Name:Hsien En
Course + Year: NTU Accountancy Y1
Scholarship: NTU-USP Scholarship
To do accounting, you must be good with calculations. As accountants, we ensure that financial information, records and transactions are updated accurately (the recording process involves the writing of journal entries, also known as the debit and credit double entries). We present information in financial statements (the Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statement, Statement of Changes in Equity, Cash Flow Statement) and strive to ensure that the report is accurate. All these are published in the financial report, and this report is used to analyse the financial position of the company. Stakeholders will use the information to make decisions.
Nanyang Business School (NBS) in NTU offers the following undergraduate degree programmes:
For NTU, all our single degree programmes in the business school are 3 years. Itâs a direct honors programme, hence you will graduate with an honours degree. For ACBS, which is the double degree programme, itâs a 4 years programme also direct honours.
I took PCME + H1 Chinese (yeah my Chinese was bad) back in JC. My favourite subjects were Physics and Chemistry. FYI, I didnât score a single H2 âAâ grade for any papers I took before A Levels! But I liked Physics and Chemistry because I enjoyed the thinking required in both Physics and Chemistry, and I also felt that the cross-topic understanding for many questions was really interesting. Other than that, I was really a bookworm; aside from mugging, my only other commitment in JC was to Choir.
Iâm taking Accounting but I actually considered many different degrees.
Iâll start with why I took accounting first. I feel that accounting is a professional degree, and accountants will always be needed to help update and publish the financial records. If you think about your future career as an accountancy graduate, 70% of us end up in the Big 4: KPMG, PwC, EY and Deloitte. Most of us actually will become auditors after graduating. When you are an auditor, thereâs the opportunity to gain wide exposure. Furthermore, a career in audit also will help you strengthen your fundamentals and understanding of concepts in the reporting standards as you will need to check, make adjustments, and provide justification for your judgement of accounts from clients. Youâll need to learn a lot in a very short time- which is also why many employers hire ex-auditors. After which, you can leave for a finance position in another company, and then find opportunities to climb. But aside from audit, being able to understand the financial statements and the process of accounting (no pun intended HAHA) for different items is also an important skill which is definitely in demand and will be useful when you look for a job. Not anyone can do an accountantâs job – thatâs why I make the argument that itâs a professional degree as compared to other more broad degrees (e.g business).
Accounting is also very rule-based. I would say itâs somewhat similar to a science subject in that sense. In accounting, our ârule-bookâ is the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (SFRS). The SFRS clearly explains the accounting treatment for different items and elements that will appear in the financial statements, as well as the key information that must be declared. It also spells out the rules on classifying assets, recognition of expenses and calculation of costs, as well as the disclosure requirements in the notes to the financial statements etc. (this is just a few – thereâs so much more in the SFRS that I myself have not learnt yet!) Why do we have these rules? This is to ensure that all financial statements published will contain the pertinent information needed for stakeholders to make decisions, and to allow for accurate comparisons to be made between different companies. All in all, you could say that accounting is all about helping others to make decisions by ensuring that they have accurate information on hand.
Iâve naturally been more of a person who likes following the rules, and since accounting has a strict emphasis on rules and keeping accurate reports, I felt that it would be something that I would like, and thus
I decided to go ahead with it.
The primary reason why I did not choose business was because I felt it was too broad, and that it was not a professional degree as compared to accounting. I will confess that now when I look back now, I really didnât know anything about what Biz entailed. I just thought you just learned how to start a business, which is not true. The way a business degree is structured is that Biz students have to choose 1 area to specialise in: you either do HR, marketing, banking and finance etc. Each of these specialisations will lead you towards a different career path. Do find out more about the specialisations before you choose a business degree!
Then the next question I had was: why not take the Accounting and Business double degree? The reason why I did not go ahead with it was quite funny: I didnât take it simply because I felt like I didnât want to study so hard in uni. After 1 year in uni, I can say that youâll still need to work equally as hard if youâre a single degree student, the double degree kids simply just have 1 extra year to clear the extra mods. You should really consider if you have the interest and passion to pursue 2 degrees in 2 different subject areas.
