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Question: How close are we to skynet? Just joking my real question is how hard was it for you to get into university and what did you do if anything to help yourself stand out
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Kim Liu answered on 16 Jun 2020: last edited 16 Jun 2020 10:03 pm
Hahaha thanks for this question ^_^ I’m going to assume you’re talking about natural science subjects by the way, because the story is quite different for medicine, arts subjects etc.
So the question of getting into university is a tough one, because I can only really speak with my own experiences and that of my friends/colleagues. For myself, I think getting into at least one university was not too difficult – I think that the majority of science courses around the country really want to see that you are quite capable (i.e. good enough grades) and very interested in your subject. Judging from your great questions on this forum, I would say you definitely satisfy the latter requirement at a very high level ~ The best universities (esp. Oxbridge and London) are harder and expect you also perform well in interviews. This is a another huge issue, which I won’t talk about unless you ask me to, not least because I only know a lot about how Cambridge (and maybe Oxford) work.
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Nonetheless, it does not do to be complacent, and standing out from the crowd is a good way to be maximise your chances. I’ll give two main pieces of advice which I adopted myself – 1) read books in science and learn things outside your school syllabus. By all means ask your teachers for advice in this, or ask them to give you extra lessons on university subjects, but learn something that you were not forced to learn for an exam, that you find interesting. I am certain that many of the amazing scientists here would be able to suggest things for you, and if you strike up a dialogue, teach you a whole variety of cool stuff 🙂 I myself read Lewis Wolport’s “How We Live and Why We Die: the secret lives of cells” – it’s a nice introduction to fundamental aspects of biochemistry and molecular biology. I can make more personal recommendations for chemistry and physics also, if you are interested (comment below).
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2) Spend a good amount of time writing a personal statement you yourself are proud of. For many scientists, this is not something that comes naturally haha; writing about oneself is a challenging and somewhat uncomfortable process for everyone. The easiest way to do this is to get as many people as possible to read it for you and provide comments as possible, read it out loud to yourself and think carefully about the structure. I was terrible at this when I started, it took me such a long time and loads of people to make me content with what I wrote haha. Specifically – write about which topics you find interesting in science. Ideally – write about things outside your school syllabus, which is why reading books is good! And write in such a way that provides evidence for your interest. Saying “I am very interested in DNA, so I want to study biology because I want to see how it works.” is much less good than “I am very interested in DNA, so I went on I’m a Scientist and asked questions about it. I learnt that DNA can form all sorts of shapes other than the double helix I learnt at school. I then read a book (see above), and learnt that RNA is like DNA except it forms even more shapes and can even catalyse reactions.” In the latter case, the writer specifically provides evidence that they went and investigated their curiosity. The best evidence tends to be books, work experience, extended projects etc.
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I’ll mention extra-curricular activities briefly – universities don’t actually tend to care about what extra-curricular activities you do, they only deeply care that you do something that’s not just science. So, make sure you make a list about your hobbies and interests, with the levels you achieve. It’s easy to assume that if you are good at a bunch of different hobbies, it’s likely you are good at time management and your subject as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I could write lots more about this, as you might have guessed, so do leave comments if you want me to clarify further, or ask more about the process. The advice I’m giving is applicable to all universities and courses, but there are further details pertaining the exact subject (esp. medicine), and exact university (esp. Oxbridge). I hope other scientists will weigh in with things I haven’t covered!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I’m going to answer the skynet question coz it’s fun to think about (and actually important!) I think we’re far, far away from skynet at the moment because most artificial intelligence that exists these days can’t develop beyond the scope of its own programming. In some ways, it’ll be necessary for an artificial intelligence to write new programs for itself, but it’s hard to guess how we could ever tell the program to need those new programs! When we solve this problem (maybe >100 years?), it’ll make a bigger step to skynet haha.
Comments
Lisa commented on :
Hey! I just thought I’d mention, it’s also super important that you find the right university for you. The teaching styles of different universities can be a bit different. For example, some courses offer more practicals than others, some offer more small tutorial based classes, some offer different optional courses that you take alongside the core subjects. For me this was super important to consider. You can also check out what the research that the lecturers of the course do, as it’s likely later on in your course, you may get to work with them on a project.
Not only does this help you figure out where to go, but if you get offered an interview (as some universities, not all, will want to interview you before offering you a place) and you have done your research on what part of the course you like, this enthusiasm will show through 🙂
Kim commented on :
Cannot stress enough how important Lisa’s comment is ^_^
Gulnar commented on :
Hello Alex. Thanks for a question.
I agree with the previous views. I would also like to share my experience. I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Azerbaijan, where you have to take a test to be admitted to a university. Then you choose a specialty based on the score you get from these exams. In addition to the test, in master, some institutions also organize interviews. High scores on test exams allow you to choose different specialties. This stage is a difficult and laborious process. I would like to highlight some tips on this, which have been very useful to me.
1) Plan your day one day in advance. 2) Set standards. 3) Motivate yourself and believe in your strengths. (Remember Edison’s failures before he found at the answer that forever changed the world). 4) Definitely give yourself rewards. 5) Avoid distractions as much as possible during the lesson (for me, I always hide my phone or mute it). 6) Motivate yourself and believe.
It’s a good idea to think about choosing a university before the exam. In this case, the top universities in the specialty are more priority. But sometimes, for example, the university is in the first place in the list of medical sciences, however, there is little work done in a specific field. In this case, you should try to do a deeper search.
In the end, I would like to say that always imagine yourself at the university where you want to study, create your future in the brain, and believe in it very deeply. At this point, the brain will return the positive signal you sent to it.
Kelly commented on :
Hi Alex, I was not accepted into my first-choice school for undergrad (University of Michigan). This was pretty devastating, but I didn’t give up and ended up going there for my master’s degree!
In addition to having good grades, I competed in Olympic-style weightlifting in high school and college. Back then, this was considered an unusual sport for women. That helped me stand out, as well as knowing a second language (Spanish).
Also, I did my undergraduate and master’s degrees in the US, where university is very expensive. Getting into university was not too hard compared to paying for it! Finding funding or scholarships for university is important if you are considering studying abroad (which I recommend!) or doing a research degree later.
I managed to get some academic and sports scholarships, but I was also very lucky that my parents helped pay for my education.