Longkang Mee's Opinion on US College Application Essays

Recently, a few people have been asking me to proofread their essays for US college applications.  I just have a few things to say about the essay and would like to contribute some stuff to spark your inspiration =)  Of course, this is just my opinion.  I am in no way a professional essay writer nor am I a spy in the admission office or an expert psychologist who happens to know how the admission office thinks.

These tips and opinions are based on my own experience in writing the application essays and feedback I get from other people.  In short, it's just my own collective perspective about the US college essay application.  I hope that after reading this post, you will have the inspiration to write a piece that is one-of-a-kind and truly yours.

I will start my tips with a FAQ style format:-

1.  It's about you.

I feel that an essay should first and foremost describe you as an individual.  If you find yourself describing and explaining about another person (your family member, some professor you admire or some famous movie star) more than yourself, I suggest to take a step back and restructure your essay.  After all, colleges want to admit you and not someone else.  If a stranger can pick up your essay and after reading it, give a 5 minute introduction about you then you know you're good to go.

2.  Uniqueness.

How do you write a non-cliché essay?  After reading your own essay, your first impression should be like "is that really me? That's kinda embarrassing/weird/etc, but it is truly and undoubtedly me".  Don't assume that everyone out there in the world is the same as yourself.  Many people tend to regard their mundane daily routine as normal and feel reluctant to showcase themselves in their genuine form.  It is the things that seem normal to you that might turn out to be the most interesting.  For example, I may find that making bubbles in the bathroom to be normal.  Of course, I would later find out that the movement of the the colors on the surface of the bubble is somehow connected to the weather patterns of other planets.  My point is, try to write about your normal daily life and don't try too hard to portray what you want people to think of you.  There's far too many essays like that--sculptured with hand-picked words to meticulously describe yourself as if you are an object.  After all, the essay is to provide the "human" factor in the application, have fun with it and go with the flow.

3.  Honesty

Honesty is the best policy!  Sometimes, really amazing essays comes from telling a secret.  Something that you wouldn't even tell your best friend or parents.  Some thing like whenever you tell you parents you're going for a jog but actually you went bicycling in the back alleys of your neighborhood that your parents have explicitly told you not to.  And later on, you make friends with the beggars of the streets, the 20-sen-tissue-sellers, the aluminium-tin-can-collector and how those people shed a different perspective about life to you and ultimately taught you to appreciate the life you have.  Or how you actually unconsciously critique people's clothing choices and you secretly want to have your own clothing line because there's just too many people out there who don't know how to wear matching outfits.  Sometimes, plain brute honesty will bring out some of your most interesting traits.

4.  The classic "show, don't tell"

If you have a hard time following this, try to write an essay without using the adjectives you want to describe yourself.  Let's say you want to describe yourself as a hard working, determined and patient person.  Do this by not writing those words in your essay.  That way, you will somehow force yourself to show your characteristics through an incident.  For example, if you want to portray curiosity and innovation.  Don't say "I am curious and innovative because..."; instead, try to show it by writing an essay about drinking Chinese tea.  And when you stir the cup of tea, you observe that the the tea leaves swirl around the cup and will only stop in the center of the cup.  You then take this idea and observation to the next level and invent a water cleaner which uses the same concept.  Well, you get the picture.


With all this things combined, you will ultimately end up with an essay that is unlike any other on the planet.  Who else in this world blow bubbles when their bathing, invents a water cleaner, critiques people's fashion and personally know the alleys of their neighborhood inside out?  The answer is you, and only you can come out with an essay like that.

I hope this post will help all of you to write great college application essays.  Enjoy the application process, it's a time of self-reflection and a process to get to know yourself better.  Take your time, question yourself and most of all have fun!

Wishing all who are applying the best of luck and may the odds be ever in your favor.  And don't forget to proofread your essays!  Hit me up on facebook if you want to just chat or talk about the applications.

Cheers.

US College Application Fit

It's that time again when everyone is busy finishing up their online applications to the many schools they are applying to.  One of the most common questions I observe people asking is, "how do I get into ___ college?" or "what are my chances of getting into ___ university".  One thing US colleges emphasizes is the "fit" of the student in their university.  What exactly is fit?  I don't really have a clear description of "fit" but here's what I imagined it to be like in my mind (don't take my word for it).