I think that there are benefits to taking 2 degrees. Some people think that it makes you more employable. But I feel that it really depends on what you want for yourself. After 1 year in uni, I know that Iâm not interested in any of the business specializations that NTU, NUS or SMU has to offer, so Iâm quite glad I didnât take the double degree.
Itâs important to note the differences between NUS and NTU for this course. In NUS, the course is offered by the School of Computing. In NTU, Business Analytics is a specialisation track offered by NBS (Nanyang Business School), and students who choose this track graduate with a Business Degree.
Initially, I thought that Business + Computing sounded very good. Everyone said computing was the âin thingâ, and it seemed to be an upcoming trend. If you learn how to code, you can earn big bucks and the starting pay was very good. But I didnât know much about it and since I lacked coding knowledge, I decided against it in the end.
Actually, the reason why I wanted to do Computer Science was about the same. Everyone said that coding was the âinâ thing and that it would be able to get you a really nice starting pay! I thought that IT programming would also be an essential skill. But in the end, I didnât choose this course as I lacked the basic coding knowledge and I felt that I would struggle if I went into it.
For Information Systems, my reason for crossing it out was similar to Computer Science. I donât know the exact difference, so you should go and do your research if youâre considering these courses!
I thought I enjoyed Physics in JC as a PCME kid, and since I read some news articles about the need for engineers in the market, Mechanical Engineering naturally became an option for me too. Moreover, I thought that having an engineerâs way of thinking may be helpful. But I thought about it: my sciences werenât the best. I probably just enjoyed the subjects in JC because they were the ones I could study well and score for. But Uni would be a different ballgame because they really expect your fundamentals to be good. In Uni, the thought of having to really explore all these difficult topics and disciplines, and also do a FYP (Final Year Project) was too daunting (note: FYP is required for almost all courses, except for Business School). Iâm not the most creative person out there, and to be very honest, my fundamentals were also not so good, so Iâm actually quite glad I didnât take it! From what Iâve heard, engineering mods are really difficult, and you require a good grasp of foundational science and math concepts (esp your H2 Math topics, those are just the foundations).
I applied to all 3 schools (NUS, NTU & SMU), and all 3 offered me spots in their undergraduate accounting programme. I applied to SMU and NTU through the early application because my preliminary results were good enough.
For SMU, I was lucky to be given an offer before A levels results were released. I did the early application right after A Levels, and had my interview in the Jan-Feb period. In the end, I didnât choose SMU because I wasnât too comfortable with the whole seminar-style classes and the intense class participation that was required. Iâm not the most outgoing person, so the school culture and the constant need to speak up was not really my thing (even though I later discovered seminars are the norm in all Biz schools, but I guess for SMU, the class participation component is more intense.)
Secondly, I also wanted to stay in a hall and SMU doesnât have halls. The thought of having to travel back and forth from my house to Town every day wasnât very appealing. SMU also didnât give me a scholarship, so this also pushed it lower on my list of options.
In hindsight, the SMU programme is also decent from what Iâve heard from friends studying there. Iâve heard that SMU has a lot of adjunct visiting profs who can give accounts of extremely good industry experiences. I heard it is a good Biz school, especially if youâre actually considering the B&F (Business and Finance) specialisation.
For NUS, I didnât do early applications as my Prelims results were not good enough. However, as a J2, NUS had been the school that I planned to apply for after A Levels.
During the main application cycle, NUS offered me Accountancy + USP. I went for the NUS Scholarship interview, but didnât manage to get it. The NUS scholarship interview was much tougher compared to NTU though! I remember that there were 2 components – a written test on current affairs knowledge, followed by 30 mins of prep time for a case scenario. Afterwhich, we had a mock boardroom discussion which was observed by a group of professors, who would randomly throw out questions to the interviewees to answer. I felt that the NTU scholarship interview was definitely more chill than this. However, this may have changed in the past few years. I know that NTU scholarship interviews have definitely become tougher from my experience as a student ambassador this year.
I think there are some key differences in terms of how NUS and NTU conducts their lessons. Based on what Iâve heard from my friends in NUS Business School, the basic financial accounting mods in NUS still consist of lectures and 1.5 hr tutorials, whereas NTU conducts full 3-4 hr Seminars, with weekly online videos and quizzes to be done before class (full flipped classroom). There are no physical lectures in NTU for our accounting mods.
