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This is an unofficial, non-persuasive writing to share overseas graduate school application with UTP graduating students. Content is based on the authors subjective experience. If you intend to spread this article, please contact the author in advance. ___________________________________________________________________________ Dear civil and environmental - final year friends, Congratulations for coming to graduate soon. I believe, the thing which concerns you the most now is perhaps your final year project. If you are very busy to finish the following content, please scroll down directly to the point forms that I have summarized. Some of you may have known, mostly in a general sense; of directionupon completing your bachelors degree. If thats the case, I would say that you are a conscious person who is aware of the importance of planning things ahead. For those who dont, please do know that time flies. To give you a better idea about the message intended for you, let me summarize my personal experience which took place at merely a year ago. Like most graduating students who favor on getting a job after a heck of 4-year study, I was not an exception. In fact, I was trying my best to attach closely with the employment world. I was, at a point, feeling exhausted about furthering studies. My intention was straight and clear. Hence, for the first 3 to 4 months, I did not actively dig for information. The reason was simple, I have always thought when the time is right, the river is naturally curved by nature (Physics! Anyway, this is irrelevant). As time moved on, I started to receive information about furthering studies. For example, my senior, Aaron asked me if I wanted to continue for masters. Kenric, a friend of my batch asked me along to take IELTS for further application (Well, we didnt thats another story). Some lecturers would, when the time is approaching our graduating period, ask if we were interested for masters programme. Everything seems natural, because thats how we have always grown up in Malaysia, arent we? Soon, because of so much interpersonal influences (this articles intention is not to inflict such influences onto you, I believe everyone is unique at his own, I said this to reflect the fact that it is not a machine but a human that is talking to you) I started to search about information related to graduate school (masters, phD etc). Because I have always dreamed about going abroad, I obviously googled on application for foreign graduate schools. Unfortunately, at that time when it was about 3 months heading towards my official graduation, I found out that in countries like UK and US, in order for me to enroll into the respective universitiesgraduate schools, I would have to at least, wait for another year. For reasons, see point no. 7 in the next page. This means that I am late, and you might find it amusing (but sarcastic) to see a critical transition of decision. But fortunately, thats my experience, not yours. It is still early, for you to realize that somebody has gone through such an experience. Okay, so this is indeed a simple message. What I intend to tell you, is to look up for information starting from this moment. Do not think that you have time to spend. Think about your upcoming schedule (you know better), please at least google and verify what I list down in the following. 1. You can always make a choice for yourself. Just in case you dont know, apply doesnt mean that you must go; and even if the graduate school offer you, you can always decline. However,

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Page 1: Only 5 to 10 Minutes to Read This

This is an unofficial, non-persuasive writing to share overseas graduate school application with

UTP graduating students. Content is based on the author’s subjective experience. If you intend

to spread this article, please contact the author in advance.

___________________________________________________________________________

Dear civil and environmental - final year friends,

Congratulations for coming to graduate soon. I believe, the thing which concerns you the most

now is perhaps your final year project. If you are very busy to finish the following content,

please scroll down directly to the point forms that I have summarized.

Some of you may have known, mostly in a general sense; of ‘direction’ upon completing your

bachelor’s degree. If that’s the case, I would say that you are a conscious person who is aware

of the importance of planning things ahead. For those who don’t, please do know that time flies.

To give you a better idea about the message intended for you, let me summarize my personal

experience which took place at merely a year ago.

Like most graduating students who favor on getting a job after a heck of 4-year study, I was not

an exception. In fact, I was trying my best to attach closely with the employment world. I was,

at a point, feeling exhausted about furthering studies. My intention was straight and clear.

Hence, for the first 3 to 4 months, I did not actively dig for information.

The reason was simple, I have always thought when the time is right, the river is naturally

curved by nature (Physics! Anyway, this is irrelevant). As time moved on, I started to receive

information about furthering studies. For example, my senior, Aaron asked me if I wanted to

continue for master’s. Kenric, a friend of my batch asked me along to take IELTS for further

application (Well, we didn’t – that’s another story). Some lecturers would, when the time is

approaching our graduating period, ask if we were interested for master’s programme.

