Chance Me: International Female Applicant for HK Universities

Hi! I'm an international female student from South America applying to universities in Hong Kong and would appreciate some honest opinions on my chances.

I'm keeping my country, school, and a few specific achievements private because I don't want to be identifiable online.

Intended Field

I'm primarily interested in Choice 1: Electrical Engineering, Choice 2: Quant Finance

Academics

A-Levels: 11 Grade A+'s (~6A*)— highest possible grade

Subjects:

• Further Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Integrated Mathematics
• History
• English

O-Levels: 9 Grade A+'s + 1 Grade A

Subjects included:

• Mathematics
• Additional Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• English Language
• English Literature
• ICT
• French
• Geography

SAT: 1440 (720 Math, 720 English)

• This was my first attempt with no study. I'm not sure if i should take it again since " International A-levels" is my highest qualifications.

Academic Achievements

• Ranked #1 in south america for A-Levels
• Ranked #1 at my college for O-Levels
• Placed top 10 in Mathematics at A-Level
• Gold medalist in two international mathematics/science competitions
• Gold medalist in an international trading/finance competition

Leadership / Extracurriculars

• National Youth Ambassador for my country
• Founded a tutoring/academic mentorship program that was eventually expanded nationally
• Extensive mathematics, science, and finance olympiad participation
• 9+ years in Rotaract, with extensive involvement in community service, leadership, fundraising, and projects
• Completed the Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award
• I do have a bit more but it makes me easily identifiable so i will refrain.

Work / Academic Experience

• Interned at an AI tech firm last summer
• Worked as a mathematics lecturer at local community college
• Completed a quantitative finance externship at my country's central bank
• Two additional experiences that I can't publicly disclose due to privacy/confidentiality

Universities

• HKUST
• HKU
• CUHK
• CityU
• PolyU

Questions

1. How competitive do you think I am for these five universities?
2. Which of these would you consider my strongest chances?
3. How much does being an international applicant affect admission chances?
4. Do HK universities place significant weight on international olympiad awards and national rankings?
5. Would my quantitative/finance extracurriculars make me more competitive for QF/Finance-related programs?
6. Are there any major weaknesses in my profile that I should be concerned about?
7. I'm extremely hesitant on placing QFIN as my first choice because i'm afraid that i'll waste that spot and hence my chance at a scholarship. Should i put it as my first choice or lean heavily into the ECE ?
8. Would retaking the SAT be worth it? (My highest qualification is A-levels)

I'd especially appreciate opinions from current students, graduates, or applicants familiar with HKUST/HKU/CUHK/CityU/PolyU admissions.

I'm looking for honest opinions, so feel free to tell me if I'm overestimating my chances.

hi, im a current y1 hkust qfin student. in a previous post on r/hkust i wanted to see how much interest there was in qfin, and i think enough people have expressed enough interest for me to write a post about it.

since people who apply qfin to hkust also usually apply to hku and cuhk qfin (i also got offers from hku and cuhk qfin), i will give tips for those as well and crosspost to the relevant subs

NOTE: i will not do any chancemes, you can make a separate post about that and maybe ill help you on there instead (instead, refer to the grades section right below). also, feel free to ask longer questions that you have that you wanted to ask last time, and i can update this post accordingly

NOTE 2: i am writing this from an international perspective. i am a local applicant that went to an international school. if you are under the dse curriculum, it is a bit different and i dont know too much about it.

grades

grades are the most important part of your application, for any hk uni you apply to. they will probably be worth about 70-80% of your application. i would recommend the following grades on your application as a minimum, for any of these unis (maybe a little more for hkust):

• ib: 43 predicted minimum
• alevels/igcse: 4a* predicted, or if you already have your grades in, 3a*1a minimum, with a* in math
• ap/sat: 7 5s + 1550 sat (800 math), or more aps if you dont have sat, not including english or humanities aps. some can be predicted, but preferably you should have taken most of these before 12th grade. i was an ap student and had 13 stem aps with a 5 and 1590 sat, so i was a strong applicant. however i know some people who have gotten in with less

the approximate scholarship conditions are the following (for hkust, im not too sure about the other unis):

