Course + Year: NUS Sociology Y4
I was previously from NYJC and a STEM student. I took PCME!
As for whether it shaped my uni course decision, it’s a yes and no. Usually people think that in JC you find out the subjects you are good at, then continue pursuing it in University. However, for me it was slightly different. I went into JC knowing I wanted to do either Sociology/Psychology but I was still debating between these two! Studying the sciences in PCME made me realise that I didn’t like how the sciences are because there are fixed answers to questions – if you don’t have the answer, then it’s wrong.
I would say that I’m someone who likes to look at things from different perspectives. That’s why I was attracted to Soci in the first place, because through sociology, they train you to look at things that way. For Sociology, there is no one correct answer for anything, which was why it is also more interesting to study.
I think a lot of people will say the same thing: compare which university is the most convenient! For me, NUS was the most convenient. Some others would say SMU is more convenient. But when I was in JC, I heard a lot of people saying that SMU was “full of snakes”. I was also scared after hearing “full of snakes”, plus as a Business school, it probably has a lot of projects. Additionally, from what I thought, their Arts and Social Sciences wasn’t as established yet. So even though it was the most convenient school, it was not within one of my choices.
The only problem about NTU is that it is in the middle of nowhere at the corner of the earth, so I decided not to go there. I think I could go to both NTU and NUS, so I asked people which school I should choose. Many of them said, “If you can get into NUS, why not just go there?” I guess many people feel that NUS is harder to get into, but to be honest, after getting into it, I don’t really think so. Again, I would say FASS is easier to get into compared to Medicine/Law, which are much harder to get into.
I chose Arts and Social Science first. I wanted to get into Arts and Social Science, especially at NUS FASS, was because I had the opportunity/option to explore the different majors (first year to explore different things). But after going through it, I don’t think it’s as good of a perk that people make it out to be. For example, many people say that you can use your first year to explore the different options available. It’s not that it’s not true, because I see people who do that; it’s just that if you use the semester to explore, other people are using that time to do modules in the course they have decided they want to major in. Basically, you end up one semester slower.
Since I was kind of set on Arts and Social Sciences, I was mainly deciding between Soci/Psych. I was exposed to Soci through Tumblr, and liked how there were different ways of looking at the same thing, and also because I was interested in how certain groups act. Psych was another option because I dislike feeling helpless when someone feels sad, so i thought studying Psych might help. So I was bent on either, and FASS would eventually allow me to pursue one of these!
I really wanted that time and freedom to choose between Soci/Psych, since I was not sure which I wanted to major in, so I did not choose NTU Psych immediately. After I got into FASS, I realised that Psych was too competitive, so I didn’t even try!
It’s kind of funny. Like I mentioned, I frequently used Tumblr and it’s very big on social issues, so that’s how I initially knew about Sociology. These were my reasons!
I felt that my degree does not completely determine my future and career path, so I might as well study something I am interested in. I felt that it would not exactly determine my entire career path, which till now, is something I still firmly believe in. I am currently exploring different other potential career paths such as Communications/Design. That was one of the key things.
When I went to Uni open houses, I asked about potential career paths for sociology. They said that there’s a multitude of options, you can do a lot of things with a Soci degree. But now, after I’ve actually been through everything, I feel that the only solid career trajectory you can go into, with a Soci degree, is research. If you are in sociology, there is a high chance you will get into research; because that’s what the degree technically trains you for. It trains you to do research, like going online/searching for info, or doing interview research. One of the legit career paths sociology students can consider is research assistant or policy planning (what the government does). For other Soci students who do not go into research, or do their masters, they just scatter everywhere.
Not really, which I kind of regret. I guess I went into FASS with the idea that I was doing Sociology because I knew that I would enjoy sociology, I knew that I wanted to do it so I would not do badly in it. However, I kind of failed to consider the market needs, what the job market truly needs in their workers, what skills employers want to see in employees – I kind of ignored that, which I feel that I should not have but it’s a bit too late to regret. I failed to recognise the fact that a degree is something you spend money on, so you should be doing things that are worth your money. For example, coding. Even though a lot of people learn it on their own (like myself), I feel that I might be able to be better at it at University. Learning it outside is also a waste of money, so since you are doing a degree and paying so much, it should be something that you can learn some sort of hard skill from.
