US colleges and the JPA scholarship

[Robyn]

Hello! I am Robyn Choo, a Malaysian and I will be studying in Form 4 next year. I have a few questions about US colleges and the JPA scholarship.

There are as follow:

1. Does US universities / colleges recognise AUSMAT?

2. Where can I get the official ranking of all American colleges besides US News?

3. A questions regarding JPA - Do you know what countries are JPA Economics students sent, besides US?


Thank you.


Cheers,
Robyn

[mpalanieppan]

1) I do not think US universities accept AUSMAT. Almost all universities, regardless of your other qualifications like A-Levels etc, would almost certainly require you to take both SAT I(A reasoning test) and TOEFL(Test of English as a Foreign Language) - ask more if you have not heard of these tests- within about 1-2 yrs prior to your university application.

2) For the 2nd, I know there are a few university rankings published as books - you can find them at MACEE, if you are living nearby. Online, I am not so sure, try googling.

I am not sure about your third question. Sorry.

M.Palanieppan

[jiinjoo]

2. Where can I get the official ranking of all American colleges besides US News?
There isn't any "official" ranking. Each ranking system you see employ a different basket of criteria to rank a school, hence giving you varying results. USNews college ranking is just one of the more popular / commonly referred to ranking system. Other popular ranking includes princeton review and peterson, and they are usually available, as mentioned, in MACEE, or on the shelfs in popular or mph or other bigger bookstores.

Speaking of rankings, much criticism have been put in rankings lately, because they include many useless criteria. Moreover, a typical Malaysian student studying overseas probably care about different issues as compared with a typical American. Therefore, I strongly suggest that you look at the breakdown. The most common example I usually give is this: If you care about partying and meeting cool dudes, look at Playboy's ranking a realized that CMU, albeit the top ranking in their engineering and computer science school, have been ranked 3rd from the bottom for "best college for singles" some years back. The students in CMU currently might disagree :wink:

3. A questions regarding JPA - Do you know what countries are JPA Economics students sent, besides US?
You know what, I have totally no idea about this too, but I'd suggest you go ask them directly. Policies change year after year and it is getting harder and harder to predict what they will do the next round. Afterall, JPA is supposed to change their criteria for the better, and if you can present an argument well enough to convince them that there are better economics school in the world which is not in US, they might listen - who knows? Good luck and all the best!

[__earth]

Concerning SAT, you need to check with a particular college. I've heard that some colleges dont weight SAT too much for international students.

[Thirdshifter]

Concerning SAT, you need to check with a particular college. I've heard that some colleges dont weight SAT too much for international students.

Exactly. My dad is a professor in UCONN and SAT for international students especially for business school is not needed. It's a plus but not a requirement.

[chenchow]

Hi Robyn, Welcome to Recom!!!

For particular US ranking, there isn't and I would strongly suggest that you look at those rankings by US News and other publications by not just looking at the overall ranking, but look at the details of each criteria. So, you may rate certain criteria, like academic, more highly than something like freshman retention, graduation rate etc. Different ranking agency has different weightage, so I would suggest that you look at those numbers supplied and create a weightage for yourself, to really judge for yourself.

If you get JPA Scholarship, there will be some lecturers plus placement officer who could offer you help too! and of course, many of the Recom members will try our best to help.

A indirectly related topic, would be to get ready to launch some threads on Scholarships after SPM here soon, especially when those SPM results are released, and students are busy looking for scholarship informations.

I would say that most universities look at students on a whole package. They may require SAT1, SAT2, TOEFL etc for different universities, so check with respective universities, or if you have particular universities in mind, ask around Recom and see whether we have some contacts over there... Odds are we have some contacts that could be useful!

yes...i have to agree with chenchow... US education requires its student to take at least SAT 1 and TOEFL for foreign students. i would really like to recommend to you to take SAT 2. it will really help the ppl at the university to evaluate you better since SAT 2 results basically will give them a better view about you and also your performance when studying in their college. for further information regarding this test, i would highly recommend you to visit MACEE or go to this website

http://www.macee.org.my/

for information about the SAT test, go to this website:

http://www.collegeboard.com/

i hope this will give you a better view regarding the SAT test.

regarding on your second question, i would highly recommend you surf thru princeton review since it is the best reliable source one can use. the information given is very accurate, u can trust it

JPA most likely to send you here since US serve the best economics school compare to other countries. if you dont want to come to the states, i also think that the UK also serve the best economics school. you might need to talk to someone at JPA, just to clear things up.

if you have futher inquires, just leave a msg here. we at recom will try to help you on such problems.

