She got offers to study quantum physics at 10 elite US universities

When Ng Gha Yuan told her mother that she wanted to become a quantum physicist, her mother initially had no idea what that was. After a quick Google search, her response to her daughter was “Are you like, mad?”

Despite that, Ng’s family supported her interests. After all, their child grew up with a curiosity for the sciences – it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to think that she would become a scientist by studying physics or other STEM-related subjects. The only catch – she most likely had to leave them and go abroad for a prestigious STEM programme, perhaps in one of the 10 top universities worldwide.

Fast-forward a couple of years. Ng had secured great results from her A Levels, several student leadership positions in Alice Smith School, and even more awards and honours from competitions and challenges.

Recently, her inbox was flooded with acceptance letters from the world’s top universities. with some even offering full scholarships.

Ng stayed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for most of her life until she went abroad to study at Yale. Source: Ng Gha Yuan

She never expected to study physics in one of the US’s 10 top universities

From a young age, Ng kept herself busy in both academics and extracurricular activities. In the years leading up to her SPM – the Malaysian Certificate of Education, a national exam compulsory for all fifth-form students – she was captain of her school’s swim team, student of the year, and deputy head prefect—the pièce de résistance was scoring over 10 As for her SPM. But she never imagined that she’d be pursuing physics in the future.

“Not going to lie – physics was always a weird subject for me,” she says. “I never really understood it up until my SPM, and I struggled a lot. It was one of my weakest sciences.” 

But her stance changed when she took her A Level at The Alice Smith School. She liked how the course was taught – less memorising was involved as compared to SPM, and it was more about learning how to apply concepts and understanding the topics. 

Of course, she was still active during her A Level – she was captain of the volleyball team, held prefect positions in several areas, participated and won many STEM-related competitions, and even received the KLASS Scholar award, which granted her a 100% academic scholarship. 

It was then she could imagine herself doing physics at a higher level, such as at a prestigious institution overseas. 

“I never really planned that far ahead when I was younger – I mean, I could barely form a proper thought,” she joked. “But as we got closer to graduation – about the end of the first year of A Level – I started thinking about it, which was quite crazy since it was last minute. But I knew I wanted to pursue a STEM degree abroad, like in the US or UK.”

But she was cutting it close. Year 12 was coming to an end, which meant she only had a few months to apply for universities abroad. 

As part of her programme at Yale, Ng joined a summer session in Siena, where she learned Italian and Tuscan film, history, and culture. Source: Ng Gha Yuan

A big, scary dream come true

When it came to university applications, Ng decided to go big or go home – she applied early in 2022 for Harvard and Oxford, even taking the SAT and ACT while preparing for her other applications. But their rejections came swift and fast — she was deferred by Harvard and Oxford said no.

It was not a promising start.

“I thought to myself, oh my God, I’m cooked, right?” she said. 

Panicking, Ng shotgunned the rest of her applications to all the Ivy Leagues and other UK schools, but her anxiety grew as November approached.

Despite her outstanding applications, she had zero acceptances.

For the whole of November and December that year, Ng worked on writing admissions essays and applications. It was difficult as she had to juggle studying for her mock exams, which were scheduled for January 2023. Even throughout her exams and after, she had to prepare for the interview phases while trying not to let her anxiety get to her.

“I did get a few conditional offers from a few UK universities I applied to, but the conditions were tough,” she confessed. “Like they wanted A*s from me, which I couldn’t guarantee. Then Maryland, which was supposed to be my safety net, got back to me and said they couldn’t process my application because I didn’t take an English language proficiency test. Whoops.”

But soon enough, Ivy Day rolled around. Anxious to see her results, Ng was up and ready by the crack of dawn, as results would be updated at 7 a.m. To her dismay, UC Berkeley had waitlisted her, but her disappointment didn’t last long. The next portal she checked was for Dartmouth – and they had accepted her application.

“I was like, oh my God, mom I got in; I was really happy,” she said. “It was definitely a roller coaster because I didn’t care anymore – I was like, I got in, I’m finally going to go to college.”

But notifications kept rolling in – by the end of the week, Ng was looking at acceptance letters from Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, Imperial College London, University College London, Warwick, and Nottingham.

From zero acceptances, she now had the wonderful problem of deciding where to go. But how was she to choose, when she had offers from 10 top universities and more?

“Princeton offered me the best package in terms of financial aid, but I decided to speak to Yale to negotiate for a better offer,” she said. “I learned that from Reddit, actually!”

Today, Ng is a sophomore at Yale, with plans to go into applied physics. Aside from her academics, she is also part of the university’s quantum computing club, wrestling, and also stand-up comedy. She also expressed interest in exploring finance or engineering adjacent industry jobs in the future, or even returning to Malaysia for a position in the ministry.

“It sounds crazy, but I also want to try out a corporate job,” she joked. “I always want to try new things and put myself out of my comfort zone.”

While Ng remains unsure about her career path for the time being, she appreciates that her time abroad has broadened her worldview.

“I’ve learned to enjoy the little things in life, after spending most of life going on about grades and school,” she said. “Being here taught me to understand different people and different backgrounds, and it’s so interesting to learn their ways of living.”

Ng confessed she has bad stage fright and finds it difficult to talk in front of large groups of people – so she joined stand up comedy at Yale to overcome her fear. Source: Ng Gha Yuan

Accessible education – her way of giving back to the community

Academics and sports aren’t the only avenues in which Ng channels her efforts. She currently runs a few projects to help promote accessible education, which she is extremely passionate about. 

The STEM Bulletin

When she was still a student, Ng often wished that she had a platform to share, learn, and interact with other students, especially regarding STEM topics. She then created Malaysia’s first independent student-run STEM blog in 2022 – The Stem Bulletin. She co-founded the platform alongside her schoolmate Eric, in hopes of building a comprehensive and reliable blog for her fellow STEM enthusiasts. 

“The truth is, we don’t lack talent – it’s a platform and outreach that we need to express our thoughts and interests to others,” she said. “As STEM students ourselves, we really wished that we had this kind of platform; that’s why we created The STEM Bulletin.

The team started out with just Ng and a couple of friends from Alice Smith, but grew steadily and caught the attention of other international schools. Now, it has its own website and a large team of students from countries such as the US, Canada, Hong Kong and more, all eagerly working together to contribute to the platform’s growth. 

The STEM Bulletin exists to show that reading and writing about science doesn’t have to be boring. But those aren’t the only contributions – the platform has also been used to raise money for charity. Ng organised Code4Fund in 2022, an online coding challenge under The STEM Bulletin. 100% of the participation fees and additional donations were directed to the Dignity for Children Foundation.

NoteDiff

Similar to The Stem Bulletin, Ng wanted to make study materials more accessible for students who needed them. So she created NoteDiff, a website containing materials, notes, exam guidelines and more for students taking their SPM, A-Levels, and (I)GSCEs. 

“I realised that a lot of resources and notes online had a paywall, or some sort of subscription or member fees – which is totally fair, but not everyone can afford to pay those fees,” she explained. “So I thought about getting a few students to help out, share their notes and study materials online, and see where it goes.”

When creating NoteDiff, Ng was actually inspired by the streaming platform Twitch; viewers could regularly make donations or subscribe to their favourite creators. Similarly, she set up NoteDiff in a way that visitors could pay it forward if they wished, to a charity of their choice instead of to Ng. 

“I also wanted more people to be aware of the smaller local charity organisations that may have gone unnoticed under the community radar,” said Ng’s statement on the website. “I believe that these organisations have sometimes been overlooked and overshadowed by bigger names, and I would like this to change.”