Another thing, when I was thinking about the different courses, NUS kept selling to me the idea that sociology trains your soft skills. Sociology in essence, trains very few hard skills. The only hard skill I remember is learning how to use SPSS (SPSS Statistics is a software package used for interactive, or batched, statistical analysis), which I kinda sucked at so it was not really like I learnt it. I also learnt how to conduct research, but it is not something I am very interested in. I was also pulled into Sociology because of the soft skills, but now I think about it, if you are spending $4k per semester, wouldn’t it be better to spend on hard skills? So that next time when you go out, you can say that you learned these skills, other than “I learnt critical thinking, I learnt how to speak in front of people, I learnt how to do reasoning?” I feel that I did learn these skills from Sociology, but I feel that I could learn these by myself, instead of having to pay to learn these.
I’m so sorry, I am actually not trying to discourage anyone from joining Sociology, but these are just my two cents!
You have to major in something in Y2 (most people declare their major in Year 1 Sem 2).
In FASS, it is very fluid. Basically, everyone takes different modules. Don’t think about JC, where you have a fixed curriculum and classmates. At FASS, after each class, you go into a different class with different people, and apart from the introductory modules in the different majors that everyone has to take, there are no fixed schedules.Â
All students have to take General Education Modules (GEM) which has 5 pillars : GER, GEQ, GES, GEH, GET. These are modules that you have to clear sometime in your 4 years at NUS. Some people clear them early so they can focus on their major modules, while some others spread them out. I did the latter, but if you think about it, having 4 years means you could just spread your mods out. (http://www.nus.edu.sg/registrar/academic-information-policies/undergraduate-students/general-education/five-pillars)
We also have this thing called Baskets (Social Science, Asian Studies, Humanities) (https://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/fass-subject.html). You have to clear these baskets sometime within the 4 years. Some students take these baskets later, like once they are more used to the flow of being a Uni student, they take some introductory modules to clear the basket. (You can take intro mods to clear the basket). Basically, you have to clear one module/thing from each of these baskets! For example, I took Japanese Intro Studies to clear my Asian Studies. Â
The good thing is that because I am from Social Sciences, I didn’t need to clear the basket from Social Science.
There is no fixed curriculum for Y1/Y2/Y3/Y4 students. However, I think people usually clear their modules “level by level”. For example, they usually clear 2k level modules (such as 2101, 2215, etc) then 3k then 4k. 2k modules are more in-depth, and cover a wider range of information in that module. Particularly in Soci, the number of modules you have to clear are different from if you were taking modules in other majors such as History.
You have to take introductory modules, which are 1000 (1k) modules. The modules in NUS have codes like 1000, 2000, 3000 etc. 1000 modules are the introductory modules: before you enter Sociology, you have to take a 1k module, which is SC1101E. Students can take different intro mods to explore which field they want to ultimately major in.
I wouldn’t say that the grade for your intro mod determines if you can major in it, but if you are failing the intro mods, it signifies that you will not be able to major in this field. For other majors, they may have other intro modules that they need to clear. For example, for Psych, they have to clear their introductory module, statistics module etc. If you don’t clear these modules, you can’t do Psych.Â
I have friends who wanted to do Psych but did not do well in the Statistics modules (B grade or something that you need to score). If you don’t do well in the Stats module, you can’t get into Psych. Hence, a few of my Soci friends are actually people who wanted to do Psych but could not get in as they couldn’t clear the modules (vice versa).Â
In Year 2 and 3, you just continue taking modules and clearing baskets!
There is something called the Honours Thesis, and it’s worth 15MCs. It used to be a half year thing, but I think it runs for the full year now. People usually do it to replace their 4k modules for Sociology students, so they don’t need to do 5 MC Modules (which are usually 4k modules) (I think this is different for different students at FASS though!)
