How I made my decision.

NUS vs NTU in QS World University Rankings

Alright,this post is rather out of the blue,as I was checking the online acceptance status on NUS's website,people,please be reminded that the status confirmation for NUS is already up from today onwards so you guys can check to have a peace of mind and start planning for your pre-enrolment stuffs:) Congrats to everyone who've officially enrolled into NUS incuding ME!I've been waiting for this day since forever...

I will be heading down to NUS's UHC to have my medical checkup done,it's such as pain in the a** that I can't wait to get it done asap,mom will be accompanying me down since most of my close friends who're going to NUS is either working or in NS while the others are not going to NUS so I'm left alone:(

Since my place in NUS has been officially confirmed,with no hiccups at all (thank God,this is the first time I planned everything from scratch with no help at all) I think it's time for me to share why I chose NUS over NTU,SMU,SUTD and how I could make my decision so quickly.

FYI,I only applied to NUS and NTU because there's no point wasting time and money applying for unis which I don't even have interest in.I did not attend Open House for SMU and SUTD either....Actually,NTU was just a backup in case I somehow  don't get accepted by NUS for my 8 choices,now I feel really stupid to waste $10 to apply for NTU>.<

Alright,in my opinion and what others have shared with me,SMU is a more practical,hands-on and cannot-keep-your-mouth-shut-or-you-get-poor-grades kind of environment. I've watched a recent conversation on TV regarding autonomous unis in Singapore and the president of SMU wants its students to be proactive and be thinkers so that students will be daring and able to speak up during lectures or conferences,this makes SMU different from other local unis.Of course,people who are outgoing,preferably extroverts will find SMU a better place to thrive in but for people like me,an INFJ,it really makes no sense for me to go to SMU,no offence,I do hear of introverts doing well in SMU.Another bad point about SMU to me is that due to its relatively small campus,there isn't any halls or residential college available,although I'm not considering to stay in halls for the first sem until I finish adapting to uni life first,because I don't want too many new things to happen at one go,who knows I may want to experience hall life in future and SMU will be a problem.Moreover,SMU has a pretty small cohort size compared to its counterparts and that means lesser chance to meet new people and work with them,hence lesser chances of getting to learn new skills from other people which I think will impede my goals of meeting as many new people as possible and learn certain skills for them,perhaps as diverse the background,the better:)

As for SUTD,I was initially quite keen in that new uni when it created a hooha on the news when I was still in my upper sec years,speaking about how the school only takes in relatively high-calibre students and collaboration with MIT and Zhe Jiang University.Yes,those are quite established universities and the fact that it's the only uni located in the East side of Singapore makes it more appealing to me since I live in the East,but I was totally turned off by the invitation letter they sent to me when I was in JC2.They even spelled my name incorrectly and the usage of proper English is so.....terrrible.I'm not saying my command of English is good but come on,being an autonomous university there should be certain level of standard right,because the invitation letter really creates an impression in prospective students and hello!This is an official invitation letter bearing your school's crest and SUTD still could get our names mixed up and spelt wrongly,ask the 2013 cohort and you know just how many people received letters with incorrect name....Seriously,SUTD is making me wonder whether it's trying to get it's fame up by collaborating with so-called established schools but we shall see,currently the school is still situated in Dover till 2018 I think,and by that time,I would've graduated so no point going there either....Another school off the list:D Additional info:I do have friends getting  less than 75 for A level rank points getting into SUTD-.-


That leaves me with only NUS and NTU to consider.I went to both uni's Open House and am impressed by the environment and what each school has to offer to its students.It was a tough choice to make between the two,considering the proximity,school fees,halls,cohort size are almost the same for both.I actually prefer NTU in terms of it's halls and facilities,NTU looks newer,brighter and cleaner and although it's located at the far end of Singapore (also known as an island by itself), considering that I live in Pasir Ris, I thought NTU would be more convenient for me since I can just take the green line from Pasir Ris to Pioneer and alight to catch a shuttle bus to NTU compared to having to change from green line to circle line in Buona Vista then to Kent Ridge then alight and take a shuttle bus to NUS.But what ultimately drived me to make my final decision is the world ranking of NUS and NTU,you can look at the picture at the start of this post and it's pretty clear cut that NUS is a better choice in terms of employability in other countries as Singapore wise,both unis are equally good but who knows if we will land ourselves in a foreign workplace 5 or 10 years down the road?So a degree bearing the blue and orange crest would make a sound decision.Secondly,as I am solely looking into humanities,arts and social sciences,I had enough of sciences and math after 10 years,NUS has more choices to offer with up to 20 majors available to all FASS students provided you meet the internal criterias compared to a limited number of courses in NTU's HSS,that's it,NUS would be my choice.

For those who don't know,if you take a look at the respective IGPs of NTU and NUS,and compare same course to same course,it's not hard to see that most 10th percentile for NUS courses are higher than that of the same course in NTU,although it may sound that I'm going for the prestige,I'm actually being more of a practical person,knowing that I would be able to learn more from people with standards similar to mine or even better,so that I can constantly challenge myself to do better or keep up with the rest in a more competitive environment.I'm a person that survives and do better by being a small fish in a big pond haha and not the other way round:) And since I will be heading to Arts and Social Sciences,a strong command of English is of utmost importance and you guys ought to know that there will be a Qualifying English Test(QET) for all uni-students-to-be unless you're exempted as you've met the criteria.For us A level kids,to be exempted from QET for SMU and NTU,you only have to get an E for GP and above to spare you the misery of having to register,prepare and sit for the 1 hour 15 mins paper in July.For SUTD,I think it's even better,there's no QET at all.Whereas for NUS,to be exempted from QET,you have to get at least a C for A level GP (that's 2 grades above that of NTU and SMU),and it maked me really doubt the standard of English used during lectures,exams et cetra in other unis besides NUS.For me,I'm glad that I'm exempted for the QET but nonetheless,I ought to brush up my English more since I came from SAP schools with traditionally stronger Chinese background as mentioned before.


Alright,gotta go,hope this post will help you guys understand how I made my decision especially for my friends who kept asking how I could derive at this final answer so quickly,hope this post finds you well,till then.Goodbye!:D

With Love,
Cheryl





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