[__earth]

for economics, i have to say that UK is better. In fact, when it comes to almost anything out of engineering, in this case, social science, UK is the best place.

[topdog]

In fact, when it comes to almost anything out of engineering, in this case, social science, UK is the best place.

Why do you think so?

[Robyn]

Why, in your opinion, is UK better than US in social science?[/quote]

[masterof_none]

I used to hear that UK education is better than US education.
But when I'm studying right here in the US, I think I enjoy it and I think it's got a good education system too.

It really depends on what u expect from your school.
if you want to learn economics, I know one of the best economics schools in the US is Univ. of Chicago (apart from MIT, Harvard) .
Maybe you've heard Milton Friedman ?.(univ. of chicago).

Plus, in the US, I think you have a chance to explore your potential..
It encourages interdiciplanary studies...(economics + anything.+ anything +....) and lots of field trip too!. (at least in my school)
For example, a writing class discussing about child labor in less-developed country get a chance to go to field trip to Mexico.

I have no comment about UK education since I've been in the system.
I hope any Recom member who studying in the UK can give some comments?.

Overall, I think US education is good as a medium to explore your potential. And I like it a lot.

[chenchow]

Personally I think UK education is more sturctured and rigid. So, you could be assured of learning those stuff that would reasonably be useful, but I think one of the problem would be many students would be learning similar stuff.

However for US education, typically you have a lot of flexibility in choosing the courses you wish to take. I am in Electrical Engineering, but I have taken courses from business law, financial and managerial accounting, quality control, info tech, negotiation, debates, international relations, webpage design, enterprise engineering, industrial system, microecon, macroecon etc. I am pretty sure, education out of US would not be so flexible.

So, the ball is on you. Your choice, but the most important thing is talk to JPA.

[silverblue]

Personally, when deciding on US or UK universities, you have to consider the following :

1) Choose UK if you are 101% sure of the profession you want to be. And also when you really want to specialize and be really good at that profession. This is because UK education is very focused and specific. You only take a few courses from ur major.

2) Choose US if you want a holistic and liberal education system that will give you lots of other skills and outside-of-ur-field knowledge. This is because US system encourages us to be an all-rounder.

3) Choose UK if you like clubbing and liquor. Choose US if you like partying and beer (hehe just kidding..)

4) Choose US if you are into engineering (even over Cambridge or Oxford). According to alot of hearsay, these programs are really better in US.

5) Choose US if you want plenty of opportunity for involvement in sports. Choose UK if you want to watch World Cup 2005 in Germany!

6) Choose UK if you want to escape the threat of terrorism and security alerts. Choose US if you want lower exchange rates (UK is almost 6.7 man!)

7) Choose US if you think you can survive constant studies pressure and be consistent in your academic results (cos we are constantly being assesed throughout the semester and everything counts towards the final grade!!). Choose UK if you wanna lepak the whole year until one month before the final exams (ur final grade depends on that very single exam!)

Have fun choosing! ;)

[screw3d]

5) Choose US if you want plenty of opportunity for involvement in sports. Choose UK if you want to watch World Cup 2005 in Germany!

It's 2006 you blasphemous being!!! :P

[silverblue]

Sorry lar... small mistake only mah... no need to hentam me like that rite, screw3d?? :roll:

By the way, I didn't think that was blasphemous.
Soccer != sacred.
:P

[Robyn]

Which are the top universities in Economics in US and UK?

[chenchow]

I think for US, top universities for economics would include Harvard, Wharton(UPenn), Yale, Princeton, MIT, Chicago, Cornell. But I am not too well-versed in it. may be silverblue can ask her friend, Amelia or Adrian to let you know more. Adrian is doing econ in Harvard and Amelia is at Chicago.