*In the admission office of ___ university*

Chief officer: "Ok, we are going to take 500 students for our class of 2018 this year.  Let's get going reading all these profiles."

And then the process goes on something like this:-

"First things first, better get those athletes on board, we need to gear up our rankings this year."
"Ok, take some musicians here and there."
"We need some diversity in here!!"
"International? put her in that pool."

"Build a nuclear reactor in his backyard?  But we already have 5 of them here.  Nah..."
"Look, this guy likes to dance in the shower, take him in!"
"Performed for president, meh....."
"Olympiad medallist right here, we'll take 3 of them, no more."
"Invented a cat-dryer machine?  take her in!"
"Stopping and staring and flowers beside the road? Cool, take him in."
"Want to take over the world?  Well, if he's our alumni, that'll be good. take him in."

.....

"At the last spot goes to the girl who just said she wanted to enter our school just because she loves our mascot!"

Well, my point is, it's really hard to know if you fit a certain school or not and that some school might like you way more than another.  So, I just want to remind everyone to not be afraid of applying to a school that you really like even though you might think that you don't have a shot at it.  After all, there really is no harm in trying--you never know what to expect.  Don't be discourage by score statistics, admission percentage, collegeboard forum admission pages and etc.

Just be yourself, write an essay that is true to yourself and hope that you fall into your fit school like a jigsaw puzzle =)

Cheers.

How to study in the USA without spending a fortune. (For Malaysian students)

It's been a while since I last updated my blog.  So here's some tips and advice I'd like to share with any aspiring Malaysians that would like to study in the USA but don't really have the financial capabilities to do so.

The first step to succeed is to have the will to study abroad.  If you really fight for it, take initiative to research and find out about all the different scholarships and financial aids then I have no doubt that sooner or later you will eventually attain one.

So let's move on to the details.  I won't be talking about any post-SPM scholarships since a lot of the post-SPM scholarships are determined mainly by your SPM results + what you do back then in secondary school (ECA's).  I will be discussing about the steps you can take after SPM and whether or not you did badly in secondary school would not affect your chances of obtaining scholarships.  This means that what you do after SPM is entirely up to you, but in general cases, most people will study a type of pre-u in the form of IB, A-level, STPM or etc.  

There are basically two common pathways for people to attend a US university/school/college with financial help:-

1.  Getting funding from private/government organizations from Malaysia to fund you in the USA.

2.  Getting financial aid from colleges/universities/schools in the USA itself.

I did number 1, 

For number 1, you have to first understand how these private/government organizations select their scholars.  Some stuff to keep in mind is that most companies have a specific list of universities that they are willing to sponsor students to. Although university rankings are certainly not a true measure of the quality of an institution, most of these scholarship providers unfortunately choose to use some kind of ranking either way.  In addition to that, you got to make sure that the major you're applying to fits the field that the scholarship provider is sponsoring.  

So, to follow these pathway, you need to:-

1.  Get into a university that is in the list of the scholarship provider.

2.  To do this, you need to do your own preparation. (Doing a pre-u and of course applying a university)

3.  Study a course that the scholarship provider is willing to sponsor.

Example of scholarship providers:- Khazanah, Petronas, Sime Darby, JPA, MybrainSc, Malaysian Airports, Jeffrey Cheah Foundation, Yayasan Terengganu/Sarawak, Maxis, Astro, Shell, Maybank, Bank Negara and etc. (Do your own research!)

For number 2, it is somewhat more flexible and you get a more variety of choice for the schools you want to attend.  It also upholds the whole concept of "fit" for US college admission (since you got to "fit" into a school for a school to really want you to attend thus giving you financial aid).  To follow this path, you got to do more research to find out which colleges are generous enough to give you financial aid.  Most of these data can be found on each college's respective website and if you're lazy, here's a rough guide.  It takes a whole lot more time to do number 2 since you got to start your whole understanding of US financial aid from scratch.  You will need to learn what's "need-blind", "need-aware" or "need-based".  You'll need to weigh in your chances of admission vs. the amount of financial aid you're receiving--stuffs like that.  However, most people that I've known that took this path ended up really happy with their schools in the end.  So yeah, it is a perfectly viable route for an affordable education in the US.

