All About Universities

[doodbug]

Far fewer Singaporeans will apply for US universities than UK. Taking the SATs and/or APs is already a deterrent for most students (unless you are in like NUS High which specifically gears students to take APs). Not to mention the tedious application process, and the expensive application fees!

[Sun_2010]

Well, it was one of the top schools for CS during my time, but that was like 40 years ago and much has changed. I don't know what is its status now. I was blessed to have the privilege to go there. Staying there was fun, but it does have its own challenges. Most Americans are open and friendly, but some weird ones can be pretty racial. I do get some rare cat-calls sometimes as I'm walking down the street and cars go by with some drunk kids, but otherwise, things are pretty quiet there.
The lower level classes (freshmen and sophomore) were pretty well conducted and regimented. Classes are ok, but some can be really boring. Fortunately, the professors will make their lecture notes available to "Kinkos", a photo copy shop, where we can buy it before the lecture. So sometimes, I would buy the notes and then go home Easier to self-study.
The senior classes are really mostly electives, and I still remember taking one, but I can't remember what the course was about at all! At the start of the classes, the professor came in a wheel chair, and told us (through a throat microphone) that this was the last time we will see him and that the course will be taught mostly by his teaching assistants (TAs), and promptly made his way out.
We were stunned, but kind of grateful, as we could hardly understand him with his throat microphone. Then the TAs jumped up and told us how fun the class is going to be, because we are all going to select a project and then take turns to present it to the class! So the next time I went for the lesson was when I had to present my project . I was only present in that class twice.
I guess that course was bad... but it showed me the "good" side of things. Apparently, the professor was a major contributor to the university during his earlier years, wrote several valuable papers and is well known in his field. So the university kept him on his tenure even though he could hardly talk right now.
Besides that experience, everything else was right on the dot. The only negative thing is that the Americans think poorly of us Asians being able to speak English, and we had to take some basic rhetoric classes, which we, of course aced. But I did enjoy taking a theatre class where we watched some plays and then wrote our thoughts on them.

Chief, you went to UIUC!
Had the chance to visit in deep winter few years ago when DD did her uni overseas stint there. Lovely campus.
It is one of the party colleges in the US, https://blog.prepscholar.com/top-party-colleges-ranking
I didnt know that before she went there, otherwise would have vetoed it out But she turned out OK.

Quite of bunch of singaporeans too. Now a lot more Asians and South Asians studying there- heard that the I and C stands for Indian and Chinese The prev gens have established themselves pretty well, so I guess Asian students have it easier now.

[slmkhoo]

I was under the impression Cambridge and Oxford will both have more Singaporean students admitted/accepted each year compared to most of the Ivy / Ivy+, but I didn't think the numbers were as bleak as your other reply...

When my daughter was in JC2 and thinking about applying overseas, she did some asking around among seniors and other contacts - she found out that the top universities in the US take in very few Singaporean undergrads each year, as few as 1, 2 or none each year! So it is really quite a lottery as they have so many excellent students applying, and have so many rules about spreading out the places among races, social strata, alumni kids, specific skills/sports...

I was shocked when I found out that there could be 50 or more Singaporean undergrads at Oxford or Cambridge (in my time, more than 10 a year was considered a lot), and I presume similar numbers or greater at some other UK universities. And having a conditional offer based on A levels makes it seem more straightforward. But getting the conditional offer - that's the lottery!

[doodbug]

The state unis in the US are far more open to accepting more international students (Singaporeans included) as they really need the tuition fees - so do try for Berkeley, Michigan, Georgia Tech or UIUC etc as well if one is really set on the US. For the top Ivy Leagues, the quotas are no joke - they even have quotas among individual US states.

[Terrydad]

Chief, you went to UIUC!
Had the chance to visit in deep winter few years ago when DD did her uni overseas stint there. Lovely campus.
It is one of the party colleges in the US, https://blog.prepscholar.com/top-party-colleges-ranking
I didnt know that before she went there, otherwise would have vetoed it out But she turned out OK.

