Accepted!

I got accepted by Stony Brook University! Teehee! It's about $25,132 for tuition and room+board. It's pretty cheap for a good Psychology school. But with my dad retired and all...I'm still not sure if I should accept the offer. Sigh...I should just apply for the Singapore Scholarship and see how it goes. Anyway, here's the e-mail I got;

Dear Audrey,

Yes, we did receive the documents. At this point, I am pleased to inform you that we have reviewed your academic records and you are eligible for admission to Stony Brook University. In order to be fully accepted to Stony Brook University and to obtain an I-20 to study at a U.S. institution, you must submit the following financial documents. For further assistance on organizing your application and required supporting academic documentation please view the International Undergraduate Application Checklist & Instructions.

~[list of documents omitted]~

Stony Brook University Processing Center Mailing Address:
Stony Brook University
UG Processing - INTL
279 Broadway
Albany, NY 12204-2755
U.S.A.

Thank you,
Bogdan Scurtu

I'm not sure if I'll even go but knowing that a university accepted me just feels darn good. Since I got rejected by Berea College, I thought I'll never transfer to the US. At least there's a lil' bit of hope now. Thank you, Stony Brook! :)

How it is at work

I used to like answering questions on Yahoo! Answers, especially questions about education. The reason for the past tense is that I got sick of it after doing it for the past 5 days on my job. Allow me to explain: 23rd of March 2011 marked the release of the results of the most publicized (in my opinion) standardized exam in our country. Three letters; S. P. M. In short, it's like puberty for brains. I'm guessing about 90% of 17 year olds in Malaysia takes the SPM (citation needed). So, some of them, fresh out of SPM, believing in everything their parents and teachers tell them (e.g. Get into the Science stream. You should become a doctor or a lawyer.) start asking a bunch of generic questions on Afterschool.my or our Facebook page. The most common one would be; "Hi. My results for SPM is (some-grades-I-don't-care-jackshit-about-why-are-you-telling-me-this-?). What course should I study?" The thing is, I don't really mind helping them find their 'destiny' in life. I actually like doing those things. But can they give me some clues? There's only about a thousand of courses they could do and all they're tellin' me are some grades that don't really matter. 'Cause we all know what the Ministry of Education do to our grades to make it seem like we're getting smarter so the big-wigs at parliament can pat themselves on the back and call it a job well done.

There's one type of people among these that are particularly annoying. I call them the 'Doctor-wannabes'. Similarly, they tell me a bunch of grades I don't wanna know but this time, they focus on the Science grades. Asking me if they can still study Medicine if they did badly in their Biology, Chemistry and Physics subjects. I don't know what the teachers and parents feed the kids but all of them seem to think that doing badly in SPM is of an equal standing to the end of their lives. Okay, so they didn't do well in Science....they can still go into private colleges to do Medicine. The extent of what SPM grades can tell in the future is about as much as my ability to predict what my dog is having for dinner tomorrow night. (Read: not much, only limited to the immediate future if any at all.) But the bigger issue here is not with their Science grades, it's in their ability to see the mistakes in saying; "How to study doctor?", "I want to study as a doctor." and "Choosing a doctor as my career path." If they can't even converse properly, how can they do all that molecular biology, virus detection stuff? I'm also seriously doubting their interest in Medicine. Are they sincerely considering Medicine as a career field because they want to help mankind and all that noble stuff or is it because of the money or maybe it's their parents' lifelong dream after witnessing their children play doctor? I don't know. What I do know however, is that half of them would probably just drop out the moment they know how difficult and time-consuming it is to study Medicine. And then they'll take up some generic course like Mass Comm (#6 in The 10 Most Worthless College Majors list) or Business Admin. This just goes to show how practical us Asians are when it comes to careers. It's all about the money, eh?

Rejection

So, Berea replied to me yesterday with this e-mail:

Dear Wai Siong:

The International Admissions Committee would like to thank you for the interest you have shown in Berea College. However, I am sorry to inform you that we are unable to offer you admission at this time. You are invited to apply again next year, but you will need to resubmit all of your materials and use the new International Application form, which will be available in June 2011.

