Personal Experience/ Preferences
I was a JC student, and the subjects I studied were Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and H1 Geography. The subjects, especially Biology and Chemistry, were highly relevant as my course involved the chemistry of food components and microbiology. Geography was also relevant as I took up a minor in Geosciences as I was interested.
I had already decided to study Food Science for quite a while as I was interested in cooking since secondary school, and I was unsure of other options if I did not enrol into Food Science.
I found out that NTU also offers such a course, but it was only offered as a second major, with the primary major being other science courses such as Bioengineering.I was not that interested in the other science courses and only wanted to study Food Science.
We were introduced to the sciences for the first year to have a sound foundation for future modules. For the first semester, there was only one module with lab sessions, so there is one lab session for four to five weeks. In the second semester, two modules had lab sessions. It was very tiring because one lab report can take a long time to write. (However, to my knowledge, the curriculum for my cohort was the last of its kind, and the incoming version will have a new structure due to the merger of the Faculty of Arts& Social Sciences and the Faculty of Science.) Due to the COVID situation, most of our lectures were online. Thus, I watch the lectures in my own time. There were a few live lectures, but even those were recorded and uploaded afterwards. There was also about one tutorial a week for one hour, like per module a week, where they will go through the assignments. The difficulty of the assignments depends on the modules, but the questions were mostly straightforward.
We would often have to sit for individual examinations for the food science modules, but we would have group projects too. There were five people in a group. They will send us a video of the lab experiment to be conducted beforehand; then we proceed to the lab to conduct the experiment and obtain the data, which was then presented in a lab report. They will provide a template on the format of the lab report for us to follow. Overall, the lab sessions are more independent, but there are still teachers and teaching assistants (TAs) to assist us along the way and I was fine with both. The individual examinations were conducted primarily online at home. For the food science modules, the questions were open-ended. Still, they were straightforward and commonsensical as we had to just largely define terms such as ‘Whole Foods’ and ‘Organic Foods’ and link specific ideas about food science together. For the compulsory modules (one of which was chemistry, and the other was statistics), the questions were also open-ended. We would have to download Zoom on our phone and adjust the phone’s position such that the camera is facing us. However, most of the professors made the examinations open book so we could refer to any sources.
For semester 2, I had to go for an offline examination conducted in school, like how JCs conduct their examinations. For both semesters, the time allocated was sufficient, so we didn’t have to rush through the examinations.Class participation also plays a part in the final score for some modules too (the weightage will be shown explicitly in the course introduction).
There were reading weeks before midterms and before finals. In addition, there were two sabbatical terms in an academic year, once between December and January (5 weeks) and once between May and August (12 weeks). They provided some practice questions and past year papers during the sabbatical terms, but it wasn’t compulsory to complete them.
It differs from person to person. I’ll sleep at 2 am, then wake up at 8, and start work at 11, but I will also find some time to rest throughout the day. Because of the COVID situation, most of our learning took place at home.Towards the exam period, I went to school every day with some friends. However, lab sessions and tutorials were mainly conducted live in classes. They usually hold the lab sessions in the afternoon for three to four hours, but you can leave the lab earlier if you choose to complete it quickly. You could also leave the lab for lunch and return to it later, which I liked. I also prefer the freedom to complete the experiment slower as I could have enough time to understand the experiment instead of having to rush for time to complete and not understand what the experiment was about. As the videos were also sent beforehand, I could spend the night before visualising the experiment and having a clear idea of the results that I was supposed to obtain.
During the exam period, I usually study in school for the entire day, from 10 am to 10.30 pm.
I also go to school sometimes to interact with my friends, mainly from my lab group (members assigned by the profs, just like PW in JC). They like to do things slowly at their own pace, but they will still study very hard when the exam period is nearing.
The gender ratio for my course is about 50-50 for my cohort (16 people), with slightly more females than males. There were about two poly students in my cohort, and they are more knowledgeable on food science as they have studied a similar course in polytechnic. In year 1, however, the JC students seem to have a slight advantage over the polytechnic students as we were learning science fundamentals.
It was heavy. A regular semester had about five modules, and we had to overload for three semesters (six modules). They encouraged this as we had to attend an industrial attachment in Year 3 Semester 2, and we wouldn’t want to be studying and working at the same time. As I didn’t know about the industrial attachment until Year 1 Semester 2 itself, I had to overload many more in Year 2 as Year 3’s modules will be more difficult.
Also, the lab reports were the heaviest in terms of the workload. Usually, a week was given to complete the lab report, and marks would be deducted for late submissions. Since I wasn’t very consistent in completing the lab report and only started two days before the deadline, I would have to stay up late until about 4-5 am and submit my work at about 10 am. Then, I would sleep after completing the report and wake up to vet through the report once more before submitting it.
There are no specialisations within my degree.
I’ve only met three professors (they were specific to my course), and they are pretty established in their fields. One of the professors I have encountered won a competition, and Coca-Cola subsequently paid him a lot to develop their products. I could also feel that he is very knowledgeable as he didn’t need to think a lot before sharing his answers. I like him as I find him quite capable. He was also very willing and patient to answer my questions (most of the questions I’ve had were from his module). I also remembered that I needed to consult someone for a competition on professional manufacturing, which helped me considerably.
