1. COURSE

What is your course about?

Environmental Studies looks at a really broad range of things. It considers what humans did to the environment, evolution, and the development of mankind. For the introductory modules, we started the course with a bit of anthropology and history, understanding the key events that shaped the development of humanity. From then on, we branched off to the impacts we have and solutions we came up with for environmental change. We can take a broad range of modules as well, from the Geography side as well as the Biology side, depending on your specialisation. We do modules ranging across Chemistry, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics to make sure we have a broad understanding of scientific research as well. I would say Environmental Studies is a bit more general and a bit more broad-based rather than specialised. 

 

2. DECISION MAKING

Were you from JC/Poly and what did you study? How was your thought process like when you were choosing your course?

JC. I took 4 H2s: Biology, Chemistry, Math, Theatre Studies and Drama. 

 Actually, I was initially doing Life Sciences as I secured a place at Life Sciences at NUS. I just decided one day that I don’t think lab work suits me, so I started looking for other courses. So, I crashed my friends’ geography lecture and thought it was very interesting. I did Geography before as I took Pure Geography at O Levels. I was considering what other majors there are. I saw that there was Environmental Studies and I thought that was interesting, so that was why I switched to that. Basically, I considered Life Sciences, Geography and this. 

 

What courses/universities were you choosing between? Why Environmental Studies over the others? What were the factors that shaped your decision?

When I was still choosing Life Sciences, I applied to NTU also. It made quite a compelling offer as it gave me the Nanyang scholarship, but in the end, I chose NUS. 

I chose Environmental Studies as I am very interested in environmental issues since primary school, so I thought I would be a good fit. 

I had peers who were in Environmental Studies, especially girls who entered university earlier. I heard about it from them. So, I spoke to them and asked them for some information about the course and also went to Open Day. Back then, it was physical. Then, I asked them about the course as well. 

 

Why did you choose to study Environmental Studies in NUS instead of other universities offering the same course?

I picked Environmental Studies in NUS because by the time I applied for it in NUS, I had already secured a spot in Tembusu College which is the Residential College I’m staying at. Plus, a lot of my friends went or are still staying at Tembusu, so I decided to stay here instead of applying to NTU for the same course!

 

3. ADMISSIONS/SCHOLARSHIPS

You are on the SLA Undergraduate Scholarship. Which scholarships would you advise juniors to look out for?

I think that a lot of people just want to try any scholarship out there but I think one should narrow it down to which scholarships align with their field of study and interest because in the event that they do get the scholarship, they must remember that the bond is 4 years long minimally. That could really affect them down the road. But that being said, don’t be afraid to try for the scholarships you think are possible as there is no harm in trying, so just go ahead and apply, but choose wisely.

I was actually a mid-term scholar which means I only got it in this academic year (Y2) onwards but they will reimburse the school fees that you incurred in your past years of study, so they will reimburse me for my Y1 fees. The scholarship basically covers your tuition fees, so they will liaise with NUS to pay off your fees and you don’t need to pay NUS anything. Then, they’ll give you a monthly allowance, part of which is  used for hostel fees. And they’ll set aside a certain amount for overseas programs, like student exchange programs or winter and summer school. That’s pretty much what they cover. I’m assuming people would want to go back to their agency for internships as well. Application process wise, it was the Zoom era and my interviews were purely online. I had 3 interviews – 1 with the HR director and a senior level manager, followed by 1 with the HR director and CEO, and 1 with the CEO, HR director and board of directors. They also made me go through psychometric testingwhich is what all ministries do for scholarships. It’s a physical test with 2 components, math and logical reasoning. Then, there’s a very long personality test also, with about 150 questions and a digital written assessment. That’s pretty much it.

 

4. TEACHING CURRICULUM

What is your course structure like?

Year 1

I would say Y1 is the toughest year, as seniors also say because you’re doing a lot of modules from different areas. You have a very demanding introduction module to Environmental Studies which is very useful but it really covered a lot of things. Then, you do all the university level requirements there like Computational Thinking and Quantitative Reasoning. You do your other required modules like Geography introductory module as well as Economics. If you’re someone who likes to specialise in one area, you have to wait because you’re covering your base first. 

 

Year 2

From Y2, it starts to get more interesting as you can start to pick the modules that interest you and they are more aligned for specialisation. For me, I was doing more Geography modules. Y2 is where most people will start to choose extra modules they do for minors or double majors because for Y1, the modules are mostly prescribed to you. For me, I started to do my Geographical Information Systems (GIS) minor in Y2. It is what covers your satellites. 

