National Junior College. They scored straight Distinctions in all subjects taken, including Project Work and H3 subjects. Also kudos to Tan Shao Min for clinching the Institute of Physics Gold Medal awarded to top Physics students in the nation. My congratulations also goes out to Mohd Faisal Johandi, former Council President, for becoming the top Malay student in National JC.

I would also like to congratulate all for putting up their best effort in the examinations. National Junior College did well too, although I do not have the exact numbers.

Sometimes people here like to think that with stellar A Level results one can conquer anything and become extremely successful out there. In Singapore, people slight others with less than stellar results. Sad but true.

But never let yourself be judged by a piece of paper called the “Results Slip.” Cliche as it might sound, life is more than academics. Failure has to be treated with more respect here. People don’t like to take risks here. If they do, they are all too calculated. If you failed to live up to your own expectations, do not worry. The beauty of life is that we are meant to fail again and again whilst being given the future chance to stand up again victorious, even if it might not be in the A Levels examination again. There is always something larger to conquer out there.

As Micheal Jordan once said,”I’ve missed more than 9000 shots. I’ve lost almost 300 games. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” You might have missed a bit now, but that miss is going to make you aim much better in the future, and win you more games in the future. If you scored a perfect shot now, well good for you! But don’t be complacent and always seek to improve your game, or today’s missers will overtake you and trump you.

Congratulations to all once again!

Thus ends the perfect straight A streak that Ern Sheong has been enjoying in the UPSR, PMR and SPM examinations.

First the good part:

H2 Mathematics A
H2 Physics A
H2 Chemistry A
H1 Economics A

Now, the not so good part:

H1 General Paper B (this is an English language subject)
H3 MOE Mathematics Merit
H3 NTU Contemporary Physics Pass
(The best results possible for H3 is Distinction, followed by Merit and Pass. For the uninformed, H3 replaced Singapore’s Special Papers this year and it covers an extended range of university level topics. H3 is an optional paper.)

Also, another set-back from a past result:

Project Work B

When they announced the list of 20 top scorers in National Junior College, I found that I was not so surprised that I did not make it into the list.

In fact, throughout the journey to National Junior College, Singapore from Malaysia, my heart did not beat faster than usual. Everything was… calm.

When I saw the results, I went,”Oh… like that ar… OK la.”

Just like that. To say that I was not disappointed is a little bit of an understatement. But somehow it was… OK.

Ern Sheong, just another run-of-the-mill student in a super-competitive NJC. He never did top anything in the intensely competitive National Junior College for two years, so why expect so stellar results anyway.

But praise God for all his blessings. I saw some girls crying and sobbing around the school, most probably because of not too good results. And I was ashamed of myself for not being thankful enough for His wonderful blessings. Thank You, Lord.

Also, I want to take this opportunity to thank the teachers who have cared for me so selflessly in NJC. First is Ms Ong An Dian, my General Paper teacher, who is a very caring, patient and encouraging teacher. She has been so kind to write me a teacher recommendation and send it to the seven US universities as requested. She gave me a lot of GP guidance, and although I did not score an A for her this time, her lessons have somewhat improved my argumentative writing and command of written English. She seemed to me like a good friend and a friendly face in school always. I would like to thank her for being there for her students and for me when I needed someone nice to talk to. She is one teacher whom I can call friend.

Second is Ms Khoo Bee Chan, my form teacher who also helped me write a teacher recommendation for US Universities, and she also kindly sent the recommendations to the respective universities as requested. She has been very helpful in helping me out with a lot of admin stuff needed to make the US application work, and I would also like to thank her for all her guidance in Physics. I am frequently amazed that she can repeat things to students so many many many times without getting impatient or frustrated at all. Amazing. So unlike the impatient me.

Third is Ms Darshini, my Chemistry teacher, whom I want to thank for having faith in me despite scoring an E (my first fail in an exam in my life omg!) in a term exam on my first year in JC. Somehow with her guidance I managed to pull myself back together and dramatically improve my Chemistry results (I went from E to A in the next exam). Thank you so much. Not to mention also Ms Ling who taught me Mathematics, for being one very compelling Mathematics teacher, in the sense that she made me always want to score higher and higher in Maths (but perhaps it was also competition and kiasuness as well).