Of course, this is just a brief explanation.  If you really want to do it, better start early (because trust me, there's a lot of work to do).  Like I mention above, a lot of the application comes down to your own research and whether you want it badly enough to take the initiative to know about it and apply.  I'm just here to spark the idea in you and hope that more Malaysians will take the time to consider the vast opportunities out there.

I guess I'll end my blog post for now.  I will try to explain in further details about the two pathways if I have the time (and if there's a demand).  If you have any questions, feel free to message me at dylanlerhongjing@gmail.com or add me on facebook with the name "Dylan Ler" (be sure to message me telling me who you are first!).

Oh yeah, there are a lot of other ways to attend schools in the US and this is by no means the only two ways.  I'm just here to share my experience and to talk about what I observe after my experience in applying. =)

Cheers!

USAPPS 2013

This banner is awesome!

I just want to thank all the organizing committee for such a successful workshop this year!  I hope all the participants get what they need and are super pumped up to apply to the US.  By the way, if any of you out there need any assistance,  please find the respective facilitator's contact info through this page.  Also,  you guys can contact me too :)  Talk to me about scholarships, financial aid, essays and application process in general!

I wish those who are applying the very best,

And may you find your dream school!

Khazanah Stage 2- Breakdown

Stage 2 is a full day assessment

It consists of a presentation, individual interview, group interview(with some critical reasoning) and critical reasoning (read and answer).

Presentation

For the presentation, for my year, the topic was "Should Facebook be banned in the workplace?" So your group will either support or go against the topic.

Reminder that while the presentation is done by the whole group, each person is assessed individually, so try to carry yourself confidently in order to stand out of the crowd. Do not be discouraged if someone suddenly comes in and steer the whole group as if he/she was the chosen one,  each person is assessed individually so don't worry about it.  If you have any opinions about the group, you can always voice it out during the group interview.  Of course, play nice and don't undermine/diminish your counterparts in the group.

Individual interview

The individual interview is a cliche scholarship interview, with questions directed to you to dig the most information out of you.

Questions range from: "tell me about yourself", "tell me about a failure and how you overcame it", "what is your proudest achievement", "what is your future vision should you work in khazanah" and other questions of similar fashion. You don't need to memorize a script but just select a few interesting points to talk about for the interview.

For more information about individual interviews, refer HERE on my posts about individual interviews.


Group interview

  

For the group interview, during my year, the panelist hands us a list of cards with two situations on each sides--in the front and back. Each person is suppose to pick a side and reason out why he or she chose it. Some questions are directed towards you about your group mates too; for example: "what do you think about XXX as a person?", "if there is a person you would like to eliminate, who should it be?", "which person is the strongest is the group" and "do you think XXX poses a threat to your advancement to the next stage?" Overall advice: play nice, get to know your group members beforehand and play each other's strengths out. Talk with confidence, play humble, highlight your strengths and don't bad mouth others in the group. 

Critical reasoning (writing based)

The last assessment was a critical reading (writing based) assessment. For my session, khazanah gave us a set of questions which was part of a survey. We were not asked to answered the survey but rather we were asked questions like: "is the survey effective or not?", "if a person answered (so and so) to question X, what is your opinion about him/her?" The questions are formulated to make you think.  Is also encourages you to speak about your personal stance/opinion about something.

So there you have it, a brief explanation of stage 2. I wish you all the best and good luck for your future endeavors.