An Honors Thesis is where people come up with a topic based on desktop research and then they’ll conduct more on the ground research to back up their claim/argument which is also known as a “thesis”! And after they finish their research they’ll have to write up a I think 12,000 word paper. But don’t worry if you’re worried about the word count, by yr 4 you should be used to writing 3,000 word papers
A general guideline to calculate Modular Credits for Sociology students:Â
At NUS, you need to clear a certain number of modular credits (MCs) per level. Each module has a different MC weightage:Â Â
For example: For the 4k level modules, you need to clear 40 MCs. Since each 4k module weighs 5 MC’s each, and NUS recommends 40 MCs of 4K mods, we need to take 8 of these 4k modules to clear them. (8×5=40)
|
Level |
Number of MC’s you need |
Number of Modules you need to take |
|
1000 |
4 |
1 |
|
2000 |
28 |
7 |
|
3000 |
20 |
5 |
|
4000 |
40 |
8 |
I know of friends doing Linguistics who take 5k mods, but they are 5 MCs each as well.
Everyone structures their schedules differently, so some people may mix 2k modules and the harder 3k modules in a semester, etc.
Each sem you’ll need to take a minimum of 18 MCs, so usually people take 20 MCs worth (so for 4 MC/module = 5 modules). It is advised that out of the 5, you take 3 modules that are from your major.
For 1k/2k/3k modules, it’s usually in a lecture-tutorial style. In lectures, the lecturer teaches. In tutorials, you discuss whatever questions the teaching assistant (TA) asks.
People choose lectures that they’re interested in, but if you and your friends don’t choose the same mods, it is kind of rare to see the same person twice. But after a while, you start seeing the same people!Â
Once you go into 4k modules, there are seminars with a smaller group of students. I find it like a lecture with discussion, so a seminar is kind of a mix of lecture and tutorial.
For sociology, the teaching style is split into theory-based and story-based. Some people like listening to stories and learning from them. Personally, I like theory but very few profs are theory based. For example, the profs will tell you stories about cultures, and through these stories you will learn more. I personally don’t like it though, so I can’t advocate for it.
I would say that the homework is very different compared to JC. We have very little chances to practice our work in Uni compared to JC. In JC, you are always given homework to practice what you learn, but in Sociology, it depends on the module itself. Sometimes, the module only has a mid-term essay and an exam. So you only have 2 chances to write about this thing and these 2 chances determine your grade in the end. There is no way to practice, unless you draft essays. I think there are some achievers who do drafts of essays and send them to Profs for vetting. Only for Radics’s class, you are given 3 chances to write the essays (which can serve as practice), and a final exam at the end. Hence, I find that it is harder to be good at something if you don’t have the chance to practice it.Â
Other than that, I think it is the same. The learning style is pretty similar, you get the content and learn from it.
The grading system for each module does not have hard numbers like 15/20. It is by A+/A/A-/B+ etc for each module. These grades are sometimes bell-curved, so your B- could be because of the fact that other essays were better, so from a B, you got bumped down to a B-. Because there are no hard numbers, it is very hard to tell how you can improve. Most of the time, it’s just because your points are not as convincing.
Another thing is that GPA is harder to calculate in Uni as well, so there are GPA calculators online. Because at NUS, there is this S/U function, so it is harder to calculate GPA.
Uhhh… You will realise that once you’re in Uni, your timetable is not very fixed, and is subjective to module schedules. For example, If i want a 9am module and I don’t get it, I have to go for the 3pm lecture instead.
Usually, morning lectures are preferred, but I personally like afternoon lectures. In the morning, I sleep in and go for afternoon lectures.Once you go into 4th year, if you only have 4k modules, it is slightly easier. You do not have as many modules to clear, so you kinda slack more.Â
If I have class in the morning, like 10-12am one class, 2-3pm another class, then I’ll go to school and have lunch after. If I am interested in studying, I would study in school because I am not productive at home.
For Soci, exams are just essays. You go into the [exam] hall for 2 hours and just write essays on what you’ve learnt. Readings really help provide you with arguments/examples that you can use for your essays.Â
Graded Assignments come in a few forms, but the standard one is the essay. Depending on the number of words profs require, some essays require 1.5k words, some require 3k words.Â
Sometimes there are group presentations (which are rare), and very rarely, there are group essays. I think the only group essay I did was 4101, which was to prepare people for their thesis. There are generally very few group projects and a lot of solo work. Class participation is also graded.Â
One of my 4k modules did not have a final exam, it’s just that for that module, you would have to submit an essay every 2 weeks, and the cumulative grade would be your final grade for the semester.Â
I guess one of the most interesting modules I took was “Health and Social Behaviour”. I interviewed one of my friends, who is a Muslim, and asked her how Malays feel about and regard mental health illnesses. She told me how people just don’t take it as seriously. But it was just interesting to see how the Malay view it versus how the Chinese view it. I also saw how age plays a part in this discussion: your age sometimes determines the amount of education you get. If you are less educated about mental health or the different illnesses, people easily call them [people with mental illness] “eh you siao ah”. For example, if your grandparents saw some mentally ill people, they will say “siao ah” or in Malay, they call it “gila”. But in our generation, we more often say that this person is experiencing some sort of mental health issue, and possibly know what it is. We have different ways of interpreting this kind of behaviour – I felt like I was understanding something new, so it was interesting, but not really because the module itself was interesting.