Quite of bunch of singaporeans too. Now a lot more Asians and South Asians studying there- heard that the I and C stands for Indian and Chinese The prev gens have established themselves pretty well, so I guess Asian students have it easier now.

May I know if your dd was on scholarship or on parents funding? If the latter, what are the difficulties, if any, getting hired by a US firm?

Will PM you separately, thanks!

[SG_KP1]

When my daughter was in JC2 and thinking about applying overseas, she did some asking around among seniors and other contacts - she found out that the top universities in the US take in very few Singaporean undergrads each year, as few as 1, 2 or none each year! So it is really quite a lottery as they have so many excellent students applying, and have so many rules about spreading out the places among races, social strata, alumni kids, specific skills/sports...

I was shocked when I found out that there could be 50 or more Singaporean undergrads at Oxford or Cambridge (in my time, more than 10 a year was considered a lot), and I presume similar numbers or greater at some other UK universities. And having a conditional offer based on A levels makes it seem more straightforward. But getting the conditional offer - that's the lottery!

Ok, time to book a flight back to reality

[Sun_2010]

May I know if your dd was on scholarship or on parents funding? If the latter, what are the difficulties, if any, getting hired by a US firm?

Will PM you separately, thanks!

Sorry for not communicating clearly, DD did her undergrad at NUS, she just went to UIUC for one semester as a part of their overseas exchange program so no tuition fees. She had an allowance from NUS to cover the expense , we just had to top up a bit.

Not sure on employment by US firms - but I think with the H1B1 visas for Singaporeans , work visa shouldnt be much of a hassle.

[ChiefKiasu]

I think NCB was the first to send scholars to the US. LKY also pushed PSC to send scholars to the US. Currently, GovTech also sends scholars to US for technology-related areas (Comp Sc, AI, Big data).

Thinking aloud, looking at how toxic the cultural and political environment in US has become, it may be prudent for PSC to diversify the countries where the scholars are sent to. Time to revive scholarships to France, Germany or Japan and start new initiatives to India? If vast majority of grads here are from US, we may see culture wars erupting in our midst or more anon conspiracies circulating?

Lol. I was an NCB scholar. Haven't heard of the name for a looong time. Now that organisation does not even exist. It became KRDL then I2R and now I don't even know what. The public side of NCB became IDA and now it is IMDA or something, having been merged into MDA.

Scholarships to European countries would be appealing, but I'm not so sure about India. I think most Indians would prefer to get an overseas education if possible, and NUS is a good destination for them. So might as well stick to Singapore if you can't go overseas.

As for weird conspiracy theories, well, I think we might be overly worried. I think the stint in our primary to JC schools should have prepared trained our students to be more discerning. Of course a lot depends on the individual.

[ChiefKiasu]

Chief, you went to UIUC!
Had the chance to visit in deep winter few years ago when DD did her uni overseas stint there. Lovely campus.
It is one of the party colleges in the US, https://blog.prepscholar.com/top-party-colleges-ranking
I didnt know that before she went there, otherwise would have vetoed it out But she turned out OK.

Quite of bunch of singaporeans too. Now a lot more Asians and South Asians studying there- heard that the I and C stands for Indian and Chinese The prev gens have established themselves pretty well, so I guess Asian students have it easier now.

What?! It has become a "party college"??
There were a lot of South Koreans and Vietnamese there during my time.
In the school, every year, that was a "Hash Wednesday", a pun on Ash Wednesday... but people smoked hash openly sitting outside in the quadrangle. There was a saying that if you biked outside in the quadrangle during that time, you would start seeing pink .
But it is this mix of weirdness together with the intense studying that makes my student life enjoyable and memorable.

[doodbug]

I never had the impression that UIUC is a party college lol My impression is that it is pretty STEM heavy and serious :p the likes of Cornell, CMU, CalTech, Georgia Tech come to mind. The Mid-West weather scares me