International students are highly valued by Berea College, a learning, labor, and service community that has always sought to welcome all peoples of the earth. However, our mission to serve the Appalachian mountain region limits us to only 30 international students per year, despite the fact that we receive application materials from more than 1,000 students worldwide.

Please accept our best wishes as you continue to pursue your educational goals.

Sincerely,

Luke Hodson
Director of Admissions

PS: Regrettably, we are unable to return your application materials to you or forward them to another institution on your behalf.

Sigh...I placed a lot of hope into this college. I really thought I was going to get in because my SAT scores were up to their standards. Maybe it's because I'm a transfer student and my credits are harder to transfer? Or maybe I'm just not meant to go to the US? One thing's for sure; if #67 Berea doesn't accept me, why would Trinity College that's ranked #36 take me in? Even if the acceptance rate is higher in Trinity.

When I read the e-mail yesterday, I knew it wasn't gonna be good. Usually when it's good news, they'd name the mail something along the lines of; "Berea welcomes you!" or "Congratulations!" but noooo~ the subject for my mail was; "Regarding your application for admission" I didn't know they'd reply me that fast...the website said they'd send out letters in April. Maybe I'm just that much out of their radar that they rejected me first? I felt numb..I can't even bring myself to read the whole letter (even until now), I just picked up words like, "sorry" and "unable to offer".

I wanted to cry and ask God why couldn't I get in!? Is it because I didn't pray hard enough? But the reason why I didn't pray hard enough was that I didn't know where God planned for me to go. If I could've gotten in when I prayed hard enough, I would hate myself so much right now. My heart hurts so bad...Berea would've been an answer to my parents' financial problems. I could get a cheap college with the expense of the academic standards, but I don't want that! I think I deserve to get a good education. Berea just sits right in the middle of the academic-finance scale. It was perfect.

But life just sucks sometimes, huh? With that door closed, I'm just hoping that the other two doors will open. If this fourth door named Singapore Scholarship (which is way harder to get into) opens, I'd just go along with it. It's not my dream, but who cares about my dreams? My priority right now should be what God has planned for me to do. I only hope that he'd make it clearer to me what his plans are so I won't place my hopes in the wrong places. Read: If Stanford University is not where I'm meant to be, please tell me so. I don't want to feel this bad anymore. There's no way I'd get into Stanford for my undergraduate studies, I'm hoping I'd get in for my postgrad. I kept thinking however, "If the world ends before I get into my Masters, I'd never set foot on Stanford grounds." ARGH!! Why did I ever make Albert Bandura my mentor? ('Cause he's the awesome-st theorist still alive today?)

Cursed

I'm currently blogging this from my office-YEAH! I got a job as a writer at Afterschool. It's this website that specializes in counseling for after SPM students (I know, what an original name, right?). Anyway, I'm happy 'cause I get to do what I like-writing and get paid for it. Plus, I only need to check into the office once a week. The rest of the days, I work from home. I finished all the assignments I could think of. I'm just waiting for my editor and boss to reply my e-mail now. Since I've got time...I might as well do something 'productive'.

For the past few years, I've been pretty irritable when it comes to correcting English grammar and vocabulary. I've only come to this realization these few days when I suddenly become more acute of wrong grammar in people around me. (Maybe it's because of my new job?) Now I know how hard it is to hold myself down from correcting people's English. I'm not saying mine is perfect. Heck, my spoken English is really bad...people have a hard time trying to understand through all my mumbling. But when I listen to people, I can't help but dissect the words that come out of their mouths and grammatically correct them. I don't say it out loud, oh no. I just mouth the corrected words out or just think them in my mind. It drives me crazy!

I personally know how embarrassing and terrible it feels when people correct me. My dad's been doing it for years and he's proud of it. That's why I don't correct other people. But what if they keep making the same mistakes over and over again!? Someone has got to do the correction, but hopefully not me.

Heh...looking back at my HELP college days, I've seen Trish struggle from correcting people many times. She would literally be in spasms from holding herself back. I didn't get it back then but I know now. I'm not at that level...yet?