Advice from Shaun

Yippee. I dont have to write any more blogposts since these survivors of the admissions processes seem to be dishing out more relevant advice, as opposed to the irreverant ones by me. Well, do listen to what he has to say. Thanks Shaun. We need to do kopi soon. This time, I will come to you, since you went Bishan (and Kuala Lumpur too right?) to find me.


Hi Mr Sim,

After receiving my admissions decisions during my last week of BMT, I meant to email you during my post-BMT block leave - but it slipped my mind, and before I knew it I was in OCS for three weeks of confinement again. But now that I'm out, just wanted to say thank you so much for your advice and help over the past year - both for my uni applications and for PXX!

I don't know if you already know, but I got a place in Harvard and will be going there on a PXX scholarship (SXXXX). And even though you're indeed no miracle worker, I'm quite sure the advice and prodding you gave me definitely helped! I still remember that time I met you at Holland V last December, and you asked if I had submitted my PXX application - when I asked if completing it by the end of December would be okay, you told me "no. I mean today. Go submit it this afternoon." It may have made me considerably more stressed during my lunch appointment that day, but it's a piece of advice I myself now pass on to my juniors - to not procrastinate, and submit and to start on everything as early as possible. 

Even and especially with my university applications, I think that meeting we had with you last year at Junction 8's Coffee Bean was a point of great awakening for me, as my (AC-induced) bubble of security was burst. At that meeting, I realised that contrary to popular belief in my school, we did not have a lot of time for uni and scholarship applications, and that clearing IB was not the only thing we needed to care about - at that point, I began to seriously consider what was going to happen after I graduated, and looking back, it was not a moment too soon.

Klarissa and I went back to school a couple of weeks back to give a small scale talk about applying to the US, based on our experiences and what we learned from you (since we didn't think the talk we asked Mrs XXXXXX to contact you about last year would ever transpire, we figured it was our duty to go back and pass on the enlightenment, haha). And just like what you did with us last year, we tried to open the eyes of those who attended - awakening them to the reality that US essays take much longer to mature than school essays, that CCAs and academic grades were by no means any guarantor of admission anywhere, and to not do things the "Asian way", with the admissions process being much less about paper qualifications and impressive resumes than it is about personality, sincerity and who you are beneath the laundry list of everything Singaporeans are impressed by. I also shared with them the most important (in my opinion) reality about the admissions process that you shared with us - that the most meaningful undergraduate experiences are not always found in HPYSM or ABCDE or whatever - that choosing the best college comes down, again, to who you are rather than how 'smart' or 'talented' you are; that brand names are just names which will probably mean much less than the 4 years of memories there. 

(Personally, I chose HXXXXXX because I didn't have that much of a choice anyway - WXXXXXXX, AXXXXXX, SXXXXXXX, MXXXXXX and JXX all waitlisted me. And with Harvard's admission rate being so crazily low, maybe it's God's will for me to go there and not to the other places I applied to!)

But anyway, (sorry this email somehow ended up much longer than I expected!) thank you once again for everything you've helped me with, and more importantly, helped me to realise about the whole uni applications process. Even though the admissions process is really about the applicant's work (and maybe quite a bit of God's grace or luck, however one chooses to see it) and not about any trade secrets or magic stones you have, I'm sure you'll continue to make a difference in the lives of the endless stream of people passing through your doors every cycle! Just as, by helping me reach these realisations about admissions and life, you have in mine (:

Best and warmest regards, 

Shaun Lim

ACS(I) - class of 2011

Breakfast Meetup

Ok here are the details.
 Location: Intersection of Keong Saik Rd and Teck Lim Rd (Chinatown, just beside Chinatown market). At a kopitiam called Tong Ya, 36 Keong Saik Rd
 Time: 9am-1030am, Monday 7/5/12
 Er, if you are coming, do drop me an email with the following details: - Name, HP number, your high school PLEASE only come if I reply!
 It would be helpful if you brought a double-paged resume, with grades, etc, and some interesting things about yourself.
 Otherwise, come enjoy the coffee there and take a step back into old Singapore. :) And the kaya-toast is supremely divine there. :)
 KS

Every year at this time, like some ritual, some kids from all over Singapore will attempt to hunt me down. Funnily, it has always been kids from ACSI leading the way; two years in a row they even hunted me down to the annual talk I give at KL. Quite interestingly, these kids end up going somewhere.

