Learn from IPH Alumni : How to Get Accepted at Your Dream University

Posted On July 6, 2021
Learn from IPH Alumni : How to Get Accepted at Your Dream University

Knowing where we wanted to be in the next few years is important to know what we actually need to do to make it past the 'want'.
That is exactly what our students David and Melvin did.
They explored and figured earlier on where they wanted to be after secondary school.

Just recently David even shared his insights in IPH Schools IGTV and Youtube channel on how to get accepted in our dream university or even top university in the world.
Both students have been accepted in 2 of the top university in the world 2022, namely Imperial College and UCL, in UK.

First and foremost there are quite a distinctive difference between US and UK universities that we need to understand prior to applying.
US universities will most likely focus on our identity, apart from the pre-requisite international qualifications like the SAT, GPA, Subject tests as well as our A levels.
Meaning, we have to compose a very personal essay that will let them differentiate us from other candidates. Elaborate who we trully are, what are our passions in life and what we actually do to fuse such passions, what are our contributions in our community, changes we have initiated or participated in.

Make full use of our achievements (like olympiads), involvement in community and/or inspiring extra curricular activities to help ourselves stand out.

As for the UK universities, we have to be really certain about the subject because unlike in the US, we can not change subjects during our university years. So it is best to know what subject are we going to study earlier on (David suggested that we have to know it from Grade 10 so that we have enough time to study, and prepare for the pre-requisite tests).
Unlike in the US, UK universities will demand a very subject oriented, technical essays. Relevance is key, here. They don't really care about our so-called identity.

Other thing to factor in is the finances. Bear in mind that the US universities have been known to be expensive for international students. UK universities will be cheaper. Canada will be somewhere between the US and the UK universities.

It is very important that we pay attention to our mental health while going through the application process. It can be very time consuming, and emotionally draining. Ideally we should aim to start earlier than later, like a year before, when we are still in grade 11.

Last but not least, there is no way we can make it without our support system, namely family and the Schools. Make sure to full use all the support and facility to ease the process. Attend the university fair, do our research, ask questions, a lot of them.
At the end of the day, we will eventually be where we wanted to be only if we make the actual first moves, relentlessly, wholeheartedly.