On the other hand, NUS generally has a better reputation, especially because itâs seen as the top local university and probably has a stronger alumni network.
To be honest, I think if you just want to do Accounting, all 3 schools are quite qualified! They all have experienced faculty, and the modules offered are able to grant you exemptions from the subsequent CFA qualification exams youâll need to take after graduation! If you want to go into auditing or be an accountant, you will definitely be able to be hired in Singapore after graduating from any of the 3 schools. I feel that NUS and NTU are both largely similar, with the exception of NUS offering a 4 year programme as compared to NTU, which offers a 3 year programme. However, this didnât matter much to me because I was not in a hurry to graduate. I wanted to spend more time playing in school before going out to work!
For me, my final decision was between NTU and NUS. I was invited to take part in the early applications cycle from NTU, and I received an offer to study accountancy a few days after receiving my A Levels results. I was then invited to go for the NTU scholarship interview.
NTU first offered me the Nanyang Scholarship after the A Level Results were out. During the interview, the professor asked me:
Why I wanted to do accounting
Personality questions: strengths and weaknesses etc
Where do you see yourself in the next few years
Basically, they asked the standard interview questions you would expect in a scholarship interview. If youâre offered a scholarship from any of the local universities, Iâll strongly urge you to consider taking it up! Youâll get to save money, and thereâs also a lot of other perks that come with the scholarship!
In the end, I was offered admission to NTU-USP, and it comes with the NTU-USP scholarship – so that was an even bigger motivator for me to choose NTU. The scholarship was really generous in terms of financial coverage and opportunities provided, but what really impressed me was meeting the NTU-USP seniors at the recruitment tea sessions. I felt that the NTU-USP student community and support system were 2 really appealing things that I wanted as part of my university life that led me to choose NTU in the end.
Taking out all the tangible things like scholarships, programmes, etc. I think that you should consider school culture and which school would be better fit for you. After 1 year, I would still say that Iâll make the same choice to come to NTU – Iâve met some great people, and I feel that the school was a good fit for me.
With regards to the teaching style, I guess you can say that NTU is more âtechnicalâ â no pun intended, and drills more heavily on your foundation (at least for Accounting). My prof literally drilled me on the SFRS until I can quote the exact standard and the relevant paragraph to explain the accounting treatment for certain transactions and entries from memory (from my personal experience on internship, this is very useful – you need a good foundation!!!). In terms of the learning process, I personally like watching videos online as compared to physical lectures, because I can learn at my own pace. Head up: Most of the time, you wonât be able to understand the concepts by watching the videos once – I actually spend close to half a day on the videos. By right, the allocated time is 1hr/week, but youâll definitely need to spend much more time to understand the concepts! (even when you watch at 2x speed).
Firstly, the biggest difference is in the intake size. NTU-USP intake is quite small, my batch has 46, and the batch below mine has approximately 44. The number changes each year though, my senior batch has 60. On the other hand, NUS USP intake is about 100+ (significantly larger).
For NUS-USP, anyone who is interested can apply to the programme. For NTU-USP, it is strictly by invitation only. In your NTU application, at the end of the form, you will need to check the box that says you are interested in NTU-USP. They will require you to write an essay if you are shortlisted for the interview. The interview itself is quite chill, while our profs will try to get to know you better, please also feel free to ask them questions, theyâre really friendly and willing to share.
Because of the size of the intake, the community is very different. Since our batch size is so small, it is a really close-knit community. It brings together a lot of people with similar mindsets and interests. I think we have a very good senior support system. In year 1 when we were clueless, itâs really the seniors that come and hold your hand along each step of the way, they tell you what you need to do, and give you all the tips you need to survive uni. They really make sure that we are well taken care of throughout the years.
However, what is common to both programmes is that you will be part of a community of students hailing from different disciplines who are all so talented in different ways – itâs definitely a really good experience!
Money-wise, although NUS USP is a scholars programme, it doesnât come with a scholarship! NTU-USP on the other hand, comes with the NTU-USP scholarship, which covers your school fees, a monthly allowance, along with other perks such as subsidies for overseas exchange and hall fees.
The other major reason as to why I chose the NTU-USP was because of the travelling opportunities it offered. In my last 3 years of schooling, I would like to travel and see the world, to form my opinions, and NTU-USP is able to support that!