If you want a module that taught me something, I guess I would have a different answer. For me, I would say I enjoyed “Gender, Sex and Power”, “Sociology of Food” and “Popular Culture”. Gender and food were topics I was very interested in and I feel that everyone should take the Popular Culture module!
In this module, you look at the food, where the food source is and where the ingredient source is. Together, these show the inequalities of how some countries produce food. Many of the [cost] prices are very low but when they come to Singapore, we pay a higher price for them, and these producers don’t benefit. There is a phenomenon where developed countries, if they have too much food, they will send their food over to underdeveloped countries; this sudden huge supply of food often causes their [the underdeveloped country’s] own market system to crash.
If they depend on farming as their main source of income, and there is suddenly an increase in the supply of food, their profits will go to 0, which is also an issue.Â
There is also [discussion] on the ambience of place, how can you tell if a Thai restaurant is authentic or not – if a server speaks to you in a slight accent, if the chef is Thai, if the decorations seem authentically Thai – these were things I have never considered about, and I feel are interesting. I also love Prof Kelvin Low! But it is unfortunate he only takes that module and has no 4k modules.
For me, a major part of liking a module is based on the professor. For this module, the professor is very passionate about gender equality, he can go on and on! In this module, I learnt a lot about other cultures, how they treat parenthood. In some cultures, the father is the caregiver instead of the mother, and the mother goes out to hunt. We have talks about whether it is more equal there, and how can we achieve equality in Singapore if we learn from them?Â
Also in Soci, there is this professor that everyone likes – he’s very funny and everyone likes his lectures.Â
I did not like “Cultures of Kinship and Social Organizations”. But this was because of the prof again. The prof was very boring, laughs meekly. She just kept talking about stories, like she talked about her family and…. omg I didn’t pay attention! Anyway her stories didn’t really have any connections. You know those teachers who talk and talk, but there’s no point? She is like that. Because of that, I lost interest in that topic itself, and didn’t really do well.
Definitely! There is this thing I haven’t mentioned that’s called Unrestricted Electives (UE’s). Through these UE’s, people learn whatever they want to learn. I could have taken a coding intro module or some people use UEs to minor in something, like in film study.
I spent my UEs on Korean because I’m a Korean fan! I was doing well, but I found it really unfair that I couldn’t minor in it. I’m still upset about it, because in my year I kept asking my prof “Why cannot minor in Korean?” Then, the next year they said “you can now minor in Korean!”
Also, in FASS, you’re given 9 UE’s, which are 9 modules that you can take and these do not translate into your major requirements. I think this might be a FASS only thing but 2 of these mods can come from your major, the remaining 7 mods can be any other ones. You only need 6 modules to have a minor in something, like you can minor in languages.
I met more friends from these electives and hall!
I would say that if you follow the ideal of reading all your readings, the workload would be pretty heavy. Some profs I know are a bit crazy: they can give you 5 readings a week. Imagine, if you have 3 modules with 5 readings a week, you would have 15 readings to complete, which is crazy!
But if you know how to work around it, you can have leisure time! My advice is to read 1-2 readings per module and make sure you understand them, then I would say your workload is pretty light. Yeah, I do have leisure time (when it is not “hell week”), and I’m usually quite free.Â
I thought Sociology would be very theory based, but I learnt more about stories instead. For example, I learned about something called “The Looking Glass Self”; which is a concept/theory that states that your sense of self is determined by how other people think of/react to you. It is interesting to learn about the situations that prove this theory correct, but, I did not learn as much theory as I wanted.Â
It was not an expectation of mine, but I feel that it would have been better if Soci had more group stuff. It is very common that we do everything alone – for me, it’s kind of boring.Â
There is this expectation that everyone in FASS dresses nicely – it’s only half true, because usually people from halls don’t really dress up much, and you will feel better about not dressing up either.Â
Firstly, when they say we have a multitude of career paths, it is not exactly true; we do have a career path, but the only one I can think of is research/further studies.
