‘Complete this problem sheet before the next tutorial.’ This is one of the very first things that my professor told me in Oxford. We, first year chemists, had no idea about what was about to hit us as we casually flipped through the problem sheet. It was surprisingly short. It wasn’t until we walked out of the meeting that we realised we had no clue on how to complete even a single one of the problems. We went to the

As part of the Independent Educational Consultant Association (IECA), I have been regularly attending webinars with various college admissions officers since September. In these Zoom sessions, admission officers give independent consultants insights into what they are looking for in a student — below are a few of my most important takeaways:   1) Forget about the “wow” factor, show us your authentic self! The Yale admissions officer nailed this point on the head. When we directly asked her what “wow” means

Picking a major can be a stressful task. I remember scrolling down an endless list of majors and getting the urge to just enter them all into a random result generator. However, sadly, that method almost always leads to reckless decisions. It took a while for me to figure out that I wanted to read English at the University of Cambridge, and I went through a long process of self-doubt before I got to that conclusion. Initially, I had no

Being able to apply as an undecided major is a unique feature of US colleges and universities; it is also something a lot of students want to choose. Applying as undecided takes away the stress to have to immediately choose a program of study. One thing to point out, though, is that applying as undecided should be a choice, and not a shortcut to making applications easier. It should not be treated as the default option when a student does

         Middle-school me would have scoffed at the idea of an undecided major, trusting in his youthful, enthusiastic naïveté to burn away the preposterous implication of uncertainty like the sun would a fictional vampire. By the start of high school, the same idea was like a distant plague—someone else’s problem, but not here just yet. Little did I know—at either point in time—that the undecided major would be tapping my shoulder, hissing self-doubt into my ear just a few very

Cambridge is a city that wakes up slowly. The River Cam flows languidly below Magdalene Bridge as I set off for a grocery run at 8am, an hour before my lectures begin. I wave to friendly faces as I mount my bike and cycle off towards Sainsbury’s. It’s open and welcoming, and I stroll through the store, picking up some food for lunch and dinner. Then it’s back to the dorms. I check the clock. 8:45am, fifteen minutes until lecture