KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

Forgot to add, her interests are diverse from young and wider than the options I listed. Her interests in hands on work are not lower than academic work too. I can understand why some people pick JCs, especially when they have not "made up their minds" on what to do for further studies. Actually, after JCs, they will still have to "make up their minds" for U courses. Considering the Poly route just brings forward that decision timeline though U courses are not lesser than Poly courses.

20-year-old top student found calling in nursing:

Option wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 09, 2021 10:57 am

Forgot to add, her interests are diverse from young and wider than the options I listed. Her interests in hands on work are not lower than academic work too. I can understand why some people pick JCs, especially when they have not "made up their minds" on what to do for further studies. Actually, after JCs, they will still have to "make up their minds" for U courses. Considering the Poly route just brings forward that decision timeline though U courses are not lesser than Poly courses.

My son choose to go to poly instead of JC. He EAE-ed into Ngee Ann for IT during Sec4. Now he’s finishing his cybersecurity course and will be doing internship with a Big4. On hindsight it was a great choice, he is really happy, doing & studying what he loves, even though he chose the path less travelled. At one stage while still in sec4, he felt so lousy and really bad and started questioning if he should go to JC instead / the trigger was that all his classmates were talking about JCs. Going to poly was like as if ‘you are second grade’ and not good enough for JC.

As parents we had our fair share of “advice” , snickering, the look from neighbours and older folks on why we let him choose poly and not JC. Frankly, his aptitude and genuine motivation matters , not what others think or say coz these people are not living his life. As parents, we were steadfast and happy that we stayed focus above all the noise to support him

staypositive wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:50 pm

My son choose to go to poly instead of JC. He EAE-ed into Ngee Ann for IT during Sec4. Now he’s finishing his cybersecurity course and will be doing internship with a Big4. On hindsight it was a great choice, he is really happy, doing & studying what he loves, even though he chose the path less travelled. At one stage while still in sec4, he felt so lousy and really bad and started questioning if he should go to JC instead / the trigger was that all his classmates were talking about JCs. Going to poly was like as if ‘you are second grade’ and not good enough for JC.

As parents we had our fair share of “advice” , snickering, the look from neighbours and older folks on why we let him choose poly and not JC. Frankly, his aptitude and genuine motivation matters , not what others think or say coz these people are not living his life. As parents, we were steadfast and happy that we stayed focus above all the noise to support him

Other people legs are not in our shoes, our sons know what they want and have their plans for the future, why need to care how others 三姑六婆 look or say about us?

staypositive wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:50 pm

My son choose to go to poly instead of JC. He EAE-ed into Ngee Ann for IT during Sec4. Now he’s finishing his cybersecurity course and will be doing internship with a Big4. On hindsight it was a great choice, he is really happy, doing & studying what he loves, even though he chose the path less travelled. At one stage while still in sec4, he felt so lousy and really bad and started questioning if he should go to JC instead / the trigger was that all his classmates were talking about JCs. Going to poly was like as if ‘you are second grade’ and not good enough for JC.

As parents we had our fair share of “advice” , snickering, the look from neighbours and older folks on why we let him choose poly and not JC. Frankly, his aptitude and genuine motivation matters , not what others think or say coz these people are not living his life. As parents, we were steadfast and happy that we stayed focus above all the noise to support him

Ok, we are on the same page. DD's friends are also thinking about JCs while she is thinking about Poly. Why did your son consider EAE ? Is it because he has already found out about other Polys and made up his mind ? Why Ngee Ann and another Poly ? Did he join any CCA in Poly ?

Why EAE --> His interest and he enjoys creating apps etc. In fact, he was not successful in getting into Computing class for GCE O level, so he self-learn several programming languages to create messaging app, calculator, all sorts of games - cheese, minefield, etc. To us, that was a clear-cut interest and aptitude and motivation. At one time he changed the coding on Toto web-screen to reflect my Toto ticket number. I really thought I had the winning numbers. Luckily, I have a strong heart.

All 3 polys were great - Ngee Ann, SP and Nanyang. SP and Ngee Ann's aptitude test for EAE were conducted on same morning. Not allowed to change or defer. So, had to self-select and forced to choose one.

In the end, he chose Ngee Ann was purely due to distance and easy access from home and an acquaintance studying there - which sort of provided more insights into the course he was keen on.

I guess the more information available and you can get, the more comforting as you will be able to make a more informed decision. Do attend the open houses, ask a lot of questions...

CCA - yes, plenty - mainly related to IT and also in organising committees.. I do know that he and his classmates also entered some public hackathons - to gain good and fun learning experience

Thanks. What languages does he learn ? Does he have computing projects with hardware ? Yes, we have attended 2 poly open houses so far. As in all open houses, we cannot be sure if the schools only showcase what look 'great'. This is why we are asking around too.

C++, phyton, Unix, etc... you are asking me, a parent that know nuts about IT!
It's helpful - i mean those languages. All software/applications. No fanciful hardware. All he used were two laptops - one super old one, and his secondary school laptop. Many parents send their kids for classes. Actually not necessary as youtube etc has tons of good materials for self-learning. But self-learn only works if the kid is personally motivated to do so

Hi,
Any kid taking/graduated from the above diploma or similar in NYP or TP?

NYP encouraged us to EAE next June during open house but DS' sch did not offer Arts so do we need to build his portfolio via an external art centre or his self-taught day to day sketches will suffice?

What about job prospects for animation?
Any comment/tip is appreciated. TIA

Vevey wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 23, 2022 11:32 pm

Hi,
Any kid taking/graduated from the above diploma or similar in NYP or TP?

NYP encouraged us to EAE next June during open house but DS' sch did not offer Arts so do we need to build his portfolio via an external art centre or his self-taught day to day sketches will suffice?

What about job prospects for animation?
Any comment/tip is appreciated. TIA

My cousin graduated from NYP from a similar or same course a long time ago.

IIRC his secondary results weren’t fantastic but he loved to draw. He didn’t take art or was offered art in school either. Nonetheless, he had a lot of sketches, drawings that he could present and showcase during his interview (not for EAE but I think it was for JAE or appeal or something). No specific theme but a lot of fantasy drawings like dragons, knights etc (D&D FTW - it’s a boys’ thing).

He used to work for one of the major VFX production houses and participated in several Hollywood productions after graduation. Now working for a financial institution heading their marketing / production / something team.

As VFX become more prevalent in films and productions, online media getting more prominence, more videos / info being digitized and streamed, esports / gaming being a huge industry, I don’t think you should be worried about job prospects as there’s a strong demand for talents in this field.