Ubiquitous

Ivy League-bound? Maybe

// June 1st, 2009 // 11 Comments » // Academic

Last summer, I was devastated to find out I couldn’t attend UC Berkeley for financial reasons. This entire year, I stayed in Canada studying commerce and wondering what was so fundamentally wrong with me that 1) the Ivy League universities rejected me and 2) I’m unable to go to the wonderful schools like UCLA and UC Berkeley that DID accept me. Suffice to say, my desire to get a better education beyond UBC was never fully snuffed out.

I spent months dwelling on the issue and due to a series of wonderfully-timed events and opportunities, I decided to apply for transfer application to just a single US school. What’s with me and one-shot deals? I spent weeks perfecting my essay and days chasing after professors to get them to write me recommendation letters and give midterm grades. I did all of this in secret. Not a single one of my friends know. My PARENTS did not know. About a month ago, the only people who knew I applied for transfer was probably a handful of profs, a counsellor, the admissions committee, and the mailman.

This time it wasn’t randomly applying for the prestige, but rather, the result of intensive research into a program that matched my interests and aspirations perfectly. I remember that morning vividly, calling the Admissions Office trying to find my decision. When the lady on the other end replied, all I could say was “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD”.

I have been accepted into Cornell University for Fall 2009 transfer!!

*Runs around the house in ecstasy* I will be studying a mixture of management, economics, government, and history at Industrial and Labor Relations!!! At this point I haven’t gotten a paper copy of my acceptance and financial aid yet, so I don’t know if I’ll be going. BUT OH, MY, GOD, five years of high school, two years of IB, a year of university, it wasn’t all in vain! The application process taught me so much about myself too I will really have to weigh all the commitments and leadership potential I have at my current school against a totally different path in the States. I hope to bring further good news.

P.S. - shhh, no one at my current school knows! They’ll kill me if they find out XD

Popularity: 9% [?]

She’s Alive!

// April 26th, 2009 // 7 Comments » // Academic, Personal

Has it been two months, really, two months since my last post?! Goodness gracious. I just finished two weeks of exams and am done the first year of university! It flew by so fast it’s unbelievable. Seems like only yesterday I was a timid freshman stepping into frosh and looking at the older kids with a certain fear in my eyes.

I know a lot of you have disappeared off the charts due to RL and whatever, but come back, always come back to blogging. Because of my UBC blog, I introduced at least three of my friends to blogging already. I tell them it’s therapeutic and it absolutely is.

My plan for this summer is to take classes in the morning and work at UBC in the afternoon. 16 hours of Chinese and 19 hours of work, plus another 8 hours on the weekends. Not bad I’d say.

QOTW: What’s your summer plan like?

Popularity: 9% [?]

I Blog for UBC

// November 21st, 2008 // 11 Comments » // Academic, Online Experience, Work/Volunteer

Indeed, it’s the epitome of geeky blogger pride. People sometime elevate me to the status of a campus celebrity, but seeing no photos of myself have made it on my UBC blog yet, I highly doubt it.  However, it is a very special/odd feeling when my friends or classmates come up to me and say, “hey! I read your blog!”

There’s a bunch of us blogging for the University of British Columbia (the theme isn’t too sleek and professional, then again, UBC’s edgy like that XD)  in fact. The entire blogsquad of 10 or so people is going out for an awesome night of laser tag and sushi tonight =D But I digress. UBC was recently ranked the #34 top university in the world (Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge claimed top place, surprise surprise). To make it sound more important than it really is, you might be wondering what it’s like to blog for a world-class university, to be the tech-savvy face for all current freshmen as well as incoming highschool students?

Well to start, we use Wordpress and premade themes LOL. Aside from skimming over juicy details of alcoholic consumption and latenight m/o sessions (ew, gross), we pretty much have freedom in whatever we say. It’s so casual and awesome, I love it. I use the same conversational tone I always do. I’m free to rant and rave as I wish. Recently, one of my entries got featured in a New to UBC newsletters sent to all 6000 first year undergrads. THEY DIDN’T EVEN WARN ME *goes back to edit out all the grammar mistakes* Too bad we can’t put adsense blocks on the site to generate $$$ from all the clicks.

Now the reason I mentioned this is because it’s my excuse for the sparse updates on Ubiquitous since the start of the school year. I’M SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME.

P.S. - for those who still remember the university dilemma/drama from a few months back… Berkeley, I’m so over you. UBC’s my new love now =P

Popularity: 10% [?]

Still Alive

// September 11th, 2008 // 5 Comments » // Academic

I’m on the UBC Blog Squad so my blogging time just shrank significantly. But don’t worry, still alive (barely)!

University is just as I imagined (already knew the campus like the back of my hand because I came here too many times doing IB projects). So many IBers!

I’m in Sauder, the School of Business aka Faculty of Commerce and everyone is totally enthusiastic… maybe overly so. Classes are pretty easy, TREMENDOUSLY amount of reading though, yikes! Commuting to school and spending 2 hours on the bus every day really sucks, especially when I don’t have a seat.

Finding people around campus is also quite a challenge. Goodness, can’t wait to see the size of my phone bill this month with all the text-messaging charges. Gotta dash, commerce Tutorial in a few minutes!

Popularity: 6% [?]

University Course Selection

// August 25th, 2008 // 13 Comments » // Academic, QOTW

As we get nearer to the start of the school year - September 2nd for me - it’s time to cue course scheduling headaches. I originally registered 48 hours after the official start date because 1) I wasn’t planning on coming to UBC and 2) I mixed my timezones while I was in China (loser, I know ><). Now being the perfectionist that I am, I’m agonizing over my timetable, ranking courses by a point system, making multiple excel charts for booklists etc. etc.

Below are the main criteria

How interesting is the course? Physics get’s -4 while say… PoliSci gets 5 (on a scale of 1-5 XD). I’m taking on loads of electives because I’m apparently interested by EVERYTHING, which isn’t good.

Does it fit my time slots? I plan to work two jobs part-time during first term, so most of my classes have to be in the morning. In term 2, I want Tuesdays and Thursdays off so it creates all kinds of complications.

How easy are the teachers and how light is the workload? Okay let’s not kid ourselves here. As much as university is a course for the pursuit of knowledge and higher academic excellence, that bloody GPA counts for grad school!

How much are the textbooks? Yes this is actually a criteria. I dropped French Literature because of this… I’m not spending $130 bucks for a cahier that I’m gonna use for three months which has a resale value of $20 (oh and it conflicted with other classes).

QOTW: How do you pick your courses/what factors influence you? How reliant are you on Ratemyprofessors.com?

Popularity: 7% [?]