Also kudos to Mr Lee who taught me Economics. This was one subject where I always scored a C in JC. But with his very catchy mind-map method, I was able to enjoy Economics and not dread it. I also want to thank him for marking my continuous string of optional assignments (I bombarded him with a lot a lot). Yes, and also a big thank you to Mr Gilbert Lee (another Mr Lee) for making me see that Economics is “kacang” and so easy to score.

A BIG THANK YOU also goes to Ms Sharon Phua for awarding me with a College Values SPECIAL Award which she specially concocted for me because she noticed that I nominated quite a number of people for the usual termly College Values Award. She wrote a laminated Letter (or rather she compiled a Letter which included testimonials from some teachers and students), specially prepared a laminated beautiful certificate and subsequently presented them to me in front of the J2 cohort days before the A level examinations. I am so grateful for such an Award.

Yes, and also so many many other teachers who have touched my life here in one way or another. Mr Nick Chan my research teacher-mentor who encouraged me to spring back from a lack of research results to end up obtaining the Gold Medal in the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair 2007. Mr Teo for working with me on the Student Council Investure and the Leadership Symposium logistics, and for being one very very nice person to work with. Ms Chua for being such a caring Council teacher to all the Councillors. And oh… I can go on and on…

And yes also to my Singaporean friends and ASEAN Scholar buddies who have constantly encouraged me all the time and have given me a tremendous time of fun during these two hectic years in Singapore. Thank you for helping me enjoy my JC life, really. The two years were really about the people, i.e. you, my friends and my teachers (not to mention my City Harvest Singapore friends and cell group leaders Hui Zhen and Eva!)

God bless all you readers. It is time to look forward now. If you have yet to take Singapore’s A-Level Examinations and are going to, DO YOUR VERY BEST. Nothing else matters. JUST DO YOUR BEST.

I know I did do my very best. Maybe that’s why I am already over the little disappointment today. Cheers.

I will be leaving for Singapore this Friday 8 am and coming back to Malaysia by Saturday midnight.

Quoted from an MOE Press Release:

NOTIFICATION OF RELEASE OF 2007 GCE A-LEVEL EXAMINATION RESULTS

1. The results of the 2007 Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level Examination will be released on Friday, 7 March 2008.
2. School candidates may obtain their result slips from their respective schools from 2.30 pm on 7 March 2008.
3. Private candidates will be able to obtain their results through the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board’s website (http://www.seab.gov.sg) after 2.30 pm on 7 March 2008. They will also be notified of their results by post.

To be frank, I am not anxious at all. Weird. Sadly, I would have to miss my church’s Friends Night this Friday night and pass over the chance to invite my unsaved friends to church. But luckily, Easter is just around the corner at the end of March!!! Another great time to bring friends. XD

I don’t know why I did this, or what made me do this in the first place, but I recently set up a website seeking donations/sponsors/loans for a Stanford education in the event that I am accepted.

I have not been accepted yet, and Stanford has said that it has received a record number of applications this year. Tough competition. More here.

“We have received nearly 25,000 applications for admission (the largest in Stanford’s history), which means that we will be able to offer admission to just 10% of those students who have applied.”

Stanford has also recently announced “the largest increase in its history for its financial aid program for undergraduates” but this need-blind policy only applies to US Citizens and Permanent Residents. This, unfortunately, is not very good news for me, a potential international student. But anyway I did not apply for Stanford’s financial aid since it would affect my admission chances as Stanford is not need-blind for internationals. (It means that they see my financial needs and would take that into consideration when making the admission decision. ‘If you can’t pay, I will admit someone else who can pay.’)

I am not being overconfident that I would be accepted, nor am I going to ignore admission offers from other universities should I be accepted as well. But somehow I felt very motivated to establish this website since getting the inspiration for it a week ago. It would also not be wrong to say that I felt rather led to set up this website.

So, without further ado, the website is as follows: Ern Sheong’s Stanford Campaign. Do give me some feedback by commenting here.

Yes I know this is crazy. Yes go ahead and laugh at such a notion. I’m laughing too. But wonders can happen. You guys who read my blog are my closest friends so I don’t mind sharing this with you.

