Hi everyone,
I’m a rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania studying Economics planning to study abroad for my spring semester. I am considering NUS as a possible study abroad destination among others, including several UK universities (St. Andrews, King’s College and Edinburgh) and Bocconi in Milan, Italy.
Can anyone give me their perspective on what they would do in my position? I have never really been to Southeast Asia and have only been to Spain and Austria in Europe, and traveling during my term abroad is very important to me. I would love to visit Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam… etc. How does NUS compare to my other options in terms of quality of education and general experience?
Is NUS prestigious? How is student life? Weather? How is Singapore as a city? I feel like the food would be fantastic… give me everything might want to consider before making my decision.
Thank you!
Hello! I’m a Singaporean who has been living here since I was born (18 years ago) and have been and still is in Singapore’s education system. I’m not in university so I am not able give you a full overview of NUS or university life in Singapore, but hopefully some of my insights will be able to help you decide. I have some seniors who are in Singapore Unis, so I know a bit about Uni here.
Well, firstly, studying in Singapore will really give you a lot of opportunities to embark on journeys to nearby countries. It’s really easy to book a cheap flight to other countries and the airport is very accessible too. Singapore’s public transport system is great too, links you up everywhere. The public transport is pretty cheap if you compare it with places like London and New York. Singapore is also urbanized, you’ll hardly see any old buildings around. Language barriers are not a problem, because the first lang in Singapore is English. Basically, you will be able to communicate well here. There’s a lot of touristy places in singapore so you can check that out as well.
Other than that, it’s pretty hot and humid here. Temperature averages around 30 degree celsius, and it rains/pours sometimes. Food is really fantastic and affordable. YUM
Well about NUS, it’s pretty hectic in my opinion. Most students are either from Singapore, or from neighbouring countries like China, Indonesia etc. Standards are pretty high so a lot of hard work has to be put in. Not sure how it compares to uPenn, uPenn is very prestigious, so I think it’ll be fairly manageable for you.
I think it’ll be a very good experience for you, coming from a Singaporean. Hopefully this helps, feel free to message me/reply if you need any specific info (: