Somehow I am glad that I wasn't born 6 years later. Back in my time, and that wasn't very far away either, all you needed to do was to study hard and get decent grades and off you go to NUS and NTU. Now you need to be a community service hero (doesn't matter if you don't give a damn about your old and dying grandparents), a sports person (doesn't matter if you actually hate running and swear never to step into Macritchie after your cross country days are over), a passionate person in whatever field you choose (doesn't matter if the sole reason you want to work is actually just to earn enough money so that your parents, you, your wife and children will not starve to death), and a school leader (doesn't matter if you entered the club only because it has only 5 members and you are ensured of an exco position).
Do we really need to be like this? Where's the world where you can just enjoy a kickabout with your friends after school? Without worrying whether it is adding value to your CV when you apply for university? Do we REALLY need to keep racing and moving? Are we racing against aliens from outer space? Where is all this going? When are we going to say "yes we have arrived!" and proceed to enjoy happily ever after? Or we condemned to an endless race? Heck even Britain also worried, seems like we are doomed!
Stressed out Varsity Students (Full article)
Numbers game
WELCOME to the university application season in Singapore - described as 'hell' by the 18- to 20-year-olds pouring out in ever-increasing numbers from the polytechnics, junior colleges and private schools.
University admissions officials say they have never seen this level of tension and competition before. It is evident in the increasing number of students going all out to embellish their co-curricular activities record. And the essays that seem just a little too polished and sleekly written.
All this elbowing and shoving for a university place does not surprise SMU's admissions director Alan Goh. As a parent of two daughters in tertiary institutions, he says a university degree is now seen to be the minimum for survival in the new economy.
When Outstanding is just Average (Full article)
Once these Raffles Junior College students, the creme de la creme from Singapore's most pedigreed secondary schools, receive their result slips, their worries break into relief, grins and high-fives.
But a handful dissolve into tears, as if their perfect world has crashed. In between sobbing, most admit that, all things considered, their results are good - sullied perhaps by one B or C. But they fear that the results are not good enough to secure the most coveted scholarships.
Among the triumphant with perfect scores, the rejoicing dies down after they get wind of the fact that there are 58 other RJC students - just like them - who turned in flawless scores.
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His friend, Mayank Soni, 18, another nine-A scorer who intends to study economics and engineering in the US, is also cautious when assessing his chances of landing a place in either Harvard, Yale, MIT, Cornell or Stanford, which he has applied to.
He founded a new co-curricular activity (a money-management society), won a silver medal in the international biology Olympiad, played cricket for the school and volunteered with the Singapore Association for the Deaf.
But he is bracing himself for the worst. 'Although I have perfect grades, so do 58 others in RJC. And among the applicants to Harvard, I will just be the average, outstanding student,' he laments.
In schools like Harvard and Yale where every other student is a valedictorian, with perfect or close to perfect Grade Point Averages and SAT scores, admissions officers look for other attributes, such as all-roundedness and 'passion'.
Queen opens new Heathrow terminal (full article)
Airport operator British Airports Authority's chairman Nigel Rudd told the BBC yesterday: 'London deserves a first-class airport. We are starting today. This is a new beginning.'
But green protesters worry that the new terminals are just the first stage in a vast new expansion, which as well as the construction of a third runway will see an increase in passenger numbers by up to 100 per cent.
While the Queen yesterday described T5 as 'environmentally responsible', Greenpeace has called it a 'monument to the binge-flying culture'.
Opponents include local people and even London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who are against the plans on pollution and congestion grounds.
But Mr Rudd defended the expansion, saying: 'We have to compete in the world. The nation has to decide whether we want to be a world class nation or a second-class nation.'
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There you have it....run or die.... I think I really need to find a piece of land to go be a hermit farmer....
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