Cheltenham Ladies' College vs Cardiff Sixth Form

Choisumwong

回覆 bobbycheung 的帖子

To be honest, academic performance is the first priority for university acceptance. ECA is the allowance for those who are less competetive in HK, UK and USA. This is the universal law !! Of course, academic excellence with ECA will be big advantage !! On contrary, some university places are reserved for third country students with outstanding ECAs only !!

Choisumwong

回覆 bobbycheung 的帖子

To define ECAs, they are the activities which are new or interesting to students. I mean 'no time to join ECAs' which refers to my definition. Those students who are admitted to top schools must have talents other than academic level !

bobbycheung

回覆 Choisumwong 的帖子

That may be the law of your "universe".  My universe doesn't work that way.  Try to apply to US top colleges with good academic results but no ECAs and see how far you will get.

Choisumwong

回覆 bobbycheung 的帖子

US top colleges don't like good academic level. If you have only good academic level with ECAs, it is really hard to be admited. NO doubt !

bobbycheung

回覆 Choisumwong 的帖子

Yes, definitely, we do live in a different universe.

Choisumwong

回覆 bobbycheung 的帖子

Different people have different universe. In fact, it is great. Do you know black holes exist in our universe ? I mean every one has blind spot including myself. Anyway thanks for your view ! I will take into consideration. I actually know ECA is important.

bobbycheung

回覆 Choisumwong 的帖子

If what you said about UK top schools and US top colleges are correct, mine is probably a black hole rather than a blind spot.

Choisumwong

回覆 bobbycheung 的帖子

Just for sharing, HKU/CU medicine ask for 4A* in A-level  and 43 scores in IB for interview. If students have no such level, they don't have chance for interview, not saying being accepted. ECA in this situation plays no role at all.

bobbycheung

回覆 Choisumwong 的帖子

投降!

lottieclee

As a CLC alumni,  no doubt with CLC. Most of my friends have really good jobs and the worst of our class is Head of Special Education in a public school district.  It's not a guaranteed ticket to a good degree and good job, but the culture teaches you to work and be a very British person.

lottieclee

Oh... And reading your threads, I want to say, I had a fair amount of ECA and I went to college in US.  I have a doctorate now and have married someone with a doctorate.  Many of my friends took a Gap year after Yr 13.  Coming from a tradition Chinese family, I didn't have a chance to do that, which I regret still.

Academics, ECA and even a first degree don't mean much nowadays, many professions require higher degrees.  My profession in uS requires a doctorate.

Choisumwong

回覆 lottieclee 的帖子

In life there is always something to regret. My daughter in CLC may be interested in studying in America. Do you think that the pathway to doctorate, job and family in America is too long for girls ?

lottieclee

Nothing is too long.  I did it and our team only have 2 men, so we all did it.

My poor parents had to pay for a lot of tuition.  I paid instate for MS and the doctorate was pretty much self-paid, working while completing the degree.  I am a healthcare provider and have been doing this for 13 years and enjoying it.  Just that if you are in healthcare, don't go back to HK.  I tried it for several years, and cannot manage it culturally and technically.  HA culture and private hospital cultures were both unbearable.

Choisumwong

回覆 lottieclee 的帖子

Thanks for your reply. If my daughter wants to study medicine, she will come back HK. If she has no interest in medicine, she wants to explore studying in America. I doubt whether America nowadays still has a lot of chance for students to persuit their dream. For professional subjects, it is difficult. For non-professional subjects, it is not rewarding. Now it seems America government limits access to high technology to Chinese students. For pure science subjects there are a lot of competition from mainland students. Research funding is no longer generous. So there are not many rewarding subjects to choose in America. Low-technology business may be an exception. What do you think ?

lottieclee

回覆 Choisumwong 的帖子

You will never know what it will be like when your daughter is of age to go to college.  Let go and let her choose her life.  Very few people are truly in pure sciences.  Research funding, research jobs are based on many things.  Some of my friends who has degrees in electronical engineering works for large companies such as Motorola for R&D and even within that particular field, there are many specialties, like walkie-talkie, infra-red transmission, noise reduction transmission etc.  Some of my friends that has PhD in Chemical Engineering work for oil companies in Texas.  Some others who have PhD in Biomedical engineering, do R&D in such companies and some are lecturers at schools.  I also have a friend who has a PhD in Philosophy now teaches Business Ethics in Hong Kong.  Commercial R&D is of course funded by the company they work with.  There are many funding for university research.  Nobody has ever said that money comes easy, there are proposals, grant funding application.  It is not just money donated.  It has not worked that way for a long time.

I feel that I should let my chidlren explore their interest and Hong Kong is not the way it is.  My parents were really mad at me when I chose my A-Level subjects.  I wanted to do English, Chemistry and Psychology.  They felt that this combination would get me nowhere.  I ended up choosing Chemistry, Math and Physics, with advanced Math and AS psychology.  I hated this combination.  So I was so glad that I went to the US.  The credit system allowed me to explore other subjects of interest.  This is something that you will not get in British and Hong Kong tertiary education system: where the major you pick is the major you would have to stick with.  I did change major twice during undergraduate but still managed to complete the degree in 3 years.