Secondly, we do not exactly do social experiments. The first time I had to do it was maybe y3/y4, where I did interviews with people, and that was only once. So it is not as common as you think.Â
Also, a lot of the time, people think Sociology is social work; since the term social work is perhaps more prominent and the term sociology is more ambiguous – like what is Sociology you know? But they’re different! [So what is Sociology actually about?] A general idea is that Sociology is more about how society works, the different ways that ensure societies continue to propagate and exist, the different ways of understanding lifestyles and cultures.
Someone who is very interested in looking at things from different angles, someone who is open minded, someone that is able to look at things beyond what you see. For example, instead of seeing Covid-19 as a pandemic that affects people who are sick, it also affects people’s livelihood/way of life, it affects people’s connections with other people. There are a lot of extra implications beyond what normal people think about. If you are someone like that, I think you can learn a lot from Sociology!
For sociology students, [they will probably go] into Research/Policy. Getting into government to do Policy work is the best, because of the skills you learn. But getting in also depends on your GPA. If your GPA is not high enough, you will not get in, because they use GPA as a filter.Â
I would say don’t bank on sociology as a determining factor for your career, instead choose to do other things like summer internships. Use your summers to do things that you’re interested in, but not sure if you can make a career out of. For example, you can go and do coding!
I am going to graduate soon this December, and given how this pandemic has affected people, I cannot tell if I am one of the lucky/unlucky ones yet until I get into the job market. I would say my career prospects are kind of bleak, because of Covid, not just because of my degree.Â
Personally, I think I will go into Communications. I took a gap semester and did a 6-month internship and I’m doing a 2 month internship now! They are very Comms-based and I’ve garnered quite a good portfolio based on comms. My portfolio is kind of Comms based, so I see myself somewhere in the Communications department. Also, creating a portfolio is quite good for your future career prospects!Â
I took a gap semester in Year 4 Semester 2 (supposedly from January to May), which is when everyone is going to graduate.
Before that [taking a gap sem], I did not have enough working experience; I would say I spent a lot of my summers doing nothing, either going overseas or going for useless internships. I felt that if I graduated with just my degree, I would basically be jobless for 6 months or more. Hence I decided to just apply and see who would accept me! I applied from Sept 2019, and got an interview in Oct (which I succeeded in), for a January 2020 internship.
I would say that you should always give yourself that time gap of applying for and getting an internship, if you intend to go for it. My current internship is until June; so since I have time from June to Aug, I have another internship!
I learnt simple things like learning how to act in a professional manner: learning that the way you speak to people has to be somewhat respectful and it should not over-promise anything. These are just my own thoughts.Â
I kinda learned about my own worth as an individual. Because being a student, being in a University, you are kind of in a bubble constantly, safe from the working world. You don’t have to worry about bills, competitions etc. But, once you go into the working world, people will look into your achievements and compare them to someone else – that is how they determine if they want you or not.Â
Through career advisors, learning how to sell myself is one thing I learnt. Learning my own worth as a person and how to convince someone else that I am worth that internship/position is important.
Learning that working is fulfilling because you do something productive, but it is also very tiring because it is not uncommon that you work overtime. These are some stuff that I don’t think you will know until you start working.
There is some extra stuff like learning how to network – but I still think I have yet to really learn.
I lived in Raffles Hall and the accommodation was quite good. I’m not very picky, it is like the cubicle bathroom style, so you don’t have your own bathroom and you share it with others. It is a bit cold that’s all. The rooms itself, to be honest are quite good, but the double rooms are not as big as other halls like Temasek Hall.
