A: I chose to take life sciences because I’ve been interested in biology in secondary school and JC. I’m thinking of going into research or teaching in the future which are the more common career paths in Life Sciences. I did consider related majors like Food Science and Pharmacy etc but these were more focused on chemistry and I wanted a major that was more focused on biology.
JY: Another factor is that Life Sciences is more general. You can branch out to do a lot more things in the future such as education whereas I felt that other majors in science like food science and pharmacy are a lot more focused on specific areas. I was not very sure about which specific area I wanted to go into when I was entering university. Therefore, taking up Life Sciences allowed me to see whether my interests lie in the medicinal side of human health or ageing or others.
A: Actually, I did consider Biological Sciences in NTU. I spent a lot of time deciding between these two choices. Eventually, I decided on NUS Life Sciences because based on what I heard from seniors, the NTU Biological Science course focuses more on cell and molecular biology whereas the Life Sciences course is broader because it has cell and molecular biology specialisation as well as environmental biology and biomedical science. Another aspect is that NUS is more flexible with their second major and minors you can do because from what I understand, in NTU, there are only a fixed set of major and minor combinations. I wanted to take a combination of Life Sciences and Statistics which they did not offer in NTU. Another factor is that I applied for University Scholars’ Programme (USP) in both NUS and NTU but I was only offered [the programme] in NUS.
JY: When I was looking through the possible combination of major and minors for Life Sciences, the minor in Public Health really stood out to me because during the period of COVID, a lot of public health issues were being discussed. Public Health is a science-based course that also focuses on communicating with people which I am interested in. A minor in Public Health where I could communicate science ideas to the general public really appealed to me. This major-minor combination was also another reason why I chose NUS. For me, one of the reasons why I chose NUS over NTU was also because of proximity. I stayed nearer to NUS so that was a factor in my consideration as well.
A: I did consider going to Yale-NUS Life Sciences but eventually I decided not to apply because I wanted to study Life Sciences from Year 1. Based on my knowledge, for the first two years in Yale-NUS, you study the Common Curriculum modules and you can only specialise in Life Sciences from Year 3 onwards. I think having only a 2-year Life Sciences curriculum may be too packed and you may not go into enough depth.
JY: I’m not really considering these programmes.
A: Me neither. From what I understand, these programmes are about vet, plant biology and medicinal chemistry but I’m not really interested in specialising in these fields. But I still think it’s a good programme and I do know of seniors who are taking these programmes.
JY: I’m not on any scholarship. The two main scholarships are the NUS Global Merit Scholarship and NUS Merit Scholarship. They are offered by NUS and non-bonded, meaning you don’t have to serve any duration after you graduate. I guess that is the scholarship most people will apply for. NTU has a similar scholarship programme but they both have a high cut-off rank point in order to get to the interview stage. They have to do a VIA project after getting the scholarship. The scholarship comes with an overseas exchange that is funded by the school.
A: I’m also not on any scholarship. Other than the NUS scholarships, juniors can look out for the scholarships offered by other agencies like NEA and MOE.
JY: Last semester, there were quite a few live lectures and I went for a lot of them. This semester, I sat for a lot more pre-recorded lectures and the remaining lesson times are for Q&A with the teachers. However, It’s harder to sort the classes into 4 days unlike other courses. Additionally, Life Sciences is now under the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS) so their curriculum will be a bit different, for example, the first year will be for multidisciplinary Common Curriculum, while the remaining three years will be focused on the Life Sciences Curriculum.
A: I think CHS would have some similarities to the Yale-NUS curriculum, just that for Yale-NUS, their Common Curriculum is over the span of two years. Now that the Faculty of Sciences and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences have combined to form the CHS, how do you think Life Science major students will be impacted? A: I think there won’t be too great an impact but the greatest change would be for the first year. We are the last batch where we take Life Sciences Level 1000 modules in the first year. We had to take 5 modules like molecular genetics, biochemistry and evolutionary biology. However, now under CHS, these modules are upgraded to Level 2000 modules and for the common curriculum in the first year, juniors have to take a multidisciplinary module called Biological Challenges and Opportunities for Humankind which relates Life Sciences with other disciplines.
JY: For one of the year 1 Life Sciences module that I took, the lab sessions were taken out so it is more of a lecture-tutorial style for me. Most of the general modules and tutorial sessions involved group work and group discussions.
A: All of my Life Science modules were conducted online and even one of the modules that was meant to be a lab session was also done online via a video.