• ib: 44 or 45 for full ride or half
• alevels/igcse: 4a* for half scholly, 5a* for full
• ap/sat: if you get an offer, you will probably get a year scholly

conditions are approximately the following:

• ib: 40 to 41
• alevels/igcse: 3a*1a or 4a*, depending on uni. i think hkust is a bit more strict on alevels and igcse for some reason
• ap/sat: should be unconditional if they like your grades

i am not too sure about other curriculums like jee, but you can probably make a comparison based on the stats above

interview (hkust)

i remember last year the interview was in two stages. one was an interview given to sbm students in general, like a mira interview. it will be conducted online, start at any time you want, and will be recorded. i have saved logs about the structure of it. there will be 5 questions. first is a 30s introduction of yourself. then they will ask 4 questions that are possibly business related. based on what i got from most people, the questions differ between person but will have roughly 2 questions on business/politics, 2 weird questions (i.e. i got something related to designing a holiday, and what i learned from interviews). most people i know passed this stage, just give some confident answers and you should be good

then, once you pass that, they will give you an invitation to the actual qfin interview. for local intl school students (like me), it will be conducted irl, but for intl students it will be conducted online. it will be in a group of 4. there will be two interviewers, one will be someone from the qfin department and one will be ekkachai. you will be given about 30s to introduce yourself. you will have to prepare a resume beforehand, mostly about ecs, and give it to the interviewers. the purpose isnt really to see if you are fit for a "quant" role, but just so that they can ask questions about you and see if you can answer them.

they might ask weird questions, e.g. i remember them asking me why i went to the certain intl school that i studied at, because no one at my school had applied for qfin before. they will ask weird questions on purpose to try to catch you off guard so that they can see if you can think under pressure. you should really prepare things that you know well so that you can tell a story about it confidently

the second part is about financial news. you should have read some financial news recently, and remember certain news topics. ekkachai will tell you during the interview about topics you should not talk about (e.g. crypto, us-china relations, etc.). you will then take turns explaining the news pieces you've read, and ekkachai will ask some questions about them. for example, if you talk about how the u.s. interest rates are at 4%, he might ask you why the us would not set the interest rates to 1% (a response involving inflation or something would probably suffice).

there are a few important things about this second part of the interview.

• if ekkachai does not like the topic you are talking about, he might tell you to think of another topic. you will have to prepare multiple topics.
• secondly, and this is very important, try to find some NICHE financial news. if you are talking about interest rates and nvidia and ai and the korean stock market and all the things that are hype nowadays, he will be bored. if you talk about some new niche company and explain its significance, you can have less risk of someone having the same idea as you, and not have ekkachai bored out of his mind from a news piece hes heard tons of times

i would put a 20-30% importance on this interview for your admissions. be confident and answer questions he asks, and dont stay silent. talk more, not less. if somebody does not know how to answer a question, you may (politely) raise your hand and ask if you could add some remarks to someone else's news

interview (cuhk)

as far as i know, the interviews at cuhk is a bit weird. there are two different types of interviews that ive heard of. the first one (which is the one i did) is when you are in a group of 3 and you introduce yourself and talk about projects or ecs you did and why you're interested in qfin. the interviewer will ask you about your introduction, for example more details of a project you worked on. if you want to, you can implicitly emphasize that part of your introduction so that he asks about the project and prepare a response beforehand

otherwise, its very chill. its just the introduction + questions he has, and then questions you have for him. i remember i asked him a question, and i dont remember what it was, but he told me to meet girls and have fun at uni. lol

the second type of interview, also by the same interviewer btw, is apparently like a competition based interview. after the introduction, he will ask some business questions and you have to compete to answer them. i havent done this one, and it sounds a bit harder, but i think as i said for the hkust interview as well, be confident and dont be afraid to talk

interview (hku)

this will be a 1 on 1 interview. after a short introduction of yourself, they will have a look over at your grades and you will have a chance to talk about projects or ecs you did. i had a 14/15 aime and the interviewer was really impressed, so we talked about olympiads and whatnot for like a minute or so. then there was a math part. they give you about 5 minutes to do 4 math questions, and the questions were something like what you'd find on questions 5-15 of the amc. questions might be related to probability, or those letter addition problems, and logic puzzles. as always, be confident and dont be afraid to talk about your own experiences

other things

some things that people have asked about that i dont know where to put:

• based from our current cohort, there are about 4-7 intl non mainland students, and about 30-40% are mainland. rest are local. however between locals, its quite evenly split between local dse and local intl curriculum. admission wise this is a bit discouraging for intl, but if you do get in, most people speak english more than chinese
• in terms of resources, the fina department is actually very overlapped with the qfin department, so internships and competition opportunities that they send you through email will also be available to fina students. if you feel like qfin is too competitive for you, fina (bba in finance) could be a good alternative choice

if theres anything i missed, pls comment below and ill add it here

sorry that this is a bit disorganized, its mostly just an info dump for anybody interested

im a current y1 qfin student. i was wondering how many people are interested in applying for qfin this year and whether i should write a post about things that you should look for when applying for this major

if you are interested, you can drop me any short questions or just tell me that you're interested. i will probably not answer too many dms, i will only do that if there is enough interest here. do not ask me for any chanceme, do that in a separate post

Im looking for full ride or full tuition fee scholarship
So pleaseee chance me!!! And suggest whether HKU or HkUST or CityU have greater chance for me, i wanna apply for quantitative finance
IGCSE 6A* 2A 1B 1C
World distinction in mathematics igcse
A level 5A* (maths, further maths, physics , economics, computer science)
I gave maths and further maths a year earlier as I completed course so they arent in 1 sittings.
Ielts 7.5
Pracheen Kala Kendra
• Art Examination — Level 1
• Distinction
AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
TEDx Speaker — Delivered a talk on breaking stereotypes
• Top in the World — Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics
• School Topper — IGCSE
• Honourable Mention — International Poster Making Competition
• Multiple awards and recognitions in visual art, including competitions involving international student participants
• Artwork published in a magazine
• Multiple MUN awards for caricature
• Served as Head of Caricaturists at MUN
LEADERSHIP & SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
School Council
• Vice-Captain, Griffin House — 1 year
• Cultural Head Boy — 1 year
Model United Nations
• Multiple award-winning Caricaturist
• Former Head of Caricaturists
• Created live/event caricatures as part of MUN activities
Work also published in magazine

I feel like my ECs arent good as only one MUN was international, rest were local conferences.

I’ve been thinking about the financial situation of PhD/RPG students in Hong Kong and wanted to hear what others think.

I completely understand that university operating costs, accommodation, and tuition can increase over time. But students' expenses are increasing too. The question is whether PhD studentships are keeping up with those increases.

For example, looking at my own situation at HKUST:

Studentship:

• 2024–25: HK$18,760/month
• 2025–26: HK$19,135/month (~2% increase)
• 2026–27: HK$19,135/month (0% increase)

At the same time, university accommodation (for married couple) increased from HK$5,650 → HK$6,944/month over the same period — roughly a 23% increase.

Tuition also increased from HK$42,100 to HK$47,000 (~12% increase), with further increases announced.

So although the nominal studentship hasn't really decreased, the amount left after mandatory university costs is getting smaller.

For example, in my case, after tuition and university accommodation, the amount left is roughly:

2025–26: ~HK$9,227/month
2026–27: ~HK$8,657/month

That's a reduction of around HK$570/month, before paying for food, transportation, utilities, healthcare, etc.

If university expenses are increasing, shouldn't PhD studentships also have some mechanism to adjust with inflation, tuition, accommodation, or cost of living?

Otherwise, aren't PhD students effectively receiving higher financial stress?

I'd genuinely like to hear from other PhD students in Hong Kong:

• Has your studentship kept up with increases in tuition and accommodation?
• Does your university have any cost-of-living adjustment?
• Are other universities facing the same situation?
• Do you think PhD funding in Hong Kong is still adequate for the current cost of living?

Would be interested to hear different perspectives rather than just my own experience.