聖保羅男女中學 vs 李寶椿國際書院

Shootastar

I am very impressed with the admission lists of DBS and SPCC.

The Ivies or equivalents admitted about 8% international students. That means each of them admits around 100 to 150 students foreign students. Unless you are a green card or US passport holder, you have to compete for a space among the top top top students in the world.

With a small class of around 50, DBS and SPCC's admission list is quite outstanding as far as Ivies or equivalents are concerned.

Again Oxbridge only admits around 10% foreign students. Foreign students are classified by their resident status, not by the type of passport they hold. That means each year Oxbridge admits around 700 foreign students. There are over tens of thousands of secondary schools in the world. There is only one space per 60 to 100 colleges. One or two successful applicants to Oxbridge is marvelous especially the number of students in the class is around 60.

Shootastar

回復 中天英 的帖子

Regarding DBS, it seems that you have ignored (or slighted) University of Washington and Vanderbilt University (which are top 20 colleges ranked by US News) or UC Berkeley (2) which is ranked about 20 to 23 consistently throughout the last 10 year.
Further the admission to Stern of NYU is as difficult as (if not more) admission to any Ivy.

In case of their placements in UK colleges, they have offers from Durham (1), IC (1), LSC (1), UCL (5) U Cambridge (2) University of Oxford,  University of St. Andrews as well.

They also have 3 placements of CU medicine, 2 placements of global business of HKUST, 3 medical placements of HKU and 3 law placements with HKU.

As parents, how much could you expect?

Shootastar

回復 中天英 的帖子

As you said, the number of IB students of SPCC is 27. Out of this small class, they have the following placements:
(1) Hong Kong : HKU (14), HKUST (13) and CU (7). [I understand that amongst the offers from CU and HKU, they are offers from medicine and law].

(2) US: Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, UC Berkeley, UCLA(3)

(3) UK: Durham (8), IC (10), KCL (1), LSE (3), UCL (12), U Cambridge (1), U Oxford (1), St. Andrews.

Further, many local students would not apply to US colleges if they intend to study law or medicine and have a chance to study here.

I do not think all 27 students had applied to US colleges. Assuming that half of them did not apply, the number of students who applied for admission to US colleges is around 13 to 15. Out of these "few students" who might not be the top group of the class and who might not be US passport holders, how can one argue that the admission list is unimpressive?. Against these background and the placements in Hong Kong and UK, what else do you expect?

Shootastar

回復 中天英 的帖子

It is true that the admission list of LPC is better than DBS or SPCC if your focus is on Harvard / Princeton / Yale etc.
However, US college admission is a very complicated matter. There is no formula which tells you the chance of admission. They would take into account of the following factors:

(1) your nationality. If you are not holder of US passport or green card, you will be considered as international students and the quota for international school is about 8% of the class size.

(2) GPA

(3) Standardized scores such as SAT or ACT.

(4) the public examination result

(5) the passion on a particular subject

(6) activities

(7) achievements (both academic, sport or others)

(8) services

(9) leadership experience and skill

(10) recommendations from the teachers and guidance counselor.

Good IB result is only one of the factors taken into account by the colleges.

We have to admit that DBS and SPCC is very young when they are compared with LPC which has more than 20 years to teach IB course. LPC knows very much the factors which are essential to the admission to US colleges. They know how to give the children to build up a personal profile which contains all the above factors to be considered by the admission committee.

DBS and SPCC (IB session) will need time to gain experience in building up its own reputation and stretching the potentials of its students in the above areas. In 10-year time, I am sure that DBS and SPCC will be as good as any international IB schools in Hong Kong.

Shootastar

回復 中天英 的帖子

This is a good question.
Perhaps you have known, since the beginning of 2000, the US colleges (unofficially put the quotas allocated to Hong Kong to the quota of PRC). Although it has never been confirmed by any Ivy or its equivalent, you can analyse the admission list of the top local and international schools and found that the number of successful applicants to those colleges dwindle each year. It is because our students have to compete with the top horses in different provinces and major cities of the PRC.

Apart from this factor alone, the other factors listed in my earlier posts are also crucial. Good IB results do not guarantee admission. So long as you pass the bar (probably 38), it would be sufficient for the admission offer to regard you as a potential candidate and for them to consider other factors.