 

Year 3

From there, you take your higher-level electives. Y3 is a special year as you have an overseas capstone module where you go to the Philippines, at this place called Bohol during summer for about 2-3 weeks to learn about the environment there.

 

Year 4

You start to take your thesis work. Actually, there is an option of the thesis or coursework but people usually do the thesis. Then, we end with Environmental Management in Singapore. That’s pretty much it. 

 

It’s pretty normal except for the capstone module.

 

How is the day in your life as a student like?

Let’s say I wake up and I have a lesson at 8am, which was what my old schedule was like on Mondays and Thursdays. I would get up at 7am because I stay at Tembusu College. I’ll go down and grab breakfast and start my Zoom call with the professor, and it lasts 2h. Then, as it is quite early, I’ll take a nap and continue my next series of calls like lectures or lab sessions. For the GIS introduction module, we had lab sessions where we were supposed to work on the assignment given to us. The professor would share screen over Zoom and basically teach us how to use the software from there and I don’t think it’s really effective, but it’s okay. If you have any questions, you can ask in the Zoom chat, just like “Hi Prof…” and he would answer your question. Lectures are also like that which means you can stop and type your question in the chat as and when. For me, I think lessons ended at latest 4pm this semester. Then, depending on what I have, like CCA, I would go for that. But I don’t really have CCAs, so I’m mostly catching up on my assignments or doing my weekly lab assignment. Then, I may plan for the events that I need to have at Tembusu. I think Tembusu takes up a lot of my time. So, free time would be mostly spent on your assignments or just hanging out with friends, or having meals. NUS had the zoning thing where they split faculties into different zones. So, people from different zones cannot intermingle to have class. This year, I met up with my Environmental Studies friends a lot. We brought our Bluetooth speaker and went to a common place, and we played lectures out loud. We sat there and studied together (a bit cute). Basically, this is during Covid. 

Before Covid, it would be the same thing but I have to walk from place to place. Maybe I’d go to Arts, then go to Science for class and grab lunch in between. I would say the difference is that with Covid, I can take a nap in between my classes as I am still in my room. For pre-covid, I cannot. But I get to move around the school more and that’s pretty much it. I prefer this but this semester made me realise you can opt for a hybrid of both things even after Covid is resolved. For instance, taking your lectures online but having your tutorials in person. I think that would save a lot of time and resources as pre-recording saves the professor’s time and energy well. I had 8am lectures on 2 days in Y1 semester 2 and the cohort size was 60, but only 10 people showed up regularly. The professor knows that it’s very early and he’s going to upload anyway, so he doesn’t mind.

 

How are lessons and grading like (i.e. mostly projects, essay writing, etc.)?

Lessons

The cohort size is quite small (each cohort < 50), so we don’t exactly get lectures at lecture halls but we do it in the classroom. We have some tutorials where it is just 50 of us, or some where they split us into 2 groups. But these are just for the Environmental Studies module and any other module will depend on the faculty itself. 

 

Grading

Every Environmental Studies module I’ve taken now has had project work. I would say project is a significant component but the majority of grades still lie in your own individual work, like your essays and your final exam. But you cannot run from projects in uni.

 

You have a lot of project work. What are your projects like?

It will depend on the module itself. I can tell you about my projects. For my introductory module for Environmental Studies, our project can basically be almost anything under the sun. My group did something on hydroponics in NUS. We were saying we can convert some of the green spaces in NUS into vertical farms and increase food security in NUS. Some of my other classmates did a wind flow analysis at certain study areas to determine where is best to put study tables, so you don’t need to spend so much energy on aircon and fans. Uni students supper and order in a lot, so that’s a lot of waste as the containers and all are single use. Some students came up with a vending machine that collects reusable Tupperware from supper places. But these are more conceptual and nothing really happens as we don’t have the money, and sometimes the ideas are a bit infeasible. Other projects are like infographics for the Communications module. For a Geography project, my group looked at the globalisation of “innisfree”. We went to Takashimaya to interview people who shopped at “innisfree”. Then, we examined the growth of Korean beauty. This semester, I had this creative podcast where my group had to come up with a 10 minute podcast about an environmental issue related to specific themes set by the professor. There is also one where you give a group presentation to solve a public health issue in Singapore. It’s really dependent on the modules that you take and you cannot avoid group projects in the GER1000 module, about quantitative reasoning, that everyone has to take. There’s a group project component which is pretty significant, at about 35-40% of your grade. It’s quite fun. 