Just in case you mistake that I am a worker of miracle, I am not. I think I need to clarify that I do believe it is this pro-activeness, this determination, this desire to not just rest on the one's laurels but go out there to seek more information and help - that eventually produces the results.

Recently a kid emailed me saying that he had a photo of me (I am not even going to ask where he got it from since photos of me are almost extinct) and he sat at Bishan's coffee places for some 4-5 hours hoping to spot me. :p

Out of respect for these people who try so hard, and who do not have the privilege Bishan JC people have, I am going to find a morning once every 2 weeks or so to make myself available.

It will usually be in the morning, when I have my breakfast. I will station myself at some cafe/kopitiam and people can just come by for a chat.

Please watch this space in the next 24 hours, because I will make myself available on Monday morning (since it is a public holiday). Please also note I tend to go places which are a bit off the radar; I love going to old kopitiams which have long been neglected by the mainstream crowds. It will be fun anyway - take a journey somewhere you have never been to.

So - will get back to this space in 24 hours and let you know. Please drop an email before dropping by on Monday too.

Back very soon.
KS



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Talks!!!

Talk by Chicago, Duke, Dartmouth, Wellesley and Stanford
Date: 14th April, Saturday
Time: 4pm
Venue: Raffles Institution, Lecture Theatre 1

Talk by Dean of Engineering of University of Pennsylvania: Engineering in the US
Date: 16th April, Sunday
Time: 430pm
Venue: Raffles Institution, Lecture Theatre 5

Both talks are open to the public!



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News on the road

Fast news. On the road.

Bishan JC did very well, think it is a world record with 69 Oxbridge admits. What do I have to say about it? Thank you to the two institutions for being so generous to the Singaporean applicant from Bishan. Appreciate it.

I know A levels are out; admissions results will be out soon.

Ex-counselee, from years ago, just dropped me an email; maybe he has good advice for all during this rather trying period of waiting for the rest of your life –

“… One last thing. So a whole bunch of students might be coming to you telling you about how they got accepted, rejected, or how they did well in As. For those whiny ones or the arrogant ar**s, you can tell them this. After my rejects and waitlists, I was humbled. Most people will say that it is not a good feeling. Why not? Because it hurts their ego. Ego is the bane of human existence.

Tell them that when life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. When life is bitter, say thank you and learn.

So thank you, Kevin.

Q “

I defer to his experience and wisodm.

KS (about to board a plane?
p.s. sorry to those who keep emailing me asking me to write. :p rather busy with charity work

I write; in 15mins

People keep pestering me: how do you write about yourself in 500 words? Too short!

I agree. It is tough. So I decided to try; I gave myself 20mins max; I always believe it either is or it isn't, 4 hours or 15mins, the result is always ultimately the same. So here it is:

@@@@@@@@@@@

The first time I traveled – my mother bought me a ticket to go to college. She said – Go. And find out for yourself what the world is, what you are. No arrangements. Nobody to pick me up. I made my lone way to college.

Dinesen said: The world is a locked box. And man is a locked box. In each, lies the key to each other.

My mother grew up in poverty, never was motivated to work hard. Never had much ambition; Life circumscribed her lot. But she learned via a different road she walked, and she wanted me to have what she did not. She said: Go decide what you want in Life; have no regrets later.

Since that first flight, I have travelled ceaselessly. Not so much the first few years, which mainly involved long greyhound bus-rides, exploring nameless towns, talking to people whose names I never asked nor remembered – the owners of the secondhand bookshop above the candle-shop, beside my college; the owner of the Hongkong Restaurant which served such amazing dimsum-balls, that was what they called it on the menu; the lady who lost her two fishes on the bus and cried by the road.

