Minerva KGI: Most Selective School in the World?

Good evening from Indonesia, everyone!!

First of all, today we have holidays because of the Islamic New Year, so yay!! Happy New Year for those who celebrate!

This afternoon, when I'm browsing Quora about education (Yep I like to browse stuffs about it) I found out a post that compares Minerva students with those from Ivy League (https://www.quora.com/How-smart-are-Minerva-students-compared-to-students-at-Ivy-League-schools). Previously, I don't know what Minerva is (It's not the Minerva (Bustier) from Final Fantasy, haha), but since the question compares that university to the top universities in the world, I feel that the question is worth checking out, and I'm astounded when the people in Quora said that they are REALLY SMART!

So, based from the answers from the Quora Community, Wikipedia, and Minerva website (https://www.minerva.kgi.edu/), I found out that:

1. The university has only around 2 - 2.8% acceptance rate!  For reference, Yale-NUS has an acceptance rate of around 4% , Stanford is 5.1% Harvard is 5.9 %. These are the most selective universities that I know before I know Minerva. Theoretically, this would mean that it would be twice or thrice as hard to go in, but I heard that those aforementioned universities also consider races and country of origin, as well as legacy. Minerva claims that these factors won't affect the chances of admissions. And the website claims that 78% of students come from outside USA, although in terms of numbers, they are still quite low compared to other elite universities like MIT.  Moreover, I also heard that Minerva also uses the IQ and EQ tests, and designed them such that the applicants can't actually prepare for them. 
2. It doesn't use the traditional lecture method. Instead, students are first redirected to MOOC websites like Coursera, Edx, and KhanAcademy to learn and teach themselves, and then they discuss (or debate? ) various things with the professors, in which they use Active Learning Forums, which imo is similar to Skype, after which they would receive detailed feedbacks from their professors about their performance. Classes are not held in the classrooms, but on some public places like cafe.
3. I also heard that the students there have 50 weeks of active learning, and in "classes" there are assignments, pop quizzes, etc to keep them engaged.
4. In the first year, students need to learn four cornerstone courses, which is Formal Analyses, Complex Systems, Multimodal Communications, and Empirical Analyses, which serves to improve our intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. One of the answers in quora said they're insane, so much that rarely those geniuses got a 4 out of 5. On second year, they can now finally choose their major, which thankfully there's Computer Science there!
5. The school didn't actually have a campus, although it has a residence hall at San Fransisco (where first-year students will spend their life there), but students will travel to different countries each year and live and study there.

First of all, yes the school is relatively new, as it was founded at 2012, hence I don't see it in the QS University rankings and stuffs, similar to the case of SUTD. However, given how unique the school is, I think that it will rise up in the rankings, maybe even give universities like Harvard, Stanford, Brown a fierce competition. I really like the concept of the school that actually focuses on building interpersonal skills, at least since knowledge alone won't make you survive in this cruel world, like my mom often said : "If you're smart but your behaviour is bad, it's useless." Also, travelling around the world makes you realize that the world is much bigger than you actually know. In the future, I hope that universities encourages more engagement between professors and students, and not simply the professors spoon-fed the students through lectures.

PS: For Minerva Students, if there is anything wrong in this post (mainly facts about the school), or simply want to give your own opinion, just tell me in comments.

So thanks all for reading!

Swiss German University: Why and How

Good afternoon from Indonesia, everyone!!!

As you have read the title, I am now studying at Swiss German University (Contrary to its name, SGU is located neither in Swiss or German, instead it's located in Tangerang, Indonesia also, it's not to be confused with Saint Georges University, which is also abbreviated as SGU), with IT as the major. Now if you have read my previous blog post, you know that I was rejected from NUS, NTU, and more recently SUTD. So having been rejected from all those universities and not allowed by my parents to study overseas, why don't I study at UI (Universitas Indonesia), ITB, and some other top Indonesian Universities?

First of all, I know it's especially true for UI, that if you're accepted via invitation, you need to accept to offer, otherwise your school will be blacklisted, which means that your talented juniors won't be invited anymore. Personally, I don't like its approach, as if we're accepted to several top universities in Indonesia (or maybe in the world), then sometimes we need time to reconsider which university will you study at. Secondly, since I already studied like crazy in Wardaya College for the preparations of NUS and NTU's entrance exam, I have already worn out, and don't have spirit to prepare for SBMPTN anymore, especially after seeing SBMPTN questions for our Ujian National preparation in my course. (Note: I didn't intend to offend UI at all, so I'm sorry for those who might feel offended.)

Now you know why I don't choose UI and others, so why Swiss German University? Why choosing a university that, when I tell my friends that I'll study there, my friends will either ask "Where's SGU?", or assuming that the university is located in Germany / Singapore (IIRC I had somebody assumed that SGU is located in Singapore!)? First of all, my cousin studied Hotel and Tourism Management there, so I partially want to follow her footsteps. Second, SGU offers internships to other countries, especially to Germany, and in case I'm not accepted in Singapore, it can partially replicate my desire to go international by working in companies in another country, and hence get completely different experience, culture from working in Indonesia. And because of that, I can learn a new language! :D

Now, I have only studied there for like 2 months, but I can infer what are my first impressions in studying there. The most noticeable thing is how down-to-earth the seniors and the lecturers are (one of my lecturers said that we haven't had a professors yet). I had  instances where the seniors were refused to be called "Ci" or "Ko", and even one of them told me not to call him/her by "Kak". They said that this is because seniors in SGU doesn't want to enforce seniority. The lecturers are also really care about the students' progress, like in the algorithm course, if we don't understand something, he will be glad to approach him / her for helpla. I do feel that the lateness policy isn't enforced strong enough, though. None of the lecturers (except one) actually lock the door, and since SGU's seminars advertise this, I feel this is a bit disappointing. The food is also a bit lacking, IMO there aren't any really many foods that are affordable and taste good. Also, my classmates are generally welcoming; they're glad to accept me if I want to join their conversations / just for gather.

For conclusion, I feel that SGU has provided a right place for me to learn, despite the fact that it is one of my backup (or only?) universities. I hope that Swiss German University will be known to more people in Indonesia, and become one of the top private universities in Indonesia. Hope SGU can recruit the first professor...