From September onward, many universities either local or from overseas
have orientation day for admission or exhibition.
My friend's boy is in a local Band 1 EMI school at F7, his parents
recommended him to attend the admission seminars of HKUST (18/9), but he
preferred to study instead of seminars.
My son was also there, after the gathering, I asked him would you like to
go and know more about the non-JUPAS application procedures and programs
offer by target universities. He said he would like to know more and has
more time to plan for that, so we will go for CUHK (9/10)and HKU (30/10).
His school also notify them to attend seminars of different universities,
either in his schools or even other schools or HK Convention &
Exhibition Centre.
On Wed, they have Ivy League Fair in-house, they invited some old boys to
share about their experience in those universities etc. They can ask
different questions to evaluate which school is or are best fit their
ability and interest.
Know the admission officer face to face and exchange business cards, we can
keep the contact and ask more appropriate questions.
Strategy 3 - Summer job or attachment (Pay or no
pay)
(Suggested by mattsmum)
Work experience related to the professional subject definitely help to
improve the advantage of the applicants. Through the experience, you may
know the career more, understand the industry norm, know some influential
people as mentor or supervisor (My son's school has the mentorship program
for seniors), know the process and precedure to get professional
qualification etc.
Some extreme examples as follow:
My ex-boss his eldest son studied in HKIS, summer job in Goldman Sachs and
finally admitted to LSE in UK.
A friend of mine, his daughter got a summer job in HSBC and an
International hotel chain, admitted to LSE and finally work for Investment
Bank.
For ideal case, I would like my son can have overseas summer job experience
, eg. US, Germany or even China (Beijing or Shanghai), Fortune 100 even
better
. I don't mind no-pay, I will
pay for tickets and provide maintenance fee for my son........ Anyone have
contact???
For science or engineering, self-nomination to universities as volunteer.
Age may be a concern, too young is difficult to get insurance coverage and
cannot get into laboratory or operating machinery.
As volunteer to serve some professional bodies or trade
associations........you can know some influential people, VIP, potential
boss. Don't treat me wrong, I mean networking not polish the apple.
Strategy 3A Attachment
In the admission talk of Medicine Faculty, CUHK,
one of the speaker Dr. Lee, he shared with us what he did when he was in
International School, he sent email to Professors in HKU and CUHK to ask
for attachments. He was lucky enough to have 2 attachments in QMH and PWH
respectively.
In the attachments, he understands the life of a doctor in hospital, the
urgency, the life and death, emotional ups and downs, difference in
Medicine and Surgery etc. He found the passion to be a doctor and go for
it. He emphasis the career can be lasted for 40 years, if you can test it
out before the final decision is a good move.
The same principle applies to other professional. Take an initiative to
seek for opportunity by yourself, understand the career, pros and cons,
other opportunities, hardship and rewards etc.....
PRC Attachment
Last two weeks I hosted two high school students from an Elite
girl school and a boy from IS for the attachment in China & HK.
Their academic background are flying colors and eligible for scholarship(s)
in US.
They don't mind to live with workers in the dorm, basic living standard
and they learn alot during the attachment.
They presented to me on Saturday what they learnt from the attachment:
1. The future decline of the World Factory in China when the costkeep
on rising;
2. The industry transformation in China from low tech to high tech and
more value-added....;
3. They are very lucky in HK, teenagers with similar age are working in
the factory and the job pretty repetitive......
4. They teach staff to play piano, keyboard.....
After two weeks, they confirmed their future university majors and
career path......... As a mentor, I am happy to know their
inspirations........
|
My suggestion for summer jobs:
1. Through your gangxi is the key, most go for university students
2. Go for shadowing, she may not have hand-on training experience, just
understand the job, observe and paperwork only.
3. Insurance is a big concern - age, can't work in Lab or operate
machine.
4. Prepare a CV, all request an impressive CV.
5. Just job exposure, go for fast food chain, clothes chain....... not
necessary high profile companies.
Strategy 4 - OLE/ECA/CAS with focus or theme(s)
Last Saturday, my son'e school organised an University Day with over 30
old boys came back and shared their overseas universities studying
experience to their juniors.
As they were from various background and countries, they provided an
important idea for us to reconsider my son's CAS.
OLE/ECA/CAS are based on hours and achievements, but most students won't
leverage with their dream programs. Say medicine, your ECA or CAS are
piano and or swimming, it's good but if you can related that to your
program which make a difference. E.g. run a concert as fund raising to
sponsor a mini-medical check up program for the elderly in a public
housing estates like in Shamshuipo, still related to music, but add more
elements into it: aging population, medical check-up, leadership and
creativity.
