Creativity pays too

Tony blogged about how persistence pays here. I want to add that a little bit of creativity in addition to persistence can also go a long way. That was probably the extra "edge" that helped Nurjuanis Zara Zainuddin get into Oxford.

I think it's not sufficient just to have great results to get into Oxbridge. Certainly, a terrific SAT score alone won't get you into Harvard or Princeton or Stanford. You have to have that something "extra" in your CV to differentiate yourself from the crowd of overachievers. That something "extra" for Nurjuanis was the fact that she wrote a book called "The Art of Seeing Science". What impressed me most about her was not only the fact that she wrote that book (and has completed a first draft of "The Art of Seeing History") but more importantly, her genuine passion and conviction which led her to write these books.

Very often, overachievers would attempt to "pad" their CVs with activities which they might not necessarily be passionate about - achieving a grade 8 in piano playing, taking up equestrian, doing community service, organising fund raising events, and so on.

I think that it's of utmost importance for us to have interests outside our studies and that these interests should be allowed to be developed or even flourish while we're young. We should be encouraged to be creative in our interests. If we like playing RTS (Real Time Strategy) computer games, why not gang up with a few friends to enter a few Warcraft competitions? Or get together to design new and interesting maps? Or if we like playing Civ IV, why not learn to create new and interesting mods? I'm sure a CV or application form to Stanford or MIT which has a link to your own homepage with downloadable CIV IV mods or new Warcraft or Counterstrike maps would impress the admissions office. (Although the old fogies at Oxbridge might not be similarly blown away)

So for the aspiring Ivy-leaguers or Oxbridge hopefuls, take some time off from the books and go do something else more interesting and challenging.