Regarding the SAT, Ivies usually require a minimum score. Usually if you do not have 2,250 or above, the chance of being admitted is not high (unless you have other strength which could override this factor). But please note that Ivies deny that they have a minimum score on SAT.

With so many factors which affect the chance of admission to Ivies or its equivalent, it is not fair to say that it is a failure of the school if their students of IB scores of 40 or over fail to be admitted to Ivies or top US colleges.

Shootastar

回復 lawsonmoon 的帖子

I have to declare my interest. None of my kids study at DBS / SPCC /DGS or am I associated with these schools. What I analyse are facts of the case.
In 80+, not so many families could afford to send the kids to study overseas. If they do, they would send them to UK because the qualifications obtained in UK are directly recognized in Hong Kong. Not so many families are interested to send their kids to US mainly for 2 reasons.

Firstly, it is more expensive to study in US because it is a 4-year program (instead of 3 in UK).

Secondly, the image of US colleges appeared to be parents was "wild chicken" unless they were big names. As a matter of fact, I did not know which was a good US colleges except the Ivies or its equivalent or Berkeley or UCLA. I had no idea about William, Amherst or Wellesley. You can say I was ignorant then but it was a fact that the US colleges were less known to Hong Kong people (except big names). Firstly, the HK Government only recognized the degrees granted by 50 colleges or so (Please correct me the number if I am wrong).

The family would not send kids to the "wild chicken" colleges unless they were well known colleges or they were well off. The families of DBS boys were usually well off than the families of QES, QC or KC on average. That is why you had half of the class continued their education outside Hong Kong.

Because of the relatively small number of applicants in 80+, the competition for Ivies or its equivalent in 80+ was much less fierce as today.

In 80+, Oxford and Cambridge admitted 3,000 students each year but the applicants to each colleges was around 8,000. Again please correct me if I am wrong on the figure. The result was that it was much easier to be admitted to Oxbridge in 80+ than today.

Shootastar

回復 中天英 的帖子

It is a bit exaggerated that it is more difficult to be admitted to Stern than Harvard / Princeton / Yale. However, if we put this statement in context, it is difficult to be admitted to Stern and we cannot ignore the fact that it is an achievement for the student or the school that Stern gives him an offer.

Shootastar

回復 中天英 的帖子

It is true that the placement list of LPC is better than DBS / SPCC / DGS as far as Ivies or equivalents are concenred. However, the admission lists of those 3 local schools are very impressive.

Given them sometime to run the IB courses, I have the confidence that they could perform as good as any top international schools in Hong Kong.

Shootastar

回復 中天英 的帖子

The answer is very simple. They are traditional elite local schools with history of track records.

Shootastar

回復 ANChan59 的帖子

It is my pleasure. In fact there are two more factors which may be taken into account by the admission officer:
(1) legacy case. If your parents or grandparents are alumni of the college, your application may usually receive a further look in case of a tie with other applicants. Obviously, if your parents make contribution annually, I think the factor of legacy would have a better weight.

(2) development officer case. If you are prepared to make substantial donation, say US$5.0 million, you can talk to the development office for a place. I do not mention this factor in my earlier mail because it is very rare that BK parents would make a development office case.

Shootastar

回復 中天英 的帖子

中天英


I would like to render my comments on your post in red as follows:


係呀，Shootastar對美國大學真係好「knowledgable」，同佢一輪對話，小弟獲益良多，茅塞顿開 ：
原來NYU [Please refer properly to my post. I mentioned "Stern" of "NYU", not "NYU" as you wrote].，重難入過Harvard/Yale/Princeton嘅 [Please read my post in the context. The admission to Stern is as difficult as (if not more) to Ivies] I did not say Harvard / Yale/ Princeton. You put those words into my mouth. If you wanted to quote my words, please quote in exact wordings. Further it will be conducive in a rational discussion if you read the post of others in the right context.。

Shootastar

回復 中天英 的帖子

小弟不才，係咪又理解錯左你嘅意思？

No I don't think you are "不才", but I am convinced that you purposely put the words into my mouth by twisting "Stern" to "NYU".