Chance for NUS, SMU, Yale-NUS

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>US Citizen (Singaporean descent), lived in New York, Connecticut, Singapore and Shanghai. Currently in a British IB School.</p>

<p>For NUS I'm applying for DDPs such as Business and Law, Business and Econ, Econ and Law, as well as straight Law. For SMU I'm applying for DDPs in Econ/Law, Business/Law, Econ/Politics. </p>

<p>SAT: Single Sitting 2220 740/710/770. Will retake, ~2300 likely based on practice tests.</p>

<p>IGCSE Grades: 8A* and 1A
IB Predicted Grades: 43 out of 45</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Student council Representative (2 years)</p>

<p>Head Boy (2 years) - I conduct the job interviews for all incoming members of staff, and personally played a role in the hiring of the current Head of School.</p>

<p>Marketing director and founding member for school radio station (1 year)</p>

<p>Debating team (2 years) - Won best speaker awards at numerous debating tournaments</p>

<p>Model United Nations (2 years) - Have participated in numerous international conferences all over the country. Eventually was selected to be the Deputy President of the Economic and Social Council for a large high school conference in Suzhou, China.</p>

<p>Volunteering (3 years) - I hold free English classes for local Chinese, which leads to official English Proficiency certifications. I also help organize sporting and recreational activities with the mentally and physically disabled every week.</p>

<p>NGO Volunteering (1 year) - I was selected to enter a social entrepreneurship course held by an international NGO, where I designed hats and scarves, marketed them, and delivered proceeds to an impoverished school in Tibet. With the same NGO, I also taught English to impoverished children weekly. </p>

<p>Journalism (2 years) - I am an occasional writer for a large urban newspaper (the Shanghai Daily) and various educational magazines. I write about charitable work, and also have represented my radio station and school. All works have been published.</p>

<p>Service Committee (2 years) - I have participated in organising anti-AIDS, anti-Racism, Environmental, etc, campaigns in school and fundraising.</p>

<p>CEO and Founder of a non-profit Microbank (2 years) - Last year I started a microbank, where we raise funds to give out microcredit loans to those in need. Originally intended to serve local farmers in China, we have since expanded to hold assets and capital in over 30 countries, with a particular focus on student loans in developing countries to send students to university. We have quarterly earnings of around 12,000 Chinese Yuan. </p>

<p>Summer Experiences:
Volunteering/Exchange in South Africa - Volunteered in the slums, and in a rehabilitation and homeless shelter. Lectures from many social activists, college professors, speakers on developmental economics, race relations, and post-Apartheid politics. I now serve as an ambassador for the organization that I went with, promoting activism and humanitarianism at my school.</p>

<p>Ivy Scholars program at Yale University - I was selected to attend undergraduate and graduate level courses at Yale university in the areas of Political Philosophy, Law and Economics. Have attended courses and lectures from renowned professors in those fields such as Walter Russell Mead, Paul Solman (from CBS), Dean of Yale Law School Robert Post, etc etc</p>

<p>Economics courses at UC Berkeley over the summer</p>

2

<p>You will get in. For sure,</p>

<p>But why Singapore? With your stats, you could do top-LAC/lesser Ivies/Berkeley etc.</p>

<p>NUS/SMU, if you would read the other thread in this forum, are to be avoided at all costs. They are the death of the joy of learning, and the student cultures there are rather square, predictable, boring (in general of course).</p>

<p>Yale-NUS, admittedly, has a unique and extremely attractive academic offering-their core curriculum which I honestly feel is superior to the other Core’s out there (Yale’s directed studies, Chicago, Columbia Cores) due to the level of collaboration between profs of different disciplines, holistic, non-Eurocentric vision of intellectual history, and progressive structure from philosophy, political theory etc. through the natural and social sciences. I daresay one would be extremely well-informed of the structure of human knowledge in general after having taken the core.</p>

<p>But it remains to be seen if the student culture will be as vibrant as those in US schools. my guess is that it will not. There will be many internationals, but the majority are Singaporeans. And many spontaneity-seeking, adventurous, resourceful, proactive Singaporeans have found one way or another to study abroad.</p>

<p>Take what I say with a pinch of salt though. As an American citizen who has lived abroad for quite some time you might find Singapore a refreshing change. I, on the other hand, am a jaded local.</p>

3

<p>Just like WildeWildeWest said, I don’t understand why you would want attend NUS when you have such good stats? just curious…</p>

4

<p>1) Tuition
2) I like Asia better, and will probably live in Shanghai/HK/Singapore for work
3) SMU and NUS both have many dual degrees, which I love
4) SMU and NUS allow me to pursue law at undergraduate</p>

<p>What’s so wrong about NUS/SMU? Does my reasoning make sense?</p>

5

<p>“1) Tuition”</p>

<p>This is a very, very, valid point. To the extent that a US education would cripple/greatly hinder your family’s lifestyle.</p>

<p>“2) I like Asia better, and will probably live in Shanghai/HK/Singapore for work”</p>

<p>You do not need to study for your Bachelors in Asia to work here. In fact, due to the Asian bias towards prima facie worshipping brand names, coming here with a degree from a prestigious American university would actually help you more than a local degree would. Even if this is not so, many US-educated seem to be able to make it over here without much trouble.</p>

