zbear:

UBKmom:

I wonder how people select between these 2 schools of equal standard....I felt a lot is based on COP....the higher the better....how many really understand what is the different beside SAP and non-SAP...

One is 'ang moh' culture and the other is 'cheena' culture.

So it all depends on which type of environment you feel comfortable and go for it.

Having an emphasis on Chinese culture and language is not equivalent to being \"cheena\". There is absolutely nothing wrong with the former, whereas the latter has very negative and derogatory connotations. As a SAP school alumna, it irks me every time someone labels people from a SAP school as \"cheena\". It is downright insulting and far from the truth.

In any case, there is something to be said for pushing beyond comfortable boundaries. As someone who is decidedly much more fluent in English having grown up in an English speaking household, going to a SAP school, whilst out of my comfort zone, was probably beneficial for me in the long run. Much as I didn't enjoy having Chinese classes every day, it did ensure that I had some degree of language proficiency, without which I probably wouldn't have gotten my job. This is not to say that HCI is necessarily the better choice, or that RI students cannot be fluent in their mother tongue, but I did feel that the emphasis on Chinese helped me personally.

mathtuition88:

Of course, depends on what you define as \"hard math\", there are math subjects that are harder in comparison to those listed. As an ex-math tutor, I always gently remind students who think math is useless (quite a lot of them), that math will be very essential in university. Some of my ex-students thought economics is purely about writing essays, and computer science is purely about making games..

Not really. It depends on the degree - I did Law, and I think the only math I had to do were some super basic, primary school level calculations. I imagine the same is probably true for many Arts/ Humanities subjects (eg History, Literature).

Anyway, for what it's worth, I thought PW was fairly pointless. I don't think I learnt much from it that I didn't already know from doing projects earlier in secondary school.

a0ps34:

I'm currently a student there and I'm pretty much terrible at Chinese. I DSA'd in via academics and based on my opinion, they want people who are not afraid to speak up (supported by a speech training program conducted in chinese), possesses leadership qualities, academically strong or are talented in the arts. They have an arts elective program and a higher music program but according to my friends in aep, the school was very lax in accepting. If necessary, you can resort to sending your child to aep/hmp/third lang to boost her marks.


The chinese standards are ridiculous in my opinion. For me, despite having taken higher chinese in my primary school, they take higher chinese to a whole new level.

The compositions are marked upon 60, but the highest possible grade is quite low, around 48, as they mark you down by 3 for wrong words and reinforce not lying in your compositions (learnt that the hard way) - if you do, marked down no matter how good your composition is.

Also, their standards are very high. I'm not sure if it is just my teacher or the whole school, but my teacher makes us redo tests (but the redone one is not the one which marks are taken) and if it is still unsatisfactory, do again.

I wouldn't advise you to send your kids to nygh if she 1) doesn't cope well with a heavy workload 2) doesn't work well in stress.

Being an nygh student is somewhat stressful as in school, there's quite some homework, to the extent that my science teacher was trying to find a place to write down the homework on the homework board and it has about 8-10 blanks.

Hope this helped you

You sound very much like me - DSAed via academics, took HCL in primary school (and I came from a SAP school, oh the irony) but terrible at Chinese!

I think it's worth pointing out that the boundary of the highest grade possible is actually 75, rather than 90+ at primary school. I remember being really alarmed that I wasn't scoring as high as I used to, but you'll get used to it eventually. The same trend follows into JC, where 70 is the A standard. Don't be too harsh on yourself!

Also, if it makes you feel any better, I am devoutly thankful for the high Chinese standards imposed by NYGH, even though I really struggled when I was still studying it. I'm fairly sure that's a key reason why my Chinese isn't completely terrible some 6 years after graduating. In fact, Chinese fluency is a really useful skill in the working world (and sad to say, I have been told my Chinese is not up to scratch for the purposes of working in Greater China, and so am back to classes again). It feels terrible now (Chinese was absolutely the bane of my secondary school academic life), but hopefully you'll come to reap the benefits in future, as I did.

I wouldn't recommend sending a child to HMP/ AEP/ 3rd Language to 'boost their marks' though. If you ask me, I think your average is more likely to drop unless you have an aptitude for those subjects, because it's an additional burden on top of an already hectic schedule! I took 3rd lang for a term, and quit because I found it was too much.

Good luck junior, and enjoy your NYGH days! It's stressful, but hopefully you'll be able to look back and say it was all worth it

mathtuition88:

alng:

[quote=\"Fairy\"]Heard many students dropped out of SMU business. Wonder what's the reasons

This is my first time hearing this...would you please elaborate? Thanks!

I heard from my SMU student (majoring in political science) that SMU is pretty competitive. SMU library is actually open 24 hours (!!!) and there are people camping there at any time, any day...

However, also first time I heard that there are many students who dropped out... Perhaps could elaborate as that would be really useful to the community. Thanks![/quote]Is it just me, or why are people so surprised that some libraries are 24/7? :skeptical: That's the case at my university, and it can be helpful at times to have access to materials when you're rushing to submit work. I've never thought of 24/7 libraries as odd. Also, some people are just night owls who work better at night.

Re double degree programmes, here's NUS' position (http://www.nus.edu.sg/registrar/faqs/dd ... html#ddp12):

For the AY2010/11 cohort and after, students in a DDP will pay the prevailing tuition fee of the Faculty/School offering the home course (see Question 7 of FAQs) for the first four years of study. The prevailing tuition fee refers to the subsidised fee amount after taking into consideration the Tuition Grant provided by the Ministry of Education. For more information on fees, please click here.

For the fifth year of study, in view of limited or no Tuition Grant from the Ministry of Education, the fees payable are pegged to the home course as follows:

DDPs where one of the degrees is in Engineering or Computing (except for any DDPs involving Law): two times the prevailing fee
All other DDPs (including all DDPs involving Law): four times the prevailing fee or the Total Tuition Fee, whichever is lower.

However, in view of the financial implications for students, NUS will offer scholarships to all DDP students (no application needed) to help offset part of the tuition fee payable in the fifth year. In other words,

For DDPs where one of the degrees is in Engineering or Computing, students will only need to pay the prevailing tuition fee of the Faculty/School offering the home course (except for any DDPs involving Law);
For all other DDPs, students will pay two times the prevailing tuition fee of the Faculty/School offering the home course (including all DDPs involving Law).

So DDP students will pay the same fees up until the 5th year, where they will either pay the same tuition fee (Engineering or Computing DDPs, excluding Law) or double the tuition fee (everyone else).

zbear:

Do Uni students require laptop or MacBook for daily use in the U?

I can't imagine not having a laptop at all, or at least some sort of access to a computer, although this might have to do with my subject (law). A lot of resources are now online, some of which are much harder to find offline or require you to go to a particular library (eg a specific journal article or case).

Personally, I prefer typing my notes - it's a lot faster than writing by hand, less painful, and easier to find things as well as make amendments. I also type all of my essays, unless my tutors specifically ask for it to be handwritten. Handwriting is definitely possible, but when you're looking at 2000-3000 words 3 times every 2 weeks, that's an awful lot of time to waste on writing.

jtoh:

They don't bother with GP, MT and PW but would take into consideration the 4th core subject.

Depends on the university. Oxford, for example, gives offers of AAA. An offer may or may not specify subjects, depending on subject combination as well as the subject one is applying for. For instance, a kid with PCME (all H2) applying for Law would probably be asked for AAA, with no further specifications. However, someone with the same combination applying for Chemistry might be asked for AAA in PCM (the more relevant subjects).

Some UK unis give 4 H2 offers (eg Cambridge), but I think they're relatively uncommon. The standard offer is 3 H2s.

JJ1111:

My own view is SMU location is good. Easily accessible.


But if my girl A level result is good enough to go into NUS / NTU. I would prefer she go into NUS/NTU.

Hence, I am quite surprise that my friend's girl choose SMU over NUS/NTU. I told my friend frankly my view and she quite upset and said I don't know. Now SMU very popular. :oops: :oops: :oops:

I, maybe, old fashion liao.

I don't really see why SMU is any worse than NUS or NTU - the COPs are broadly comparable. It just has a slightly different teaching pedagogy (eg only seminars, no lectures/ tutorials), and my general impression is that they are big on group projects, presentations and internships.

Anyway, the joint survey suggests that SMU grads have the highest employment and income rates than the other two unis so employers do seem to regard them in a good light at any rate: http://www.smu.edu.sg/news/2014/03/03/s ... int-survey

sinoboy:

Jennifer:

Sadly, there are non-RI students who think RI is most superior.

Same logic, a lot of local students thinks that overseas universities are better than local universities. Sadly it is not necessarily good for everyone. :siao:

I understand that not everyone might be suited to studying in a Liberal Arts environment, or in a more intense/ pressurizing environment. That's definitely true, just like how not everyone is suited to the same type of career. So some schools might be \"good\" for certain types of students, but less suitable for others. That's a reasonable conclusion.

However, I think whether a school/ university is \"better\" depends on how one defines \"better/ good\" in the first place. If we're looking purely at prestige or quality of teaching, you'd be very hard pressed to find people who think that our local unis trump schools like Harvard, Princeton or Cambridge. I can only speak for my subject (Law), but when I went to the NUS Open House, the profs openly admitted that the teaching simply wasn't as good as what one could get at Oxford or Cambridge (they did think that it was on par with the London schools though).

Recruiters are obviously very familiar with all the big brand name schools, and rightly or wrongly, I suspect Goldman Sachs or McKinsey is likely to hire the Wharton graduate than someone from any of the local business schools, all things being equal. Is it fair? Possibly not. But \"elite\" schools provide an easy sifting mechanism because everyone in there is usually of a certain \"standard\" to begin with, so if you're looking to get the cream of the crop, it makes sense to target them. Going to a brand name school does help with getting a job in my opinion, but obviously this doesn't apply to all careers (eg medicine is pretty egalitarian from what I know; doesn't matter which uni you went to).

mamajoy:

Hi, need some advice on H2 History and Geog. My DS is choosing between the 2 subjects. He thinks that Geog questions are easier but he has more interest in Hist. Also is the amount required to be memorised just as heavy for both? I would really appreciate any advice or info on the above. THank you very much in advance.

I did H2 Geog, and personally, I would have thought that H2 History is more content-heavy, but take it with a pinch of salt because I didn't take History. I don't know if the syllabus has changed, but back then we did 3 topics of Human Geog and 3 topics of Physical Geog. In truth, I only studied 2 topics from each for the essays, and knew just enough to do the Data Response Questions. Worked fine for me.

I found Geog pretty straightforward (Science track in Secondary school, didn't do Geog after Sec 2), and scoring seems to be more consistent than History (certainly was the case when I was in HCI Humanities Programme at least). As long as you have good exam technique, it isn't hard to score in my opinion. I find Geog much easier than History, but it might be a personal preference.

sinoboy:

If you add in the other costs like lodging and living expenses, roughly what do you think the annual budget would be? :scratchhead:

Try looking for the universities' cost calculators. For example, http://www.ox.ac.uk/students/fees-fundi ... ergraduate and http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduat ... l/finance/

Taking Oxford as an example, you'd be looking at somewhere between 32-36k GBP per year for 3 years of preclinical medicine, and then a further three years for clinical school in Oxford or London. At Cambridge, you're looking at 51.2k GBP per year (5 years Med school + 1 year intercalation).