All About Overseas Education

[doodbug]

MyPillow\" post_id=\"2132806\" time=\"1713317201\" user_id=\"70594:

I have the impression that applying for 2nd major or minors are optional, not compulsory, if a student not keen,
he /she can still focus on the Main first degree modules & no need to \"sacrifice\" the 1/3 curriculum hours ,anyone know?
during my era, not so many flexibility on minor subjects to take Or dont have at all in my faculty (cant recall le), most were doing single degree

Correct - For CHS, you can use all your 'elective' space to load up on specialising in your first major, and be a deep specialist.
https://chs.nus.edu.sg/programmes/#prog-overview

[sharonkhoo]

MyPillow\" post_id=\"2132806\" time=\"1713317201\" user_id=\"70594:

I have the impression that applying for 2nd major or minors are optional, not compulsory, if a student not keen,
he /she can still focus on the Main first degree modules & no need to \"sacrifice\" the 1/3 curriculum hours ,anyone know?
during my era, not so many flexibility on minor subjects to take Or dont have at all in my faculty (cant recall le), most were doing single degree

Applying for double majors and minors is optional. I am just concerned that the hype about taking double majors will mean that some students may be caught out and find that they are inadequately prepared for jobs that need deeper knowledge (if that is what they prefer). For those who know that they don't want that kind of job, a double major may well be what is best for them.

Taking a minor generally won't take away too much from the student's major. But as there will already be a compulsory core, the student needs to be careful how he allocates his credits. And to make it worse, it seems that it's not always possible to take the courses you want - at least for NTU, my daughter even had to appeal to get into enough courses to complete her (single) major! Of course, it was partly her own \"fault\" - she is quite narrow in her interests and abilities, and there were quite a few courses in her major she knew she couldn't handle. Also, she has slow reactions and the \"fastest fingers first\" type of course selection was hugely stressful for her, and often unsuccessful. So despite the hopes of taking courses she was interested in, sometime she just had to take her 2nd or 3rd choices. The old system where most courses were taken in common with everyone else would have been much easier on her. Not sure how the other local universities handle course selection.

[zac's mum]

I have this impression of local unis that even the module selection process is so stressful (“fastest fingers first” basis). Whereas in Australia it wasn’t: mostly core Science subjects, with a compulsory ~10% non-core modules of your own choosing in year 1/2. I think I chose Ethics (presentation graded) and Pure Statistics (exam graded). Just submit physical form and that’s it. Plenty of space for everyone. No need camp at computer from midnight like buying Taylor Swift tickets. Is it because sg unis are short of teaching staff?

[sharonkhoo]

zac's mum\" post_id=\"2132811\" time=\"1713319885\" user_id=\"53606:[quote=\"zac's mum\" post_id=2132811 time=1713319885 user_id=53606]
I have this impression of local unis that even the module selection process is so stressful (“fastest fingers first” basis). Whereas in Australia it wasn’t: mostly core Science subjects, with a compulsory ~10% non-core modules of your own choosing in year 1/2. I think I chose Ethics (presentation graded) and Pure Statistics (exam graded). Just submit physical form and that’s it. Plenty of space for everyone. No need camp at computer from midnight like buying Taylor Swift tickets. Is it because sg unis are short of teaching staff?[/quote]

I don't know why local universities have this problem, but I really hated those 4 years of navigating the system with my daughter. In contrast, I didn't face any \"can't get in\" problems selecting options in the UK, and my younger girl had the same experience in her UK university. We could focus on deciding on which options suited us most, rather than worrying whether it would be over-subscribed, and having to research and select fallback options.

[doodbug]

slmkhoo\" post_id=\"2132813\" time=\"1713320430\" user_id=\"28674:

I don't know why local universities have this problem, but I really hated those 4 years of navigating the system with my daughter. In contrast, I didn't face any \"can't get in\" problems selecting options in the UK, and my younger girl had the same experience in her UK university. We could focus on deciding on which options suited us most, rather than worrying whether it would be over-subscribed, and having to research and select fallback options.