The Longkang Mee Guide to Interviews

Ahh, the season of scholarship interviews.  Since most scholarships are going to have their assessments/interviews in this time range, I'll try my best to give some advice on what to do in an interview.  First, I would like to clarify that I am by no means a professional interviewer and my advice may or may not be something that you would agree on.  Nonetheless, I want to share these advice as it has certainly helped me in all of my interviews.  So, take it with a pinch of salt will ya. ;)

So here's a basic guideline on what to prepare for an interview (Longkang Mee style)

1.  Prepare an outline for your interview speech.

Scholarship interviews are pretty standard and you can pretty much predict the questions the interviewers are about to ask.  The first and most fundamental question for all interviews is the "Can you tell me about yourself?" Yes it's the ultimate cliche question and many of you might or might not know how to answer this question.  I used to answer this question with some really mechanical answers like my name, where I go to school, where I live, how many siblings I have and etc.  Now that I think of it, I would like to face palm my past self.  When you're asked this question, try to focus the topic about yourself.  After all, the interview is a process to extract the most interesting facts/stories about you.  So, before your interview prepare your cheat sheet(mentally or on paper) of your "Tell me about yourself" speech.  Try to come out with interesting points about yourself, something only a few people know and something that makes you unique.  If you're having a hard time figuring about stuff to talk about, you may want to start with talking about your hobbies and go on from there.

2. Don't be nervous

Every normal human being will tend to feel a tinge of nervousness in an interview. So don't fret if you're dripping some cold sweat or have raging butterflies in your stomach right before an interview.  One of my favorite advice that I always tell people is to treat the interviewer as your relative.  Okay, turn on your imagination gears and picture this scenario.  Here's your relative, an uncle/aunty that you're really fond of.  He or she lives out of town and you happen to not see him/her for quite some time now.  You finally met him/her and you're bursting with stuff to tell him/her.  And when you start talking to your beloved uncle/aunty, you just can't stop talking and your eyes light up with enthusiasm.  In an interview, you might get an urge or feeling to tell the interviewer your biggest achievements, listing down your achievements one by one so that you appear as the creme de la creme, the top pile of the competition.  But this kind of interview speech only bores the interviewer and shows that you're just someone like the rest. When you're giving your speech, do it  more to express rather than to impress.  When you're talking to your relative, do you really want to impress him/her or do you just want to share out your thoughts and experience and express yourself?  Once you have got rid of that psychological barrier of "trying to impress", you will find that you can articulate yourself better and your enthusiasm will take over.

3.  Always and always tell the truth.

Though this might seem like the natural thing to do,  I find that most people(including myself) try to exaggerate our achievements to put ourselves on top of the interviewer's selection list.  Truth is, once you're not telling something entirely true, it greatly affects your flow of speech and you're forced to keep track of what you have said(lied) earlier.  This can vastly affect your speech(stutter), body language and pupil movement.  All these signs can easily be interpreted by the interviewer that you're not telling the truth and your previous good impressions instantly goes down the drain.  Unless you're the ultimate con artist, don't try to lie in an interview to place yourself higher on the podium.  For example, if you placed second in a competition don't say that you placed first, instead, try to explain why you got second and how you learned from that experience.  Remember that the interviewers are humans too and that they might relate to you on a deeper level if you actually are speaking sincerely.

4.  Keep eye contact and give a firm handshake.

When meeting the interviewer, just give him/her a firm handshake followed by a short greeting of "good morning/afternoon".  You don't need to be like super polite and ask "May I take a seat here?" if there's obviously only one seat.  I mean, if I were the interviewer, I would be like "you don't say?" and might think you're being superficial and someone you're not.  When talking to the interviewer, always try to look into the interviewer's eye.  Don't go looking into the ceiling or at your hands/table/whatever when you're talking to the interviewer.  If looking into an interviewer's eye gives you the butterflies, try making some small finger movement with your thumbs or tapping your toes to help ease the nervousness.

5.  Always ask questions after an interview.

Usually after an interview, the interviewer will promptly ask you if you have any questions for him/her.  Here's your opportunity to ask anything you want to know about the interviewer and your chance to exchange the role of interviewee and interviewer for a brief moment.  You can now be the interviewer and be the boss, you can ask anything about the interviewer, the company or anything in general. Do not let this chance slip away by just replying "no".  By asking questions, it shows your confidence and your interest in the specific company.