Everything seems “natural”, because that’s how we have always grown up in Malaysia, aren’t

we?

Soon, because of so much interpersonal influences (this article’s intention is not to inflict such

influences onto you, I believe everyone is unique at his own, I said this to reflect the fact that it

is not a machine but a human that is talking to you) I started to search about information related

to graduate school (masters, phD etc). Because I have always dreamed about going abroad, I

obviously googled on application for foreign graduate schools. Unfortunately, at that time when

it was about 3 months heading towards my official graduation, I found out that in countries like

UK and US, in order for me to enroll into the respective universities’ graduate schools, I would

have to at least, wait for another year. For reasons, see point no. 7 in the next page. This means

that I am late, and you might find it amusing (but sarcastic) to see a critical transition of

decision. But fortunately, that’s my experience, not yours. It is still early, for you to realize that

somebody has gone through such an experience.

Okay, so this is indeed a simple message. What I intend to tell you, is to look up for information

starting from this moment. Do not think that you have time to spend. Think about your

upcoming schedule (you know better), please at least google and verify what I list down in the

following.

1. You can always make a choice for yourself. Just in case you don’t know, apply doesn’t mean

that you must go; and even if the graduate school offer you, you can always decline. However,

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Page 2: Only 5 to 10 Minutes to Read This

you are obliged to pay for the application fees. What I’m saying is, why don’t provide yourself

an extra choice, for whatever sake of uncertainty 8 months later?

2. There are thousands of reasons people go to graduate schools (and go to work). Ultimately,

in my opinion, it is a matter of life’s choice to go for further education. Because it is not my

intention to persuade you for graduate program, I want to clarify herein that it’s really, your

choice. Remember, there is no right or wrong, it is your life, not others.

3. There are various graduate programs in this world. In the category of masters (scientific/

technical), generally it can be divided into

Master in … by coursework

Master in … by research

One is not superior to the other, and so I leave it to you and your amazing google skills to find

out what they are, and how they differ to each other.

4. To go abroad, particularly in English spoken countries, you need IELTS (mostly for UK/

commonwealth countries) and/ or TOEFL-GRE (for US). So, get them early. Do plan early as

well if you don’t command the language well. When applying for the program, you need this,

hence it will be a good idea to take it as early as possible. For IELTS, there are various places

where you can take the exam, the nearest from us will be in Ipoh. Also, do realize that there is

an effective period from the day you are granted the cert. The rest I leave it to your amazing

google skills.

5. Application first, scholarship second. Why? Because we need the offer letter to apply for

scholarship later on. Most graduate schools do provide tutor scheme like UTP, provided you

are eligible to be admitted into their programs.

6. How to know what graduate schools to apply? Well, you have google, your lecturers etc.

You may find those miscellaneous rankings; as well as google scholar, stackexchange, Quora

etc. to be helpful.

Perhaps the most important one is this:

7. Dead line! Okay, for most of US universities, in order to secure for financial assistance, the

most popular admission time is during fall (around August of each year). Unlike UTP, most

of them open for application only once a year. Hence, you have to apply, for example, to

enter in August 2016, you must send your application by (I am just giving example) end of

December 2015. For UK/ Europe universities, please do some background check as well.

8. Application process is tedious. There are so many documents to include. For that reason, I

strongly recommend you guys to work in a small group and help each other. And for whatever

reasons, everyone should share with each other but not to just keep it to himself.

While you go along, you may find that universities in different countries are different – weather,

culture, spending, program structure. For that reason, I suggest you to patiently surf for more

information online. What I hope from you, is nothing more than a 1 to 2 hours of careful google

on what I have said; and discuss together with your friends as well as your lecturers. Remember,

do it early.

All the best,

Kim Jie (you can drop me questions via [email protected]).

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