Wow, they challenged us and also opened our mind to do something more
meaningful and challenging.
Strategy 5 - Self-discovery - major & career
We had a large group Christmas party on 25th and many kids of our
friends from overseas, UK, USA and Australia had some useful
conversations related to program, major and career selection.
A couple of them mentioned that they did some self exploratory analysis
in their high school or in junior years of college.
I guess some schools have similar arrangement to help students
understand their interests & skills and facilitate them to pick a
better program and career. If not pls refer to the following websites
may help:
1. Questionnaire to identify your Holland Codes
http://cscc.edu/docs/PACS/assessment.htm#Featured
2. Explanation of Holland Codes and the highest 3 codes match with
different majors and careers, two colleges examples listed as reference
http://www.pnc.edu/discover/holland.html
http://career.missouri.edu/resou
... %20Code%20S2010.pdf
http://www.vcu.edu/uc/documents/Discovery_Worksheet_4_page.pdf
I know more than one assessment around for similar application, Holland
Code just one of them. If your kid doesn't have any clue about the program
and the career, this may be a good starting point.
Strategy 6 - Scholarship
Two years ago, I was a panel member of a
scholarship selection panel for a local professional institution. We
interviewed 8 of top students, 2-3 were eligible for EAS and only 3
come from famous elite schools (全港名校 - 皇仁、英皇.....),
and others are from local elite schools(地區名校 - 林護、鄧顯...).
All of them have two common characteristics:
1. Scholarships from different organizations; and
2. Best student awards from different district.
As a panel member, I felt that they came across other scholarship
selection process before; they are clam, presentable and have the
passion for the future program and career. It's easy for us to
nominate them to get the scholarship of that year.
I strongly recommend our kids apply different scholarships, not just
you can get it and make your CV more impressive, also give them a
great opportunity to go through the selection process before the
university admission process.
Lucky enough, they get some scholarships and really show their
capability, character and passion of related discipline of
professional. I can guarantee they have better chance to be accepted
by that hot program. Even some of the panel members may be come from
the university..........
Other Strategies
I would like other parents to chip in their two cents in the
following areas:
7. Interview, tough interview questions .....
8. Reference letter - Academic, character......
9. Extra-ordinary achievements.....
10. Others....
**********************************
Around summer time, my son made a friend through fb, eventually, he
is my son's senior and claimed - works in a MNC. He shared his
experience with my son:
1. The senior observed most of his classmates or colleagues have
better career advancement, they are more receptive to take parents
arrangement in career exploration. His rationale is parents can
arrange that must be more educated, well connected and more future
looking, which the children can't have at that age. The children
willing to take the golden opportunities, they may have a jump
satrt.
2. He aslo recommended my son to read a few books written by Malcom
Gladwell, my son borrowed them from the library and finished them
in summer.
************************************
ch1970 post
兩大(三大則不清楚)裡頭有不少學者都以研究跨國生活出身(果然是大學, 什麼東西都可以研究),定期會與不同科系部門的人灌輸相關知識。不記得港大還是中大, 商學院的高層同時又是負責做跨國學生學術聯繫的, 有次他跟大學裡研究跨國生活經驗的學者, 還有一所big4的HR見面時, 兩人不若而同說, 每逢面試, 總有一大籮人說自己很有國際視野, 但細問卻只可以像寫cv般將自己的經歷複述一次和淺層的感受, 完全不impressive. 這是數年前一名與他們共事的研究員跟我談起, 可見大學/見工面試, 應該不只要求面試者能透露自己的不同經歷, 而且還要求更多的吧? 我覺得可以試找出那些學者究竟是什麼科系, 略略看一下他們的文章, 就可以更了解究竟大學裡頭, 所謂國際見識其實是什麼一回事。
回復 ch1970 的帖子
Global exposure definitely more than just visits, seminars,
friends........ reflection, actions, value system, higher level
think are preferable.
My intention is used examples to trigger parents to stretch their
boundaries, I didn't try all of them. I need to be humble in this
aspect, but I will rise the hurdle as time goes by...... I won't
expect a 16 years kid's compare with a professor in a very in-depth
but narrow scope. I would like him or other kids have exposures in
whatever means first, then in-depth....... How to internalize those
experience are up to him, with our appropriate guidance?
*************************************
ksenia suggested the following website: http://www.experiencegla.com/
found a website about teen volunteering..but the tuition fee is
expensive
it doesn't include air ticket
***************************************
|
|
|
|
|