Singapore - The Lion City

Up until we have had a variety of posts ranging from education and applying to US universities to education in India.

Let me give the blog readers a new perspective on education opportunities after 12th. Consider Singapore and its two reputed universities – National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

I plan to cover the following aspects of Singapore education in this post – Applications to NUS, Courses available, Financial aspect of the education, Singapore as a city/state/country and Potential difficulties that a student may face.

On a side note, let me introduce myself. I am Deepen Doshi, (supposedly batch of 2007), but I left SNK after completing 10th ICSE boards in March 2005, for pursuing my high school education at Victoria Junior College in Singapore under the Singapore Airlines Youth Scholarship. I complete GCE A levels in Dec 2007 and joined NUS in July 2008. I am currently pursuing a Bachelors of Computing (Computer Engineering) degree in the School of Computing.

Most of my entries would be pertaining to NUS, but NTU also follows almost the same system of application.

Applications to NUS

Application to NUS can be made under various categories. International (Non-Singaporean) students with International qualifications qualify for the category D. The applications for category D can be made from around first week of October until the end of March. The minimum eligibility to apply for study at NUS is just ‘A good pass in any 5 subjects at ISC level’.

For students who do not have the actual results by the time they apply, (which is highly likely the case for all students taking the ISC exams, as results come out only after May and the application is to be submitted by March), the courses of Medicine, Dentistry, Law, Architecture, Nursing and Industrial Design are not open for application. For all those courses, you need to have the actual result with you while applying

Application goes somewhat like this

1) Complete the online application form.

2) Get your supporting documents ready and mail them to the university at a given address.

Supporting documents consist of photocopies of:

a) High School Examination Results Slip
b) Secondary School Examination Results Slip
c) Additional Results slips like SAT I, SAT II, TOEFL, IETLS (If appeared for)
d) Birth Certificate or Passport

3) Pay the application fee of SGD 20.

4) You are done. Keep your fingers crossed. You shall listen from the university somewhere around late June.

Courses available

All courses in Engineering, Computing, Science, Business, Arts, Law, Social Sciences and Architecture are available. Courses in Computing and Engineering at NUS are reputed courses world-wide.

Financial aspect of the education

Detailed information about the finances can be found here, but the gist is somewhat like this.

(All Annual Approximate figures)
Total Tuition Fees : SGD 32,000
Total Hostel Fees: SGD 3,000
Total Living Costs: SGD 10,000

Total Costs: SGD 45,000

Every student (irrespective of nationality) is eligible for a tuition grant from the Ministry of Education, Government of Singapore of SGD 26,000. You just need to indicate on the online application form whether you want to grant or not. It’s a grant that the government gives to any student studying in university. It doesn’t have to be repaid. But upon acceptance of the grant, you sign a 3 year bond stating that you will work in Singapore for at least 3 years after your graduation. Not a bad deal considering that they will almost spend SGD 100,000 on your education during the 4 years. While serving the bond for 3 years, there are no restrictions. You can earn as much as you can, work wherever you want and do whatever you like.

This leaves a deficit of SGD 20,000 which needs to be filled up by some other sources of your own. This can include

1) FM(Father-Mother) Scholarship: Pay on your own

2) Get some other scholarships like the Singapore Airlines Undergraduate Scholarship, or Dr Goh Keng Swee Scholarship (the one I am under right now), or similar scholarships from other statutory boards like MAS, GIC, etc.

3) Take loans from Singapore banks. I am not sure of the exact amount, but they cover up half the remaining costs after the tuition grant. Its is interest free until you graduate and repayable after you start earning within a period of 20 years after your graduate.

4) Some minimal awards given by the faculty you are studying in the university. May range from SGD 1000 to SGD 5000 annually, depending on what you get and how much you get.

1SGD = 32.80 INR (at the time of writing this entry)

Singapore as a city/state/country

Whatever you consider it, a city, a state, a country; it is what it is – Singapore. Smaller than Mumbai in size and population, its less then 1000 sq. km. in area and houses about 4 million people.

Most of the people are Chinese (70%), some Malays (20%) and some Indians (8%). Rest is made up by Americans, Europeans, etc.

It’s a fantastic place to be in. Probably one of the most happening cities in the world, always has some or the other world-scale-event going on, developing new attractions for tourists and a hub in the south east Asian region.

Potential difficulties

1) Indian Vegetarian Food: Rare to find and expensive. But not a considerable problem, I have been managing since 3 years and have still held up my vegetarian status proudly.

2) None. Trust me, food is the one and only problem here.

Positives

1) Political very stable country. No communal riots since independence.

2) Low crime rate. Very safe for guys and girls alike.

3) Law abiding country

4) Near from home. (5 hours flight to Mumbai)

5) International culture and an opportunity to make friends spread around in the world.

This is enough for one post. Its too long and most of you would not even persist to read this line. If you do, and you want more clarifications or guidance, contact me @ deepen23@yahoo.co.in.

Cheers,

Deepen Doshi