Life in hall is a bit stressful if you are not someone who can constantly socialise. To a certain extent, you will meet people you know all the time in hall, so it can get a bit overwhelming and you just want to go home. But to be honest, I feel like I have gained a lot from being in hall. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to try and constantly talk to people. It has now become quite easy for me [to talk to strangers]. In the past, if a stranger asked me to talk to them, I would be like “Huh? Huh? I scared eh!”, I would be much more terrified. Because I was also an Orientation Leader, I had to take the initiative to do things and I felt that I learnt a lot through that.Â
It is good to a certain extent, because in Uni it is inevitable to have long breaks [in between classes]. It is either you have a back to back timetable session, which is very shag, or you have a 2h break followed by a lecture – and that 2h break would feel like a waste of time if you did not have a place to stay. However, because FASS is less than 10 mins away from Raffles hall, if I have a 2h break, i can just go back to my room and relax. Whereas if I did not stay in hall, I had to find some place to camp for 2h before my lecture.
I think out of all the halls, Raffles is the least socially taxing hall. People will tell you all about Kent Ridge and how “rara” it is; Raffles is really the most chill hall you can go to, and it is more convenient!
Suppers are the best! You meet your friends and talk about a lot of different things, it’s just those late night talks that you feel more connected to people, like the bonding is really there. It is really fun, because you are constantly hanging out with people of the same age and have the same kind of humour, generally less boundaries in hall ! For example, my friend came into hall because she felt that her parents were always up to her business and wanted more freedom. There are also people who chose not to stay in hall because they like the comfort of their home/bed, which is also very valid. The food in Raffles Hall is also better now, it used to be quite bad (cai fan only!)
Another thing is that hall is the easiest to get in the first year, because of your privilege as a Y1 student. If you are Y1 and considering staying in hall, I would suggest you to go for it! Because from your second year onwards, it gets very hard to enter. From the first year, you need to have at least 4 CCAs to continue to stay on to the second year. It’s their benchmark to continue hall residency! I heard this is harder for KR.
In hall itself, there are 3 types of CCAS: Comm/Sports/Arts (mostly dance/music). Sports is hardcore; in my first year I did take part in floorball, but I was really bad at it so I stopped. I generally hear that people bond well over sport! There’s this thing called Inter-hall games where you have to participate if you are part of the CCA. But I sucked at it and brought the team down, so I stopped. But it was still quite a good experience. I think that if you have something you want to do in Uni, you should [take this chance] to do it!
Comms is very ad-hoc; so whenever we needed to do something we would meet. I think I did something called Secretariat, and something called Social Comm. I did these roles in my first 2 years.
For NUS-wide CCAs, I joined NUS Save, which is the green club of NUS (it is very easy to get in). I tried joining NUS Debate and it was quite fun, but I felt that compared to the seniors, I was very bad at it. In debate, everyone knows each other, so it is a bit scary to join. I also did something called Yishun Reading Odyssey, which is a volunteer reading club where I go to the place and help young children read. Volunteering was something I was always interested in, so I joined them!
Hehhh… Don’t study it! If I were to choose again, I would study either computer science or industrial design. This is because I have an interest in design and coding and I think that they’re stuff that are harder to learn on my own, whereas I feel like Sociology is something that you can pick up on your own time.Â
There are a lot of resources, especially videos out there that can teach you sociological concepts in 5 min. There are sociology crash courses, and so much material out there. Sociology is something that, like the more you read the more you learn. It is not like someone tells you something and you learn. It is not like coding where you have to practice. It just basically teaches you how to think critically, which I feel like there’s no point going to Uni to do, but I did that so I regret. That’s why I say don’t do it.
But if you are really interested in Soci, my advice would be to start reading sociology theories/concepts. Search for what you are interested in, and when you actually enter Uni, you can try consulting the profs about anything you are interested in. I think that there is nothing much you can prepare beforehand; it’s the attitude that you have towards Soci before you enter Uni which I feel is [more] important.
If you are currently taking Soci, my advice would be to read 2 out of all the don’t know how many readings you have. Read them, make sure you understand them and go to class ready to discuss them. So if anything, you can always know something. If there’s anything that you don’t know, Youtube is your best friend! I have learnt so much through Youtube. Also, do your essays one day before it is due NOT on the due date itself (which was what I did in the first year)!
Also, apply for student exchange early! Usually, people go for them during y3s. Student exchanges are really fun 🙂
Lastly, University is the time for you to experience stuff so try your best to push out of your comfort zone.Â
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the interviewees and do not reflect the official policy or position of any institution. They are also not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, class, individual or organisation.
The information contained in this website is intended to provide general guidance only. It should not be relied upon as professional advice and does not 100% guarantee admission into any course.
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