From DCB to UCL and UofT: Class of 2024 Student Journeys

In this final edition of our series of interviews featuring Year 13 students, we hear from Class of 2024 Brian W and Sherri L about their journeys to university, how they selected their universities, and their advice to younger students.

Well-rounded learning at DCB

Class of 2024 Brian W moved to Beijing during his preschool days and, since joining DCB, has embraced opportunities that have extended beyond academics. He dabbled in extracurriculars spanning music, arts, and sports but is especially fond of football and guitar. And during his downtime, he loves playing video games. As Media Prefect last school year, he led the Media Team while supporting other prefects and the school’s Marketing Team. He credits his love for photography – and his passion for sharing his knowledge – to his father. “One of my goals was to provide more opportunities and learning experiences to other students who may not have had a similar opportunity as I did. I also worked with the Marketing Team to make sure that our students’ efforts, such as event coverage and awareness-raising events for service-related ECAs (extracurricular activities) such as Interact, are seen and celebrated. That way, our students and their parents can look back at these pictures and videos and be proud of their contributions to our community.” 

Similar to how he attributes his love for photography to his father, Brian's enthusiasm for Economics is deeply rooted in his relatives' involvement in the industry. “When I first got an insight into economics back in Year 10, I found it interesting how integrated it is in our daily lives and how things happening on the other side of the world can affect what I'm doing here in Beijing. That’s something I’m eager to learn more about.”

Class of 2024 member Sherri L's musical journey began in preschool when she started learning the piano at age four. Her passion for music blossomed further after she joined DCB in Year 7, allowing her to cultivate her talent even more. She considers music a form of meditation and a source of relaxation. “I express all my emotions through it, and afterwards, I find it easier to continue with things such as studying and revising more easily. These activities enhanced my work-life balance, allowing me to transition smoothly from being stressed, excited, happy, or exhausted, to being serious, concentrated, and putting my full effort into my goal of the day. This ultimately led me to the decision to pursue a major within the field of psychology. I even wrote my Extended Essay about Music therapies.”

She also considers her participation in the marine conservation school ECA (extracurricular activity) Ocean Pandas empowering. “It made me feel that I could make changes in society and help more people around the world, as we raised awareness about the endangered white dolphin species and made some impact within our school community."

How they chose their universities

Being able to flex his creative muscles is important to Brian and he was drawn to UofT’s innovative, flexible learning environment and the extensive resources and support systems available at the St. George campus. He also loves the vibrant city atmosphere of downtown Toronto – which reminds him of Beijing – the diversity of the student body, and the opportunity to connect with Toronto’s Cantonese community.

Location was also part of the reason Sherri was drawn to UCL, which sits next to the British Museum. She recalled how, in Year 7, she came across a book on criminal psychology, sparking her interest in the field. “When I started psychology lessons in IGCSE and IB, I knew that I would dedicate my whole life to psychology,” she said. “What inspired me to pursue this course is my interpretation of the meaning of language: anything that can send a message – words, arts, sciences, and actions – should be considered a language. The past few essays that I did on psychology, EE (Extended Essays) and IA (Internal Assessments), all revolved around the topic of language, investigating how words and music as language can influence individuals’ cognition. Therefore, when I decided to look for a psychology-related course at UCL I immediately connected with the Psychology and Language Sciences programme. The desire to nurture my interest in all kinds of languages reinforced my motivation to pursue studies in psychology.”

University Planning and Sherri and Brian’s Advice to Younger Students:

1. Manage your time well.

Brian began planning at the end of Year 11 but put in more work on his applications during the summer before Year 13, which, to him, wasn’t enough. “My first advice is: start preparing before the summer between Years 12 to 13, and don’t procrastinate. Given the coursework that needs to be worked on during the summer, the time between Year 12 and 13 may be insufficient for starting research for universities and courses and make sure you have a plan for how you tackle the university process. Parts of my university planning that I should have done during the summer I ended up doing during the school year, which made things stressful. So that’s one thing I wish I could have done better: to research earlier and to not procrastinate.”

“Writing the essays wasn’t really a problem; not going over the word count was,” Brian explained. “These essays should describe who you are and present the best side of you and what you’ve done in and out of the school, including hobbies and interests to make you stand out. Of course, link your essay back to the course you’re applying to and show why they should choose you.”

