<p>I have been accepted to both.
Which one should I choose?</p>
<p>Consider your financial situation.</p>
<p>Not considering financial status... Rice. Considering financial status... Still Rice, as much as you can!!! Omg I can't believe you're asking this question. The two schools are so different it's like heaven and earth. Rice has been said to be a uni that offers the BEST undergrad experience, but NUS, you'll be studying all day and all night, it's just plain studying and regurgitating with no real learning for the sake of your own intellectual curiosity involved. I avoided NUS all the way.</p>
<p>Which major and where are you from? Probably that'll help in the decision.</p>
<p>Unless OP has to take out massive student loans, or plans to work outside the US after graduation, go to Rice.</p>
<p>Going to Rice will open up the United States for you (assuming that you are an international)</p>
<p>RICE. RICE. RICE.</p>
<p>Easy question.</p>
<p>SINGAPORE!
jk go to rice. although singapore is awesome.</p>
<p>
[quote]
it's just plain studying and regurgitating with no real learning for the sake of your own intellectual curiosity involved. I avoided NUS all the way.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Is this really true, or just a stereotype?</p>
<p>Anyway, NUS' financial aid is pretty attractive. I mean, 2600 USD a year for a "world class" education (yes, lisieux is laughing right now...) isn't that bad. Compared to you know, tuition that the average "top college" charges at 40,000 USD per year. Plus doesn't an NUS education usually give you a good job (due to service bond) after graduation, in between graduate school?</p>
<p>It's nothing to sneeze at. NUS is distinguished internationally in various fields. Granted, the government and the state-controlled press boast about NUS' credentials all too often, but still...</p>
<p>Note that financial aid to internationals is generally not as generous.</p>
<p>I myself seriously considered not enrolling at UVA and applying back to NUS because of my family's income situation. (And I applied as a domestic student, mind you.) It is true that the idea of being reduced to authoritarian conformism is what scared me about NUS.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is this really true, or just a stereotype?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, maybe a bit too extreme, I admit. But many many many seniors of mine, especially those in Engineering says that. Nobody ever told me that, "oooh, engineering in NUS is so good and so fun, you should TOTALLY come here". They ALL say, if you can, go overseas. </p>
<p>Like I said in some other thread:</p>
<p>
[quote]
NUS in Singapore is a good choice and has quite a good international reputation, ranked at around 30-ish in THES in 2007. In 2006 it was ranked even higher, at about.. #16 or #19 or somewhere around there. Tuition is super cheap compared to US unis thanks to the grant, but you have to work in Singapore for 3 years after that.</p>
<p>Warning though, most Singapore students are dying to go overseas to avoid the study-all-day-and-all-night-long style in NUS. It prepares you to get a job but it falls short from giving you an all-rounded education for the sake of learning (and not for earning more $ for the country).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>and here:
[quote]
It depends on where you are planning to work. High rank doesn't mean everything; overall, a US education is much better than Singapore's and you will get higher pay if you go US uni instead. However, if you are only considering universities outside the US, then NUS is definitely a good choice. NUS is better for the "science-y" majors like Engineering and Medicine (med here is really very good haha), but for the "soft-skills" like business, I personally don't think so. Right now I'm intending to go into Business and I chose to go to US instead.</p>
<p>Btw, it's not only NUS. The whole education system, starting from Primary School, is intense in Singapore.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>So outside the US, it IS a good choice. But compared to US education... You read my opinion above. Anw I think the OP is a Singaporean who just finished NS or something so he should know well about the local situations himself.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Nobody ever told me that, "oooh, engineering in NUS is so good and so fun, you should TOTALLY come here". They ALL say, if you can, go overseas.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Engineering tends to be at times drudgery I think (that is, while it may be exciting, it is sometimes tedious ;)). Are your seniors legitimately comparing schools, or is it greener grass syndrome? Do some of them include seniors who have been in both environments?</p>
<p>I'm legitimately curious. Also because my sister still hasn't applied for college yet.</p>
<p>Of course, how would they know for sure. Except probably those who go on exchange to top US schools. But anyway, do you hear other students from overseas universities complaining as much as the NUS students?</p>
<p>Anyway, this is just a personal opinion of one person, me, who is biased against NUS. What the OP, and everyone else here in that matter, should do is to gather more opinions from many people, and then draw his own conclusions based on that.</p>
<p>Ah, but would they suffer from Green Grass syndrome?</p>
<p>Imagine two schools A and B with exactly the same coursework and the same rigour. However, A enjoys more prestige (with students) than B. Imagine that coursework is difficult enough to cause students to want to complain. Students at B might complain, "Haiz... I should have gone to A." But students at A are at the "top of the food chain". More likely they would say, "Haiz... this is life."</p>
<p>I have suffered from Green Grass syndrome myself. Granted, it was between programs within the same school and country, but when I was 14 I felt pretty repressed by the O-level system and I guess the markers didn't like original thinking on essays. (My sentiment then.) I thought the IB programme would be an escape. Actual philosophical thinking! Scholarly pursuits for their own sake! Graded by coursework, not exam mugging! Alas, with my "default system" performance I was rejected. </p>
<p>So after my mom was retrenched we went back to the US, because we felt the family had hit a brick wall in Singapore vis a vis advancement. Later I found out from my friends that the IBDP was far from an intellectual dream -- still heavily exam-based and at times just seemed like a more hardcore O-level system. That is, the philosophy didn't seem to undergo a radical change. </p>
<p>So I thought at first it was just because Singapore administrators had implemented IB. Then of course I hear about how many IB programmes in US high schools are laughable themselves. Not that they weren't rigourous, but the environment the programmes were implemented was just as inflexible, just as infelicitous to students who feel intellectually repressed under the normal regimen, and just basically a more "hardcore" version of the AP programme (sound familiar? ;)). </p>
<p>Anyway what was I trying to say? Oh yeah. Green grass syndrome. Be careful of overromanticising one option over another, is what I guess I am basically saying.</p>