JY: One thing I didn’t expect was that assessments were set based on research papers. They will teach you the concepts and expect you to answer them via MCQs, for example, in the evolutionary biology module. For the other modules, they will encourage you to read papers and test you based on the papers, through MCQs or Short-Answer Questions.
A: It’s quite different from JC Biology because the assessments in University are more open-booked and involve more application questions instead of regurgitation. Most of the assignments are to be done individually.
JY: For me, it was okay. If it’s selecting the primary major modules, they are usually quite easy to get. However, if you are taking a minor in Business, there may be more difficulty to get the Business modules. For our first year, most of our modules are compulsory so you either have to take it in Sem 1 or Sem 2. I heard from seniors that Life Science is split into three specialisations. Generally, the Environmental Biology specialisation has the smallest cohort size. Biomedical sciences may be tougher to bid for and the most popular specialisation but our seniors told us that the class size is still small.
A: Previously, NUS had a bidding system but now they are using a ranking system based on your seniority, rank choice, as well as other factors
JY: There are 3 specialisations – Biomedical sciences, Environmental Biology and Molecular and Cell Biology. You can also choose not to specialise.
JY: The workload depends on how many modules you are taking. NUS recommends you to take 5 MCs but many of my friends and I tend to overload in Year 1 in preparation for underloading in Year 3 and 4 so that we can allocate more time to tougher modules. To me, workload is comparable to JC, depending on what kind of modules you take. One good thing is that time is more flexible and you don’t have to go to school from 8am-5pm like in JC.
A: For the previous two semesters, I overloaded for both semesters. For Life Sciences modules, it’s manageable but I am also taking some USP and Statistics modules which are generally heavier.
JY: I am currently doing Life Sciences with a minor in public health. The Life Sciences modular requirement is not that high as compared to other modules. It’s 84 MCs for my batch and there is a lot of freedom. You can even do a bioengineering major. There are also many students who choose to do Life Sciences with a language minor.
A: I am thinking of doing a second major in Statistics. There are popular double major combinations like Life sciences and Psychology, Life sciences and Management and Life sciences and Chemistry, Life Sciences and a minor in Public Health, Life sciences with a Japanese minor (languages).
A: For me, since I am in the USP, our modules tend to be multi-disciplinary in general. The makeup of the class is from different majors so we get to interact.
JY: There is a programme called Special Programme in Science that will still continue to be offered for future batches of science students. Students in Chemistry, Life Sciences, Physics, Mathematics and Data Science can join this two-year interdisciplinary programme where you learn about Atoms, Cells, the Earth and the Universe. There is a research proposal that you have to do in year 1 and a group-based research project in year 2.
A: I haven’t had much experience taking modules but I think my favourite module is the Evolutionary Biology module I took last semester. I really enjoyed it because I’ve always been interested in evolution and they taught the module in a very interesting way. It was taught in a story format–going from the origins of the earth to more complex concepts of the evolution of man. As for the least favourite part, I felt that it was quite mundane to do lab sessions through video. They were trying to show the lab sessions through the videos but they were quite shaky so I found it quite hard to understand. JY: I probably took the lab module in a different semester. The videos were pre recorded but it was a lot harder to understand the lab components through videos. It was quite hard to comprehend because you did not get to see the things in front of you. One of the things I like the most about Life Sciences is the lab sessions though. I took this module called “The Fundamental Techniques in Microbiology” where I had face-to-face lab sessions and got to explore the different kinds of antimicrobial functions, the purposes of the fungi and different kinds of antibiotics. It involved quite a lot of lab sessions and we also had a final examinable lab component. One of the main reasons why I took it was because it had a face-to-face lab component which was taken out in other modules.
A: For me, it wasn’t really unexpected. Before choosing Life Sciences, I did quite a bit of research. I talked to many seniors who were doing Life Sciences.
JY: For me, it was the freedom to choose your modules. I thought it would be a structured course but you actually have a lot of opportunities to choose your major-minor combinations or random modules that you are interested in.
JY: I will definitely encourage prospective students to think about taking a minor. In NUS, when you declare a minor, you can upgrade it to a second major in the future if you wish to continue pursuing it. I am actually not sure if I can fulfil the requirements of a second major which are double that of a minor. I’m taking Public Health as a minor first and if I do fulfil the requirements, I can then declare a second major in the future. You definitely do not need to declare your minor when you first enter but there are some minors and second majors that are restricted where you have to write in to gain approval from the respective faculties. A: I am actually not sure if I can finish a second major. For me, I am planning for a second major first and if I feel the workload is too much and I would not be able to handle it, I will downgrade it to a minor. It’s really quite flexible. If you choose to do a second major first, you can downgrade it to a minor if you want.