We could also think of it another way - if you have 80% of your curriculum as compulsory, which was what it was like in the yesteryears, there are probably far more modules your DD may dislike and don't do well in, and have to take regardless. With more choices, there is more navigation to do, and more planning on first choice and fallback options.

[zac's mum]

slmkhoo\" post_id=\"2132813\" time=\"1713320430\" user_id=\"28674:

I don't know why local universities have this problem, but I really hated those 4 years of navigating the system with my daughter. In contrast, I didn't face any \"can't get in\" problems selecting options in the UK, and my younger girl had the same experience in her UK university. We could focus on deciding on which options suited us most, rather than worrying whether it would be over-subscribed, and having to research and select fallback options.

Thx for confirming that UK unis also similar in terms of such.

It is this sg overcompetitive culture that is quite off-putting to me. Uni student life, in my mind, should actually be the best and most enjoyable time of one’s life, before coming out to work. But sg students seem to be unnecessarily stressed out over miniscule matters.

[SG_KP1]

I’m not sure if course availability is by geography or university resources? Many schools may only be able to plan to average or typical demand? Others have the luxury to plan for peak demand so that nothing is ever full. Elsewhere, I think there is a difference between the schools with multi-billion endowments and the publicly funded institutions (even the very well regarded ones).

[sharonkhoo]

zac's mum\" post_id=\"2132815\" time=\"1713320951\" user_id=\"53606:[quote=\"zac's mum\" post_id=2132815 time=1713320951 user_id=53606]
Thx for confirming that UK unis also similar in terms of such.

It is this sg overcompetitive culture that is quite off-putting to me. Uni student life, in my mind, should actually be the best and most enjoyable time of one’s life, before coming out to work. But sg students seem to be unnecessarily stressed out over miniscule matters.[/quote]

Our experience covers only 2 UK universities! Not sure if others have gone the modular route.

Maybe the average student in Singapore is more resilient and had faster fingers - I can only say that it was really hard on my older daughter.

[sharonkhoo]

doodbug\" post_id=\"2132814\" time=\"1713320943\" user_id=\"13281:

We could also think of it another way - if you have 80% of your curriculum as compulsory, which was what it was like in the yesteryears, there are probably far more modules your DD may dislike and don't do well in, and have to take regardless. With more choices, there is more navigation to do, and more planning on first choice and fallback options.

Yes, I agree. But I still prefer to have less choice! If she had no choice, she would just have had to lump it, but having to strategise so much and be repeatedly disappointed made the 4 years very hard.

[sharonkhoo]

SG_KP1\" post_id=\"2132816\" time=\"1713321895\" user_id=\"188234:

I'm not sure if course availability is by geography or university resources? Many schools may only be able to plan to average or typical demand? Others have the luxury to plan for peak demand so that nothing is ever full. Elsewhere, I think there is a difference between the schools with multi-billion endowments and the publicly funded institutions (even the very well regarded ones).

In the UK universities where I have knowledge of, the options were much fewer - students only took 1 a year, or something like that. So the options offered numbered about 10, not hundreds. I think there is some economy and certainty when arranging for a smaller range of options. If funding is a problem, the solution might be to concentrate resources on the most popular options rather than spread resources so thin, and give students false hope.

In NTU in my daughter's 4 years, there were many courses where the over-subscription rate over the years was consistently over 100% - so I can only conclude that the university couldn't get enough teachers, or they didn't care. One very popular elective course was always over 1000% oversubscribed! (This is not a typo). My daughter didn't even bother to try for it, I think, knowing that she would never be fast enough. Given that by the time she graduated, remote learning was already common, I can't see why this couldn't have been converted to a remote learning course and made available to more students.

My daughter is probably a special case as she gets really stressed by such pressure and uncertainty. Maybe the average student copes better. But I really don't see why it has to be so hard!