Post-college, I learned to circle further. The long drive out of Phnom Penh, down uncharted dust-roads, until we stumbled on a group of boys who made a living catching tiny frogs for fishbait in the flooded padi-fields, by a granite-mining site. The 104 year old monk who ran a school and orphanage outside Yangon, on offerings from believers for some 1600 kids; at 9pm, in the kerosene light, they were chanting A-B-C-D-E. The sandwich shop lady in LA, who was so happy for someone to walk into her shop – we spent an hour talking about everything, she insisted I looked like someone who drove trailer-trucks, a trucker, before she gave me my sandwich; the innumerable individuals who spent hours trying to tell me about their lives in my office, as I pretended to look disinterested. Each and every one of them, I cannot say I remember, but I can tell you I forgot not one.

More than 100 different cities later, if I were ever summoned before the Maker to account for how I have fruitfully spent my life, I have nothing to offer, but this: the arabesque of my Byzantium memory, of all these people and places. This is what I sought, this is what I saw, this is what I felt – these are all part of who I am.

A friend asked me on my birthday recently, what would you do if you were the richest man in the world? I would buy a ticket for every kid in my school and that I have ever met, and send them off – no map, no guide, no pre-arrangement. Go out into the unknown. Explore. That is how it was meant to be. That was how life was meant to be lived.

Dinesen was right. The more you see of the world, the more your know yourself. The more of yourself you accept, the better you will learn to comprehend the world.

Today, my mother is in Xinjiang, China. I think it is her turn to also see the world too. Sometimes, our paths cross. We meet, like opportune strangers; we laugh. We are thankful.

And we part.


K.Sim
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500 words

Since I have to work on a public holiday, I might as well blog. ;)

I am sure, I should be, the chorus of indignation of: "What? Only 500 words?" should have reached a certain frenzy by now. If you have yet to realize, commonapp essay has a suggested word limit of 500.

I have been saying quite often that- a life which can be written in 500 words ought not to be written. People misunderstand. What I meant was - with such a limit, do not try to write a sweeping essay which attempts to catalogue your life. Try a day. An incident. A minute. Afterall, you are attempting to give us an idea of who you are via a brief. Hence find the moment/incident/whatever that best crystalizes "you" and present it on paper.

Note: do not spend time describing details. Cut to the chase. Quickly move on to what you are trying to say. Try innovative forms of writing. Have fun trying. So that it might be fun, too, for the reader.

About a month ago, I met up with someone from bukit timah JC. I read his essay. I kind of demolished it, in usual frankness and swiftness, like a vampire in a vegan shop having a beetroot sale.

Problem is, everyone starts an essay with a hidden list of activities and what not he/she thinks would best illustrate what a wonderful applicant he/she is. And then finds ways to insert them into the essay, regardless of relevance.

Point is - activities/achievements do not tell me who you are.

After ravaging the essay and telling him to dump it into the rubbish bin. I told him to rewrite, from scratch. This is often the best way to rewrite, with no regard for the predecessor-essay. Start afresh. Then you have no baggage to carry.

If you are reading this, bukit timah JC boy, the essay you emailed me two days later was absolutely wonderful to read. I'm glad you got my point in twenty minutes. :) And I could feel, reading it, that you enjoyed writing it this time round. Sorry for not replying your email; you know me.

What have I been doing? Why not blog posts? I have been trooping around developing countries in the region doing work. Wonderful thing is: I am joined on by ex-counselees spanning 12 years. Glad that they are also interested in something beyond "self". :)

On my birthday I had a phone call: "Hello you might not remember me, I am XXX, your student from 10 years ago (wrong, actually 12, I remember haha), I have not contacted you all these while so you might not remember me (I do). I just wanted to wish you happy birthday! And wonder if you would come for my wedding next year, if you are not too busy."

Haha. Of course I would. Silly. Of course.

Back to doing work.

Banshee of Bishan


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Location:Bishan JC