One of our core mods in Year 1 was an overseas fieldwork mod. Our batch flew to Luang Prabang, Laos to do our social science research where we interviewed people on the streets to explore our topic about Gender Roles in Laotian society! We also have many overseas electives: for example, in the Astronomy module, they will fly you overseas to do star-gazing and other hands-on sessions. Thereâs also another mod on Maritime Silk Roads where the students went to Venice for site visits and research, the costs of which are also covered under the scholarship. NTU-USP also has its own special programme for overseas semester exchange. Itâs called the Study Abroad Programme. We have special partnerships with universities like UPenn, Bryn Mawr College, University of Edinburgh, KCL and ANU etc. (and the scholarship also helps you to deflate costs of overseas exchange!)
Talk to your SENIORS! This is very important. Looking back, I was a really lost sheep who had no idea of what to expect. Upon JC graduation, we have a very primitive understanding of the discipline and the mods, and what are the industry requirements. Seniors will be able to give you the full review, the good, and especially the BAD. They will tell you more regarding the school culture, assessments, group work, profs, job searching, and internships. Ask them to let you see some of their resources, what is the curriculum like, if you donât ask you will never know. A very important question to ask is whether they regret going to that particular school or course.
What kind of degree should one choose? In my time, a lot of my friends chose biz because they didnât know what to do so they chose a general degree. Biz School is really VERY career-focused and competitive. Even though Uni is supposed to prepare you for the working world, I think Biz is the most career-focused of all, they emphasise this from Day 1. What I mean when I say career focused is that on your first day, they will ask you to start planning for internships, knowing where you want to go in the industry, preparing your CV and cover letters, which can be quite daunting for a Y1. In Biz, seeking further studies isnât as important, instead, itâs all about internships and working experience. Thereâs a lot of specialisations offered, including supply chain management, HR, marketing, banking and finance. Generally, a lot of people go to B&F because thereâs where the money is. If you arenât interested in pursuing a career in investments, consumer banking, managing stocks, bonds and other financial assets etc., I would advise you not to choose biz and the B&F track, because that is the focus of B&F. You should know what you are signing up for. It will be a good idea to think long term about the job prospects and whether youâll like what youâre doing. Donât just chase the money, think about whether youâll be happy doing a job that this degree will naturally lead to you pursuing .
Start going to open houses early. Iâll say as early as J1.
J1 â go for a general idea, go and see the school and listen to the talks
J2 â go for more in depth research, to ask questions
J3 â go to confirm your choices and clarify any remaining doubts
This is as compared to attending an open house for the first time after collecting your results, and having to make a decision about your course in a very short window of time. Especially for the guys who have to go for NS, you wonât have enough time. Are you sure you want to make a choice that you are going to stick with for the next 3-4 years of your life in such a short period of time? At the open house, talk to the STUDENTS. Talk to the PROFS. Donât waste too much time on the general talks. Take the chance to ask your questions on the ground â thatâs where youâll be able to get answers. If you donât know what to ask, just stand around the professors and listen to what other people ask. The general talks don’t tell you much, and they tend to emphasize on the amazing facilities, high school rankings etc.
Read online (find blogs/Reddit/seniorsays). Those are where youâll get the most practical tips and this is information you definitely wonât be able to find in the universities corporate videos/brochures.
Strongly consider scholarships. In this post COVID-19 economy, if you already have a job waiting for you at the end of 4 years of uni, youâll find that you wonât be worrying about employment unlike some of your peers. But know what you are getting into! Iâve a friend who is serving his 1 year of a 10 year bond, and heâs found that he isnât the happiest in the company he is bonded to. Even if the scholarship is not bonded (school scholarships), the school really prioritises you and takes care of you well (e.g priority for overseas exchange, workshops etc.). You will also have a very good senior support system – many of them are really smart, and they can give you a lot of tips and experiences that youâll find useful in navigating uni, and for your future internship/job search too! Moreover, the money helps your parents save on costs.
Prepare your portfolio! I know that after A Levels, everyone lets loose, have fun and travel, but do spend some time getting all your documents ready, know what you did, and know what you can talk about in your personal statements and interviews. Have your CCA records and result slips ready! For the guys, you are going to be in NS, so if you have all these ready you wonât panic if you get a call during the weekday to get certain documents ready. Itâll also save you precious bookout time on the weekends during applications.
Hall life. Do you want to stay in halls? NTU has guaranteed hall stay for the first 2 years for all students. By guaranteed, it means you get a bed but you wonât get to choose your hall. For NUS, consider if you want to stay in a Residential College (RC) or a Hall! I believe that NUS has lesser rooms available as compared to NTU!
Lastly, consider the school culture: what are the people in school going to be like? Are you going to fit in well? Will the people you meet in school be people that you will feel comfortable when working with and seeing each other daily?
In year 1, you do basic foundation mods. In all 3 Biz Schools, Accounting and Biz students take the same core mods in Year 1 (with the exception of a few specialised mods). You take basic mods such as Marketing, Organisational Behaviour, Statistics, Financial Management, Financial Accounting, Business Law, Business Communication Management Fundamentals (also known as Comms Fund), Economics and Bizops (business operations). For NBS, if you scored an A for A Level Econs, you can be exempted from the Econs module. For NTU, this is also the year of compulsory summer internship at the end of Y1.
Business students will be streamed to specialisations (e.g HRC, MKT, B&F, ACS) based on their grades in Year 1. The mods taken will then focus on the specialisation you have chosen. Business students also have to take certain business enhancement mods. Take note of the specialisations offered by different universities (e.g NTU doesnât have supply chain management). Accounting students will take their accounting cores (Taxation, Company Law, Management Accounting, Auditing and Assurance, Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Recognition and Measurement).
For the ACBS double degree, you would take a mix of both accounting and business mods (but they have 1 extra year to clear). Core mods for all degrees: Communication Management Strategies (also known as Comms Fund 2), Data Analytics with Python.
During your final year, Semester 1 is usually the most popular exchange semester. You usually wonât go for exchange in your final sem, because the credit transfer from overseas universities will take some time – if the results donât reach you in time, you may have to pay school fees for an extra semester and delay graduation. Accounting students will take higher level mods covering topics such as Advanced Auditing, Valuation, Consolidation, Strategic Management (core capstone). Most graduating seniors will also clear their UEs (Unrestricted Electives) in the final semester.
Accounting mods definitely involve calculations. Itâs not advanced math (such as dy/dx, integration) but simple plus minus times divide. The focus is however, to ensure that you get a good grasp of accounting concepts. Youâll be reading the SFRS a lot to prepare for lessons – you need to know the rules well and show that you are able to apply them.
There are no essays in accounting mods, but rather, a lot of emphasis on explanation of accounting concepts and treatment for different items. This can range from revenue recognition, handling property, plant and equipment, inventories, liabilities and provisions etc.
Truth be told, it is HARD. You really must follow the rules and be familiar with application of the SFRS and the rules stated within. Learning the rules and concepts isnât easy – and it can be very dry if youâre not that interested. There are many situations under which they must be applied, and I personally found the learning curve to be quite steep, especially because I did not have any background in this area.
The focus of business mods depends on your specialisation. If you want to do banking and finance, understand the difference between banking and finance. Those who choose the B&F track will learn about consumer side banking, investments, financial modelling, stock beta-regressions , as well as reading and understanding the financial statements and instruments. You will also learn about financial instruments and assets such as bonds, stocks, discounted cash flows etc. The theory is HARD and the learning curve is steep – itâs not everyoneâs cup of tea. Itâs not good enough to know how to punch your G.C – sometimes, up to 50% of the questions are asking for the explanations of theories.
Assessment format differs across different modules. Some mods are project-based (no finals), and some are heavy on finals. The weightage of the other CA components will also differ amongst the mods. However, generally, most mods will have:
For projects with presentations, it usually involves a report and business analysis. Be ready for a project presentation for every module, you will need to wear your business formals!
For class participation, normal classes’ class participation can be as simple as showing up in class. Some profs also give you marks for asking questions during class. All these are really dependent on your profs.
Usually, you will find the breakdown of your assessment components inside the course outline that is released at the start of the sem when you do your course registration. Mostly, there are no essays in Biz school! (Except for certain modules and specialisations for scenario-based case study questions, such as Business Law and Marketing.)
My workload for Y1 was quite heavy (but this isnât always the case for everyone!). For NBS, we have a very high workload. In NTU, our workload can be measured by the number of Academic Units (AUs). The numbers of AUs is the number of hours per class. For example if there is an accounting module that is 4 AUs, itâs 1 hour online video and a 3 hour seminar. The average number of AUs for NBS students is 17-18 per semester. Other faculties have fewer AUs per semester as they are normally 4 years programmes, hence, itâs not all cramped in 3 years. One of my friends in the humanities side has 12-15 AUs per semester (at least for Year 1). For USP students, you have to take 4 core mods in Year 1, so itâs an additional 6AUs per semester. For both semesters in Year 1, I took 22 AUs. My other friends who had lesser AUs would definitely have had a somewhat easier time as compared to me.
Also because Iâm a mugger, I spent almost all of my time studying. Time is very tight and if you want to score, you have to fight the bell curve. There comes a time where you need to ask â what am I willing to trade off? I also committed myself to a lot of CCAs so I burnt a lot of time there also. It really depends on how much you want to load yourself with. No one is going to say you cannot take more than 10 CCAs, you can! Itâs just how you manage your time and how you choose to structure your life in university. But we do have our suppers, heart to heart talks at 2-3am and also karaoke!
I think it depends on what you want to do. If you want to become an auditor, Iâll say that career prospects are decent. For auditing, the turn-over rate in the industry is very high and they need to replace the manpower. If you want to do top tier jobs like consulting and investment banking etc, thatâs where itâs hard. To get those jobs, you not only need a good GPA, youâll also need good CCA records and more importantly, good internship experience on your CV. Youâll be competing with many top tier graduates from the other Biz schools, and the top companies have limited open positions. Of course, your career prospects are not just limited to these 2 areas. As an accountancy graduate, your knowledge of the financial statements and the accounting treatment is definitely a useful skill that can open many doors for you in the finance industry. At the end of the day, it really depends on what you want for yourself.
An auditor’s job is very different from an accountant’s job! While auditors are accounting graduates, the job scope is very different!
As an accountant, your job is to maintain accurate records of the transactions, and generate the financial statements to accurately report the financial position of the company etc. This will also involve having proper treatment for assets (e.g inventories, property, plant and equipment, financial assets). You’ll also need to see how to measure them – carry at cost or fair value? any adjustments for amortisation or depreciation or impairment? There’s definitely much more to this – but this is just an example of what an accountant does.
However as an auditor, your role is to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements provided by your client as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes your opinion. This will involve conducting checks on the control systems of your clients to ensure that the risks and controls work in mitigating those risks.
All in all, I just wanted to make clear that the 2 jobs are different!
I would say yes! But youâll need to put in the effort to find those positions, and to also study hard to get the placements. Iâm planning to delay my graduation by 1 year to do internships, and as such Iâm going to graduate in 4 years. The good thing about the 3 years system in NTU is that you can afford to take a LOA (leave of absence) for internship and still graduate at the same time as your peers NUS and SMU.
In Biz school, yes. Some people do graduate off-cycle like 3.5 years where they take 1 semester of LOA. I mean the school has professional summer arrangements but summer break is only like 8-10weeks. If you can do a full long-term internship, you will really get to know the company well and you may even receive a conversion offer for a full time position if you do well!
I also wanted to mention that internship opportunities are where you really get to learn and apply the concepts you learn in class. What you learn in school is really just the foundation, an internship will really open your eyes to the demands of the industry, and why it is so important for your concepts and foundation to be solid. Youâll be able to better appreciate the content you learn in class after seeing how it is utilised and applied in a real world context. Internships are golden opportunities to build up your CV and are definitely key in helping you to decide what job you will do in the future (as well as show employers that you have gained some relevant experience – making you more employable!)
The school has a career portal to help students find internships and jobs. You should apply independently and through the school portals simultaneously to expand your options! Itâs so hard to find internships. I sent my CV to over 50 companies but only invited for 3 interviews. Year 1s have it especially tough as youâre competing with seniors with more experience, while you only have taken a few basic mods and lack the knowledge of the theories to be able to contribute as effectively during internships. However, it is still possible to find an internship as a Y1.
For big companies, they know that people want them so they wonât come to connect with the schools. You will have to be proactive in looking for them, for example, use LinkedIn/other job portals to find.
CCA works differently in uni. There are:
Hall CCAs are the most common! I joined hall acapella. To obtain hall points, thereâs also hall dance, hall band, hall sports, hall recreational games (e.g chess, darts, scrabble) etc.
Faculty CCAs might be more specific to NBS. I joined NAAT, the NBS Audit Assurance Team, where we audit the financial records of other CCAs and clubs. Some CCAs are more intense, like the NTU Business Solutions Club which meets very frequently to train for business cases.
I personally didnât join any School CCAs (sports clubs, CACs, WSC etc.). As for ad-Hoc involvement, this includes events like freshmen orientation, dinner and dance, year-end party, hall productions.
You can join as many things as you want – itâs really up to you to figure out how you want to balance your commitments. Nobody is going to restrict you or chase you if you donât come to class. Participating in more CCAs and ad-hoc activities will help you get more CCA points, which is important if you want to stay in Hall after Y2! Some halls also assess the contribution of their residents each year when choosing if they want to take you back in Y2 and beyond.
As I mentioned before, NTU students are all guaranteed hall accommodation for the first 2 years (NOTE: does not guarantee you the SAME hall for the first 2 years, you still need hall points for that. But if you just want a bed to sleep in, itâs going to be there). If you come to NTU, you should definitely consider staying in hall. You can sleep more, itâs convenient for project work, and itâs really where you get to make friends and enjoy uni life. Youâll also save on travel time, which is very helpful during busy periods! I stay in Pioneer Hall, part of the CresPion cluster. Different halls in NTU are known for different activities, there are sports halls, cheer halls etc. A lot of the culture is passed down from seniors. For hall applications in Y1, they will randomly assign you based on space. Look forward to visiting friends rooms, playing games, hotpots in the rooms, rushing projects, late night HTHTs, supper trips etc. Hall is where most good memories in uni are made.
NTU-USP provided me with many opportunities to get to know friends from other courses. It brings together people of similar mindsets and interests. We are a really close knit community, and you get to see everyoneâs different strengths and learn about how they see things from a different perspective. Iâve worked on projects with friends from different majors, e.g Communication Studies, Biological Science, Computer Science, Psychology, Economics, Chemistry, Linguistics, Aerospace Engineering, English Literature etc.
Other opportunities to meet friends from other faculties can be found mainly in hall. Because of the random allocations, your neighbour might be a Year 4 senior from another course, so you will really get to know a lot more people if you stay in halls! Iâll say that hall is where NTU really comes together as a community outside of our different faculties.
I would say Iâm definitely closest to my friends in NBS, we do projects together and will also match our classes. But I do have other close friends within NTU-USP from other faculties!
Different schools have different S/U policies. In NUS, you can see your final grade before you decide if you want to S/U a module. I think this is a very big advantage! (For those who are unaware, mods on which you have exercised your S/U options will be excluded from GPA computation).
In NTU, you cannot see results before you S/U, you can only S/U based on how you feel you did for the paper. So you may S/U an A without knowing. Youâll never know whether thereâs moderation and how they do the bell curve. Furthermore, you can only S/U Unrestricted Electives (UEs) and GER-PEs (General Education Requirement – Prescribed Electives). You cannot S/U any core mods.
Seniors are your best friend. They give you notes, tell you which profs are good, how to do course registration (because no one else is going to teach you), how to survive school, how to get around, where the good food is, basically all the insider tricks.
If you want to come to Biz, be prepared for it to be very competitive. Know what you are getting into, Iâll say that you shouldnât just choose Business School if youâre not sure of what you want to do. If we had the benefit of hindsight, Iâm quite sure that some of my Biz friends would have chosen a different course.
All the best in your uni applications! The road ahead is definitely going to be tough – clearing A Levels was just the first step. As you start uni you will start to see the realities of how adulting is really difficult, but at the same time, thereâs many exciting opportunities that await you ahead. Thereâs definitely a lot of things to consider – and youâll find that you still have much more to learn along the way. I hope that my sharing will help to answer some questions that yâall may encounter along the way! đ
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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