Here are a few questions that I have asked in an interview(my own curiosity about the interviewers):

1.  What do you(interviewer) do in your daily job? And how do you like working in ___ company? (Axiata)
2.  Which do you think is more important? Academic grades or communication and networking skills? (The Star)
3.  Why should I accept this scholarship if I were selected? (Lion-parkson)
4.  How many hours do you sleep at night and do you think you are getting enough sleep? (Khazanah 2nd stage)
5.  I used to think that I am unique, that when I sit in a car, I pretend that there's an imaginary runner beside me jumping over lamp poles and trees.  I later found out that there were many people just like me.  Is there a characteristic that you think you have that is so unique that no one in this world share? (Khazanah 3rd stage)
6.  What is your motivation to become the board of directors of Khazanah? (Khazanah 4th stage)


Last but not least, I will try to publish a sample outline of the interview speech that I used in all of my scholarship interviews.  After preparing an outline, try to practice it with a friend/teacher/lecturer.  Also, by applying for more scholarships, you will eventually go to so many interviews that it would feel like second nature to talk about yourself.

If you're too lazy to read my whole post, here's a summary of it.

1. Prepare your speech.
2. Pretend the interviewer is your relative.
3. Tell the truth.
4. Keep eye contact.
5. Ask questions.

Scholarships for SPM 2012 leavers

Here's a list of scholarships that are opened to SPM (2012) leavers, mark your calendars and don't miss the deadlines to apply for these scholarships.  If you need any help or guidance for any scholarship, google it, go on recom(forum) or ask someone who has experience.  Without further ado, here's the list of current SPM(2012) scholarships with the deadlines in a chronological order.  I hope you find this compilation helpful =)  Go get them scholarships!

Overseas Scholarship

1.  Bank Negara Scholarship (Deadline 27th March 2013)
Read about it here (Click Pre-University)  and click here to apply.

2.  Petronas Sponsorship (Deadline 27th March 2013)  *offers both local and overseas scholarship
Read about it here and click here to apply.

3.  Yayasan TNB scholarship (Deadline 28th March 2013)
Read about it here, instructions to apply are here and click here to apply.

4.  Mara Scholarship (Only to bumiputras) (Deadline 28th March 2013)
Read about it here and click here to apply.

5. ASEAN Scholarship (Deadline 28th March 2013)
Read about it here and apply online here.

6.  JPA scholarship (Program Khas Jepun, Perancis, Jerman dan Korea)  (Deadline 29th March 2013)
Iklan Program, syarat and webpage to keep an eye on.

7.  Yayasan Telekom Scholarship (Deadline 30th March 2013) *offers both local and overseas scholarship
Read about it here, general guidelines here and apply online here.

8.  Maybank Scholarships (Deadline 30th March 2013) *offers both local and overseas scholarship
Read about it here and download the form here and either mail it to them or email to them.

9.  Sime Darby Scholarship
Sime Darby has two scholarships for SPM leavers this year.  One scholarship is where you will sent to do a pre-u course to prepare you for a university in China and the other one is a pre-u course where you will prepare to go to UK/US/Overseas universities

a.  Sime Darby Pre-U Scholarship(China) (Deadline 31st March 2013)
Read about it here and click here to apply.

b.  Sime Darby Pre-U Scholarship (Overseas) (Only opens in October 2013)
Read about it here and click here to apply.

10.  Security Commission Scholarship (Deadline 3rd April 2013)
Read about it here and click here to apply.

11.  UEM Scholarship (Deadline 7th April 2013)
Read about it here and click here to apply.

12.  Felda Global Scholarship (Deadline 7th April 2013)
Read about it here and click here to apply.

13.  Khazanah Global Scholarship (Deadline 8th April 2013)
Official homepage http://yayasankhazanah.com.my/?p=main&c=global
Read about it here and click here to apply.

14.  Japanese Government MEXT scholarship (Deadline 17th May 2013)
Read about it here.  General guidelines here. (You have to mail it in/ send it to the embassy in person)

Local Scholarship 

1.  Sin Chew Education Fund (Deadline 3rd April 2013)
List of participating universities/colleges here.  General guidelines here.  Apply online here or send in by mail with this application form here.  Sin Chew's scholarship is similar to the Star Education Fund, once again make sure you can enroll (with SPM) to the course you are applying for.

2.  The Star Education Fund (Deadline 5th April 2013)
Read about it here.  Application form here.
The Star Education Fund sponsors a variety of courses, make sure you can enroll (with SPM) to the course you are applying for.


