Transferring from Singapore to the US

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>Good day!</p>

<p>I'm a Norwegian student, currently finishing of a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering at a Norwegian University College June 2012. I'm a top student at that school when it comes to grades, and I like being challenged in many ways. A social life is absent however.</p>

<p>Due to personal interest in computing, I have the last 2 years been planning on starting on a new bachelors degree within the field of Automation/Mechatronics, closely linked to the Mechanical Engineering degree I would already be possessing. After talking with several major employers in the area I live (Rolls-Royce Marine as an example), I've found Singapore to be a great place to start of with this new degree. I do however also want to study in the US for the remainder of the degree after having studied in Singapore for a year.</p>

<p>My question would then be the following; How is the difficulty off transferring from Singapore to the US? I'm going to continue working hard to get the desired results, but they might not be on par with those I've gained on my current Mechanical Engineering study (cultural differences and language barriers taken into account).</p>

<p>By difficulty I would be meaning the actual application/exchange process, transformation/acceptance of grades, willingness to take in students continuing after freshmen and so on.</p>

<p>I've been reading/following a thread over the last 6. months which could be found [here[/URL</a>]. What I'm able to get out of there is that it's nearly impossible to actually transfer over. USA was my first choice, but starting the application way too late (actually filling out forms etc.), made me exceed the application deadline of November 1st on most of the schools of my liking (mostly California based due to the connection to the field of work I would be studying within). I could've of course applied to a lesser known school in a less urban area, but after heavy considerations I did not do that. Which made me apply to the National University of Singapore.
**
Basic information:**
[ul]
[<em>]I've already applied for an Computational/Engineering degree at the National University of Singapore
[</em>]Degree/field of study that is wanted: either Automation or Mechatronics (similarities towards Systems engineering)
[<em>]Graduating June 2012 with a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering
[</em>]23 years old from the Western part of Norway
[<em>]Not afraid of taking a couple more years to study for the desired degree
[</em>]My English isn't great, and if you've ever heard a Norwegian talk, you might be placing me lower down when it comes to oral experience. I do consider my written English to be sufficient to get the point across
[<em>]I'm uncertain whether I've punched in my GPA score correctly, but I ended up at a score of 3.6-3.7/4 - With normal standard in Norway, which I've calculated I've ended up with 5.5/6 total by adding all the grades and dividing by the number of grades. This is based on the grades obtained at my current study
[</em>]I do have a good financial position. This is not funded through family members, but by savings over several years (~50.000$) including a bank loan that I'm able to use if it's needed. Including scholarships provided by the Norwegian government, and a possible scholarship from my current employer
[/ul]</p>

<p>TL : DR
I soon have an Mechanical Engineering degree (June 2012) where I'm top of my class. I've applied to a University in Singapore (National University of Singapore), and want to transfer to the USA the second year and onwards (2013-->). How is the difficulty of doing so?</p>

<p>PS: I am not applying for an graduate degree seeing as I have very little experience when it comes to programming. I do on the other hand have good understanding within many other fields that might be needed to get through that study (Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and different mechanical studies such as mechanics of materials and machine dynamics). By this reasoning I'm starting on a new bachelors degree (undergraduate) rather than continuing towards a masters degree (graduate).</p>

<p>Hope for a positive response.</p>

<p>Best Regards</p>

<p>Alexander_O</p>

<p>PPS: I'm not saying no to actually having to start over again in the USA, seeing that I most likely could remove some of the studies/courses I already have (if that's in fact possible).</p>

<p>PPPS: I have also posted this in the *[url="<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/1280430-transferring-singapore-us.html#post13786646%22%5DTransfer"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/1280430-transferring-singapore-us.html#post13786646"]Transfer&lt;/a> students](<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/singapore/269728-national-university-singapore-18.html%22%5Dhere%5B/URL"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/singapore/269728-national-university-singapore-18.html)** and International</a> students related forum. I apologize if that's not possible.*</p>

2

<p>I don’t get it… why would you want to enrol in NUS for a year and then transfer to the US?
Why don’t you just enrol directly into a US university and then participate in a student exchange to Singapore (there are many US universities which offers exchange programs to Singapore universities)?
If the issue here is that you had missed the deadline for US universities, then why don’t you just wait for 2013 admission?</p>

3

<p>Many US universities have multiple enrollment periods, so you wouldn’t have to wait an entire year. Santa Clara University in California, for instance, allows enrollment for the fall and winter quarters.</p>