For UK, I believe LSE would be the best choice, but I do not know much about it.

[beautiful_scars89]

i wonder why this topic is being abandoned...
its a very good discussion
i really find a lot of useful information here.
and i hope the seniors can really help me out by SUPPLYING me more information about studying in US.
By the way, i am a JPA scholar. wil be going to US to study biotech.
TQ

[brucesharky]

I've been reading a book applying to US universities, choosing a college and there are a few 'terms' and questions which I don't quite understand. I hope the seniors can help.

1. "Trimesters, quarters because gives you an opportunity to take wider array of courses, compared to semesters. But semesters have longer summer breaks."
I don't quite understand how this works. How is it the quarters gives an undergrad an opportunity to take wider array of courses compared to semesters? Is the semester system easier of the quarter system easier?

2. What is the meaning of "academic level"?

3. How important is academic guidance and career counseling for undergraduates?

4. Are there courses that are difficult for enrollment? If there are difficult ones, how do they choose the students for enrollment?

5. What is 'faculty accessibility'?

6. Is school spirit and traditions something vital for schools, particularly those ivy leagues? What about other schools like MIT, Stanford, Michigan, Berkeley, is the school spirit strong?

7. What does it mean "flexible curriculum"when, I thought that US universities generally have a flexible curriculum.Does that mean that I can design our own study programme, like what courses we want to take, and when to take it? Which universities have these type of curriculum?

[caramel_nut]

1. Dartmouth and Chicago use the quarter system if I don't remember wrongly. Usually in the semester system, students take 4 units per sem. However, in the quarter system, students take 3 units per quarter. Do take note however that a quarter is shorter than a sem.

2. Ehm... no idea. >.<

3. Depending on what career you want, I suppose. If you want to continue to do your masters, I don't suppose you need career counseling that much for undergraduate. Depends lah!

4. In some universities, some of the majors may be very popular but the uni may not have enough facilities for all interested students. In MIT for example, if I remember correctly, the enrollment for Bio sth sth Engineering is limited because MIT doesn't have enough labs (I think).

5. If you can walk into a professor's office any time and ask him any questions on your academics or just anything, that university has very high faculty accessibility. If you can never find your professor... then low lah.

6. School spirit, yes yes yes. School spirit keeps the student body united. Like Yale vs Harvard. :D

7. Flexibility of curriculum depends on the university. Some universities might have a core requirement that you need to fulfill while others may not. As for designing your own study program.. well, I've heard quite a lot about it but have never actually known any university that allows you to do so.

[chenchow]

Great that this topic was brought up again. Robyn, who first posted this post in 2003, has just recently gotten into Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania.

I would say that what caramel_nut respond is quite useful.

Essentially, for quarter system, it is about 10 weeks long, whereas for semester system, it is about 14-15 weeks long. On number of courses students take in quarter system and semester system, what caramel_nut provide is average student. I would strongly encourage those of you who could take more, to take more.

On "academic level", maybe you can quote a sentence where it is used, and we could reply on it.

On academic guidance and career counseling, I would strongly encourage you to use it. For academic guidance, the counselor would be able to help you to utilize more resources in the university and provide feedback to you. Career office would be able to help you in preparing your CV, mock interview etc.

On difficulty to enrol for courses, I would say that what this means is usually not about major, but about particular courses within major. Usually each student who take a major, might need to take about 8 courses in a major. Often, there would be choices from 20-100 courses within that major to choose those 8-10 courses needed for the major. You usually have full flexibility to choose the courses.

Most US universities have flexible curriculum. However, it is still guided a little by basic requirements, for instance, to major in a field, you need to take at least 8 courses in the field. You could definitely take as many in other fields. Some university would have liberal arts requirements. Cornell require students to take at least 6 liberal arts courses from choices of more than 1000 courses (from 40+ languages, more than 20 fields).

So, there could be guidelines, but not rigid curriculum. Good Luck!

[brucesharky]

Sorry, rather late reply. Well thanks for your info, chenchow and caramel_nut. It's been a great help. Hope to see you all at the discover US next week! :D And learn more.