Teen No Ordinary High Achiever

By Karen Chapman

He is just 17, but despite his youth, Timothy Lim Seng Yen has achieved a lot more than any older people.

The London-born youngster has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, taught English to Cambodian street children and performed at an international jazz concert with Al Jarreau.

He has also led his school's orchestra at Britain's Harrow School and is part of a piano trio that has won the country's National Schools Chamber Music competition for the past three years.

Three prestigious universities were knocking on his door and he has chosen Stanford in the United States over Harvard and Britain's Oxford University for his undergraduate studies.

"I was very excited to learn that I was accepted into all three universities as I didn't expect it," Timothy, who wants to study biomedical engineering, said here yesterday.

"I have more or less made up my mind to go to Standard, as I think it will give me more than just academic excellence," he said, before returning to Britain last night to finish his 'A' Level examinations.

Timothy said a the basis of his application for the three universities, he had used his 'O' Level results and his extra curricular activities.

In the 'O' Level examinations, he obtained A* (the highest form of 'A' in 'O' Levels) in 11 papers, including Religious Studies, Mathematics, French, Geography, Biology and English Literature.

The others were English Language, Music, Chemistry, Astronomy and Physics.

In his SATs, he achieved a perfect score of 800 in his Mathematics and 750 in English.

Last year, he was also selected to be part of a school project with Britain firm Whitbybird to design an underground air-cooling system for a desert environment.

Timothy received his early education in Britain as his father Dr. C. J. Lim and mother Irene Khoo, a chartered accountant, were working then.

On the family's return to Malaysia, Timothy and his older sister Tamara enrolled at the Alice Smith School. He returned to London in 2000 for his secondary education at Harrow.

"Outside of my academic interests, I have always loved music," said the teen, who plays the violin, guitar and drums.

Asked what he does to relax, Timothy said he plays rugby, football, futsal and enjoys paintball.

Timothy who speaks several languages, hopes to return to work in Malaysia someday, but says he speaks French better than Malay.

Two Malaysians Secure Places at Harvard University

Two Malaysians and an American residing here have secured places at Harvard University. They were among over 50 applications.

The two Malaysians are Nicholas Khaw Hock Lu and Timothy Lim Seng Yen. The American is Rayhan Arif.

Khaw, 17, the eldest of two siblings, scored 11 A1s in the SPM examination and was a student of Damansara Utama Secondary School.

"Harvard has always been my dream," he said at a Press conference organised by Dr. Goh Cheng Teik, the interviewer in Malaysia for undergraduate admission to Harvard.

Khaw intends to study economics. His mother, Lim Poh Choo, 45, said she thought he was playing an April fool's trick on her when he told her he had been accepted at Harvard.

"It was April 1 and he had just opened his mail. When he told me that, I was convinced it was a prank.

"When I told his grandmother, she started crying. She's very close to him as she took care of him when he was young."

Lim was a student at the Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur and is currently at Harrow Public School, United Kingdom. He was not present at the Press conference.

Rayhan Arif, who has been living in Malaysia for the last 16 years, scored eight As in his O-Level examinations and is a student at Garden International School.

Dr Goh said there were 23,000 applications worldwide this year competing for 1,650 places.

Last year, only one Malaysian was admitted to Harvard.