Tak kenal maka tak cinta. Jom Kenali Universiti Awam (UA) Malaysia.
UIAM - UiTM - UKM - UM - UMK - UMP - UMS - UMT - UniMAP - UNIMAS - UniSZA - UPM - UPNM - UPSI - USIM - USM - UTeM - UTHM - UTM - UUM

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Tough Competition for JPA Scholarships

Posted by Chong

A reader has left an interesting comment in the post entitled ‘My JPA Scholarship Interview Experience’. Since my thoughts on his or her comment are long enough to be put into a post, I post it here. So please read the comment first before reading this post.

Dear Supremacy,

Thanks for your constructive comment. After reading your comment, I have a few thoughts as stated below.

First, I don’t agree that about 30% of the straight 1As students are nerds. I think that 2% is a more reasonable percentage. Even if they were nerds, I don’t agree that they weren’t short-listed for JPA Scholarship Interview. Why? The reason is simple: JPA worry that straight 1As students will make complaints or newspaper headlines when they were not short-listed for the interview.

Bear in mind, last month when The Star reported a straight 1As (12 1As) student, Albert Wong failed to be short-listed for JPA Scholarship Interview, Public Service Department or Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam was under high pressure. Finally, with the help from Cabinet members, Albert was awarded a full scholarship without even having to attend a scholarship interview!

Although you might argue that it was a special case since Albert is a student with special needs, I do believe the same happy endings will happen to all straight 1As, average students when they make the newspaper headlines. For the less fortunate 3834 straight 1As+2As students including myself, if we fail to win the JPA scholarships, we could do nothing but to accept the evil truth.

Next, it’s true that many top SPM students have secured some other famous scholarships like ASEAN scholarships, Petronas scholarships and Tenaga Nasional Berhad scholarships to name a few. However, many of them still applied JPA scholarships and went to the interview too!

During my JPA scholarship interview, I met two top students who were already awarded Petronas scholarship and Inti College’s scholarship respectively. One of the questions I have raised during my conversation with them is ‘Why do you apply JPA scholarship since you have already secured such a nice scholarship?’ Both of them give me the same simple and straightforward answer, ‘JPA scholarship is the best scholarship and I wish to study abroad without paying a single dollar’.

In my conclusion, competition for JPA scholarships is extremely tough. Only time will tell if this is true.

Best wishes,
Cupid

PS Don’t hesitate to leave your contact details like blog’s URL or email address in your comment. 8-)

Update: You can check the JPA scholarship application results now. I failed to win JPA scholarship. Only two straight 1As students from my school have secured them. The competition was really tough. The annual drama begins...
Liked this post? Subscribe now to read more post like this one!
Comments
18 Comments

18 comments:

  1. its not exactly "without paying a single dollar'...
    u gotta payback in the end oso wat..

    ReplyDelete
  2. =). Nice, i thought ud never reply.. or this is just another abandoned blog =P. Anyways, lets get the ball rolling. First, its nerds and not nuts. Hehe! Nuts is 'orang gila'. Then again, its true that those mentioned nerds are also called up for the "interview" but that doesnt mean they are "potential JPA scholar" cuz they havent got the scholarship yet. Im talking about those potential ones who "will" be "granted" the scholarship. Meaning to say nerds are out of the sotry because they have got to be an all-rounder. Well, if those straight a1 nerds dont get the scholarship and decides to complain.. i suggest that theyve got to blame the "man in the mirror first" and be knocked some sense that JPA have clearly stated .. even if ur a 13a1 scorer but uve got 0 personality, 0 social skills and 0 co-curricular activity.. u might as well just forget about getting any scholarship. =D "The reason is simple: JPA worry that straight 1As students will make complaints or newspaper headlines when they were not short-listed for the interview." Very true indeed.. then again,(also called up for the "interview" but that doesnt mean they are "potential JPA scholar") as ive mentioned above. "I do believe the same happy endings will happen to all straight 1As, average students when they make the newspaper headlines" -- Yes, JPA is very competative indeed. When so many people are fighting for it. But its the matter of whether they aced their interview or not. If they did very well in the interview.. then why worry? If they were 'bisu' and gave some really childish response during the interview, then they might end up not getting anything. "we could do nothing but to accept the evil truth." -- Get this straight, THE WORLD IS NEVER FAIR. Sad sad situation huh? "‘JPA scholarship is the best scholarship and I wish to study abroad without paying a single dollar’" -- its "a single ringgit .. hehe". I wish to add to that.. ppl want JPA not only because they give away full sponsorship of overseas education. Its the most prestigous scholarship in the nation and u'll get to meet all the top minds of the country. Plus, its also a real honour to be granted that scholarship. Whoever wants JPA because, "Oh! They send people to study overseas loh!! So cool man !! Summore !! No need to pay hia!!" I say those are idiots who are not really bright and have really shallow minds =p. OH, i also want to add. To those who applied for JPA : Is "coming back to serve the nation" your top priority ? You dont have to answer that. Just be honest... think about it guys, think about it... its in within you... And to lingghezhi, what do you mean by "u gotta payback in the end oso wat.."? Yes, when u accept the scholarship, you are in the bond with the governmant, its like an agreement/deal with the govermant that you are serious about coming back to serve the country and work for the governmant. When u say payback, then its a loan.. not scholarship.. its two very different thing.. And sorry, i would just like to be known Supremacy, i wanted to put anonymous.. but its way to hypocrite and has got no attitude.. So, i just wish to remain the Anonymous Supremacy =)

