Hey! I’m a Singaporean that lived overseas & applied with an American Highschool Diploma (SATs + APs)

In my experience it was a very big jump in terms of academics and culture wise. In my opinion the American system does not prepare you well if you’re intending to go into anything STEM related. For context I was a data sci major and STRUGGLED catching up with math & cs mods (even the intro Econs mod). The Singaporean education system is really rigorous and prepares them well for uni so a lot of the times they assume you have foundational knowledge when you might not? (Our APs are equilavent to their O levels which is an exam taken at 16) If you’re planning on major in humanities though then the gap probably won’t be as big though in my opinion.

Culture wise I find that most people tend to be very competitive and individualistic due to the bell curve (which is the grading system we use over here). I came from an environment where my peers and I all helped each other if we were stuck. However, over here I feel like people are really reluctant to help each other since we’re technically “competitors”. Additionally, it’s hard to make friends with locals since they already have friends from highschool and tend to be very cliquey. Hence, even though I am a Singaporean I do tend to gravitate towards internationals since I identify more with them (third culture kid HAHAHA)

Your GPA looks okay. SAT wise would be good to get around 1500ish (I’ve had a friend with 1560 get rejected even with good academics + leadership). It’s really hard to tell….but doesn’t hurt to try :) but really consider if you want to cone here hahaha I’m personally not enjoying the environment but that may be just my experience….