PS:  This list of scholarships is targeted to SPM 2012 leavers.  It is by no means a complete list of all the scholarships out there, it is just a compilation of the big ones out there to bring convenience to students.

Khazanah Scholarship Guide

It's that time of the year again when the SPM and STPM results are released and scholarships are all opening one by one.  For you lucky people out there, I'll be writing a series of scholarship guide to aid everyone who is going through the selection process so that you may have a better understanding of what to expect.

Khazanah's scholarship is opened every year and they have quite a few scholarship programs for different students.  You can check them out yourself with this link right here http://yayasankhazanah.com.my/?p=main&c=global

Though khazanah have different scholarship programs, the selection process is almost the same for all their scholarships.  It's just that some have less stages than the other. (They either have 3 stages or 4 stages and the first 2 stages would most likely be the same)

So, I went through the whole Khazanah Global scholarship selection process about a year ago and I'll lay out my experience here one by one.  Khazanah's scholarship assessments are known to be grueling and intense,  they have a total of 4 stages of scholarship assessments for the Khzanah Global scholarship.

Here are the 4 stages:

1. So after you applied online(submitting your essays, resume and whatnot) , khazanah will select people from the applicant pool to do a psychometric/reasoning test at Menara UEM (near KL sentral).  The test is to eliminate more people to roughly about 200 applicants to enter stage 2.  You can do some sample psychometric test from this website here.

2. After about 2 weeks, khazanah will start informing the selected students about the next stage.  If you got this far, congratulations!  If you haven't gotten any news, fear not and try other scholarships.  There are plenty of scholarships out there if you're willing to find them.  (Also, do not hesitate to ring khazanah up if you have any questions regarding the scholarship)  So you're at stage 2 now,  if tradition follows, khazanah will most probably conduct this stage at PNB Darby Park Executive Suites.  Stage 2 is the most intense part of the scholarship assessment as it will last for one full day.  Assessments include group presentation, group interviews, critical reasoning, decision making and individual interviews.  Be prepared to have conflicts with your group mates and sort out your discussion so that your group works hand in hand.  Interviewers also have this favorite question of "If you were to eliminate someone from your group, who will it be?"  Yes, they want to create tension among your group and see how you handle it.  Just be creative with your answer and back it up by sound reasoning, one of the cliche answers would be "I choose to eliminate myself, because of blablabla".  Oh, you'll also get a chance to enjoy a rooftop buffet lunch at stage 2.  The food and the view should ease the stress of this stage.  Read an elaborate breakdown of stage 2 here.  Good luck and enjoy =)

3.  Woah! you've reached stage 3 now, breathe of relieve.  Stage 3 would be an interview with khazanah's senior executive.  It's just a short and simple one-to-one interview (roughly 7-10 minutes).  Here, you will meet your competitors and all of you will wait patiently for your turn in a meeting room.  Stage 3 is held at the khazanah's office at KLCC.  The questions asked in the interview are very generic and they just want to know more about you.  Example questions are, "Please introduce yourself" , "Name your proudest achievement and how you overcame it", "Who inspires you and why" and etc.

4.  After about a week, Khazanah will inform those who made it to the last stage.  If you reached this stage, congratulations, you are just one more step in securing a scholarship from Khazanah.  The 4th stage would be held at menara UEM(like the first stage) and this time the board of directors will be interviewing you!  For the past years, the last stage interviewers rotate from the board of directors of Khazanah to the board of directors of UEM.  But it was UEM's board of director (Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Tajuddin Ali) that interviewed me last year.  The questions are again generic and they just want to know more about you.  Prepare a few unique points about yourself that you want the world to know and speak them out confidently during the interview.

After all these stages, you will know the final verdict roughly 2 weeks after the final stage.  If you made it, congratulations for you are now a scholar of the most prestigious scholarship in the country.  If you did not,  don't be discouraged, take it as a life lesson and move on to pursue greater things. =)

Peace out, before I forget! The scholarships are once again open this year! Hurry up and apply =)
Apply now!

PS: The location and interviewers for each stage can vary each year,  this is just a guide during my year(2012).