<p>“4)” appears valid</p>

<p>But.</p>

<p>What makes you so sure you want to commit four years to a specialize undergraduate law degree? Have you interned at a law firm? Have you done an internship at a law firm that actually exposes you to the inner workings of the legal service, and not as some coffee-boy/paper boy who gets a rubber stamp on his resume in exchange for slave labour for the firm? Have you read about studying law and like it as an academic subject? Were they good sources you read? Aware of the differences between studying law and actually practicing it? Know enough of the above to commit to a law joint-degree at 19/20 years of age?</p>

<p>most of your raised points can be valid. But. they don’t erase what makes a Singaporean university education so undesirable. These traits are:</p>

<p>1) Intellectually uncurious, GPA-crazy Singaporean students. The entire student culture is GPA driven. People take courses they believe they can score highly in. People hole up in libraries to study all day. test material of course. they wont touch anything that wont be tested. As a result, professors’ lectures more often than not involve dropping hints for upcoming tests. Students aren’t interested in lectures beyond getting such hints. All this is relative to the US.</p>

<p>2) Uninteresting students. Because of the pressure-cooker nature of the JC system in Singapore, and in perceptions of what universities adcoms here want (grades only), many people here have little or no developed outside interests. For most, their idea of ‘fun’, their form of escape from the vast tedium that is Singaporean education, is attending trashy parties and getting drunk. That is their form of rebellion. Many also mindlessly conform to society’s expectations of what an ‘ideal life’ should be. You won’t see the Creative Writing-Computer science double major at the new england liberal arts college who wants to be both a writer and go to graduate school in comp sci to study natural language processing, nor the budding biologist who wants to live with and study wolves in the north. You will see business students. And economics majors. and law students. and more business students. And the majority arts students who ultimately aim to enter PR or marketing. Not the arts.</p>

<p>3) general lack of spontaneity. Need I say more?</p>

<p>If after reading all this, you don’t feel horrified, and it instead floats your boat, then you will find your spiritual home in Singapore.</p>

<p>PS: The culture here is not AS homogenous as my polemic makes it out to be. But it is the majority culture. There are rare gems. But these are rare gems. Do note, before you decide to spend the most formative four years of your entire life here.</p>

6

<p>bumpity!</p>

<p>uhh…any more thoughts? Is anyone willing to VOUCH for NUS? Haha</p>

7

<p>you should just apply to US schools. you’ll regret it big time if you hole yourself up in NUS/SMU. plus, as someone has mentioned above, you can return to Asia anytime once you’ve got a good degree overseas.</p>

8

<p>In general, NUS over SMU. Unless you like doing group work with people you don’t like.
I think the surest way to gain a positive experience at NUS is to join USP. From what I know, USP has a different culture from the rest of NUS; you will definitely be much more likely to find intellectually curious students there, perhaps owing to the curriculum structure. You won’t have trouble fitting in, judging from the diversity and nature of your ECs. I’m not sure how USP would fit into your double degree plans though.
0.02</p>

9

<p>Yale-NUS is still a reach for you – I’ve heard of people getting into Yale getting deferred/rejected from Yale-NUS, so be careful. Their acceptance rate right now is hovering at around <4%.</p>

10

<p>As a US citizen currently living in Singapore, I can vouch for what WildeWildeWest has said, definitely the death of learning in both schools. Tuition-wise, certainly much cheaper, but otherwise, the academics there are not as good as they used to be a couple of decades ago. Another point to note is that in the US, going to college implies a great deal of school spirit, with lots of athletics and loyal fans and it’s a big part of the college culture. You won’t find any of that at a Singaporean university, in fact, it’s pretty individualistic: you attend class on your own, you study for your gpa and pretty much study just whatever’s tested, and then you hang out with your friends or go home. There is no school spirit to speak of, so if that is important to you, then it would be wise to steer clear. </p>

<p>Another thing to note: Singaporeans love ‘big-name’ US colleges, not necessary all top schools, but just the ones known in Asia. Examples are U of Michigan Ann Arbor, UCLA, Berkeley, all the Ivies, Duke, UT Austin. Locally, LACs aren’t highly regarded. So if you’re looking to work in Singapore or HK, those colleges and several others will definitely give you a leg up over NUS/SMU.</p>

<p>Just my .02 of course, coming from a girl who’s lived in both countries and is heading back to the US for college this fall :)</p>

11

<p>In my honest opinion, with your profile you will get into one of the top universities/colleges in the USA. NUS and SMU are good though no match to Ivy/Top Private and Public Universities. Most important, in my opinion, is the 4 year college Life in the USA. Nowhere in the world you have such an opportunity to explore, enjoy, and develop your intellectual/artistic/athletic capabilities. If you are interested to work in Asia, you can always come back and will enjoy the same advantage, if not better, as that of an alumnus of NUS/SMU.</p>

12

<p>you know if you’re just applying to singapore universities, you shouldn’t bother wasting your time retaking you SATs. Singapore doesn’t really look at SAT scores, and yours is pretty decent already</p>

13

<p>agree with bubbletv - Singaporean universities focus more on the national exams than on SAT scores.</p>

<p>To take an opposing view to the rest (after all, most singaporeans who end up on this forum are more or less inclined to go overseas due to CC’s self selective nature) - if you are able to go to singapore, and make the most out of your undergrad education - i.e. take the NUS Global Merit Scholarship, do the subject you love well and enjoy your time here (judging from what you said about ‘loving asia’), do internships at local firms, I think you’ll have a great time here. It’s really up to you to make the most of it. </p>

<p>If possible, you could try for the yale nus double degree with law. I personally think it looks like a great program :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Just be clear about what you want from an education in Singapore!</p>