 

Which were your most and least interesting modules?

Least Favourite Module

It would be economics as I didn’t take economics in JC, so I really struggled with it. The thing about doing well in uni is that it’s not about solely doing well. It’s about doing better than other people as everything is by the bell curve. So, I was at a huge disadvantage against the other people who took H2 Economics in JC. I just “died” by the bell curve but that’s fine. I did enjoy learning about the principles of economics but I would rather not get tested on it. There’s going to be 1 more economics module called Environmental Economics but that’s it.

Favourite Module

Humans and Nature Sociology Module

It’s pretty life-changing. It examines the human and nature relationship from a sociology perspective. Usually, we think about it from a scientific perspective like “what did we do to cause this?” The module was talking about the relationship with nature and what you form out of it, and what you get from seeing nature as a sentient being as opposed to just something in the background. I thought that was pretty interesting and I even mentioned some of that in my scholarship interview, which I think surprised the interviewer. He was like “you made me think today”. 

Sports and Socialisation Module 

This semester I took a module called Sports and Socialisation. It’s under the Tembusu College requirements. It’s a writing module and it’s under sports. I was doing a paper on figure skating, which is one of my hobbies, and I got to interview a competitive athlete who represents Canada over Zoom. Then, I have to write a paper on my findings and I thought it was pretty interesting. It has a very strict grading as I thought I’d get A but I got A-, but it’s fine. I thought the content and the amount of time I put into it were  pretty worth mentioning.

 

Are there many optional modules / chances for learning outside of your faculty?

Every major programme in NUS has this thing called unrestricted electives (UE). I think we have around 35-36 credits of UE and 1 module is 4 credits, so if you do the quick math, it’s around 9 modules that you can take from wherever you want. I have friends who are learning Korean and French, and there are people who are doing real estate modules. For myself, I plan to use my UEs to do more Geography modules that I find interesting. You have to plan very carefully though, because if you do major and minor, there are certain requirements set up by the university/universities. Basically, you cannot have this amount of overlap as they don’t want you to study so much of the same thing. So, if you don’t plan properly, you might not fulfill the requirements. You can use the UE anywhere within your 4 years but you have to use it, because you need to accumulate a total of 160 credits for you to graduate. The major requirements only fill up 100+ credits and there are  university-level requirements also. If you math it out, just get 160 credits and you’re safe. But people usually do more, just like how a lot of my friends do more than 160 credits just for their own interest and some directed learning I guess.

 

What is the teaching style like?

So far, most of the lessons are just lectures and tutorials. Some lab modules would have a lecture and a lab session. For the physical lab session, it was for the Statistics software package. We will go to the computer lab and just try the assignment and follow the instructions set by the professor, and the professor would just walk around. So, if you have any questions, you can ask him/her. We can pretty much do it ourselves, or we can actually do it at home or at our own free time, as we have access to the lab anyway. During certain weeks of my introductory module, we had a flipped classroom format. What this means is we had to watch the uploaded lecture in advance and we would go for the lecture slot, though it’s not for lecture but for a quiz and a recap session of whatever that we have done. There’s a very special module which is a requirement for Faculty of Arts & Social Science (FASS) students I think. It’s a module that teaches you how to use Excel. What that professor did was upload all of his lectures on Youtube. As a member of the public, you can watch it and learn something actually. Then, he had physical tutorial sessions that were just games, but they are like problems and question sets that you need the knowledge from the lecture to answer. For your assignments, normally there are tutorials and assignments, but in this case, he had pre-tutorial assignments. You’re supposed to do the assignments and apply what you have learned from the lecture before the tutorial, and the assignments were graded. These assignments were mostly written and about how you analyse data, so it’s nothing too technical. I thought it was pretty interesting. The workload is a bit high because you have to keep being on top of your game. You need to know you have this assignment and this assignment. Then, there are quizzes on our student portal. But I thought the way he structured the module was pretty interesting. There’s also the group project that involves data sets with thousands of people. I thought it was pretty fun. Otherwise, I’ll never learn how to use Excel.

 

Who’s suited for this course? (like should u be good in geog, phys, math, etc.)

