I was in Raffles Junior College this morning to attend a talk by a Harvard Admission Officer. Some Harvard Alumni member was also present there and together the both of them shared some rather interesting information about Harvard University.

I shall pick out the interesting part.

Harvard College admitted 1656 people last year. Around 27000 people applied to Harvard.

So your chances of entering Harvard = (1656 ÷ 27000) ≈ 0.061333 = 6.13%
Meaning for every 100 applications that Harvard receives, only around 6 people get admitted and the remaining 94 people are rejected.

Okay. That’s grim enough. But that’s not all. Ms Melanie also said international students (non-US citizens) make up around 10% of the intake.

So for international applicants like most of you and me, your chances of being admitted to Harvard = (0.061333 ÷ 10) = 0.0061333 ≈ 0.613%

And that means for every 100 international applicants, less than 1 gets admitted into Harvard.

Of course Harvard can’t admit every international student from the same country right? They need some diversity. The Harvard alumnus was kind to give some vital statistics. Every year around 5 Singaporeans, 4 Chinese, and 5-7 Indians are admitted into Harvard. From Malaysian newspaper report, I know that there is only 1 Malaysian from Kajang that got admitted into Harvard for this coming intake.

So for that sole Malaysian who got into Harvard, he defeated some rather steep odds against the other Malaysians.

His chances (and mine) of entering Harvard = (1 ÷ 27000) ≈ 0.000037037 = 0.0037%

Ok, to be fair, 3 Malaysians were admitted into Harvard the previous year. But the fact still remain, it’s still extremely hard to enter Harvard. Using this statistic of 3 Malaysians, my chances will be (0.0037 x 3) ≈ 0.0111%

There are 5 Singaporeans who got admission into Harvard, so your chances (if you are a Singaporean) of entering is roughly (0.0037 x 5) = 0.0185%

Let’s compare this to buying a 4 digit lottery in the corner gambling shop. Your chances of winning the first prize is [1 ÷ (10 x 10 x 10 x 10)] ≈ 0.0001 = 0.01%

So for me, the prospect of me gaining admission into Harvard is almost close to none. It’s like me buying a 4D number and hoping that I’ll win the first prize when the results are announced.

The Harvard alumnus also said that Singapore has a very disproportionate representation in Harvard. For a nation of around 4million people, the percentage of people being admitted for any single year is around (5 ÷ 4 000 000) ≈ 1.26 x 10-4%

As for China and India, the representation is only around (5 ÷ 1 000 000 000) ≈ 5 x 10-7%

So no wonder Harvard is so famous. It’s famous for rejecting so many people. And those that does gain admission into Harvard, they are rather set for life cause there are just simply too little people with a Harvard degree.

If the chances of me being admitted into Harvard are comparable to that of winning the first prize of a 4D lottery, then should I even consider applying? People say don’t waste your time and money buying the lottery. This is nearly the same thing. Now do you still want to try your luck entering Harvard?

I’ve noticed lately that I received quite a number of incoming links from search engines regarding the keywords, Asean, Asean scholarships, Oldham Hall, Victoria JC etc…..hmmmm….I wonder why….I guess it’s because the new batch of Asean scholars are coming soon to Singapore. If I’m not wrong the new 2008 Malaysians Asean scholars will be coming in on 18th December 2007? Haha….just like me last year, no time to enjoy after SPM…Only 2 weeks at most.

Anyway, when the scholarship letter arrives, it doesn’t state which hostel one is posted to. It simply mentions the hostel name and asks one to report there at so and so date and time. I was Googling around last year also to find out which college I had been posted to. I ended up doing a search at streetdirectory.com to look for colleges near my hostel.

Just to make things simpler, here’s a list of hostels and the JCs one will be posted to.

Oldham Hall – Anderson JC
Victoria Hall – Victoria JC
Raffles Boarding – Raffles JC
Hwa Chong Boarding – National JC
NUS High School Residence – Anglo Chinese JC
Dunman High Boarding – Temasek JC
McNair Lodge – Saint Andrews JC

So which is the best hostel? Can’t really say much. But let me talk from my 1 year experience.

Just in case you are wondering, I’m staying in Oldham Hall, and goes to Anderson JC. I’m a direct scholar, meaning I came to Singapore only during JC level. I’ve just completed JC1 and will be in JC2 next year.

From experience and hearsay from other scholars, it seems like Oldham Hall is the best (ok dun kill me, I shall change to one of the best) place to live in. It has all the facilities one can dream of, except a running track (Near town la, no land!). It has air-cond in rooms (I’m surprised too when I first came last year, lol!), gym, indoor basketball courts, swimming pool, futsal court, music room, laundry service (free & unlimited number of clothes!).

The only drawback is it’s kinda expensive to stay in Oldham Hall and Anderson JC is a little far from hostel (35-45 minutes travelling time via public transport). We gotta pay around S$10 per month for aircond, S$1 per hour for internet and gym membership (not compulsory) is S$40 per year. Next year there will be wireless access but it’s not free. There’s some special plan from some private company and the price range from S$5 to S$22 depending on speed. And also since school is far from hostel, we have a chartered bus in the mornings which charges us around S$15 per month. It’s simpler and faster this way.

I don’t think I wanna babble much here about my hostel. I guess many of you are also hunting for information on which is the best JC in Singapore right?

Well, the Government has stopped releasing the rankings a few years back. But one can basically gauge the rankings of the schools from the cut-off points required by Singapore O-level students to enter these colleges.

This is an unofficial list but based on historical data and cut-off points the rankings are somewhere like this.

1. Raffles JC
2. Hwa Chong JC
3. Victoria JC
4. National JC
5. Temasek JC

These are basically the Top 5 JCs in Singapore. I prefer to call them the Tier 1 JCs.

6. Anderson JC
7. Saint Andrews JC
8. Anglo-Chinese JC

The above 3 JCs I would prefer to call the Tier 2 JCs. Now don’t come killing me saying AC is better than SA or better than AJ. This is an unofficial list and the schools shuffle among themselves for better rankings every year.

From experience, the MOE usually places new direct Malaysian scholars in the above JCs. The only exception is Hwa Chong JC. I have no idea why direct scholars don’t go there….

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