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National University of Singapore

I'm in year 12 in the UK.
I'm thinking of studying in Singapore, and found that the National University of Singapore is ranked 30 in the world and its good for Business.

I want to go there because Singapore is a fast growing economy and also the country speaks English and its nice to study abroad.

However I can't get much information on the website.

So what are the A level entry requirements?
What requirement do you need to apply to there?

Anybody from there that could help me a bit?

Thanks in advance!

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Reply 1
Hey I could help you on this.
Reply 2
Which course do you have in mind?You can enter NUS so long as you've minimum grades of CCC.However,whether or not you can get the course you want depends on the popularity of the course.For medicine,dentistry,law and Chemical Engineering,you've to get at least almost perfect results,including General Paper.
Reply 3
Great!

I'm looking for a course on either Economics, Business & Finance or a combination of them.

I've also heard that the fees are subsidized by the Singapore government and you are required to stay in Singapore for 3 years after you've graduated. I won't mind this, I heard this at the QS fair today.

Also what percent is international students in the Uni?
I never had the idea of studying abroad until today, so I'm kinda confused about the whole thing.:s-smilie:
Reply 4
DarkWarrior
I'm in year 12 in the UK.
I'm thinking of studying in Singapore, and found that the National University of Singapore is ranked 30 in the world and its good for Business.

I want to go there because Singapore is a fast growing economy and also the country speaks English and its nice to study abroad.

However I can't get much information on the website.

So what are the A level entry requirements?
What requirement do you need to apply to there?

Anybody from there that could help me a bit?

Thanks in advance!

Well my parents wanted me to study there but quickly tossed hopes as its too competitive.
Remember that it's a country with several millions of people and very limited university places available. Its much more competitive than most unis in the UK, on par with oxford. In fact, i know of a guy who wanted to do medicine, and had to go to Oxford because he couldn't get into NUS.

Not sure about A-Level requirements, but i was told that they were looking for an IB of 40-42 points for business. So that'd be what? AAAA?
jsut write em an email and ask


edit: the exact minimum requirements i was given were: IB= 40, SAT= 2100
Reply 5
The grade profile for every course.
http://admissions.nus.edu.sg/sprogramme-igp.html

The actual admission requirement(Click 'A' Level (AQA, Cambridge, Edexcel, London, Maldives))
http://admissions.nus.edu.sg/international/BYA-admission.html

Undergraduate fee
https://share.nus.edu.sg/registrar/info/ug/UGTuitionCurrent.pdf
Upon getting a place in NUS,you've to apply for the MOE tuition grant so that you won't have to pay the total tuition fee.

DarkWarrior
Great!

I'm looking for a course on either Economics, Business & Finance or a combination of them.

I've also heard that the fees are subsidized by the Singapore government and you are required to stay in Singapore for 3 years after you've graduated. I won't mind this, I heard this at the QS fair today.

Also what percent is international students in the Uni?
I never had the idea of studying abroad until today, so I'm kinda confused about the whole thing.:s-smilie:
Reply 6
KLL
Well my parents wanted me to study there but quickly tossed hopes as its too competitive.
Remember that it's a country with several millions of people and very limited university places available. Its much more competitive than most unis in the UK, on par with oxford. In fact, i know of a guy who wanted to do medicine, and had to go to Oxford because he couldn't get into NUS.

Not sure about A-Level requirements, but i was told that they were looking for an IB of 40-42 points for business. So that'd be what? AAAA?
jsut write em an email and ask


edit: the exact minimum requirements i was given were: IB= 40, SAT= 2100


I very much agree with you.The entry requirements of medicine,law and dentistry are higher than Oxbridge,all of which require interviews.(Cut off grade:AAA A-level/B AS-level)
It's also difficult to get 1st class honours in NUS as it is only awarded to very few candidates.
Reply 7
Markeur
I very much agree with you.The entry requirements of medicine,law and dentistry are higher than Oxbridge,all of which require interviews.(Cut off grade:AAA A-level/B AS-level)
It's also difficult to get 1st class honours in NUS as it is only awarded to very few candidates.

on the upside, i guess as long as you don't do incredibly badly, a NUS degree is a job guarantuee?
Reply 8
KLL
on the upside, i guess as long as you don't do incredibly badly, a NUS degree is a job guarantuee?

I'd say that a NUS degree good if you plan to work in Singapore.However,I don't think it's largely recognised in overseas countries.
Reply 9
Markeur
I'd say that a NUS degree good if you plan to work in Singapore.However,I don't think it's largely recognised in overseas countries.

Isn't there a rule that you must stay there for 3 years after you've graduated, before you are allowed to work elsewhere?
Reply 10
DarkWarrior
Isn't there a rule that you must stay there for 3 years after you've graduated, before you are allowed to work elsewhere?

first time i hear of it...
maybe its the condition for some grant or so?
Reply 11
It is true you have to work in singapore for some time afterwards.