Environmental Studies is a broad major. But I feel you’ll be better off if you have a strong Geography background as I think that’s the subject which is most directly relevant to Environmental Studies that I can think of. I didn’t do it in JC, so I was struggling. I think most people can apply to Environmental Studies, and it’s just whether they’ll enjoy the course or not. You’re surrounded by environmentalists and people who want to be activists, so they’re always consciously voicing their opinions about environmental issues here and there in Singapore. I guess if you don’t have such an interest, you might feel a bit alienated or left out. But then again, I feel that this kind of thing is self-selecting, because you’ll apply for this as you’re interested in the environment. So, if you’re more interested in the environment, you’re more likely to look for these kinds of issues. But that being said, not everyone is an activist in this course. Not everyone here goes “ban plastic straws, ban plastic bags”. There’re a lot of people who love wildlife like birds and snakes, so they’d actually go on trails to go birdwatching. I guess for me, as I didn’t have that interest, I felt a bit “do I really belong here?” But I think it’s okay as long as you find what keeps you at the course. Going back to your question, I don’t think there’s anyone who’s better off apart from Geography but it’s also not directly better off as you don’t do Environmental Studies in JC.

 

Do you think there are any misconceptions that people might have regarding Environmental Studies?

People think that we’re all anti-plastic bags and plastic straws. Or that we just go marching around in a jungle to look for things. I think they see more of the Environmental Biology side as they do a lot of wildlife-related modules like avian biology. They would spend a considerable amount of time in the field where they are doing fieldwork. I have seniors who were panicking over not having enough insects in their collection to show to the professor, so they go around saying “if anybody has insects, let me know”. I guess that gives the reputation that we’re just wildlife fanatics. But like I said, not everyone is like that. Honestly, we try to cut down on our use of single-use things but it’s not like we go around shaming people if they don’t. It doesn’t make sense. Or they think we’re all like Greta Thunberg but no (haha). 

 

Was there any expectation that wasn’t fulfilled? Any regrets?

Perhaps in the future, there may be. I was thinking that doing Environmental Studies will do more specialised skill sets like carbon accounting. What they taught us in lecture was carbon accounting is a very specialised thing and it shows how much carbon this company uses, or how much carbon this project emits in the production cycle. But they don’t teach it to us. So, I was thinking about what separates us from the run-of-the-mill Geography major students who are interested in environmental issues, as they’re saying there’s this but they’re not going to teach it to you. Then, they say that companies who do this will get people to do that for them. But who’s doing that for them and why are we not learning it to do it for them? I found it a bit strange. But I wouldn’t say it’s an expectation. I didn’t even know about that when I first entered the program. It’s just that after learning that module, I was questioning “why are we not learning that?” I should give feedback to the module. 

 

If you could name your favourite and least favourite part about NUS, what would they be?

I think that my residential college is a pretty significant portion of my life and where I spend a lot of my time. The people, professors and modules there are all so interesting. People you meet there are really those from various backgrounds and you can have 2am conversations about philosophy. It’s really very interesting. I believe it’ll be the first time a lot of people are staying alone and independently living by themselves, as in Singapore you don’t really move out and that’s not really a thing. Then, they’re surrounded by this community. So, I think it’s a really interesting and unique experience that people should apply for if they can.

I don’t even think that it’s correct for me to say this but my least favourite part is that NUS doesn’t prioritise students. It’s the top 10 university in the world but I think we achieve that ranking through research. So, the professors here are very good with their research and at their field, but they’re not as good at teaching. That’s the problem. Students come to the top 10 university for education, but the professors are not that good at teaching and are focusing on their research instead. 

 

5. CAREER PROSPECTS

What career paths are available for a Environmental Studies student?

One can be a conservation biologist, do urban planning or environmental consultancy. Public service is definitely an option, like the National Environment Agency (NEA), Public Utilities Board (PUB) and SLA. Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is also a good option for urban planning. You can do postgraduate research or become research assistants. I think environmental policy is also one area but that’s very specialised and I don’t know how exactly to get into that job. I also want to know. You can do environmental impact assessment. I guess you can definitely be a teacher who can teach Geography. Actually, I’m not that sure. I think what I listed is quite broad, especially the public service. They always say there are people who graduate but they don’t go back to Environmental Studies per se. 

I’m actually on the Environmental Studies website right now. Let me take a look. What career options? Possible careers include ecologist, Environmental Educator, Environmental Health Officer, Environmental Technologist, Environmental Quality Specialist, Forest Conservationist, Geologist, Geographer, Parks Manager, Public Policy Analyst, Regional Planner and Wildlife Biologist. That’s what they put on their website. I think it’s pretty accurate. It’s quite a lot.

 

What do you plan to do after university?

