Tips on US Applications by Dr. Ewe Hong Tat

This is an article by Dr. Ewe Hong Tat published in Sin Chew on 30th August. It is about some of the interesting things that the students have done during their US Applications. Dr. Ewe Hong Tat has been MIT Educational Counselor for a number of years.

I would try to highlight a few key points that he talked about.

1. Besides excelling in academic, most students are very active in extra curricular activiites. Some are very focused within 1 field, whereas some are in multi fields.

2. For US Applications, students not only need to have academic results, recommendation letters, but also application essays and even interview for the top universities. MIT does not look for students who are getting full score academically, but a bunch of studnets who have great ambition with full passion and prepared to excel in student groups.

3. Some of the interesting things found during Interview. A student brought a CD of the song that she self-composed and played during Rainforest Musical Festival. And even after she went to MIT, she came back during summer holidays to participate in it.

4. There was a student, who liked to collect stamps, but from poorer family background. She wrote letters to Embassies from various countries and ask them for stamps. Through some efforts and determination, she managed to get a number of stamps.

5. There are many creative students who brought their calligraphy, drawings, computer games/software/website that they created. One student even brought a novel which is hundreds of pages long that he wrote and he claimed that he would want to write it in multiple series, just like Lord of the Rings. Another student who likes to play rubber band toy gun, and in the process of several years made a fantastic auto-loading rubber band gun, and that brought the student to MIT.

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多采的天空 尤芳达

这几天,在收拾办公室里的文件时,查了这十多年来为申请入学麻省理工(MIT)的中学毕业生所写的面谈报告与记录,为学生们多种多样的课外活动与爱好而感触良多.他门之中，除了注重学业外，都积极的参与自己热爱的学余活动,有些有专一持久的爱好,也有些则多方面的发展.

申请美国大学的入学,除了基本的学生成绩表,老师的推荐信等外,学生们一般都需要写一两篇关于自己人生理想和奋斗的文章.一些竞争性激烈的大学还鼓励学生们参与面谈.就举麻省理工来说,他们所找寻的学生不是一批只是学业成绩满分的学生, 而是一批拥有理想,抱着热诚,有充分准备的优秀学生团队,各有所长,各有所学.

在面谈时,是非常轻松的,就如聊天一样.主要的是通过交流的谈话,进一步了解学生们的生活和他们所热衷参与的活动.每一个故事,都是一个感动和学习.基本上，学生们还是非常有理想,有创意的!

比如,在几年前的面谈中,我和一位喜爱音乐的学生谈了很多她所参与的音乐活动,也知道了一个关于鼓吹保护热带雨林的长年音乐会.面谈那天,她还带来了光碟播放机给我听了她自写自编及在热带雨林音乐会表演的乐曲.据我所知,她今年也乘大学假期回来参与这项音乐会!

另外,有一位学生的集邮方式则与众不同.由于家贫,而本身又热爱集邮,她想出了一个妙方法--给在马来西亚的各国大使馆写信.在信中,她说了自己本身的情况,并请求他们在处理来自本国的信件时,把邮票收集及寄回给她.我问她:”这行吗?”她的回答很简单:”开始不行,但要坚持及有耐心,最后还是收到的.”

当然，这么多年来，也有不少的学生带来了他们创意的作品，如喜爱的书法作品，充满激情的水彩画，自己创作的电脑游戏，软件与网站等。去年，还有一位拿了他厚厚数百页的英文科幻小说作品来，并说会继续如Lord of the Rings这个系列般写几本续集。更令人惊讶的是一位热爱用橡胶圈制造玩具手枪的男生，她用了几年的课余时间，一步一步的设计与制造，从简入繁，一直到最新的全自动多发瞄准玩具手枪，而这些子弹（全是橡胶圈）也帮他带进了麻省理工。



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