    ReplyDelete
  3. i have something to say... four guys from my school got it and all four of them are Chinese.. you see the thing is.. i think the governmant emphasize more on the family and financial background... all four of them has at least 4 siblings and parents whose earnings are between 2k-5k. While others who got straight a1 (10a1 and above) whose parents earning is 10k and above didnt get it.. so ud probably know why some didnt get and some did..

    ReplyDelete
  4. How about you? Did you get PSD scholarship?

    ReplyDelete
  5. i applied for MARA.. i want to to make a full use of my Bumi rights.. =) well, have u considered appealing ?? theres an online form available here http://www.mca.org.my/pdfdocs/25/JPA_Rayuan2006.pdf and you can directly make a complain/rayuan via the Wisma MCA... or u can meet up with any MCA ministers and call up some reporters !!! thatll be nice :-) Good luck to you !

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the link. I will not appeal since my SPM results are not VERY good. It wouldn't catch any attention.

    By the way, I am going to start my Lower Six this coming Monday. Have to fight for my future again! 8-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yeah,its tough competition for JPA scholarship.But lucky for me,I managed to secure one.I think I agree with supremacy.The government look more towards the student's family and financial background.And one other thing,I studied in a boarding school and I think that has become an advantage to me.You see,from my school,and from my class only,7 people was granted the scholarship for medicine.And thats for medicine only,I dont know about engineering and other courses,and also about other classes.anyway I wish good luck to cupid.I heard form six is really hard.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't agree that JPA looks at our social-economy backgroud. I scored 10A1s in spm . A1 for GCE-O as well. My dad is a government pensioner. Thus, my family income is below 3K. I failed to get the scholarships. However, I knew a girl who is not active in co-cu. She scored 11A1s and her family income is like 20K. She managed to get it. There's no chinese from my school who managed to secure the JPA scholarships this year. Last year, there were a total 21 jpa scholars from my school. Just my opinion though.

    ReplyDelete
  9. so serabutla you all ni... what the blardy-hell-short-minded things that you all doubt about the reason why JPA took all the 'nerd'.. I guess.. weh... dont you all read the newspaper hah.. 60% for academic, 15% for what we call that,, haaa kokurikulum.. mmm I think that right.. 15% for our interview and the balance for family background.. in all aspects la not only how much your parents manage to earn in a month!! Okay that for JPA.. for TNB and PETRONAS its deviate skit la.. lu org go and ask 'em la kalo mau tau.. Okay let start counting.. If you got straight 1A, you will got 60% right,, so if you were not active in kk and only secure a lot of sijil tp all of them were in district level, you all dapat la less than 5%.. pastu in interview you all just 'bisu' and trying to pretend you done well enough when the reporter asked you,,(1A complainer in the newspaper)you all got again the score less 5%.. haha... okay how much now,, its 70% right??? okay now the last part.. of course la BUMI got the priority.. tp X banyak pun.. okay ,if you are a BUMI and your financial is quite secure, you all got la the highest they will give: 8%.. dont expect la they will give full marks coz its a subjective assessment.. okay.. now what's the total??? less than 80% right.. how can you all said you all dah fulfill all the JPA requirement.. haha.. try to think for a moment.. interview and kk were important right... huhu..