While this professor is more established in the manufacturing sector, the other is more established in the nutrition sector. The only issue that I have with these professors was that some of their lessons, coupled with technology constraints, were not that engaging.
We were not that bonded with the professors now as we just completed Year 1, and most of our lessons were online.
I like the lab sessions as we could apply what we learnt into ‘real work’ instead of just understanding the theory behind specific observations. However, every lab session has a lab report as a follow-up. As I have to stay up late often to finish the report, there were times when I felt unmotivated, but the thought of not failing the module motivated me. Friends also played a massive part in inspiring me as we are all in the same boat, and unlike the ultra-competitive courses, we do not snitch or backstab one another but help one another.
The least favourite part of my course will have to be the online lectures. It was pretty dull, and with the different modules happening simultaneously and making us constantly tired, it just puts us to sleep (especially those that were pre-recorded so we can watch it next time). I used to increase the speed of the video to finish the lecture faster, but after a while, I felt I couldn’t focus. Thus, I reverted to the average speed to be better able to process everything. For the first year, they conducted refresher lectures. Notwithstanding how boring the lectures were, I still prefer online lectures to watching them in our free time.
It wasn’t that difficult to pick up the books again after NS, as after I ORDed, I went to work and then felt I didn’t want to enter the working world so soon.
I didn’t expect to study physics in the course as I thought that food science is only about chemistry and a little about biology. It was difficult at first as I hadn’t studied physics in a long time but with my professor’s help, studying physics became much more manageable.
I also didn’t expect the level of freedom and accountability for your grades. The practical sessions were much more independent. We’re expected to know what we were trying to achieve from the experiment instead of purely listening to the teachers explaining the experiment. If we aren’t sure of a particular concept, we are expected to consult the professors ourselves.
No, as Food Science and Technology has a small cohort size, it’s pretty much non-existent.
One of my friends joined FST from another course as she felt that Food Science and Technology is more focused and exciting than her previous course in Life Science.
You must be interested in the ‘hard sciences’ like Biology, Chemistry and Physics and it will be beneficial if you understand the global or local food situation.
As Food Science and Technology is a very niche course, students enter the course most likely knowing that they will join the food industry. If we want to work for the government, then one area you can go to will be the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), where we conduct quality checks for entering Singapore foods. Another option will be to work in hospitals as a dietician. If we want to work for the private sector, some major companies we can go to will be Nestle, F&N and Yeo Hup Seng.
I don’t want to be working in the nutrition side, and I’m considering developing products for companies or learning interesting food processes such as fermentation. However, as I still have a long way to go in my course, I would like to explore more areas of food science before I decide on an area to work in in the future.
My senior went to Abbott (a company that manufactures baby products), and she said that her experience was quite good and extended her internship attachment. In Year 3, they’ll give you a list of possible places you can go, but you can source it yourself too.
For me, I am currently interning in a kombucha brewery that I self-sourced. I was interested in breweries as I previously worked in a bar in the CBD, and I was interested in the science of preparing different cocktails. During the interview, I shared with the interviewers that I wanted to experiment a lot, and they agreed. I also helped in meeting large batches of orders. At first, the company didn’t want to pay me as I went there just to experiment, but they offered to pay me $1000 a month after negotiations. My bosses gave me a lot of freedom to experiment, and they never restricted my ideas. Most of my experiments used the ingredients that the company already has, and I’ll combine different ingredients to create suitable flavours. The head brewer guided me initially, and as I slowly got integrated into the company, I can conduct my experiments unguided. The flavours that I created were pretty safe, and there was one flavour that was accepted. I also developed the kombucha coffee, and the company has sold it to everyone. As it is the holiday season at the time of the interview, I have more time to work at the company. Once school reopens, I’ll have to discuss with them, and it’s up to them to decide whether they want to extend my internship.
I felt that myself being a student in Food Science helped a little in my application as I had a lot of previous experiences and have a Food Handler certificate.
I learnt a lot about mass production from this internship. My jobs previously allowed me to handle customers directly, but this job will enable me to understand how production can happen on a much bigger scale.
My friend also attended an internship on product development and she shared that we must be prepared to be independent and pro-active if you want to learn.
No, I don’t stay in the hall as my house is very near NUS and most of the lessons are currently online. However, you will miss out on the opportunities to make new friends. I didn’t regret not going to hall, though, as I made a decent number of friends in class, but it doesn’t hurt to make more friends.
I feel that it’s very homely because of the small cohort size. After a while, everyone will know each other and genuinely want to help one another unless because of disagreements over specific issues. However, because of COVID, there were much fewer opportunities to bond, and I hope that I can talk to more people as time passes. There was a university orientation, but I only went for a day before I decided to return to work.
I was in a recreational football club, but I stopped going after a while. CCAs were halted, too, due to the COVID situation.
I guess just try to get to know what to do as soon as possible and plan early.
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