today was quite a blehh day. except that i attended a talk about US universities at around 5 to 7, which was quite interesting! Grads from UMich, UIUC, UVA and Harvard came to talk to us. i took notes, so below is a summary of whatever they presented:

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

• not really applicable cos they're strong in accounting and engineering
• quite cheap fees
• weather is extreme: winter can be as cold as -20 to -30 degrees!

University of Michigan

• biggest soccer stadium in US
• a lot of distinguished alumni! eg Larry Page (Google) and the founders of Borders Books
• Their Ross School of Business ranked 1st in US by Wall Street Journal
• according the powerpoint, their liberal arts college is not too bad as well
• one of the largest singaporean communities in US unis
• http://admissions.umich.edu

University of Virginia (UVA)

• Business Week Online rankings: 2nd
• founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 (random comment: the same year Raffles landed on SIngapore)
• #2 public uni in US
• -5 degrees is lowest temp so quite good weather
• full tuition scholarships like the Jefferson Undergrad Scholarship available, but hard to get
• strong in accounting, finance
• commerce school is very popular
• summer school, where you get to go some other country to pursue somehing related to your major (eg this guy went to Tibet to assess its impact on China, he's doing politicla science or something)
• "honour code" you actually get to bring finals exams back home and hand it up at the end of the week!!!!!
• sororities and fraternities, secret societies oO

Harvard

• quite extreme weather as well
• oldest US uni
• more grads than undergrads (12000 to 6750)
• undergrad liberal arts college is Harvard College
• cross-classes with MIT
• 8-10% int'l students (avg 2-3 frm S'pore each year)
• need-blind admissions, need-based aid
• house life is good

Yale

• very liberal
• biggest LGBT population in US unis (LGBT meaning lesbian, gay, bi- and trans-sexual, for the uninitiated)

yep thats about all the relevant stuff i have. for more info eg SATs please check the uni webbies.