Sherri started planning after IGCSE and started her first university counselling meetings, which were mostly about what courses to pursue, what IB subjects to choose, and which country or university she should apply to. “The challenging part of those meetings is deciding, based on advice from my parents and university counsellor, the IB subjects that I should choose,” she said. “I am now very grateful that my counsellor told me about the HL subject requirements for the Psychology courses at UCL. If I didn’t choose HL Biology, then I wouldn’t be able to apply to the psychology courses at UCL, as those courses require at least two HL subjects chosen from Psychology, Mathematics, and the three Sciences.”

She also spent a long time working and refining her personal statement, where she had to focus on psychology and language, present her motivation for the course, and also make sure that her word count was within the maximum limit. “Through this process, I learned that I should have documented my IGCSE scores, because filling in UCAS requires an update on these scores. I also spent a long time trying to find the login details to my IGCSE score.”

By completing the entire application process sooner, students will have more time for revision and to focus most of their attention on studying. She also emphasised the importance of staying organised and keeping track of the assessment calendar and the upcoming due dates to ensure ample preparation time and minimise stress as deadlines approach.

She also wants to remind everyone that, in terms of locations, students shouldn’t just be limited to the UK and the US. “Be open-minded about the places that you want to go by thinking about where suits you best and which type of studying environment you like and enjoy the most. Language requirement tests are always the most important aspect and be aware of the different score requirements for each university and each course.”

2. Stay in touch with your university counsellor

Brian shared how grateful he felt towards his university counsellor, even though, astonishingly, he entered their first meeting completely clueless about what to ask or say.

On this, Sherri adds that frequently meeting with university counsellors and asking them questions eased a lot of the difficulties she encountered and made the whole application process smooth and less stressful.

3. Your final list won’t look like your initial list

According to Brian, starting one’s school search by looking at school rankings is common, especially when you don’t much about universities. “But the more you research, the more you can feel whether it’s right for you,” he noted. “My final list ended up being different from what I initially planned. Choose what’s right for you, and not based on what other people say. Look at the student life there and see if it’s right for you. You want to be in a community that you feel comfortable, happy, and safe in. Of course, university is about studying, but it's important that you enjoy yourself as well because it's for three or four years of your life that you get to be in a school environment with people and learn.”

In summary, he outlined four points to consider when researching universities: “geographic location, the courses offered at the university, the amenities that they provide you and the opportunities it provides students with, such as internships and jobs.”

4. Don’t be afraid to ask

Be it to friends, parents, and counsellors, when it comes to the application process Sherri advises to brave up and ask questions. “If there is something that you cannot understand, asking is way better than overloading yourself with unanswered and unsolved questions. Also, sometimes your friends and parents might have additional information to provide and help you with the application process, so learning from them and this extra information will help you prepare more. Stay focused when the university counsellors are having assemblies about university application, because it is the time when you will understand the timeline for the two-year application process, providing details such as the deadline for UCAS and the suggested date to finish UCAS applications. I believe that this timeline could be extremely important because it allowed me to plan my time wisely in terms of when I needed to start the whole process.”

5. Do some research on your university

Whilst researching and applying to UofT, Brian constantly reached out to others to learn about the university. “As UofT promotes flexibility in its students’ learning, it has quite a complex course structure,” shared Brian. “By asking other applying students as well as current students in UofT, I was able to grasp the application process much better and avoid costly mistakes. Furthermore, many of my relatives used to study at the university, so asking them about their experiences and opinions also helped in getting me a well-rounded understanding of where I was going.”

6. Get some sleep!

Sherri admits that maintaining a healthy sleep schedule all the time might be a challenge, especially with the workload, but she added that adequate sleep can ensure better concentration at the start of each school day and will, to some extent, enhance memory. 

A word of gratitude

Brian thanks his parents, who have been with him throughout his journey. “They gave me unconditional love and support the whole time – not just through the university application process but throughout my whole life. Furthermore, I would like to express my gratitude to Ms Tomaszun for her exceptional role as my form tutor during my last year of school, as well as for her continuous support and sacrifice throughout my time at DCB. She has maintained a balance of encouragement and warmth, making my journey so much more enjoyable.”

Sherri also expresses her gratefulness to her parents, without whom she couldn’t have gone so far through IB and the final examinations. She also thanks her closest friends for their support and will miss their times together. She also thanks Ms Merritt and Mr Rossall for their motivation and encouragement in the field of Psychology.