Posts by johanessuhardjo

johanessuhardjo

Dec 24, 2017

Undergraduate / "Why Cornell" Essay - Cosmology and Quantum Theory [6]

Hi Isabella,
I think your essay is very great. Perhaps, it is the most convincing essay for univeristy entrance I've ever read in my life. You have a very big dream there with converging "the big" and "the small", I encourage you to pursue it. Anyway, you shouldn't be worried about your entrance, I think you must be accepted with even scholarship maybe. If you are going to university next year then we should be at the same age, and with all your knowledge about quantum and cosmology, I wonder, where are you from? And what are you studying right now? Are you joining some kind of physics olympiad? I will be happy to know you more and to help each other since I am also interested in those subjects. And if you have some time, would you please check my essay that i will post in near future (this is the first day I join the forum) because I think I'm not so good in writing.

johanessuhardjo

Dec 24, 2017

Undergraduate / NUS personal statement about my experience joining Physics Olympiad [4]

Hi,
Please help me about my personal statement. I am open to any critic or suggestion. The writing is limited to 2000 characters, my original writing exceeds the limit, so my father helped me to make it shorter and this is the result

You should include a personal statement in this section elaborating your achievements, as well as their relevance to the course of study you have chosen.

As your statement is limited to only 2000 characters, do present your ideas in a focused and thoughtful manner.

representing my country

An unforgettable experince to me is when I joined the Physics Olympiad representing my country in Russia last May. Long before, I used to be number one in science at school or at local competitions. Having joined many competitions since I was 9, my highest achievement was only at national level. So, I did not know anything about international competitions. After winning the National Science Olympiad, I was being arrogant that I thought it had been over, no more competition to be won and I had reached my peak level. I was wrong. The government invited me to join the training camp for IPhO. There I met students who were surprisingly much smarter than me, gods of physics I would say. Although I had studied all my best, sadly I was not selected to represent my country for IPhO. From this point, I realize we must keep learning and working hard to achieve what we want. Luckily, Mr. Hendra Kwee, a physics teacher gave me an opportunity to be trained by the best physics teachers for me and to join APhO. Firstly, I was unsure to join APhO. If I had to leave my school for months studying physics with the team, I knew my school teachers would not support me and they would give me bad scores. However, I really wanted to join the camp. So, I decided to join the camp studying for 4 months along with the gods of physics. I was lucky studying with them, knowing how they studied, and being their friend. I expected to get a bronze medal, but I obtained the Honorable Mention from the olympiad. Now I understand they aren't gods; anybody working hard can be anything he wants. Next year I'm targetting to get gold medals in IPhO and APhO. After that, I hope to join NUS to meet new competitors at once friends to study together.

Thanks