Zest fully:Thank you very very much for the time spent in clearing many many doubts. You have given insights into SUTD. I am sure this will give clarity to many others too who read this thread. All the best to you!
and hope to see your daughter around if she does join SUTD
Zest fully:You're most welcomeThks again. You have cleared many doubts.
Sounds promising that graduates are expected to be capable of designing and managing products, in addition to designing software like graduates of the other Unis. So it appears to offer more breadth and that the depth may be compromised considering that it offers 3.5 yrs as opposed to 4 yrs offered by other Unis.
Also, re-taking is not an examination anymore but a test? Does it mean the format is different from exam? The score of 'C' after retake still commands the same status of an exam and so 3 points will be awarded. Correct? Wonder what will happen if one still fails after the bootcamp and test during Freshmore.
I just learnt from another forum that SUTD is not PEB recognised unlike NUS and NTU. Not sure if you have any comment about it.
Anyway, in terms of employability, a high percentage of my seniors have been hired by progressive companies in key industries, as mentioned in the previous employment survey link
There isn’t a fixed number of places for each pillar, so you can be assured that whatever pillar your daughter chooses to go to after freshmore year she’ll definitely get it. You simply have to indicate your choice of pillar at the end of the freshmore year via the school portal.
The choice of track is also up to the individual and depends on what modules she ends up taking. For example, if you take modules like fluid mechanics versus electromagnetic applications, mostly likely you’ll end up in the mechanical engineering track rather than the electronic engineering track. So you’re not posted to tracks or anything, it just depends on what kind of modules you choose to take each term.
From what I understand the Info Systems course at SMU is focused on managing the info systems rather than engineering or designing the systems, they graduate with a degree in Info Systems whereas we graduate with a degree in Engineering. SMU is still a business school at heart, SUTD is more a tech/innovation/makers kinda school. So I think with that regard SMU Info Systems and SUTD ISTD is quite different.
From what I get from my friends studying ISTD, traditional courses from NUS and NTU it’s comparable to would be their courses in the School of Computing (SoC). But cause of the emphasis on design thinking in SUTD you can design and manage products on top of designing the software.
As far as I know, the figures that you have is accurate for freshmore year, for pillar years, it would be about two profs per class since the class size would probably be smaller and it also depends on the module being taught.
For exchanges, some students are offered the exchange programs at admissions, others just apply when the various application portals open throughout the school year. There’s no particular ‘type’ of student that go on exchanges, but to have a good chance to get the exchange programs you’d probably need a good academic standing and some sort of leadership/project experience, which is pretty easy to rack up if you have a fifth row, since the handing over of exco positions to incoming freshmore students is rather quick here. There’s a range of exchange and internship opportunities that you can opt for over summer (the four-month-long break) or winter (a one-month-long break) or even term exchanges overseas. To help with finding internships, we have career fairs and industry nights that happening during term time especially during periods close to summer breaks. Again it depends on the interest of the individual, and whether you are pro-active in signing up for these opportunities.
If you fail the subject in pillar year, you’d probably have to re-take it next year with the juniors, I don’t think they will stop you from promoting. If you minimally pass with a D grade or fail though, I would be really concerned…yeah… that just means the person didn’t understand the subject matter… even if you do promote you’d probably struggle. We are graded with letter grades in the transcript (A,B,C,D,F - where F is a fail) and those translate to points, so an A is worth 5 points, B is worth 4, C is worth 3 and D is worth 2. Those points are then calculated against subject credits using a formulae to give you the cGPA.
If you fail a subject in freshmore year (in freshmore year grades D and F is considered a fail) then you are required to go for bootcamp, it’s a two week intensive crash course on whatever subject a student fails, and after that two weeks, you take a test, and if you pass that test, you’ll get a ‘C’ grade regardless of how well you did for the test, and will be promoted to the next term. Think of it as a second chance you get without having to repeat the whole term again.
Hi there~
A current student in SUTD here~ saw your post and decided to hit reply
Well... SUTD is a rather small university compared to the likes of NUS and NTU, and because of that, we have a strong, almost family like spirit in school, and since hostel stay is compulsory for all first-year students, our community tends to be rather tight knit. Our modules also have a focus on hands-on application of theory through collaborative projects that run within and across modules. I guess the modules are structured in a way that helps use see how problems are often more than one dimensional and definitely beyond the textbook. Probably, that's why we also have more tutorials and less lectures too.
As you've mentioned we have four pillars, Engineering Product Development (EPD) akin to the more traditional ideals of engineering like mechanical, electrical, etc. Engineering Systems Design (ESD) they study the optimisation of various systems, Information Systems Technology and Design (ISTD) they learn things like coding, security and AI, and lastly there's Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) which to put it shortly is architecture. (Read more on the website: http://sutd.edu.sg/education) But what's interesting about us is that regardless of what pillar you choose to pursue we all share a common first-year course or what we like to term as freshmore year (the first three terms of school), where we learn things like math, physics, coding, design, chem, bio and humanities and social science, a bit of a taster for every pillar, so at the end of freshmore year when we choose our pillar, it's somewhat a more informed choice. And when we move into our pillar years, we have friends from other pillars too, good not to be stuck in our own academic bubbles.
CCA wise we call it fifth rows here, cause we take four modules every term, and then have Wednesdays and Fridays set aside for the 'fifth mod' the fifth row. (Fifth rows are not complusory.) For a really small student population, the last I checked we had about 90 fifth row groups, ranging from sports to community clubs to cultural clubs to clubs that make and fly drones. We kinda go by the unspoken rule of 'if it doesn't exist, make it' so clubs are largely student initiated, student run, and kept in order by the student government.
With regard to employability, here's a link that should answer that question:
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/sutd-graduates-receive-higher-starting-pay-compared-peers-survey
And on top of that we have various exchange and internship opportunities that are given to us throughout our studies over summer and winter breaks as long as you make the effort to apply for them~
The school has a rather even mix of guys to girls especially when it comes to an engineering/architecture school (About a 6-4 mix). And I don't think there's a preference of pillar that girls flock to per se, it's all based on individual interests of the girls in that particular batch afterall. Unless you're talking about the perception that engineering is largely a male dominated field? In which case, I think SUTD is trying to change or at least debunk that, cause I don't see my fellow female friends not wanting to go to a certain pillar because guys are 'more engineering inclined', they are probably going to a pillar because of interest in the subject or academic aptitude. In the end it's what the person wants to do