We speak to Matthew Tang on how he managed to secure a coveted spot in not one but four prestigious Ivy League institutions
At just 18 years old, Matthew Tang has achieved an enviable feat: acceptances to four Ivy League schools—Yale University, Cornell University, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania—plus prestigious universities like the University of California, Berkeley, and several top-tier UK universities, including Imperial College London.
Aside from that, Tang is also a former Selangor state swimmer who now represents Kuala Lumpur. An avid speedcuber, he represented Team Malaysia at the Rubik’s World Cube Association (WCA) World Championship 2023 in South Korea, co-organised the Malaysia Cube Championship 2023 and, along with his committee, secured the bid to host the Rubik’s WCA Asian Championship 2024 in KL this December.
We sat down with the prodigious teen to discuss his thoughts, experience, and motivations leading up to the application and how he got accepted into these illustrious institutions.
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From the outset, Tang’s academic prowess was clear, having scored 11A*s in his International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) examinations at Garden International School, but he thinks it was the university application essay on his journey with the Rubik’s Cube that truly set him apart.
“One of the prompts of the application essay was to discuss an accomplishment that really sparked a period of personal growth. I wrote about my Rubik’s Cube journey and linked that to my cultural identity. Even though I’m Malaysian, I’ve grown up in a kind of international school setting and I found it a bit hard to kind of connect with my Malaysian peers. The local Rubik’s Cube community helped me fit in and made me feel like I’m a part of the Malaysian community,” he says.