A Bit on the Malaysian ADTP Program

On request. Hmm. Perhaps I should only do stuff on request from now on… Though some people might take that as an invitation to make me write dissertations on everything not under the sun (there’s more of that actually). So um, no thanks.

Anyhow, this is going to be about the American Degree Transfer Program, um, program that you can find in oodles of private Malaysian universities. The good (or more technically, famous) ones anyway. Don’t quote me on this of course; I don’t even pretend to pretend to be an expert. But hopefully this might illuminate and stuff.

1) You can get into ADTP (or ADP) right after SPM (or O-levels, or whatever floats your non-Malaysian boat) as far as I know. Which is good, no need to waste time and whatnot, right?

2) The T in ADTP means Transfer, and yes, most if not all ADTP people transfer off to (guess!) America to finish off their degree. Note, they get a Degree, no diplomas and all that, after the 4 years. I think some Aussie and UK institutions accept transfers too (wondrous indeed).

3) Oh, and in the first year of the degree you’re called a freshman, in the second a sophomore, then a junior in the third, and in the final year you’re a senior. These year-levels are more accurately calculated from the credit hours you take a year, as far as I know you advance a level every 33 credits you take. It takes 124 credit hours to graduate. One subject might have different credit hours (almost all are 3 hours per subject but tougher or easier subjects have more/less credit hours). If you feel like the Road Runner you can attempt suicide by taking 7 subjects a semester (that’s 21+ credit hours) and finishing in a breezy 3 years. Or less. But you might die of stress on the way, so it’s not recommended. Unless you like this kind of stuff.

4) Most transfer students transfer 33/66 credits from their Malaysian institutions, so they gallivant off in their 2nd or 3rd degree year. It’s cheaper to do your credits in Malaysia, and the subject matter for the first 2 years is mostly the same in both places. Going Malaysian might even be easier, but it depends on your lecturers really. One issue is that the American university might not always accept all your Malaysian credits, or will only accept a maximum level.

Say you do 70 credit hours. The American Uni will accept up to 66 credit hours. But even that is not guaranteed: if the subjects you took aren’t acceptable the AU (American Uni lah hah) might take less, maybe about 60, maybe less than that… So make sure you know the AU that you want to transfer very, very early so that before you take a subject in your MU (Malaysian Uni, duh). You can check with your transfer adviser, see if that subject will be transferred to your AU of choice. And you can apply to more than one AU, of course, as an international transfer student

5) Make sure you know all application deadlines! Not all AU-s accept transfer students every semester, usually there’s only one or two intakes a year. So make sure you know when to apply, or you might be stuck in Malaysia another year before jetting off. And then there’s the visa process but I think it’s pretty straightforward so I won’t talk about it.

6) So, why go to America anyway? Hmm. I won’t make any anarchic comments here since this is on request… So this narrows down the list. Tsk. Um, ah… It broadens horizons. It’s full of gweilou (heh heh). The people here are pretty friendly (the ones who actually talk to you anyway), you can get an American bank account. Oh, that brings me to the joys of American bank account-ancy, which warrants another number.

7) With an American bank account you can get online stuff from anywhere, full stop. It makes PayPal far easier to use. You can get online stuff from anywhere. You can get online stuff from anywhere. (I’m way too pleased over this.)

That’s all I have to say. It’s pretty good here really. I haven’t met any gun toting maniacs, no KKK, no crazy racist dudes (apart from the Malaysians… kidding!). Maybe it’s the snow – maybe they’re hibernating. Or maybe, just maybe, America could be a wonderful place to study in and whatnot. Check it out in any case. A bit of knowledge won’t hurt. Much.