Second last paper - Physics MCQ tomorrow, and it's nearly 1am now.

Eminem is always the best. Another night watching Eminem shows and I got myself writing this. Not exactly for the essays, but I got the glimpse of how to improve part of my current one.

Dear Mr. Sim

I have already booked a slot to talk to you on Monday about where should I apply as ED (or even to apply ED at all), the reason why I have such doubts are quite lengthy so I think it's better if I write them down in case I forget to mention something on Monday.

Honestly, I have thought about applying for US colleges since years ago. I thought that I would only opt for the top schools, the sort of MIT. But over the years, I have felt that it’s really just a fantasy that I sometimes dwell in rather than a viable aim. Until the middle of JC1, I have always felt that my command of English is horrific (it still is now), and I was quite scared that I may not pass my GP in JC. I think I have devoted a significant amount of time for reading and for practicing English, which eats up a lot of the time I can pursue other academic interests. I enjoy reading and studying English, but the time spent on doing so has, partially, made me unable to buff up my portfolio. Moreover, before actually talking to the colleges’ representatives, I did not really have an exact desire to motivate me to take the application process seriously. That explains why I have been hesitating to take SAT, and more importantly, to study for SAT. I have not won some really awesome prizes like Olympiads.

My biggest award is to win 1^st prize for this competition called Create2010, an engineering idea competition. I won a trip to visit Munich. But honestly, I was quite lucky because 2009 was the first time the competition was organized in Singapore. The organizers told me that in the future, they wanted to make it a big thing like Olympiad. But obviously, when I won the prize, well, it was a new competition, and only limited within Singapore. Nonetheless, the competition was the opportunity that somehow made me think seriously about what I want to do in the future, which in turns led to my decision to at least try to apply for the US colleges. My idea was a greenhouse that can self-sustain and improve the environment at arid, coastal areas. During the course of the project, I have gone through a few books that interested me. The first book I read about the topic was “When the river runs dry”. And I was quite surprised finding how much I enjoyed such environmental issues. So after the competition, I thought seriously about pursuing environmental studies/architecture… in the future. That was when I looked into the schools that offered good Environmental Engineering Science – as I thought was the most relevant course for what I wanted to do. So I first did my “primitive” research on colleges by wiki the course. The two schools that Wikipedia says to have the best courses were MIT and UCL Berkeley. After that, it has been a long months that I kept thinking, fantasizing about those two schools. Back then, I did not even know that Berkeley does not offer financial aid to international students. I have not been close to the seniors who intended and finally got in to US colleges, so I did not learn much from them about the application process. That explains many stupid perceptions that I have had until recently, and the poor portfolio that I have built for myself. So when I first made up my mind that I should just try, there was a quite long period that I feel very lost because I don’t think I’m qualified to apply for any school. And so when people ask me where I want to apply, saying “MIT”, even as the most bizarre, unrealistic dream, makes me feel embarrassed.

One other thing that makes me want to apply for US colleges is that when I started writing essays, laying down my thoughts, my little principles in life, I started thinking that I want to go to where people actually bother to read these things.

I’m sorry that this lengthy thing actually sounds like a list of excuses for my inadequacies. I'm only taking my first SAT test next Sunday. Since I only knew until you told me a few months ago that since I need to apply for financial aid, I should apply ED. I still can't decide where I should apply for:

1. Connecticut College:

- This is used to be the school that I wanted to apply ED for. I talked to the admin officer that came to RI and somehow I'm quite interested in the school.

- The college offers Architectural Studies.

- The admin officer mentioned that the school has an Economics Professor who is entitled distinguished professor in the Vietnam National University in Hanoi. I read on the school's website about their overseas programme to study Vietnamese economy in Vietnam. I think I will really enjoy if I can study about Vietnam from such a perspective.

- I like the kind of bucolic sight of the campus. And I really like to be able to stay close to the sea.

- SAT scores are not compulsory for applying to Connecticut college. I know that even though they say so, SAT scores are a an easier way for them to gauge my academic standard. But since I don't really have my SAT score, would applying for such a school may somehow increase the odds?

2. La Fayette College:

- I had second thought about my choice of school for ED after the interview with the La Fayette admin officer. He said that it would be good if I consider a civil engineering course in college to learn the technicalities before applying for architecture in graduate school. The admin officer from Kalamazoo also mentioned similar thing.

- Since then, I thought that since I want to enroll in a liberal arts college to have the freedom to study many things that I want before I decide my career, I thought it would be even better if the school offers both engineering and art courses, just in case I wanted to do civil engineering and the sort later on.

- La Fayette has the the Engineers without Borders organization, which is something I really want to try.

- I know La Fayette is highly competitive so without SAT, I don't know whether it should be a viable option for ED. But I'm not sure that if I leave it until RD, I may not stand any chance at all.

3. College of Wooster:

- I thought about this college last. The school offers double degree program in Architecture in University of Washington in St. Louis, which was the first thing that attract me during the college's fair.

- It's only until I read about it in "Colleges that change lives" that I really thought more about applying for Wooster. The book said that this college would be one of the best choices for the non-A students, which I think may be the level where I'm currently at.

I'm still uncertain where I should (and want) to apply for ED among the 3 schools. I really appreciate your advice about this.