A Very Fast Offer from The University of Manchester！

Acknowledgment：Mr. Mark Coyle, Eva H

We are delighted to announce the very first offer for the Dulwich International High School Suzhou Class of 2023. Our Year 13, student Eva H, received an early offer to study Mathematics at the University of Manchester in the UK!

The University of Manchester is part of the prestigious Russell Group of universities. It is ranked #27 in QS World University Rankings 2022; #58 in US News Rankings.

We are pleased to speak to Eva and her counsellor, Mr. Mark Coyle (University and College Counsellor, Head of Counselling), to tell us the story behind this early offer. 

Mr. Coyle told us that, a few weeks ago, he had said that Eva's first offer would be from Manchester University, but to their surprise, it came early! “Normally they will come in November, but what we’ve seen is that Eva is such a great candidate for them that they decided early.” 

What helped Eva get this early offer? Mr. Coyle believes she is worthy of it, as she has great scores, great IGCSE, and an excellent personal statement. She was ready to submit it many weeks before the deadline. “She prepared in advance. She used all of her spare time. There are five drafts of her personal statements. Every time she had questions, she was willing to come and ask those questions rather than waiting for the next meeting. Those questions were always relevant and on-topic. So, by putting in the work and preparing personal statements, it became a very easy application for her.” 

By looking at the students we have interviewed in the past who have received excellent offers, we have found that most of them have chosen their major because it is their interest, and Eva is clearly one of them. For her, studying Mathematics is fun, so she spends a lot of time on her own studying theories and topics she likes in maths. Her mathematics teachers commented that she is very focused on and excited about Maths. Eva also mentions that maths is a fundamental subject in many disciplines, For example, after studying A-Level Maths and Further Maths, she found out that D1 is related to computer science and M1 is related to physics. 

Eva thinks some of her personality traits are suited to studying Maths: She is hard-working and resilient. In addition, she also challenges and improves herself by participating in many mathematics competitions. She achieved gold certificates in UKMT’s IMC and SMC and received distinctions in BMO and Waterloo CEMC’s Euclid Mathematics Contest. “After taking these competitions, I got to know my weaknesses and improved upon them.” 

Support from DHSZ 

Eva joined a CCA called “Capture the Flag,” organised by her computer science teacher, in which they learned different skills, solved questions in different ways, and became more open-minded. Eva is also a member of Mr. Coyle’s Football CCA. Mr. Coyle told us that school CCAs are a good platform for knowing more about students: “The counselling team is involved in CCAs around the school and life skills classes. We get to see their fun side and learn a little bit more about the students’ character from being their tutors and CCA coaches. And from that, we can actually build on their letters of recommendation and the counselling letter recommendations, so that the whole person of Eva is represented in their letters of recommendation.” 

Our school gives students maximum freedom in terms of what they want to study, but once they have decided, our counselling team provides professional advice and all-round support for students depending on their subject. Eva recalls that Mr. Coyle explained her the whole process of application to her in the beginning and afterwards she asked a lot of questions about her application and personal statement, all of which were answered in detail. “I received a great deal of help from Mr. Coyle,” said Eva. 

Advice from Eva 

“Early” is the point that Eva keeps emphasizing.

For those who are now getting their applications ready. She advises,

 “The earlier you submit, the earlier you get your offers.” This also agrees with the experiences of Mr. Coyle. For those universities with rolling admissions, like UK, Canada, China Hong Kong SAR, etc., students need to submit early. he told us that some students will wait until the last minute only to change one word in their personal statement or add a comma after a certain word. They're wasting their time because, by submitting earlier, they'll get more offers. “As long as they are ready, their application will be fine.” 

For Year 12 and lower school students, Eva suggests, 

“You can prepare in many different ways. Such as doing the language test earlier, since you will have to do a lot of work in Year 13. It is important to participate in competitions and read books relevant to the subjects you want to study because you need to find the topics you are interested in, even for writing the personal statement.” Besides that, Eva believes it is important not to dwell too much on a bad grade, but to put your mind at ease in order to achieve long-term success. Mr. Coyle also added, " One bad grade is not that important, but how you react to that bad grade is much more important. What you need to do is stay positive and work harder." 

Teachers’ Comments on Eva 

Eva's early offer starts the harvesting season for our DHSZ Year13 students and we will be welcoming even more surprises in the near future!