A: To be honest, I feel that the career prospects for Life Sciences are not as good compared to other STEM majors like engineering, physics or chemistry. At first, I was quite worried but I heard that if you do a second major/minor in something that is more useful, it might be better. For example, I think the quantitative disciplines are more in demand.
A: I’m not very sure about this but I haven’t heard of any seniors or friends who switched out of their major. JY: I’ve heard of one person switching out from Life Sciences to Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) and also heard of seniors from other majors like chemistry switching out to Life Sciences but I am not sure of the actual numbers of student retention rates. .
A: You must have a passion for the subject. With interest and passion, it will be easy to get through it. JY: I think you must really expect a lot of readings to come your way, especially in the evolutionary modules. We covered almost an entire textbook in 13 weeks. For that one module, I remembered we had 2 lectures per week and for each lecture, we had a chapter’s worth of readings (about 20+ pages). That was the most intensive module though and other modules require less reading.
A: It is quite diverse as there are 3 specialisations. For Environmental Biology, you can work at NParks or do environmental conservation work and research. For Cell and Molecular Biology, students mainly proceed to do research like industrial-related research. For Biomedical Science, we can work at some medical technology companies too.
A: I am not very sure, but I’ve heard that Biomedical Engineering focuses more on mathematics in a Biology context, like calculating the pressure of blood and rate of enzyme reactions. However, in Life Sciences, we learn more about the human body, and for example, the Biology behind blood pressure and enzyme reactions. JY: Biomedical Engineering focuses more on the devices in the medical sector like the pacemaker and how it can help with the heart.
JY: For me, I’m looking at the public health sector, and perhaps do further graduate studies.
A: For me, I’m thinking of specialising in Biomedical Science and also doing graduate studies. I’m interested in a career related to research or teaching.
Yes.
A: Before I entered NUS, I gained some experience in teaching during the MOE Teaching Internship Programme.
JY: NUS had this undergraduate internship programme, where you can do an internship and count it as part of the NUS curriculum. Generally, they require you to have 3 full semesters in NUS before you can take part in this programme.
A: If you do not want to do the credit-bearing internships, you can also do vacation internships in the summer and winter break. JY: NUS also has this platform called TalentConnect where you can find internship opportunities and job opportunities. A: TalentConnect is very useful as you just have to deposit your resume and they’ll send it straight to the companies.
A: I applied to USP and they have a 2-year compulsory residential stay at Cinnamon College. I chose to apply to USP because the multidisciplinary academic curriculum was interesting and I wanted to learn things beyond my major. As a Life Sciences student, I would be able to gain knowledge in various other fields such as literature, data analysis and various other things. This would allow me to broaden my perspective. Another good thing is that when I am in this community, I get to make friends from other majors where we can interact and bounce ideas off each other. JY: I live close to school so I didn’t see a need to live on campus.
JY: I have friends from Life Sciences but I also have friends from the Special Programme in Science. It has quite a small cohort size of 30-40 people per year. A: Many of my friends are from USP because we stay together so it’s easier to make friends.
JY: I am currently in Receive and Give (RAG). It’s a NUS tradition to have a dance performance to raise funds for the community. This CCA will be more intense during the summer where we have to prepare for a charity performance. A: I am in the Young Educator in Science Club (YES) which is a CCA under the Faculty of Science. We mainly facilitate science workshops for primary and secondary school students. It’s quite flexible because you can choose whatever workshops you want to participate in and you just have to clock 60 hours within 4 years. There’s no fixed schedule.
JY: I am in YES too. A: We have interest groups in USP. These are CCAs that are more flexible because there is no fixed schedule. I’m in an interest group related to environmental sustainability.
A: I think there are a lot of opportunities. You can participate in a semester-long student exchange programme where you can take modules in other universities while paying NUS school fees. There are also the summer and winter overseas programmes where you can go overseas during the summer and winter break and take modules that could be mapped back. But for these programmes, I think you have to pay additional costs on top of your tuition fees. With the COVID-19 situation, there are some summer and winter courses offered online. I took this microbial biotechnology and drug discovery one by National Yang-Ming University. They originally wanted it to be a face-to-face programme but due to the COVID-19 situation, it had to be held online. But it was still quite fruitful and I got to interact with peers from other universities.
A: University is a place where you can step out of your comfort zone. Try to challenge yourself, learn new things and make new friends. JY: University is still a time of self-discovery and exploration. You don’t have to go in with the fixed mindset that you know exactly what you’re going to do. You might find other things that you’re interested in. University is also flexible so you can try out other things. Just don’t be afraid to try things you’re interested in.
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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