Also, in terms of world reputation, UK and US uni's beat NUS.
if you are studying in the UK already, why would you want to go to singapore? yes, we do speak english in singapore, but in a very thick accent. a lot of elite singaporeans are fighting for scholarships to go to the UK and US.

and i dont think its a fast growing economy, its stable.

the only reason if you are really keen in going to singapore, i think it has got to be you wanna be a singaporean, or to hold a singapore passport, which is relatively easy (i think just 2.5 years).
Reply 13
kenbellston
if you are studying in the UK already, why would you want to go to singapore? yes, we do speak english in singapore, but in a very thick accent. a lot of elite singaporeans are fighting for scholarships to go to the UK and US.

and i dont think its a fast growing economy, its stable.

Yes,I VERY VERY MUCH agree with you.
Markeur
Yes,I VERY VERY MUCH agree with you.



HAHA thanks!

actually i really dont think singapore is a very exciting place to live or study in. I know NUS is very very stressful... maybe even worse than top UK schs, but the prospects are no where near. i feel very sorry for my fellow friends who are still in singapore, so unfair.

it is not easy to compete with singapore A level grads, who are a million times better than the UK A levels, especially if the thread starter is looking mathematical inclined courses (economics and stuff).

nonetheless, i still love singapore, hahah, really have a sense of home which i cannot find any where else in the world.
Reply 15
kenbellston
HAHA thanks!

actually i really dont think singapore is a very exciting place to live or study in. I know NUS is very very stressful... maybe even worse than top UK schs, but the prospects are no where near. i feel very sorry for my fellow friends who are still in singapore, so unfair.

it is not easy to compete with singapore A level grads, who are a million times better than the UK A levels, especially if the thread starter is looking mathematical inclined courses (economics and stuff).

nonetheless, i still love singapore, hahah, really have a sense of home which i cannot find any where else in the world.

most europeans i know would die for a chance to work in singapore...
a lot of my family and friends hve worked there and want to go back again.
To OP, are you a Chinese?

If you are Oriental or European descended, and nonmuslim but preferably Christian, you should like the general reception of the local Singaporeans.

Although to be fair, it gets very boring after a while and like already mentioned, job prospects, quality of education, research, curriculum, equipment, innovation and/or invention is not even comparable to third rate universities in the UK/USA/Canada/Australia or other anglophone developed countries.

Singaporeans actually don't speak English, rather Singlish is spoken which is a concoction involving various languages of that region. It's stiflingly hot and the government and people are extremely pro Amerikan and admire, cherish, emulate, mimic and seek to be everything that is Amerikan, and to some extent British too.

It depends really, whether you will like it or not on the social life aspect of it.

AFA academics are concerned, I wouldn't leave UK, or some anglophone developed country for Singapore.

Don't get me wrong. Singapore has done pretty well for a third world country and a people with colonial mentality of being below their superiors. It's pretty neat and safe too.

Very small, boring, and people work hard because productivity is low, and entertainment lacking. The only topic of conversation is often 'food'. Haha.

And oh, don't take the rankings too seriously to decide your choices. Russia was able to send men, satellite, dogs to space first, sent probes to other planets, built world's strongest nuclear bombs, strongest conventional bombs, largest and fastest planes ever made, longest range missiles, wins International Physics, Chemistry, Maths olympiads and Int Maths Contests among others.

Even though Nobel prizes are western awards and biased towards the West and against nonwesterners, Russians still won science prizes in Nobel prizes while Singapore has none of the above mentioend features of Russia.

Still a Singaporean university (the only 'comprehensive' one, the two other unis there are business oriented or technology oriented) is ranked higher than all Russian unis.

Says it all about the ranking methodology really.
Reply 17
i'm fairely confident that a NUS degree would be worth more than a 3rd rate UK/US uni.
Reply 18
NUS is a pressure cooker (Singaporean students are *very* competitive), and the campus isn't the prettiest, but it's not like you'll be studying 24/7. The weather takes a bit of getting used to but it's not too bad unless you're a professional skier or something, and there are definitely perks to high-20s 'winters'.

A Level requirements are pretty high in general (someone linked the chart above) and you have to stay for 3 years after graduation (officially it's "work for a Singapore-registered company" so I think you can technically be employed by say GSK and be on assignment to England half the year and it'll still count because GSK has operations in SG) because the fees are government-subsidised for everybody - unless you do Medicine, Music or Dentistry fees are less than S$8000 a year and fixed for all four years of the degree AFAIK.

People speak heavily accented 'Singlish' but it's not that hard to understand, and there is some local colloquialism but I think the people in university don't have as much Malay/Tamil/Chinese dialects mangled into their speech as the average Singaporean and vocabulary can be picked up very quickly. The food is pretty good, actually.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I spent my childhood and earlier teens in SG, knew a few older people at NUS and they were generally positive about their degrees)
Reply 19
Let me share with you on how difficult it is to get a 1st/2:1 honours degree.Among BSc students graduating in 2004,3.7% obtained 1st class and 15.8% obtained 1st/2:1 class.Among BEng(Chemical Engineering) students graduating in 2004,15.2% obtained 1st class and 45.2% obtained 1st/2:1 class.