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]

Originally Posted by Robyn

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

Originally Posted by Robyn

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]

Originally Posted by __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.

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]

Originally Posted by __earth

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]