Worse comes to worse, I am not accepted into Stanford and I delete the website. Or I am accepted and take up another admission offer with financial aid. Or I am accepted but suddenly God blesses my family with a large financial gain and I delete the website. Period.

Constructive feedback is much appreciated. =)

Posting here to share with others who were deferred in the Restrictive Early Action round what I wrote in the Optional Update Form. Deadline is March 1st guys, and it is not a postmark date!!! Hurry up!

Please list and elaborate upon any major awards or honors for academic or nonacademic achievement you have received since submitting your application.

I recently received the College Values Special Award in National Junior College and included it in the additional information within the Common Application form but did not get the opportunity to elaborate further. Hence I am attaching with this Optional Update Form a write-up detailing the story that led to this award. (Sorry I will not publish this essay here, not yet)

Please indicate any new areas of interest. What new activities (in or outside of school), jobs or hobbies have you been involved in, and what have you learned from your participation?

After returning from Singapore to Malaysia, I took up a sales job to sell a new wireless broadband based on ‘iBurst’ technology which was developed by ArrayComm of the Silicon Valley (iZZi Wireless Broadband). Selling it to customers was a grueling job given the fact that there is an existing established competitor (the national telecommunications company) providing wired broadband nationwide. Furthermore, there were limitations to iZZi’s wireless broadband coverage, as well as a rather burdensome upfront payment upon registration. There were also other mobile network providers offering HSDPA or 3.5G speeds for a much wider coverage, albeit at inferior speeds in many regions. From this job experience I’ve learnt that no matter how good a product or service is, it will have its flaws and drawbacks. No product can please everyone or make everybody happy, especially at the early stages of development. Sales is about highlighting the strengths of the product and maintaining a standard of integrity coupled with a steadfast belief in the product. I learnt to let go of customers whom I cannot please while pursuing other potential ones. I believe that such a mentality is essential in the establishment of a start-up, where version 1.0 may not and will not be perfect. My experience can be summed up in one sentence: Get it going while it is still coming in, and build momentum from there.

Are there unusual circumstances or is there other pertinent information that you think we should be aware of in evaluating your application for admission?

This is definitely not pertinent but I think the Admissions Officers should be aware of this: Stanford is my FIRST CHOICE and I want to spend my next four years there!!! (I just had to say this even if it is not supposed to help at all)

Stanford. The best place for nurturing entrepreneurial innovation.

Yet another in Ern Sheong’s series of revealed Stanford Essays. This one is rather nonsensical and if it does not make sense to you, don’t bother. Some understanding of physics may be required. To be frank, until now, I have no idea what intellectually engaging means. Could be anything, really.

Stanford students are widely known to possess a sense of intellectual vitality. Tell us about an idea or an experience you have had that you find intellectually engaging. (1800 characters)

The Physics essay prompt asked, “What would happen if the Planck’s constant, h, were ten orders of magnitude larger?” As I pondered, I realized that such a notion was preposterous! Changing this important constant by even a millionth of a decimal would obliterate life or render the existence of the Universe impossible! For that matter, so would the change in any other physical constant! But suppose I were in a resistant-to-the-outside-world control room filled with circular dials that control the physical constants of the Universe. What would happen if I decided to be naughty and tinker with the Planck’s constant dial? Turn it clockwise a little? …a little bit more? From a Physics equation (E=hf), I deduce that a light photon would carry a lot more energy. Sunlight would resemble lasers which “shoot holes” into earth’s matter—a relentless roasting of the planet! Thanks to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, random holes would appear in the living room caused by energetic photons emitted from the Sony Plasma TV screen. Radio waves would have fried bacon and eggs without a stove. A cup of Starbucks coffee held in hand would have caused serious third-degree sunburns. But all this assumes that the world existed until I came along one day to tweak an omnipotent dial. If the dial were in a tinkered position all along, atoms would not have existed due to the lowered ionization energies. The Big Bang would not have happened, and even if it did, the Universe would be destroyed moments after its creation. The precise values of the physical constants illustrate a not-so-random Universe. Be it the gravitational constant, the Planck’s constant or any other physical constant known to man, all apparently worked together to create human life. Thought-provoking? Definitely!

Stanford: My Dream School

Disclaimer: This is by no means a model Stanford essay. I was deferred in EA for admission in fall 2008.