I think environmental policy is quite interesting, so after my bond with SLA ends, I can see how to go into environmental policy. But I am open to taking a masters as well because I think that’ll be really helpful. We’ll see how that goes. 

 

What kind of internships do most Environmental Studies students take on?

I actually have no idea as I haven’t done it or any other yet.

 

6. STUDENT LIFE

Was JC or Uni more stressful? Is Environmental Studies very stressful and competitive?

Honestly, I think that JC was more stressful as there was a lot of content. The subjects in JC are really very heavy in content. But in uni, not every module is like that. Although you have a shorter time frame to learn everything, the assessments in my case are written work and you don’t have to memorise. In JC, you’re just cramming everything in your brain and going to the exam hall to vomit everything back out. But that’s not how it’s being done in uni and it’s a very different approach. In uni, you learn how to evaluate sources, cite them and write papers. The information is out there for you to access. It’s just what you make use of it and how you weave that into your arguments. So, it’s a little different in a sense that in JC, the stress was trying to get everything down in your head but in uni, it’s trying to make good arguments and articulate your stand according to your assignment. Every assignment is very different. The bad thing about uni is that there’s no ten-year series (TYS) you can refer to. There’s no book to refer to, so there’s nobody telling you these were the past questions that came out and you can practise them. It’s very hard in uni. You need to ask around from seniors and sometimes they may not have also, as for some modules, they just don’t upload anything. So, it’s very hard to get enough practice. But I definitely prefer uni life. There’s a better work-life balance and a bigger social component. In fact, this bigger social component actually helps you with your studies also as you can discuss with your friend about your assignments, and sometimes you’re talking to someone who’s not even studying anything remotely related to you. But as you guys are talking and exchanging ideas, you can suddenly start thinking of new arguments and ideas that you can incorporate into your papers. So, that’s really very helpful. 

 

What do you do in your free time at NUS? (clubs you can join, etc.)

I don’t have a NUS CCA but in Tembusu College, our CCAs are called interest groups. I’m the head of 3 interest groups, so that takes up a bit of my time but it’s okay. I do Tembusu Wildlife Association, which is an interest group that is interested in wildlife conservation and biodiversity. And there’s GreenT, which is like a sustainability and environmentalist one. Then, there’s tFigure which is a figure skating one. I also joined other CCAs like Coffeehouse where I learn how to become a barista. 

 

What is the general culture like at Tembusu College and Environmental Studies?

At Tembusu, everyone is a crazy high achiever. Everyone’s always very busy and very involved in a lot of things. But somehow they always do very well. The average GPA is supposedly around 4.5 which is first class honours. I’m not very sure. But it’s a very welcoming community as well. I think people welcome diversity in opinions there. Maybe you’re having a discussion over something. We can agree or disagree, and we just keep arguing why one side is better. But at the end of the day, we’re not enemies. 

For Environmental Studies, I think it’s a very wholesome culture. They’re quite supportive as well. I made quite a few good friends there also. You’ll find people whom you’ll naturally click with more and you’ll stick to them. I think we just try to look out for one another and some of us are quite close to the seniors. So, we can ask for advice. The cohort size is quite small, so it’s easier to pass down advice. There’s even an excel sheet which is something like a module expository with module reviews so that juniors can make better and informed decisions. So, that’s really interesting. 

 

Do you have any recommended platforms or materials for those interested in knowing more about the environment but not sure how and where to start?

Hmm, I’m not really sure, I’m sorry. I know there are certain insta pages but I don’t really follow them. Recently, there’s also mothership earth which I think was pretty interesting! The Ministry of Sustainability and Environment is also coming up with an interesting Instagram page with cool facts and figures!

 

Any advice for juniors planning to study Environmental Studies at NUS in the future?

Come in with an open mind and don’t be fixated on what is supposedly good or bad for the environment. I think most people have a notion of something that is absolutely bad for the environment. Maybe people see that deforestation warms the earth and people will genuinely believe in that. But scientifically, if you deforest pine trees in the polar regions, it actually causes a net cooling effect on the Earth. So, don’t be fixated on your beliefs. I think that applies to a lot of modules in NUS also. You have to go in with an open mind and be willing to accept that there are a lot of things that are different from what you believe. But for Environmental Studies specifically, try your best. Perhaps try to pick up more hard skills like python, R and GIS. I think that will really help you if you’re worried about employability which I think a lot of people are. So, make good use of university to learn new skills like language and coding. Who knows, they might be useful next time.