    ReplyDelete
  10. sorry, i couldnt find the link for one of the post, so i just type my comment on this new post.it was regarding one of the post "tough competition for JPA" , posted quite some time ago. i do not deny that Jpa scholarship is very tough to get, but since it is a very good (in fact , the most secured) scholarship, there is no reason why other scholarships holder should not apply for it. i am an Asean scholar myself, and i applied for Jpa 2 years ago. i personally dun think there is anything wrong with it, because Asean scholarship does not guarantee direct renewal of scholarship after the A levels.btw, i am from kuantan also.nice reading the blog.sorry if this comment offended anyone.

    Note from Chong: This comment was reposted here because it was posted on the wrong post. The original comment was posted on Monday, March 19, 2007 10:56:00 PM.

    ReplyDelete
  11. haha. its true dat it is a tough competition in order to get a jpa scholarship.

    bu my cousin was really lucky. she din't get straight a's nor was close to it. she is not a native. she speaks ok ok in both bm n bi. but she got a scholarship from jpa to study in korea.

    everything wa paid for n she even get monthly allowance and manage to send some of it to my aunty and uncle.

    there she studied hard and emerged as top student in her university, beating other korean students. she is doing biochem i think.

    chun rite.hehe

    its mainly on strategies. to fullfill every criteria. hehe. salute her to the max!

    ReplyDelete
  12. It isn't really hard to secure a scholarship. I got both ASEAN and MARA offers.

    But I picked MARA because I didn't have to do any prep and send to the top 20 university in the states. ASEAN scholarship although sounds nice isn't all that good. You have to excel in A Level and find a sponsor to go to your college. So in the end the future are insecure.

    The clue to get the scholarship is not to brag how much A's you got but what is your aspiration.Why are you choosing this course, why this country, what can you offer malaysia. That sort of bs.

    Now if you can bs a lot you're good to go. Speak fluently,clearly and slowly.Show that you are really interested and do your research on the things you want to do.

    Don't think just because you got gazillion A's you are accepted immediately. Even if you take the race into accounts, I've seen malay who got more A's than me that didn't secure any kind of scholarship.

    and if you're saying I got mara scholarship because I am malay that's fine.It's true anyway but I also secured ASEAN scholarship. So that should say something.

    Anyway I think I did a fair amount of work preparing for interviews and you should too.

    p/s: read all the latest issues.They like to ask about oh how to prevent traffic jam, what your opinion in criminal offense such as death penalty. bla2.

    Okay I am already telling so much of interviews questions.Best of luck!

    ReplyDelete
  13. stupid question here *hand raise up* in order to apply got scholarships..how many subjects do i have to take in A level to have higher chances to get scholarships?

    ReplyDelete
  14. i got it. alhamdulillah.
    my spm result 6A1, 4A2.
    i applied for pharmacy, n got the course i applied for..

    ReplyDelete
  15. i got jpa schlrship to further study abroad..ha2..
    my spm result 8A1,2A2
    i applied pure science n got dat course..
    congrats 2 all those who got it also...
    n hence u r nw one step closer to ur dreams..
    dis could b a start of something new..
    all de best...!^^

    ReplyDelete
  16. i got jpa in pharmacy course. i got 9as and i wand to say congrats to those who also got jpa scholarships.

    ReplyDelete
  17. What is the criteria for JPA scholars? I understand that being a Malaysian citizen is part of it. Does JPA offer these scholarships to malaysians that have not completed their SPM but instead an SPM equivalent overseas and got top 5% of the state?

    ReplyDelete
  18. the interview session is in bm or bi?

    ReplyDelete

Malaysia Students Blog is a team blog on Malaysian major examinations, secondary, pre-university & tertiary education, scholarship Malaysia, student resources, students' thoughts and everything relating to students & undergraduates at schools, colleges & universities in Malaysia - Student Education Malaysia

Comment Policy: Comments posted at Malaysia Students blog should be on-topic, constructive and add value to the discussion. Comments that are off-topic, one-sentence, abusive or offensive will be removed. Please use proper English with correct spelling and grammar in your comment. For general questions, please post them at SPM Student Malaysia. For enquiries, please email the administrator of this blog: Student at Malaysia-Students dot com.

Join over 50,000 people who get FREE latest scholarship updates via email!

Free Scholarship Updates:   

More scholarships available at Malaysia Scholarship Information Centre

Do Not Miss Any Job Offers! Get Student Part Time Jobs via Email!